Valley of Fire
Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada really lives up to its name here. This is the "Fire wave" feature, lit above with some really interesting sunset light on low hanging clouds. I really had some exceptional luck on my visit to Las Vegas in late March, not at the card tables, mind you, but out in the field, which counts way more in my books. Valley of Fire is only an hour drive from Las Vegas so its pretty easy to get there for a sunset shot of the famous Fire Wave and then head back to town. Absolutely one of my favorite places to visit in the Vegas area, it never fails to put a smile on my face.
As I drove in, the clouds were really menacing and dramatic looking. So I was excited about the prospect of some interesting cloudy shots, but I did not expect sunset to amount to anything because there was just too much cloud. However, for a brief few minutes the sun found a crack and lit up the clouds in little pockets. There are always people shooting the fire wave at sunset, and today they were all lined up in one particular spot hoping for the fire wave to catch the sun. However, I could tell it would not but once I saw the clouds catching some color I scrabbled all around the fire wave trying to find an interesting angle with the color. It was one of those times where one has to keep an open mind and adapt to the conditions to get a usable shot. Planning is important (and I don't typically do enough of it), but I also find it is extremely important to let Mother Nature's plans have the final say.
Shot with Pentax K-1 and Pentax 24-70mm using Pixel Shift.
[EDIT] Originally I shot this in a vertical format and displayed as 8x10 with a lot of the fiery sky in the photo, but I found the wonderful lines in the fire wave were getting lost under so much sky so I recropped in square format to bring some focus back to the rock and am more satisfied with this.
Valley of Fire
Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada really lives up to its name here. This is the "Fire wave" feature, lit above with some really interesting sunset light on low hanging clouds. I really had some exceptional luck on my visit to Las Vegas in late March, not at the card tables, mind you, but out in the field, which counts way more in my books. Valley of Fire is only an hour drive from Las Vegas so its pretty easy to get there for a sunset shot of the famous Fire Wave and then head back to town. Absolutely one of my favorite places to visit in the Vegas area, it never fails to put a smile on my face.
As I drove in, the clouds were really menacing and dramatic looking. So I was excited about the prospect of some interesting cloudy shots, but I did not expect sunset to amount to anything because there was just too much cloud. However, for a brief few minutes the sun found a crack and lit up the clouds in little pockets. There are always people shooting the fire wave at sunset, and today they were all lined up in one particular spot hoping for the fire wave to catch the sun. However, I could tell it would not but once I saw the clouds catching some color I scrabbled all around the fire wave trying to find an interesting angle with the color. It was one of those times where one has to keep an open mind and adapt to the conditions to get a usable shot. Planning is important (and I don't typically do enough of it), but I also find it is extremely important to let Mother Nature's plans have the final say.
Shot with Pentax K-1 and Pentax 24-70mm using Pixel Shift.
[EDIT] Originally I shot this in a vertical format and displayed as 8x10 with a lot of the fiery sky in the photo, but I found the wonderful lines in the fire wave were getting lost under so much sky so I recropped in square format to bring some focus back to the rock and am more satisfied with this.