For our sunset shoot on March 18, 2024, my son and I hike up a steep hillside near a feature known as The Eye of Alabama Hills. (I only have iPhone images from exploring around the Eye, which might be included in another post later).
It was a cloudy evening, which is both good and bad for photography. Good in having an interesting sky, bad for getting the best golden hour light on landscape features.
As I’ve said many times, early morning landscape photography is the best for a number of reason, but especially for being alone on location. Most casual tourists and visitors to a popular location, seldom get out and about in the early morning hours, so we seldom have to worry about people popping into our shots.
Shooting from the rounded rocks in front of the arch, made using a tripod very difficult for getting down low, so I ended up shooting hand held, using a higher ISO to get my shutter speed high enough to counter my hand shake.
I shot many images at this location today and could include more, but these are representative of the morning’s scene. Having those magnificent, early morning clouds was a bonus for shooting today.
This arch is so named because it is supposed to look like a boot. Maybe the base looks a little like a boot, but I’m not quite seeing this strongly enough to have it so named.
I can partly see the naming of this arch, but I’m thinking another name like “Lobster” or “Crayfish” might be more suitable, especially when other view points are considered.
Upon arriving at the Mobius Arch, we began to work around it checking out various photographic compositions. I suspect every possible view point of this arch has been photographed many times in all sorts of weather conditions, so the prospect of achieving any unique photo here is remote at best.
Note: After migration of my blog site to another hosting provider, there are ongoing problems with the migration. I am finding (hopefully) temporary work arounds, so that I can resume posting, until a permanent fix for the website problems are found.
I began to realize early in this scouting outing that photographing the scenes here would be more challenging than I had anticipated. The scenery was spectacular, but the foreground tended to be so immense and dominant as to become a distraction for letting the eye get past it into the rest of the photo. And those mountains! The Sierra Nevada mountains were domineering as background, seemingly demanding to be included in every shot. As a result, I’m not overly pleased with many of my photos, even those that I choose to present here.
The images in this post have embedded links that will take the reader to that image in my WordPress Image Library. The photo captions are links that will take the reader to that photo on my Flickr page.
This spring’s photography trip was to Alabama Hills, California. This was a long trip and some thought was given to flying into Las Vegas, renting a 4 wheel drive vehicle and driving from there; but in the end, my oldest son and I, felt more comfortable with one of our own 4 WD vehicles, which meant a long road trip, especially for me since I first had to drive from Texas to Colorado by myself, then we would travel together to California.
March weather is always uncertain and can be a challenge for travel and planning. This year was no exception. Prior to my departure from Texas, a strong spring storm was forecast, so I left Texas a day earlier than planned to avoid the worst of the expected storm. Still, in portions of Colorado, I drove through intermittent rain, sleet and snow.
That first night in Colorado the storm dumped heavy snows across Colorado, especially in the mountains. I-70, our route over the mountains was closed and we were not at all sure that we would be able to keep our scheduled departure date; but we got lucky, I-70 opened to all but commercial truck traffic just in time. There was heavy, slow traffic along long sections of I-70 and slushy, snow packed intervals, sometimes with only one lane open.
The Western Slope of the Rockies was clear and we were able to drive much faster into Utah. Still we kept seeing warnings of an expected storm along our route and we did drive through some heavy snow before reaching our first stop over destination.
Even though, I’ve traveled portions of I-70 and I-15 west of Grand Junction, Colorado numerous times, I always seem to forget how beautiful and varied the scenery is along this route. This is another reason, I prefer highway travel to air travel. So much is missed in route, when in an airplane.
Our route to Alabama Hills took us through a portion of Death Valley, which is another of our favorite places. In one of the broad valleys between mountain ranges the land was covered in yellow flowers, no doubt due to the heavy rains in this area this year.
We had motel reservations in Lone Pine, California and would stay there for a number of days. Lone Pine sits between two portions of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. There was snow on the mountains and those mountains are beautiful.
We went into Alabama Hills, which is a few miles outside Lone Pine, and did mostly scouting the first morning here, since we did not know the area and had no fixed destination in mind for early morning photography.
Alabama Hills, California, March 17, 2024
The Sierra Nevada mountains dominate the background here and it seemed impelling to include those mountains in our photos.
Alabama Hills and Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, March 17, 2024
Perhaps, one of the most interesting and most photographed rock features here is the Mobius Arch. So we parked in the parking space at the loop trail to that arch and set out to explore the area.
Heart Arch, Alabama Hills, California, March 17, 2024
The Heart Arch is visible from some distance and the Mobius Arch Trail goes past it.
Alabama Hills, -Shadows, Light, Mountains and Clouds – California, March 17, 2024
For those of us old enough, these scenes might jar some early childhood memories of early western movies and TV series. Over 400 movies have been filmed in this area, beginning with the silent movie era and continuing into recent times. I well remember some of those early westerns, like Hop along Cassidy, The Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Gene Autry, Have Gun Will Travel, The Rifleman, Wanted – Dead or Alive and many others. More recent movies include Django Unchained and The Gladiator.
