davidreilly

Sonora

Taken in a remote part of the Sonoran desert, Arizona in a small cave bearing the markings of a time when this region of desert was once filled with greenery....
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Taken in a remote part of the Sonoran desert, Arizona in a small cave bearing the markings of a time when this region of desert was once filled with greenery.
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Canon PowerShot G9

settings

Aperture f/4.0 ISO 80 Shutter 1/320

upload_date

Nov, 2013

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234

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Same photographer See all Behind The Lens

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Behind The Lens

Location

I took this in a really special place deep in the Sonoran desert in Arizona. It's a restricted natural reserve and my wife and I were lucky to have been taken through there on horseback with a specialized company that has a license to travel through the region. This rock structure was a place we stopped for water and had obviously been used as a place for shelter for centuries, with notches in the rock floor used for crushing seeds and mixing them with water--from a time when this part of the desert was much more lush with plant life.

Time

This was just in the last hour before sundown, with the golden light giving great golden illumination to the landscape beyond as a stark contrast to the rocks that sheltered us. I was waiting for the right time to give me the foreground darkness I needed.

Lighting

The desert is a beautiful place of contrasts--a place with hard, jagged rocks and the smoothest of sands; an environment that is unforgiving, yet teeming with life; and where there are few chances to escape the blazing heat of the sun, whereas the darkness of night is pervasive and near-complete. I wanted this shot to reflect those contrasts and so took my exposure purely for the sky and landscape beyond to provide the distant clarity while keeping the foreground areas in stark, pure darkness to provide a natural frame to the scene with just the edges of that frame catching the rocky details picked out by the evening sunlight.

Equipment

I had to travel light, so for this shot I simply used Canon Powershot G9 and no tripod. Instead of the tripod, I banked by camera against a rock face to steady the shot. I loved the Canon Powershot G9 s it seemed to have a wonderful way of capturing the warmth of light. Unfortunately, I recently lost my dear Powershot in the depths of the Caribbean sea, but what a beautiful place to lay it to rest.

Inspiration

For me, the desert is one of those places where I want to photograph everything! But it's so easy to get carried away and take so many images and yet come back with nothing anywhere near as impressive as it seemed to the eye. I sometimes feel part or that issue is trying to capture the sheer expanse of the landscapes. So when I saw this scene, I knew I was looking at a perfect way to frame the shot, no longer using my perspective to frame the scene, but a rock structure that had been framing the scene for centuries, or even millennia, before I arrived. In this way, it was like being able to shoot the desert from a place literally encapsulating me in it.

Editing

I didn't need much post processing on this one. I used some burning to complete the stark darks and added a little contrast to bring more differentiation to places requiring it in the foreground. I also used a little dodging and burning to bring in greater contrasts for rays of light pervading into the sheltered area. Other than that, I just took the shot and let the beauty of the Sonoran desert do all the work.

In my camera bag

I always tend to travel light. I had been using a Canon Powershot G9 for most traveling, along with a tripod, macro, wide-angle, and a telephoto. More recently, since the loss of my Powershot in Jamaica, I now use a Panasonic Lumix FZ1000k and a tripod. In terms of size, it's nowhere near as convenient as the Powershot G9, but has a beautiful Leica lens and incredible 16X optical zoom. I could go on about it much more, but will stop before i before you all!

Feedback

The principles of this shot are really not so different from those involved in Contre Jour, the French term for silhouette photographs meaning literally, "against day". In contre jour, the photographer takes the exposure from the areas surrounding the area he or she wishes to capture in silhouette and finds a location, angle, or other settings that provide a dramatic differential for the exposure needs of the main subject. By shooting with the exposure for the surrounding areas, the main subject is therefore thrown into dramatic relative darkness. My shot here is essentially a reverse contre jour, with generous exposure used for the main subject leaving deliberately stark underexposure for the immediate foreground.

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davidreilly

davidreilly

Sonora

Taken in a remote part of the Sonoran desert, Arizona in a small cave bearing the markings of a time when this region of desert was once filled with greenery.... Read more

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow davidreilly

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Taken in a remote part of the Sonoran desert, Arizona in a small cave bearing the markings of a time when this region of desert was once filled with greenery....
Read more

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes.
Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.