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Wave go pro 026
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Wave go pro 026



behind the lens badge
cameraHero3-Silver Edition

settings Aperture f/2.8 ISO 100 Shutter 1/5792 Focal Length 250/100 

upload_dateJun, 2016

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Awards

Great Shot
Peer Award
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Superb Composition
gerardhildebrandt
Top Choice
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Freshmen 2016 Photo Contest Vol 2Top 10 rank
Freshmen 2016 Photo Contest Vol 2Top 10 rank week 2

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Behind The Lens

Location

This photo was taken at "The Wave", a natural sandstone formation located in the Coyote Buttes North area of Northern Arizona. It has always been on my adventure "bucket list", and I finally decided that 2015 was the year that I would go. Just a short 3 mile hike through the desert in August to get there!

Time

I intended on arriving at dawn to catch the morning light, and conveniently camped 9 miles from the trail head for the hike to The Wave. The night before, however, a torrential rain washed out the road! We ended up having to drive 100 miles through the wilderness to come in the back way, and arrived at 10 AM to hike the two hours to our destination. We arrived at noon, which fortunately ended up being a fantastic time to catch the vibrant colors of the amazing sandstone formation.

Lighting

My own naive judgement lead me to believe that early AM would be the best time to photograph The Wave... and because of a series of unfortunate events, I accidentally arrived at what happened to be the ideal time to photograph the sandstone formations - high noon. The intense light from above served to perfectly highlight the colors, the "waves", and the ridges between the layers of sandstone.

Equipment

I used a hand held Go Pro Hero 3 Silver Edition camera to take this photo. The depth of field, wide angle lens, and the high definition worked in my favor, and the portability was a nice factor considering the long hike through the desert.

Inspiration

There are literally thousands of pictures of "The Wave" posted on the internet, and it is arguably one of the most beautiful natural sandstone formations in the world. I have longed for many years to have my own "shot" at photographing it. As there are only a literal handful of access permits given out in a daily lottery, I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to go there and capture it digitally... and I took hundreds of pictures! This is one of my favorite pictures, and I am glad that others have also found it to be pleasing to the eye.

Editing

The gorgeous natural colors of the sandstone and the clear blue sky really eliminated any need to "tweak" the picture. Due the wide angle provided by the GoPro, the only post-processing that I did was cropping in order to narrow the scope of the photo.

In my camera bag

I recently purchased a Nikon D3400 that I am enjoying very much as my main camera. I still take the Go Pro everywhere, and it has continued to serve me well.

Feedback

Go to photogenic locations, do your homework before you arrive (ie., learn from the successes and mistakes of others), and then knock yourself out. Remember to enjoy yourself, and don't let your camera interfere with your experience of seeing the actual beauty of God's creation.

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