Patience pays. So does showing up even when it looks like a washout.
I arrived at Great Sand Dunes hoping to get a decent sunset shot, but the tremendous cloud cover pretty much made that a forlorn hope. I turned my SUV around and started back to find a motel room when it occurred to me that the last rays of the sun might light up one of the Sangres peaks just south of the park entrance. The result was reflected light from the mountain top to the close overhead cloud layer.
(Sorry, but I don't know how to post more than one image at a time).
But then, something told me the show wasn't quite over yet. The result was this illuminated halo over the peak.
Yes, large version please! This looks awesome Howard, amazing how the clouds seem lighted from below by the reflection off the snowy peaks. Sunsets are never over till they're good and over!
Posted by Anne K. Rusk on May 13, 2011 at 10:58 PM
That reflected light is something special for sure! I'm glad you turned around!
Posted by Howard Cihak on May 13, 2011 at 11:20 PM
Your wish is my command. Let's see if this works.
Posted by Jack Garrett on May 14, 2011 at 12:16 AM
Bigger, bigger...more more!!! This is some AMAZING light!
Posted by Howard Cihak on May 14, 2011 at 12:26 AM
Here's a shot of what the scene looked like before the halo developed.
Absolutely beautiful, Howard. Perhaps one of your best western images!
A bit of that 'image polish' technique works pretty well here.
Hope you print this one large and hang it proudly!
Posted by Kalin Wilson on May 15, 2011 at 12:48 AM
That's some special light and weather! Great capture and nice image.
Thanks, everyone, for the kind words. It's a little scary sometimes when I think about some of the really great shots I've gotten and how often they happened when I had all but talked myself into packing it in for that location.
Todd, be careful what you wish for. No less a great thinker than Stephen Hawking has posited that any visit by aliens will most likely have dire consequences for humanity. In the remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still," the Kathy Bates character pointed out that in every encounter between an advanced society and an inferior one, the inferior society gets wiped out. It may not be universally true, but it is true far more often than not.
Discussion
20 repliesI arrived at Great Sand Dunes hoping to get a decent sunset shot, but the tremendous cloud cover pretty much made that a forlorn hope. I turned my SUV around and started back to find a motel room when it occurred to me that the last rays of the sun might light up one of the Sangres peaks just south of the park entrance. The result was reflected light from the mountain top to the close overhead cloud layer.
(Sorry, but I don't know how to post more than one image at a time).
But then, something told me the show wasn't quite over yet. The result was this illuminated halo over the peak.
A bit of that 'image polish' technique works pretty well here.
Hope you print this one large and hang it proudly!
Todd, be careful what you wish for. No less a great thinker than Stephen Hawking has posited that any visit by aliens will most likely have dire consequences for humanity. In the remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still," the Kathy Bates character pointed out that in every encounter between an advanced society and an inferior one, the inferior society gets wiped out. It may not be universally true, but it is true far more often than not.