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Having access to the American southwest via a weekend trip is a fantastic thing. Visiting the desert for the first time fascinated me beyond any other location, that I have ever been to. What I was expecting to be a lifeless wasteland was teeming with life and color. It also thought me about the importance of light. Our usual visit to a desert location involves waking up upper early and exploring well before sunrise. This often means that you will find interesting views with the most spectacular warm light as the sun comes up.
A good example is the shark fin rock formation along the fire wave trail at valley of fire state park. We drove past this rock formation the day before and it didn’t look anything out of the ordinary. But on the next day as we were at the fire wave trail, I noticed the intense colors of this rock formation during golden hour. While the Fire wave formation was beautiful, the light of this rock was just stunning, and I decided to capture in against the texture of the massive boulders that we passed on the hike. I later cropped the image to better frame the prominent features of the composition. Straight composition with a 3-stop ND Grad filter to balance the intense morning light you often get in the desert.
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One of the star attractions of the valley of fire state park was the Fire Wave rock formations. The location can be reached after a short hike of about a mile from the trailhead. We wanted to get there during sunrise to take advantage of the golden light. Unfortunately, there were not any clouds in the sky, but the brilliant blue of the sky contrasted very well with the striking red of the rock formations.
I took this shot was taken just as the sun rose above the horizon and lit the distant rock formations. The light difference in the scene was a bit too much for the ND grads that I had in my bag. I was clipping the highlights in the bright areas even after using a 3 stop ND grad and after metering at the brightest spot in the image. This is one of the troubles with winter, while the sunrises and sunsets happen at reasonable hours, even the first rays of the sun will be brighter and quicker to dissipate than other seasons.
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Initially, when I started to take photographs, I often used to try and boost the colors and contrast in my images. Then we went to the American southwest and we saw landscapes so colorful that I sometimes had to scale back on the vividness of the images. The Valley of Fire state park is one such location, especially during the golden hour.
I took this shot while we were coming back from a hike to the fire wave rock formation. The fire wave was a bit of a bust as it remained in the shadows, but the warm morning light was perfectly lighting up the shark fin rock formation. So, we hightailed it back to this spot which had a nice view of the shark fin rock formation and a boulder to be served as a fantastic foreground anchor. The warmth of the red rocks in golden light contrasting with the cold blue of the desert sky provided an unbelievably color-rich scene.
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Keeping on with the desert photography theme, I wanted to talk about another essential element of desert photography, light. Quality of light is a vital element for any type of photography, but in my experience, deserts will expose bad techniques more than any other environment. Chasing good light in a desert environment helps immensely with the heat as well. We often wake up well before sunrise for the hikes. The temperature is one the cooler side, and most often than not, there are very few people around. We usually go back straight to bed and wake up in the afternoon to be ready for sunset.
Then comes the light, hands down the best part of being in a desert is the beautiful morning light. It truly transforms the place. As I spend more time photographing deserts, I have come to appreciate the light before the actual sunrise. It’s beautiful, evenly lit with warm tones. Suddenly, details start to emerge even in the mundane looking elements.
I took this shot at the Valley of Fire SP while on the hike to the fire wave. The day ended up being harsh and hot, but the early morning hike well before sunrise was delightful. On the way to fire wave, I noticed this beautiful pattern on a nearby slick rock. I was in a hurry to get to the main attraction of the hike, so I didn’t have a lot of time to think of a good composition here. I still like this image a lot, while it was not the best from the hike, I think it’s a great example of how good light can make a difference.
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When we decided to make a trip to the beautiful Valley of Fire state park in Nevada one of the major attractions was to do the fire wave trail and see the mini-wave rock formation. But the problem with such popular attractions is that its difficult to find unique compositions. If nature cooperates and provides some drama, then it’s a lot easier but if that’s not the case then creating a standout photo becomes challenging.
On this particular day we had a perfectly clear sky, so no luck on the dramatic sky front, and this area being rock formations and slot canyon the light direction was hard to predict. One trick that I have learned from all my travels is you cannot really depend on nature to cooperate and always to have a backup plan if the shot you had in mind didn’t work out. I noticed this rock formation while we were hiking to the fire wave and a quick check on photopills told me that this rock formation was perfectly positioned to get lit up with the first rays of the day. The only concern was the horizon which was spiked with large rocks that could delay the light from falling on it at sunrise. This delay, even if it's for a few seconds, really determines the tones of the light on the rock. As the sunlight loses its warmth a few seconds into the sunrise. Luckily the large rocks on the horizon didn’t block any sunlight that was falling on the rock and I had enough tie to compose and shoot this scene through wave rocks. I tried to use the sandy floor as a leading line and the rock bathed in warm golden light as the subject. Later I cropped to a 16:9 aspect ration in post, which is fast becoming my favorite aspect ratio for landscape shots.