Have you seen my new video? It's only 90 seconds long, but it packs in some spectacular behind-the-scenes timelapse clips and images, along with the resulting photographs, photos by Enrico Fossati, and lots of information about our upcoming workshop in the Dolomites. Yep! All of that in 90 seconds! Check it out, and if you know someone who may be interested, I hope that you’ll share the link with them. Thanks! ——- About this photo: This is the companion piece to a photo that I released in December. After that initial discovery of this view, I returned to the area three more times, and this was the second of those trips. I first encountered this view with David Thompson and Paul and Mich Rojas, when we explored the area one very overcast evening. I’ll never forget the moment of discovery. David was glued to an awesome expanse of mud tiles that we had passed as we followed the wash up towards the butte; he was enchanted by the possibilities there for him to shoot some abstracts (if you’ve never seen his abstracts, go to his website RIGHT NOW and check them out…he’s probably better known for his scenic photos, but those in the know bow down to his mastery of abstracts as well). So Paul, Mich, and I continued up the wash a short ways and nearly fell over when we saw how it snaked so elegantly up towards the pyramidal butte that dominates the landscape there. I remember shouting to David in a moment of the most supreme surprise and joy, “BOOOOOOM!” Those moments are so rare in life, and they tend to cause a sort of bonding reaction, not only to the stimulus of the moment (in this case, the S-curve wash and its wonderful butte), but also to the people present—I will forever associate those guys with pure awesomeness, both because they are truly great people and because awesome things tend to happen when I’m around them. At any rate, when I made this second trip to the area, I had already released the first photo and was not really expecting to shoot there again. That time I was exploring for new vantage points and just thought I would pop over to this spot to see how much it had changed in three weeks. When I saw how the scene looked in this marvelous dappled light and with the crazy corresponding arc created by the clouds, I couldn’t help myself…I just had to shoot it again. So now I have a second photo with a composition similar to the original “Curve Appeal”, a situation that is probably a first for me. The two photos are utterly different in character and mood, so I felt that they both deserved a place in my portfolio. I think of this one as the more elegant, subtle, and mature sibling, while the first one is the moody teenager, a bit assertive, but still a good kid. They both make good company, as far as I’m concerned, and I feel the same way about them that I do about David, Paul, and Mich: they’re keepers! In other news…I now have a Facebook page (only three months old now)! Stop by and click “Like” to stay in touch: Erin Babnik Photography For prints and licensing of this image, please visit my website.
