A Stitch in Time

This is a blended image. One image was taken of the clouds and sky and just a little bit of land and the other was of the canyon, lighting, and the bottom of the cloud. My widest focal length is 28mm, and this is two 28mm shots blended together. The line-up of the land pretty much decided how these would fit together.

It's also a temporal blend because the time between shots is about 33 minutes according to the EXIF data. The first image (clouds and sky) was taken when the moon was still behind a cloud and I felt a bit of land would be enough to anchor the image. However, when the moon started lighting the foreground, I knew I needed to point the camera down and capture the moonlit canyon too. But I continued to include the area below the cloud in the image because I didn't want to miss any lightning strikes, and that's when this triple bolt occurred (all at once).

While the blended image is a bit static with the square frame and symmetrical elements, I don't mind. This is one of those rare occasions when things came together nicely and I'm just happy to have gotten a picture that shows it all.

Momo Vuyisich and Doug Koepsel were here this night too, and I'm pretty sure Doug has already posted an image or two of this. It was pretty special to be here and share the event with friends.

I worked to find the right combination of color, texture, and brightness to adequately suggest nighttime. Your thoughts and recommendations would, as always, be appreciated.

Canon 5D2, 28-300@28, ISO 100, f/6.3, 30 sec for both images