Chasing Desert Color
We arrived back in Arizona, our winter destination, on January 5th . We winter in Arizona because I love the desert and specifically the weather. but the “Valley of the Sun” comes with clear skies and 70 degree days which is not necessarily a photographer’s best friend. Since our arrival, I have had an eye to the sky, looking for that perfect opportunity to get out and grab some images but as I gazed at the sky, all I saw was blue.
After checking a number of weather related apps, I finally came up with a plan of attack to head out and shoot the Flat Iron in Lost Dutchman State Park. Having shot at this location before I was aware at how harsh the light is in the evenings with no cloud cover. But all of the weather apps agreed that there would be the cloud cover I was finally looking for. Armed with this information, I headed out to chase that evening desert color with great anticipation.
As I rolled into the Lost Dutchman State Park, immediate excitement welled up inside me. The clouds were to the west which caused the sun light to just kiss the surface of Flat Iron. I parked the truck and headed up the trail finding the light to be perfect. The partial cloud cover to the West provided for a perfect combination of shadows and evening light. Just the color I was looking for!
These images were taken with my Canon 5Dsr using my Canon 24-70 f2.8 L at ISO 100 , 1/100sec at between f11 and f13. Most of the final images were put together using 4 image focus stacks.
