Today is the last day of the workshop and we are out again before dawn .
It is particularly early this morning as we have to travel 45 minutes to get to the location. What they didn’t mention was that it was 45 minutes nose to tail at 120kph in the dark through mountainous country where the edge of the road is very narrow and the drop off is a kilometre high and deer jump out at you every now and then. Fortunately only one person hit one and there was someone around with a gun who was able to dispatch the unfortunately injured animal and no persons were injured badly enough to also require dispatching.
The site chosen for the dawn was apparently selected by the 45 minute part of the description i.e. drive 45 minutes and stop and, in the words of our French mentor, “voila”.
At first glance it is not a particularly promising place so he sends his wife off with a “walkie-talkie” to look for some interesting foreground element, a task which she performs with some alacrity, but he decides to stay where he is for the moment as it would require too much energy to walk the 100metres which would also remove him from the centre of attention.
Eventually the sun begins to peep over the horizon and we are informed “This is it. Shoot now or forever be regretful.”
The light lasts for all of 90 seconds so there is the sound of many clicking shutters which almost drowns out the “What? That’s it?” lament from somewhere up the back. Was that an Australian accent I heard?
There follows another 45 minute dash back into town for breakfast which is only slightly less terrifying in the light as now I can see the drop offs.
Breakfast dealt with we all gather again at 10am to be informed we are going back the way we have just been and will be stopping in at a number of interesting places along the way. The first of these is just a wayside “pullout” (truck stop in Oz) opposite a red rock wall (yawn), an orchard and one big tree in full bright yellow glory. I cannot get worked up about these so I decide to concentrate on a few little details which pique my interest. There are some fronds of some sort which are very soft both to touch and sight so I decide to experiment with them
and also practice my “contre-jour” technique
Eventually we move onto another red rock wall canyon (yawn, yawn) wher ewe are staying until it’s time to move onto our lunch spot. I walk some distance and back up the canyon which is in bright mid-morning sunlight with all the accompanying harsh light and shade we are used to in Australia and eventually find a tree in shade with some stained rocks (called desert varnish) in the background and decide to photograph that just so our “je ne donne pas une merde“ guide will think I am doing the right thing.
Finally we move on to our lunch spot, it seems carefully chosen as all the toilets are locked for the winter season! We are then subjected to a presentation of his (for sale) portfolios for an hour and no time is allowed for actually photographing in this pleasant little park which is absolutely covered in leaves and has many interesting details.
After lunch we move on to YET ANOTHER BLOODY RED ROCK CANYON !!
Fortunately the sky is developing some clouds so I can be persuaded to at least show a false enthusiasm.
Our guide and mentor is also doing his own photography and is taking a composition very similar to this one. I am standing by his right shoulder as we do this together. Wait a minute he has gone; apparently the right light only lasted a minute or two and you had to be there at the right moment.
Oh well these river rocks look quite interesting ....
We stay here an excruciating three hours before we move off to our sunset location.
There is another red rock cliff with “some interesting patterns and textures” (say it with a froggy accent) but I can’t even fake enthusiasm this time and wander off over the back where the clouds and landscape are actually becoming interesting.
At the last gasp of sunset the sun manages to throw a little colour into the sky over some other nearby hills. The sky and the landscape has a dynamic range of 14 “stops” of exposure which is outside the range of all but the $50k cameras, of which there are a number in this group, so I have to resort to combining multiple exposures.
This is the best I can manage on my laptop computer so I look forward to experimenting when I finally get home.
It all seems to have gone rather quickly in many ways and there is only one week left including the dreaded 40hour return leg. “Time flies when you’re having fun ....”
Comments powered by CComment