p.1 #1 · Gates Pass: Went out for one shot... focused on something else for much of the time...
I wanted to run out and get the moon rising behind something (anything) so I thought I'd head out to Gates Pass. Traffic was ridiculous, so I got out there with barely any time left, but I figured if I hiked out a ways there's be something decent in the foreground. In the end, I sprinted about 450 feet up and a half mile in with my pack on my back only to find a ridge as the only feature to put in front of the moonrise. It wasn't as dramatic as I would have liked, but on the plus side, as the moon rose, I could hoof it along the cliff edge I was on and "move the moon" back behind the ridge to get another crack at the moonrise with a slightly different part of the ridge in the foreground each time. After all of that scrambling and a few brief minutes of shooting, I then noticed the fantastic rock formation behind me and spent a good long while taking many photographs of that for a while. Here is one moonrise shot, and 3 different versions of roughly the same shot of the rock formation. I'm going to head back to shoot that formation again as it's really dramatic, it's got great views, and it's a nice hike, to boot!
p.1 #5 · Gates Pass: Went out for one shot... focused on something else for much of the time...
Also a big fan of #2. Compositionally, that one really does it for me, and I like your processing and treatment of it as well. I agree with IndyFab that it is nice to understand what went into getting the shot. Which reminds me, there is one I could post with an interesting back story...
p.1 #6 · Gates Pass: Went out for one shot... focused on something else for much of the time...
Great set, Dave! Nice that you were able to quickly get up up there in time. The composition of #2 is perfect, and the green cacti against the red rock cliff in #1 is visually wonderful (and the moon too of course).
p.1 #7 · Gates Pass: Went out for one shot... focused on something else for much of the time...
You might not be impressed by that moonrise shot but I certainly am. Love the light, crispness and saguaros reaching to the moon. Well done. The other images are nice as well and as you mentioned will be fodder for many shoots to come.
IndyFab wrote:
One never knows what length the photographer went through to get the capture, appreciate the back story.
Superb captures
I'm glad you liked the shots... and the story.
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Jim Dockery wrote:
I like 'em all. The cacti really add spice. #2 for me.
Thanks! The cacti were key for that shot for sure. There's another shot I ended up processing that emphasized those cholla. Just a small adjustment of placement and framing and it changes the shot quite a bit.
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kirbic wrote:
Also a big fan of #2. Compositionally, that one really does it for me, and I like your processing and treatment of it as well. I agree with IndyFab that it is nice to understand what went into getting the shot. Which reminds me, there is one I could post with an interesting back story...
Thank you! To add a little bit to the story, at that point the sun was setting quickly and my widest angle lens was a bit of a hike away where I had set my pack down. So #2 is actually a panorama (actually and HDR panorama since I was shooting into the sunset), that I had to shoot very quickly to get the field of view I wanted out of it. Just as I finished firing off the last bracketed shot to complete the pano, the sun had set. There you go, a little bit more to the story!
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Ross Martin wrote:
Great set, Dave! Nice that you were able to quickly get up up there in time. The composition of #2 is perfect, and the green cacti against the red rock cliff in #1 is visually wonderful (and the moon too of course).
Thanks! I definitely wanted to emphasize the whole green on red aspect of the ridge, so I appreciate you taking note of that.
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Hathaway wrote:
You might not be impressed by that moonrise shot but I certainly am. Love the light, crispness and saguaros reaching to the moon. Well done. The other images are nice as well and as you mentioned will be fodder for many shoots to come.
Well done and voted. Bob
Thanks! I definitely like the shot, for sure, but boy were there a bunch of dramatic foreground options earlier in the hike, I was just convinced that getting up to where I ended up shooting would be the place to be. It certainly worked out (and like I said I got to "reshoot" the moonrise several times as a result of being there. That said, I'll be back there, with a little more planning to get some more dramatic moonrise shots.
