Monument Rock

I took this late Saturday night. A storm had passed by a couple hours earlier, turning the clay/mud to a sticky mess around the rocks and I didn't feel like venturing into it. This provided me the opportunity to try different setups, including a first attempt at painting the rocks. The nearly full moon was still hidden behind the storm bank, but came up shortly after I took this shot. A square crop fit the scene best, as my painting was even in parts. 30D, 20 sec, ISO 400, f/3.5. C&C always welcome and appreciated. I posted a different pic from here in ES&S a couple days ago, and it can currently be found on page 2.

Fantastic shot, Rob. I really like what appears to be the remnants of the storm clouds on the right part of the frame. The rocks look a little soft, which could be a result of the direction of your light source. Nice work nontheless.

Thanks Bill. Those are the last of the storm clouds. Anybody have suggestions on improving the sharpness of the rocks? This is about as sharp as I have ever gotten them at night. I suspect is might partially be a focus issue, because I remember tweaking the focus instead of leaving it set at infinity. Very hard to focus in the dark :). The shots after the tweak are definitely sharper than the ones before I tweaked it.

Very nice shot, Rob, and I really like the rocks you painted with light. What type of light source did you use?

Wonderful Rob! You have done something really great here! The light and color, dark sky, stars, clouds really look great. Very cool, well done.

Brad

Thanks guys. I used a very bright flash light that I picked up at a K-Mart. I can't remember the exact strength, but I'm thinking 3 million units. It has a dimmer switch, but I don't remember if I had it dimmed any or not for this shot.

Nice work Rob. I've not tried any painting with light like I've seem from you and Tim. But i do admire anyone that can pull off a great photo like this. Thanks for sharing!

Very interesting portrait of these rocks. Have to say that I would love to see star trails in this one, though.

Thanks. I haven't tried star trails out there yet, simply because I always seem to end up there on bright moon nights. I'm hoping to plan an outing on a dark night sometime.

Sweet shot Rob. Great work with the light and I like the combo of clouds and stars in the night sky. Really well done!