Return to home page Main Menu Navigation

Sandstone buttes and clouds #1

Sandstone buttes and clouds, Sedona, Arizona

Click on the image for licensing terms

The story behind this image

A new day dawns over Sedona, Arizona, and, while Liz stays tucked up in bed, Howie is up early and in position to greet the sunrise at the airport overlook.

This particular dawn I'm treated to a lovely cloud arrangement that fans out across the sky and picks up the light from the rising sun.

Due to the east-west direction of the Sedona valley I have to wait about forty five minutes after dawn before the sun clears a mesa to the east and lights up Capital butte and the other sandstone formations behind Sedona. During that wait the temperature of the light has risen a few thousand degrees Kelvin and has lost the golden quality that we saw the previous evening in 'Sedona Overlook 04' above.

Still, it's a beautiful morning, the birds are singing, the air is cool and the smell of the pines is wafting on the slight breeze. The clouds make this image work, with the landscape providing a picturesque boundary at the bottom of the composition.

License this image

Image data


Filename - sandstone buttes clouds 01.jpg

Camera - Canon 5D

Lens - 17-40mm zoom @ 20mm

Exposure - 1/8sec @ f11, ISO100

Location - Sedona, Arizona

This image - 800x533px JPEG

Conversion - ACR & PS-CS2

Comments - ND grad filter used to balance exposure.