I thought I’d post a couple more photos from our visit to the Trona Pinnacles last weekend. The photo below shows one of the ridges of tuffas about a half mile or so east of where we were waiting for sunset. I love how the orange light from the setting sun is just skimming across the tops of the tuffas. I find I’m especially drawn to scenes with strong contrasting colors, such as the orange and blue here.
The second image below was taken at sunrise the following morning. To be honest, we arrived too late. We woke up about 5 AM and decided to make the dash out to the tuffas. But sunrise was less than an hour away, and we had close to an hour drive just to get to the parking area. I took the photo below as soon as we pulled in – I grabbed the camera and tripod and set up right next to the car. It’s the very first frame I shot, and it shows the best color of the morning. By the time I walked around to the east side of the tuffas, most of the show was over.
Even worse, the sky was mostly overcast, so all I had was flat light once the sun came up. And to top it all off, the wind was blowing at least 30 MPH with gusts even higher. I had to hold on to the tripod to keep it stead for each shot, but also to keep it from blowing over! Oh well, it was still an amazing place to visit.
That’s the way it is with landscape photography. The best light of the day happens at sunrise and sunset, but there’s no guarantee. Some days are glorious, and some are dull. There are some things you can predict with certainty, such as the time of sunrise and sunset. You can also check the forecast, and “partly cloudy” is usually a good sign, but it really all depends on where the clouds are as the sun does its tricks.
I don’t remember where I read it, but I once saw the advice that if you want to build a portfolio of great landscape images, you need to go to every scenic location in every national park at least 20 times. If you do that, you’ll find at least a few winners.
