| facebook | 500px | ferpectshotz |
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.