On my way home from my March road trip, a fierce storm was blowing in from the west. In the wide open space of the high plains, the distant storm front was visible for much of my journey. The storm front itself was interesting, but when I came upon an area with windmills, I had to stop to capture a few images.
This wide angle view captures the old ranch windmill and structure along with the modern, electric generating windmills in the distance and the massive storm clouds with rain in the distance.
I zoomed in to get more detail of the old windmill and its contrast with the modern windmills.
As I continued my journey to my overnight stop in Amarillo, Texas, the wind became more fierce, buffeting my vehicle all the way. The wind whipped up much dust north of Amarillo. The storm continued through out the night and I awoke to a dusting of snow and a light blowing snow, which continued for a short distance on the final day of my homeward bound journey.
I arrive home safely in the afternoon and now I have to look forward to another, as yet unplanned journey.
This is a continuation of a late day shoot in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada, March 2023.
Storm Light 13Storm Shooter
My oldest son (on top of the peak in the lower right) shot the storm from other higher elevation vantage points and complained that I did not come up to join him. I have not seen his photos, so I don’t know how to compare his to mine, but he is of the opinion that he had better views than I did. I was busy shooting what I saw from my location and I thought I might miss out on the scene by taking time to move elsewhere and at least I know that we did not get identical shots.
Storm Shooter 2When Gold Turns to PinkMystical DesertSunset Clouds and Distant StormOver The Hill StormOver The Hill Storm 2Desert EveStorm Light 14Storm Light 15Storm Light 16
This wraps up today’s sunset shoot. Next up, sunrise in the desert near the campground in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.
This is a continuation of a March 2023 sunset shoot in Valley of Fire, Nevada.
Seeking ShelterSkylineCalm before the StormLight before the DarkSkylightStorm Light
I made many images with the late day light changing as the sun sank into the western horizon with clouds moving overhead and a distant storm on the easterly horizon. I’m presenting a few selected images in this post.
It seems suitable, at this time of the day, that the clouds in the sky and the geology in Valley of Fire, Nevada came together to create an hourglass shape, if one has the imagination to see it.
Light before the Storm
Another late day storm was brewing over the desert, which resulted in dramatic sky for background.
The Light and the Storm
I composed this image to have the rocks along the diagonal pointing towards the distant storm.
Then I thought maybe I had too much in this image, so I moved in close to the end portion of the foreground rock, keeping a portion of the little bush at the edge of the rock.
The Light and the Storm 2
This emphasized the foreground rock, but reduced the background and the stormy, cloudy sky, which I think is not an improvement. The wider angle view is better, I think.
The Light and the Storm 3
I like the way the rock texture looks, even on its own, but with the late day light and a stormy sky background it seems to really pop.
The Light and the Storm 4
In this image I like the foreground shadows that contrast with the late day light on the middle ground and the background sky and the rugged geology.
Skyway – Walk this way to reach the clouds.Symmetric Reflection – Earth and Sky Symmetry
Maybe the correct word is “symmetrical”, but the image is not exactly symmetrical, so I will stick with the “Symmetric” label.
Storm Reveal
I used the many linear features in the rock as leading lines in this photo, which is a cropped version of the original. The original included much more of the foreground, as I like those linear features, but upon reviewing, I thought maybe I over did it with the foreground.
Rain Wish
To be continued with much more of that late day desert storm,
There was a late day storm on the eastern horizon during this cloudy, sunset shoot. Such desert storms contribute to the slow, but certain evolution of the rock features found here. These are a few of those images.
Relentless Evolution 2
I made many images, capturing the changes in the sky as the storm and the late day lighting progressed.
I hope the similarity of these images is not boring to the reader. It was fascinating to see how the sky changed with the storm’s advanced across the landscape and the subtle changes in the light on the landscape.
After my morning excursion into Badlands National Park, I returned to the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands Campground Area, picked another campsite, had lunch and waited until it was time to go out again for sunset photography.
Buffalo Gap National Grasslands, September 16, 2022, PM, iPhone Photo 1Buffalo Gap National Grasslands, September 16, 2022, PM, iPhone Photo 2
As the afternoon progressed, like yesterday, storm clouds began gathering.
Visitors, Buffalo Gap National Grasslands, South DakotaPraire StormBuffalo Gap National Grasslands, Campsite 2
Rain soon began to fall with gusty winds. It was apparent that the storm was too fierce for me to venture back out for a late day shoot. Now I have to look forward to another morning shoot.
