Top 10 of 2016 (#2)
Only two more to go now. These will be my two best/favorite images of 2016. I'd be interested to hear what everyone thinks about my selections.
Back in late May, I took a photography trip. Another excursion to the Red Rock Country of Utah, and more specifically, Capitol Reef National Park. I met up with my photography friends, affectionately known as "The Posse", for more great times, lots of laughs, and plenty of picture taking. The Posse, which consists of Sheriff Bob, John, Phil, Gary, and Spike, has been on a few of these trips together now. Mostly to the Wild West. In fact, we all met on a photography workshop in Utah back in October 2013.
The intent of the 2013 photography workshop was to visit Utah's national parks. As luck would have it, the government shut down and closed all the parks the day the workshop started. We were locked out of our parks that entire week. Go figure. On our return this year, the parks were open and we were focused on exploring as much of Capitol Reef and environs as possible.
One of our goals was to visit Factory Butte for a sunrise shoot. It was another incredible morning. We arrived 30 minutes or so before sunrise and began the ritual of unpacking gear and searching for good compositions for the scene before us. There were thick clouds on the horizon, so it was unclear whether the sunrise would produce spectacular light on the butte. It didn't exactly work out as we had hoped, but the clouds created some great drama in the sky for us. In landscape photography, you win some, you lose some. To me, this was a win.
There were several images captured on this morning that I liked, but this one stood out as a favorite. The cloud formation being lit up by the colorful morning light really made the shot. Factory Butte is a place I could visit again and again, never tiring of the view, and each time getting very different images. The Sheriff would be proud.
Camera Tech:
Focal length - 18 mm
Shutter speed - 1/60th of a second
Aperture - f/8
ISO - 200