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One late fall afternoon in Sedona, I noticed some strange cloud formations begin to roll in and wondered if they’d stick around and lead to yet another one of Arizona’s famous sunsets. In anticipation, I grabbed my camera, my 200-600mm len and got everything set and ready to go on my tripod, just in case. Sure enough, as the sun began to sink behind the Misgus mountain range those clouds came alive with colour. "Wow" I enthusiastically thought, "The entire sky is filled with colour". I took a few shots before I reviewing them and in so doing I noticed that the colours were not true to what I saw; obviously my camera was auto correcting the colour. What I saw behind the clouds was the brilliant blue sky however because I had my camera set to auto white balance, that sky was yellow. Quickly, before the sun sank, I flipped through the colour balance choices until of found the one that was true in colour and I immediately gave a mental thanks to the gentleman whom years ago that taught me that. I continued then to snap quite a few more, until I thought I had what I wanted and I packed everything up. A few moments later however I looked again and the sky was even more magnificent so I again set everything up and shot a few more, until I thought I had what I wanted and I packed everything up. Wouldn’t you know it, a few moments later I repeated the entire process but it was so worth the effort! "Captivating", as I named this photo, was one of my last photos I took and I chose it as my favourite because of the range in colours and densities throughout the entire photograph. While travelling, I’ve witnessed a number of sunsets however none have been as spectacular, nor as frequent, as those I’ve seen in Arizona.
Just west of Carefree, Arizona is Bartlett Lake, a reservoir lake formed by the damming of the Verde River. We had heard that the Arizona Desert poppies where bountiful here, so we just had to check it out! On our arrival, we noted these yellow-orange poppies covered the landscape and they were indeed beautiful! That said however I was most taken by the unique mix of saguaro trees and the soaring mountains in the background. Some of the key elements that I like in this photo include: -The darkest dark shadows (group mass), demands the viewer's attention, creating a strong focal point. -The strong vertical lines (the saguaro trees), adding contrast. -The color variety, that makes the depth of field stand out.
How lucky I was to be at Watson Lake (ready with my camera set for a long exposure), when the moon rose with the earth’s shadow in the background; which created an array of beautiful colors!