At the outward end of our hike, we scrambled onto boulders for good views of the canyon and the distant storm.
Boulders, Canyon and Storm Clouds
The best view into the canyon was in one direction, so I shot in that direction, towards the distant storm, varying the foreground and the horizontal and vertical angles, experimenting with compositional variations with the same general view of the canyon.
Canyon and Storm
I used the portion of the canyon immediately below the view point as a leading line towards the main canyon and the storm in the distance.
Canyon, Canyon Rim and StormCanyon and StormApproaching StormBoulders, Canyon and StormStormy OutlookDark CanyonDistant StormStorm’s A Coming
Unlike those that are naturally artistic, I often do not immediately see “the composition” that I want. I enjoy trying different compositions and I’m often surprised at how I perceive the results, after having time to review and edit the photos. Often, the images I like the best are not the ones that others favor, which may be an indication of my natural bent towards seeing things in a more scientifically curious way, rather than in an artistic manner.
As always, readers comments and opinions are welcome,
We did not get to see golden hour sunset light on this shoot, but the distant storm and the heavy clouds approaching were good photographic subjects.
Storm Clouds and Canyon 2
At the risk of being monotonous, I will post a number of images with the main emphasis upon the storm clouds over the Grand Canyon.
Storm Clouds and Canyon 3Storm Clouds and Canyon 4Storm Clouds and Canyon 5
Images 3 and 4 are my favorites of this series, impressive clouds over a magnificent canyon. There were occasional lightening bolts in the distant storm, but I was not fortunate enough to capture any of the sporadic lightening in my shots.
After the creek and waterfall trek, I drove along FSR 243 towards FSR 380. There are several places that I had noted, via Google Earth, along FSR 243 as places of possible interest and possible campsites. When passing these locations previously, I was not impressed by the view that I had from the roadway. There had always been a number of campers in these areas and I had seen fly fishermen in the creek. As I passed by the primary location of interest today, there were no others anywhere around, so I decided to check it out.
A dirt road departed FSR 243 at a sharp angle and moderately downhill into a broad, open flat area with plenty of space for multiple unrestricted campsites. I drove to the end of the dirt road and got out to have a look around. Walking to the creek, I immediately saw a number of trout in the shallow water. The bank along the creek was mostly steep with loose soil, but I found a place to safely get down to the edge of the creek and then stepped over to the other side at a narrow place in the creek.
I shot a number of iPhone photos and made a couple of videos of the flowing creek.
Treasure Creek. iPhone photograph.
One can see in the photo above that it is getting very cloudy again.
After awkwardly stepping back across the creek and making my way back to my vehicle, I continued on to FSR 380 and headed westerly.
I stopped along FSR 380 at a place that I had previously spotted and near where I had shot another late day image, when returning from Del Norte.
It had sprinkled light rain sporadically and began again as I was shooting here. It was apparent from the heavy clouds that a storm was brewing over the mountains.
I continued along FSR 380 and it began to rain more heavily. The rain soon turned to slushy ice, then to pellet like snow. I was close to several campsites that I had been keeping an eye on. My coveted location had always had a truck camper in it, whenever I had previously passed by. Today I got lucky. The spot I liked was empty. There was an RV trailer nearby in the same camping area in a spot, which had always been available previously, and I had resolved myself to maybe having to use that space, if it was available today and the truck camper was still here.
Snowy Campsite. iPhone photograph.
After parking in the campsite, I got out to take a photo with the snow coming down. I then waited, hoping that the snow would end and I would be able to shoot photos from this location.
The snow continued long enough for the ground to be thinly covered, but it mostly melted away soon after the snow stopped. As sunset time approached, I walked into an open area with a good view of the valley and the mountains to the southwest.
After the Storm. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/25s, f/11, ISO 64.
With the cloud cover, I knew there was little chance of a golden hour sunset today.
The storm clouds made up for the lack of a golden hour sunset.
Mountain Peaks and Meadow. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 26mm, 1/125s, f/16, ISO 640.
When I first saw this location, I thought it would be best for a sunset shoot; but as I looked around today, consulting my photo app on my iPhone, I realized that this location was better for sunrise than sunset.
Mountain Meadow. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/80s, f/16, ISO 800.Late Day Light. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/40s, f/16, ISO 800.
I hung out here shooting until just after sunset.
Cloudy Sky. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 55mm, 0.4s, f/11, ISO 64.Late Day Sky. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 55mm, 0.4s, f/11, ISO 64.
