Missing the Moment ...

abraxas · Apr 3, 2008

Eagle Mountain, east of Death Valley:

Not 8 seconds before, this scene was kissed across the tops of the vegetation by the most beautiful last direct golden light of the day.

Problem is, it took me 12 seconds to set up the shot. & I've been kicking myself ever since.

Antarctican · Apr 3, 2008

Darn! I know how disappointing it is to watch the light fade away while fiddling with the camera! Still, the warm fading light illuminating the hill/mountain is beautiful

abraxas · Apr 3, 2008

Antarctican said:
Darn! I know how disappointing it is to watch the light fade away while fiddling with the camera! Still, the warm fading light illuminating the hill/mountain is beautiful

Thanks- The upside is, I have a reason to go back

kundalini · Apr 3, 2008

Yeah, but eight seconds further down the road, you caught a damn good image.

Is it me or is the horizon slightly tilted CW.....nevermind, I'm sure it's me.

abraxas · Apr 4, 2008

kundalini said:
Yeah, but eight seconds further down the road, you caught a damn good image.

Is it me or is the horizon slightly tilted CW.....nevermind, I'm sure it's me.

Thanks. I've been holding off posting it because I missed what I wanted, but it is the weirdest looking mountain/butte/hill. It sits there in the middle of a flat playa, flat all the way around the base. I was about a mile from the base to the left the day before shooting in the afternoon. I'll go back and get it, eventually. Now that I know that happens. It's like about 200 miles from my house though, and that takes a bit of planning. There is a close place to stay, but it's ran by a lady that just might be crazy, and the accommodations look fractional at best (I think I'm talking myself into it).

It might be tilted. I did rotate it some (.8 degrees), but the water has to go somewhere. The lighter part to the left of the hill is where the water will sit when there is rain. I don't know either. I carry an eight inch level to hold under the body to square off- when I have the time. I felt like slinging the tripod across the highway by the camera strap and yanking out bushes. However, I am an adult nowdays,... supposedly.

JYoung · Apr 5, 2008

I am not sure how you could improve on this wonderful photograph Walter, but I will take your word for it.

LaFoto · Apr 6, 2008

I see what you mean about missing what you had wanted to capture in a photo, but this one is also good! And it now makes us wonder, look more, think more about what it would have looked liked had you not missed the moment.

But isn't it amazing how FAST the light goes once the sun is beginning to set? It is EVER so fast (but then keep in mind that the earth rotates at 1.750km/h ... which IS fast!)

abraxas · Apr 6, 2008

JYoung said:
I am not sure how you could improve on this wonderful photograph Walter, but I will take your word for it.

Thanks- it's so pretty out there, I'd have loved to got what I seen.

LaFoto said:
I see what you mean about missing what you had wanted to capture in a photo, but this one is also good! And it now makes us wonder, look more, think more about what it would have looked liked had you not missed the moment.

But isn't it amazing how FAST the light goes once the sun is beginning to set? It is EVER so fast (but then keep in mind that the earth rotates at 1.750km/h ... which IS fast!)

What gets me is that I would have been there, and seen the shot, but about 20 minutes earlier I had stopped up the road to check out a group of buildings with some binoculars. Spent about 10 minutes looking before I determined it was an active mine camp and shouldn't mess with it.

Anyway, it is a nice shot, and I am learning from it. I'm going out again tomorrow and try to capture the same slice of day in another part of the desert, so at least I've learned to be aware of it.

I wonder how long it is that the sun, as the bottom of it touches a horizon line, is still visible providing direct light before sinking below the horizon?- 3 minutes?, 5 minutes?

Anyone know the diameter of the sun in degrees from the surface of the earth? Would that make the time the sun takes to pass below the horizon, from bottom to top, roughly, something like:

degrees of arc of diameter of sun
/
360
X
length of day in minutes

Makes some sense to me, for example, if the angular diameter of the sun is 1 degree, then that would equal .002777... that times 1440 minutes in a 24 hour period would equal 4 minutes that it takes, where the light is really wierd.

I'm certain there's a lot I'm not taking into account, but does something like that sound close to anyone?