The movie museum in Lone Pine is well worth a visit for anyone passing through.
More information about Alabama Hills and how it became known as “Alabama Hills” is found here
Sunset light fades away on the peaks. I’m so grateful for the natural lines and textures in the amazing geology and natural sculpture here, without which the photographs would not be nearly so interesting.
Peak Gold 2
With a cache of fallen rocks in the eroded portion below the peak.
Getting the Shot
I could have yelled at this photographer for intruding into my composition, but I think he adds to the theme of photographing the geology here, as well as giving a human scale for reference.
Regular followers of this blog might recall that in an earlier post about this final sunset shoot I made a statement about thinking that there must be a better composition in the area where I made an early shot before sunset. Well, there was. I came back to that area, as the sun was very low in the sky, where I shot some of the images above. As I moved around the area, I found rocks that made very interesting foreground objects. These last three images are my best (I think) images from that location.
The Cast 1
The rocks of Valley of Fire are the stars of this series, so it seem appropriate to name these last photos for those rocks.
The Cast 2The Cast – Final Bow
Thanks for following this long series of blogs with photos from Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.
The natural features in the foreground rocks made great leading lines into the desert background for this image and the muted color of the rocks in the shadows contrasted with the sunset light enhanced color of the background rocks.
Crease Life
I know, this is not a wonderful photo, but as I sat in the shadows on the rock ledge on this image’s right side, I noted (again) how desert life tends to accumulate in the creases between rock units. And the ledge, which is not as wide as it looks near the camera lens, seems to be disappearing into the distance.
Transformation 5
I kept with the “Transformation” theme for a number of photos, shooting from the shadows into the sunset light on the background. In this one, I liked the fracture leading upward toward the cylindrical rock feature, then the rock/skyline edge merging with the shadow line leading down into the sunlit valley.
Transformation 8
For Transformation 8, I was inspired by the foreground rock layer that appears to be flowing downhill.
Complex
The title “Complex” is in honor of the complexity of the geology and rock details throughout this image.
Open Heart
My first inclination was to title this image “Let Sleeping Rocks Lie”, as I think the rock with the sunset light on it looks much like a resting puppy and that rock opening behind the head looks like a floppy ear. Then I noted that that opening was heart shaped. This detail might be more clear, if viewed on a large screen. Clicking on the image will take one to my Flickr page with this image.
Peak Gold
The rocks here have some incredible detail and textures that can best be seen on a large screen, too.
This is a continuation of my last sunset shoot in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada in March 2023.
For continuity, I’m including an image from the previous post.
Transformation
As the golden sunset hour advanced, I made a number of images from a location with sufficient elevation that allowed an expansive view across the desert and the extensive rock formations. Shooting from the shadow of a massive rock outcrop behind me, I used the natural lines and layers in the foreground rock as leading lines and to contrast the change in the rock color from shadow into the brightly lit rocks of the setting sun.
Transformation 2Transformation 3
Maybe my choice of title for the image above is not a good one. Perhaps, it should be “Snapping Turtle”. I’m one of those people that seems to be prone to pareidolia. That is I see life forms in some shapes. In the image above I see the head of a snapping turtle in the rock at upper center. I suppose it could be imagined as something else, maybe a birds beak?
I worked my way around this area capturing many images, most of which will not be posted. Somewhere I read an article that described my actions like those of a photographer “dancing around a teacup”, shooting a teacup from all directions, looking for that one magic or unique view. I have to admit that I’m often guilty of this.
Sun Basking
More pareidolia, I’m seeing the face of some sort of animal creature in the rightmost portion of this rock, enjoying the last sun rays of the day.
Desert Spotlights
In the mostly shadowy area in which I was standing, looking out across the vast desert, I noted one small area being highlighted, as if in a spotlight of the late day light.
Spindly 1
I knew when I saw the skeleton of a small desert tree that I wanted to somehow include it in one or more images. Its location made compositions including it difficult. It was highlighted by the late day sun, when I first spotted it, but the sun was rapidly sinking and the little tree rapidly going into shadow. By the time I determined the best way to compose around the tree and got a couple of fairly decent shots, the tree was mostly in shadow.
Spindly 2
Anyway, I think the tree provides a subtle foreground object for these two images.
This is a continuation of an exploration and sunset shoot in Valley of Fire, Nevada in March of 2023.
Stone Glow
The late day sun rays made this rock look like an ancient warriors golden helmet.
Mosquito Rock 1
When I saw this vertical arch and the way it was attached between the rocks above and that beneath, I immediately thought of it as a blood sucking insect. As I move around the rock that first impression was reinforced.
Mosquito Rock 2Mosquito Rock 3Another Rock Creature Feature
A few minutes later I found another rock that appeared to be another blood sucking creature.
Open at Perforations
It is not unusual to find rock faces with these little holes along rock interfaces that look like they were purposely designed as perforations at which to separate the rock layers.
Awakening
I might have disturbed this rock creatures rest, as it appears to be opening one eye to see what has awakened it.
Transformation
The golden hour is now in full force as the magic sunset hour begins to color the desert rocks golden yellow.
