Just 30 miles from my home, as the crow flies, lays an area called by the Native Americans "Bis-tie". Its meaning is translated as "a large area of shale hills". This is a perfect description for this area, and it is known among the non-Native Americans as Bisti Badlands. The entire area results from thousands of years of hydraulic and Aeolic erosion, now exposing what was once the shore and swamps of the Western Interior Seaway. Fossils found here are at least 75 million years old.

The entire area is now a stark, windswept landscape devoid of vegetation, extremely hot in summer and unpleasantly freezing in winter – a typical American Southwest desert in the northwestern corner of New Mexico.

Chasing storms and light in these badlands can be dangerous entertainment, but with some interesting rewards if you do not get hit by a lightning bolt or return to the car ultimately soaked. The first never happened to me, but the latter quite often.

A quick note regarding the shutter speed of 1/30s: the Phase One XT, with its IQ4 digital back, has a function called "Average Framing". The camera was active for 3 ½ minutes and shot some 750 images during this time. In the end, the digital back configures one simple frame by reconstituting each pixel of these 750 images to an average pixel. One of the many advantages of this technique is that a ND filter becomes obsolete, and your creativity in crafting a long exposure is much more flexible.