“Southern Ambience”

In the pursuit of excellence, I view all my photos with a great deal of criticism; questioning what I could have done to improve it. With that in mind, I was really happy with this photo because I didn’t see too many things that I feel, I should have done differently. That said, I also didn’t have to edit it in any unusual way; although it was a raw photo, so some post editing had to be done. Granted, the weather and lighting was on my side so the colors were naturally spectacular! It was a rainy day in Scottsdale, when at days end the clouds parted and the sun started to shine. The rain cleared the air and washed the desert dust from the foliage and towering saguaros. This, I knew, was an opportunity I couldn’t miss! I quickly grabbed my camera and tripod and headed out into the desert. I hurried because (based on my experience), I knew I’d have only 10 minutes to shoot and get the shot I wanted; before the sun set and before the foreground and saguaro trees where in the shade. Fortunately, I quickly chanced upon this trio of saguaro trees, nicely lined up with the stormy clouds in the distance. I set up my camera and waited (and hoped) for the sun to peak from between the clouds that were low on the horizon. My patience and perseverance paid off; for all of 1 minute the sun cast its warm light on the desert floor. “Yeah, I got it!”, I shouted out loud (I was SO thrilled)! I had ventured into the desert to get this shot many times before however the sunset fizzled each time, but this time it was positively spectacular! For this shot, my 24-240 mm lens was set to 62mm. My ASA was set to 50, my shutter speed was ¼ (I used my tripod), with a F-stop of 16. This technique was critical in capturing this photo, because: *50 ASA (or ISO) results in less grain than say, 400 ASA *Using a slower shutter speed absorbs more color (and light). *The higher F-stop the greater the depth of field (more in focus)