03/23/2014
Last weekend was a rare 3 day weekend off work. It also coincided with a full moon, and that meant that I HAD to go take some pictures.
At work, all of our patient's records are kept on a laptop on the nurse's cart, and I literally look at it at least once every 2-3 minutes. To make it less boring, someone had put up a background picture of some nice landscape scenery. It looked really cool and I had that thought in the back of my mind "I could take that". It turns out that the photo was of Mesa Arch near Moab, Utah. Only a 6 hour drive from me. I decided to pack my gear, throw my sleeping bag in the car, drive to Moab, and hope for the best.
One thing to mention is that I don't get out of work until 1030-11pm. To get there for sunrise meant driving through the night after working all day. Needless to say, the first day in Moab was a very sleep deprived day. This, coupled with directions from a trucker in Denny's at 5am who knew "exactly where every rock in Moab was" got me lost my first day, and subsequently made me miss my first sunrise opportunity. I had planned to shoot "house on fire" ruins, and because I was on a tight schedule, I would miss that shot completely for the trip. Not a great start, but I was determined to have an amazing weekend, so I pressed on. The rest of the day I spent scouting locations, and when I arrived at my sunset photo destination, the "delicate arch", after the sun had already set, I decided to call it a night and hope for better luck the next day. I was not going to miss anymore shots that trip, so, I folded my car seats down and slept in my car at the trail head for my biggest sunrise photo. The "MESA ARCH".
You see, the Mesa Arch at sunrise is a very popular shot. Most days there will be 15-30 photographers lined up hoping to be first and get THE shot. (see the photo). I wasn't sure what time they would start coming, but I knew sunrise was at 730, so I set my alarm for 3am and got some sleep. This would be my schedule for the next 2 days. Up at 3am to be the first one, and then shoot all day until sun set.
It worked! The next morning, at 3am, I was the only one dumb enough to be walking around the desert alone with just the light of the full moon to warn me of any mountain lions or boogy men that would come to get me. This made for some pretty interesting moments when you hear the stick break, or rock fall, and you stand still for a minute hoping they'll think you're just a tree ha. This also made for AMAZING shots of the arches and landscapes, lit by pure white moon light, that let their own natural orange, red, brown, and green colors bleed from the rock right into my camera. By the time the other photographers would show up, I had already been immersed in the scenery for hours, and had long since set up my shot of the soon to be sun rise. This meant that that long line of photographers had no choice but to shoot my shot. In the photography world, it's first come, first "get out of my shot or I will push you off the cliff just so I can see the sunrise".
Three amazing days, was not nearly enough time, but I was able to snag some of the shots that I wanted. Also, the experience of being alone, on a full moon with such impressive landscapes was a very cliché, but very real spiritual experience.
I will be back.
Thanks for reading, and as always, please let me know what you like, and share what you love.
**Here are a couple shots I took with my phone while I finish working on getting you all the final product of the real photos.**
