Desert Trail (203/365)

Two hours before sunset, I loaded up two bags of gear: three cameras, 5 lenses, two tripods, a big jug of water, and a very large towel to wipe sweat off with, and headed up the trail, trying to find a nice high vantage point for sunset. One backpack on your back and the other one worn on your front works pretty well. The hardest part of the evening was keeping sweat off the gear.

Sunset was a bust, just hardly any colors, and very few clouds in the Western skies. My saving grace was this big thunderstorm starting to brew off in the distance, which gave me a nice subject to focus on. It ended up petering out, leaving me with just about nothing, but by that time it was getting too dark, and it was time to head down. I wanted a bit of light because the area is rife with rattlesnakes. The last thing I need is to be out there alone and trying to deal with a rattlesnake bite.

I know there is a weather app out there that is focused on photographers and alerts you to good sunsets, fog, the Milky Way, and things of the sort. I would like to read some reports on how it’s working for people. All sunsets are beautiful, but only some are worth lugging gear up a hill in 100°F/38°C heat.

135 frames with the Z8 and I came away with about 7 that I like. Hopefully some good film shots as well.

The daily shot and the others in Stray Pixels are from the Nikon Z8. I also used the Rollei and the Nikon F3, but of course those will come later. I’m very interested to see how I did with my exposure settings; sunsets can be challenging.

Click for Stray Pixels