A Favorite Pocket

With the recent monsoon showers and reports of flashing in some of the canyons and washes, I headed atop the Paria Plateau with hopes that some basins were holding water for reflection pools. Alas, the area was rather dry but Sunday night held a golden sunset. Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning was overcast.

The Sunday evening rainclouds to the west had a small gap beneath their bottoms and the horizon. Hope sprung for a few minutes of sweet golden light at the last moment.

A vertical from the same point before scurrying to another location.

A quick hustle a little ways over to candy rock. Quickly set up for two angles.

A little move to the left gave more of a view around the corner to the northeast.

Man these are stunning. I think the third is my favorite. Gorgeous work.

In a span of 5 minute from start to finish, the direct sunlight was gone as the sun descended below the horizon. With sun still on the distant rain for a brilliant sunset, I hoped for a good single exposure (in addition to bracketing exposures for possible blending).

This Monday morning broke with only a few distant low clouds to the distant south. In a matter of a minute, the glancing light was over on the serpent's tail.

I tried many different images on Sunday morning despite the eastern cloud cover. This is possible one the bettter from then.

This location is one of the first that wowed and intrigued me. I went in June of last year when I first started photographing landscapes in northern Arizona.

Nikon D90, Tokina 12-24. No CPL this time as I dislike the uneven sky gradient produced. As always, any comments and suggestions are welcome.

Those clouds! That light! Sweet shots, Doug!

Both times I've been here there's been over a foot of snow on the ground, pretty cool to see it without. You got some killer light up there!

This is such an amazing and photogenic place. You've got some great work here, Doug!

Great lighting in all of these...I especially like the first two. Nicely done.

All of these images are beautiful. I especially like the first. I also love the composition and lightof the 6th.

You definitely took advantage of some dramatic conditions! These are all fantastic

Man, it's really tough to pick from these images. I really like 1, 2 and 4 - something about that bit of horizon in the distance and the virga/rain showers coming down. Very nice!!

Wow, these are great! #1 is stunning and is by far my favorite.

Yes it's hard to pick a particular favorite shot from this patch of sweet ones! The curve of the "serpent tail" is really intriguing.

You sure hustled and made the most of what your were dealt! These are all sweet. The light is so great on the first four but something about 5 really holds my attention.

Too bad about the lack of pools, but the awesome skies more than made up for it. Great series!

Wow, the lighting, color, and clouds are just sweet!

Bravo, Doug!
The weather gods were on your side.
My favorite is #2 because I like the 'in-your-face' foreground and the contrast of the warm foreground and cool clouds. Congratulations on a job well done!

The light and clouds in #1 and #4 are spectacular.

Wow, these are all great, but I agree with Pam. #5 makes me wonder what's going on with the sunset on the other side.

Excellent stuff Doug! My favorite was #3, until I kept scrolling. I would have to say I mean towards #5 and #6.

Really like the light in the first image. Great detail in the rocks as well.

Thank you all. I think that it came together well Sunday night. Sorry for the late response by me, but my hard drive failed about 30 minutes after processing and posting the photos on Monday. They were not backed up yet, so may be lost. Just bought a laptop today to replace the underpowered old desktop.

Michael,
1 & 2 were taken at the left end of the point in #5, looking to the right.