What seems like ages ago I did a road-trip to Capitol Reef National Park for a few days. I ended up making a pile of super fun pictures. There’s something about the sandstone found in southern Utah that forces my brain to be more creative.
On this trip I drove down into the northern section of the park via a four-wheel-drive dirt road past Cathedral Mountain and the Gypsum Sinkhole and over to the Temples of Sun and Moon. I spent the night next to the Temple of the Moon in the cold.
Sidebar: My original water jug was a loose lid type and it spilled all over the place on the bumpy road, creating a semi-muddy mess. It’s how a person learns to bring a sealed water jug on dirt roads, right? Half the water was gone and everything in the back of the truck got wet. Even now, years later, I’m bothered with what happened. Plus I was stuck with the thing sloshing water the entire time in Capitol Reef. Here’s some great water jug options if you don’t own one already.
I spent the afternoon and into sunset doing pictures of the Temple of the Sun in and around the rocks near the Temple of the Moon. Didn’t really make any winners, but a person not doing pictures won’t have a chance of doing anything good. BTW - a person not doing anything in life won’t get anything good done either. Funny how photography mirrors a person’s regular life. So turn off that phone and start interacting with people and living! Go on a road-trip!
I digress.
Before going to sleep I had an idea to experiment with popping a light on the Temple of the Moon from a 45 degree angle to the camera and light the top up with the Milky Way. I got the Nikon D4 with the ancient 20mm f2.8 lens set up and adjusted correctly. Then stumbled in the darkness over to a spot camera left with my flash.
One great thing about the Nikon remote trigger as opposed to the Canon remote trigger is it actually works. You plug the receiver into the camera and then walk away to press a tiny button on the transmitter. Then you walk back over to check the picture. It totally works. The Canon remote, I’ve since discovered, barely works. Something to keep in mind for any nighttime or remote camera work.
I did a few pictures trying different lighting ideas and this one worked. Plus the other challenge, besides stumbling in the darkness, is the earth spinning causes the Milky Way to move across the sky. The Milky Way sprints across the sky with how slow a person needs to work to get these pictures. When going slowly I try to move the camera ahead of where I want to do the picture. It lessens the stress of getting the shot.
Especially after the stress of finding everything wet in the back of the truck. But I digress again.
Whenever I see some road-trip pictures, I feel the need to get back out and experience these places anew.
Second sidebar: I noticed not one, but two people read the last couple posts. Thank you for taking the time out to peruse the posts. We were in Tacoma and the Puget Sound last weekend learning how to drysuit scuba dive. I have to say drysuit diving really changes how much fun being in the water becomes. A person is still cold, but it’s managea