We were traveling through the Ajo Mountain range and the main path is on the west side. That meant that we could only do a decent shot of the sunset - not the sunrise, as the light would be behind the mountains, and although that might have made a nice silhouette shot, it wasn't what we were looking for.
Trekking out to the mountains in the mid-afternoon the winter solstice sun is low in the sky, so it makes for some interesting shadows, but by far not as good as the sunset shadows. In addition, we had a partly cloudy sky. That meant we were going to have something interesting in the sky.
This is a good example. This is great composition (large on one side, horizon not half/half) and interesting sky, but the light is a little off. It's even taken at the right time of day (notice the long shadows which usually means golden hour (close to sunset or sunrise) which is a movie-maker's favorite time to film. Next time you're at a movie and notice the outside shots, and how long the shadows are. It's a great shot, but the light is not really dramatic. It's hard to see unless you compare it to something where the light is actually a masterful part of the photo.
In this one, the light really works. Even though most of the time you are looking at the foreground or wanting to highlight the foreground, this one, the foreground is not spotlighted but the beautiful color of the mountains is spotlighted. What makes it extra special is that there's a dramatic shadow on the mountains that highlights the front and back of the mountain. There's a little of that in the cacti in the foreground where the light is coming from the side with long shadows.
Photos like this are dream photos with everything coming together to make it work: clouds to make the sky interesting, light on the foreground flowers (which happen to be located in just the right place), cacti in the background, part of the mountain lit while part of it is in shadow from those handy-dandy clouds who were so thoughtful as to place themselves just right, and if all that wasn't great enough, there's a wonderful arch in that beautiful orange stone with the blue of the sky, which colors just happen to compliment each other fabulously. Obviously, this wasn't arranged by us, but it sure was helpful that all those components came together to make this photo really spectacular. Thank you clouds, color in the mountains, the location of the flowers, and the sun being in the right place at the right time and the arch being there!!!!
Sometimes you're limited by simply where the mountains are located in relation to the sunrise or sunset. You have the best light in the world but if the mountains aren't in a good position to get the light, no amount of good light will make a photo good. On the other hand, when they are in the right place, it makes magic like the light above. The mountains were lit, but not directly, but on the side a bit to offer nice shadowing on the mountains. Add the interesting Saguaro cacti in the foreground and it's hard to depict the Sonoran Desert any better than this. Walt's camera helps too!!!
The real light show was, of course, the sunset. We were so lucky to have all these clouds in the sky, cause they reflect back on the mountain to make the landscape even more colorful than it normally is. So colorful, that it makes the colors look fake, and they aren't at all. This is really how it looks. The mountains, however, wouldn't have been nearly as beautiful without those clouds. This is the sun after it has actually gone down behind the horizon, but is shining through the atmosphere of the Earth and reflected on the clouds whose reflection is on the landscape. This happens very fast and lasts even less time than that. What made it worse for us, was that the clouds were throughout the sky so that meant the east view was as beautiful as the west view. We were doing 180°'s all through the sunset!!!
This was the shot that I saw all afternoon in my head...the black silhouetted foreground with the colors of the sunset in the sky.
Something about those Saguaro Cactus in silhouette with the colorful sky simply spells Happy Trails to You over and over.
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