Today was THE day to shoot moonset at sunrise. The sun would be up for only about 45 minutes before the moon set, but that would make it easier to match the moon luminance to the ambient light. Before we went to bed, we double-checked our weather station to make sure we knew what time we had to get up. When we got up at 5:45 this morning, it dawned on me that the weather station displayed yesterday's moonset time and not today's. That meant we got to go back to bed and get an extra hour of sleep.
When we got up the second time, I looked out and saw the moon setting behind the rocks on the other side of the campground. Why drive to the other end of the park, when we can shoot from our campsite? I shot while Carol finished getting ready, and then we set out for Piano Arch to see if we could shoot moonset over it. That didn't work, but we discovered that we could shoot the moonset right through Arch Rock. And since that was only five minutes from camp, we were off to a great start for the day.
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| Moonset From Campsite | Moonset Through Arch Rock |
Once the moon had set, we returned to Piano Arch
to shoot it in the early morning light. Carol got a couple of great images with the sun glowing off the bottom edge of the arch.
The light sandstone seems to absorb the light and then re-radiate it back into the camera. We noticed the same thing on some of the shots we took right
after sunset.
After we shot Piano Arch
from every conceivable angle, we returned to the Explorer and started out for Windstone Arch and our final stop before breakfast.
We had only driven a very short distance when I spotted two desert bighorn sheep. We grabbed long lenses and set out to try to get ahead of the bighorn.
That would put the sun at our back and have the bighorn walking into the shot. They kept their distance from us but didn't seem concerned by our presence.
When I filled my CF card, I walked back to the car and then drove up the road in front of the bighorn. That spooked them a bit, and they changed
direction to move into an area full of colorful sandstone formations. Once again, I worked my way in front of them and let them walk between the sandstone ridges
right into the area where I was waiting. Unfortunately, I lost my patience and stepped out to photograph the female
that was posing right in front of me.
I should have stayed in my place and let them get used to me being there. They were over two ridges in what seemed like two leaps. Carol kept an eye on them
while I walked back to get the car. We spotted them down the road another mile and once again got ahead of them. We got a few more shots, but they were
growing weary of us and eventually crossed a major ridge
where
they dropped out of sight. We had done all the tracking things right to get the good light
and good angles for our shots. I was within 10 feet of them a couple times as they walked into the areas where I was waiting. It was in the photographic
area where I totally blew it. When we were shooting Piano Arch, I had set my aperture to f16 to get a foreground plant in focus with the arch.
When I switched gears to shoot the bighorn sheep, I didn't re-calibrate my thinking or my camera. I normally change the camera to Program mode for shooting
wildlife on the move. I was so excited to see the bighorn and get such good lighting and shots that I lost track of resetting the camera for
shooting wildlife. Instead of having the amazing images I expected, I had shot everything at f16, and almost nothing was sharp. I deleted over 700 images
and only have a handful of images that are in any way acceptable. It turned out to be the biggest photographic disaster I can remember.
To see the images that "could have been" turn out to be worthless was PAINFUL. Luckily, Carol didn't miss the shots.
We returned to camp for our blueberry pancake breakfast and then enjoyed the rest of the afternoon around camp. We went out briefly around sunset to see if anything grabbed us. Nothing did, so we were actually back to camp before dark...a true rarity. We grilled our hot dogs and then sat around the campfire waiting for the moon to break through the clouds. We have an amazing campsite. We can watch the moon rise in the east from the "great room" of the motorhome or from around the campfire and then watch the moon set in the west the next morning. All we need now is for the bighorn sheep to come down through the rock ridges behind the campground and into our campsite in the morning.
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