Standing in a little wash in the Checkerboard Mesa area of the park, I looked up and saw a lone piñon pine perched atop a sandstone outcropping. It was quite windy in the upper atmosphere, and the clouds were streaking by the scene. It took a long lens to compose the scene, which is why I shot this at 300mm. I then put my camera into monochrome mode and high contrast to further visualize the scene I hoped to capture.
I had to continually look through the viewfinder to watch for the lack of wind at the Pinon Pine location since I could not feel the wind down in the wash. The sun was rising quickly on this scene (it was 10:04 in the morning), so I knew I only had a limited amount of time. However, my first location did not simplify my composition enough, so I moved slightly to the right to get a more pleasing light on the subject to light more of the front of the sandstone outcropping. It took 3 exposures to finally capture this image with little to no motion from the wind. The final had to be processed in black and white to stay true to my original vision.
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Dimitri Vasileiou • Editor