There is this myth in landscape photography that one most venture into the wilderness or at least down a trail to get a quality photo, that is not always the case. While it is my preference, this photo presented itself to me in the waning light of a late fall day as I was return to my Moab home from an afternoon trip to our LaSal Mountains.
The dirt road has a few switchback turns and as I came around the last one and straightened out there was this. I stopped and even rolled down the window. I'm not embarrassed to reveal that I even rolled back and forth in the vehicle to gauge whether there was a decent composition. Seeing that there was, I pulled over, gathered my camera and tripod and simply walked to the downhill side of the road and set up. While doing so a few other weekend warriors drove by, slowed and then proceeded, probably wondering what I was looking at. Judging by their vehicles and dress code I'd say they were hunters, after all, it was fall.
The setting sun was at the perfect height to illuminate the row of small aspen while the land behind was shadowed blue. Though I made a few vertical images, this horizontal soon showed itself as the best one. I had only to decide which of the trees in include/exclude and how much of the background trees to use. Click.
At home I altered the background shade color to reduce the magenta and gain the blue I saw. I intensified the sunlit aspens and lightened the foreground. While scanning the image for dust and other flaws I wanted to heal or clone away, I was surprised to see that a deer had entered the scene. Were you always there? Wow! I did not see it while on the mountain, yet here she was. She saw me, but I totally missed her till now. Oh deer! I wonder what else is in these images of ours?
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