On the Rocks

The Guadalupe Mountains and rocks go hand in hand. They are such a good example of rocks that they have series of certain aged rocks named for them by geologists. That implies importance. But I don't need a geologist to tell me how important, unique, and awesome this place is. I just hope I can sometimes capture all of that in an image.

One morning I awoke to find the campground socked in with heavy overcast and little chance for a sunrise. It would be easy to think that the morning was a bust, but out here the mountains can trick you. I have seen days where it was 40 degrees and foggy on one side and 70 and sunny on the other just a short drive away. So, I drove down around El Capitan toward the boulder fields and saw that the clouds were indeed only on one side of the mountain.

I got to the classic boulder field as the stars were fading from the sky. I watched the clouds pile up and spill across the mountains. I thought was a morning that an interesting image could be made. I sat up my tripod and began to see how I could line up rocks, mountains, and clouds into a composition. I started taking images in the cold gray light and waited to see what would happen in the clouds. The was subtle. Because of all the clouds stacked up in the east we did not get strong directional light at all. The gray faded into morning with no orange light

Still, the clouds looked so neat that I still was taking one slow image after another. I wondered if the film was picking up any soft colors, I wondered if this was a scene that would come into it's own on the light table back home

I watched the morning happen around me. I stayed for a while. I took a few more images

Some people like their morning with coffee, I'll take my morning on the rocks.