Picture Story

The American Southwest is full of iconic photographic spots. Part of the photographic joy to shoot such places is to find the right route to reach it and being able to take the challenge of the route. Many of these spots require the right car and the right set of skills to get the car in one piece to the area. Present image required such combo. I reached it at dusk, put up my tent and spent a cold, windy night in anticipation of an early morning raise which provided me with completely overcast sky with exception of a faint dawn light to the east. Getting up early enough allowed for scouting the rim and finding an engaging composition. The camera was set up, including the tricky part to arrange the tilt and shift of the lens to provide a perfect sharpness and depth of field as well as corrected distortion of the wide angle. Now it was a matter of waiting and hoping for the slim chance of the sun to get through the thick storm clouds. Finally, a warm light beam came through the crack. The magic did not last longer then a minute. It was enough!