The rarest light +reposts

This is a shot of Shiprock, New Mexico. The title is borrowed from Glenn Randall’s excellent article published on Outdoor Photographer Magazine.

The first time I came here, I asked myself: “That’s it?” I could not understand why Shiprock was considered as one of the top locations by many landscape photographers. Sure, the peak is nice, and the dikes are interesting. However, unlike most other colorful sandstone formations in Southwest, Shiprock is made of volcanic rock which has a very dull color.

For those who have never been here before, this is a capture during day time. And a Google image search will also show the "normal" colors. Totally uninspirational.

Well, I changed my opinion a few days later. That morning the sky was very cloudy. A storm was brewing. Not to be deterred by the bad weather, I still came to the same location. To my surprise, I was treated with the most spectacular light I’ve ever seen, because for a very brief moment, the sun found a small gap in the cloud and pour the incredible golden light on everything, totally transformed the landscape.

I found a small paddle of water on the ground because it rained the previous night, and I was able capture Shiprock with its refection on the water.

There is not Photoshop trick here. No increase of saturation or vibration. Pure magic of the light. The most time-consuming part of the post was to clone out some beer cans and bottles on the ground --- sadly, there were many of them around the location.

Canon 5D Mark II, 70mm, four groups stitched together (each group is consists two shots for exposure-blending).

Please see LARGE VERSION here.