Valley Floor

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It was raining fairly hard as we pulled into our motel in Mexican Hat well after dark the first night. We took only the essentials the next morning as we knew we would be climbing to Hunt's Mesa that afternoon. We met Tom Phillips at 5:00 am outside the gates to the park. We followed him to our sunrise location on the valley floor, the Totems. The weather did not cooperate and we didn't get much of a sunrise that morning. We then drove to some beautiful dunes and spent a couple of hours shooting there. Here are some images from that area as well as other locations on the valley floor.

Click on images for enlarged view.

Canon EOS 1Ds, Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L @ 48mm, ISO 100

Totem and Dunes

This is the image I liked best from the dunes. The rain left the sand somewhat moist and accentuated it's normal color.

Canon EOS 1Ds, Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L @ 40mm, ISO 100

Mitten Framed

An old gnarled juniper made a nice frame for one of the Mittens. It makes a good image even during the harsh mid day light.

Canon EOS 1Ds, Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L @ 170mm, ISO 100

Sunset at the Totems

Again, the clouds took away what we had been hoping for, the glow of sunset on the Totems with the rising full moon in the back ground. The clouds did light up the background, though, creating this nice silhouette.