I woke up in the morning to overcast skies, fog and rain. Things weren’t looking good. As I drove up the mountain road, the temperatures quickly dropped below freezing and the grey rainy landscape turned to white. Still, visibility was nil. Conditions quickly changed once more as I drove above the cloud line to blue skies and pristine snow. I parked, strapped on the snowshoes and hiked along the ridge for several hours. Slow moving clouds rising from the valley floor blocked my views of the nearby mountains. As the sun began to set I quickly hurried back to the parking lot as the park rangers were closing the road soon. I broke out of the tree line and this was the view presented to me. I watched as a small window opened in the clouds revealing the top of the ridge, accented by glowing light, reflected off the clouds above. The battle between the clouds and the mountains that pierce them is one of the most beautiful sights to behold (In my opinion anyway).
As I sat in the snow taking pictures, the beauty in front of me was quickly ruined by the lady who decided to stand within inches of me with her selfie stick taking pictures. I looked around and there was nobody on the ridge at this point except for a park ranger patiently waiting for us to leave and another photographer. She finished taking her selfies and promptly moved over to the other photographer and took more. The selfie stick will be the death of our civilization.
Aside from crazy selfie stick lady, the day turned out as a great success with some epic landscapes to be seen. I walked away with a few images in which I am quite pleased with.
Thank you for your visit, i hope you like the composition!
Please give me your feedback!
(Disclaimer: This image is one exposure with minor Lightroom touch ups. This is not CGI and this is not digital painting, this is a real photograph.)
When we walk out into the heart of an unfrequented desert landscape, you expect to see some cactus, sand, maybe a few rocks, but what is that last thing you would ever expect? A giant metal dinosaur perhaps? These are in fact art installations by a man named Ricardo Breceda. Ricardo crafted over 120 metallic sculptures around the small town of Borrego Springs, out in the middle of the Anza Borrego Desert in California.
This area also happens to be an international Dark Sky community. The galaxy is an incredible backdrop over these beautiful pieces of art. The trick to this image was finding the location, for that I have to thank my good friends Jeff Morris and Slworking Kevin for their assistance in this process.
It was really an incredible experience to start by driving on a bumpy dirt road in complete and utter darkness, followed by looking up at two giant shadowed Dinosaurs staring you down. It was also creepy to a certain extent, because of how big the sculptures really were. Dinosaurs actually used to roam in this area many years ago. If you really think about it, these creatures were walking the earth long before light pollution, and they were able to live amongst these beautiful stars.
The photo was achieved by using a 30-second exposure for the sky while, light painting around the dinosaurs with my iPhone Flashlight. This was all done in one exposure. I cannot wait to get back out there and shoot some more of these intriguing sculptures.
Thank you so much for viewing the image and reading my description!
To see more please visit:
http://www.shainblumphoto.com
http://www.milkywayphotos.com
EXIF: 30SEC F/2.8 ISO6400
Canon6D, Rokinon 14mm
via Flickr http://flic.kr/p/iN4irE
via Flickr http://flic.kr/p/iN6qvN
via Flickr http://flic.kr/p/iN2o1V
Sudip Das's Blog