The Equestrian Trail. Normally I wouldn’t have produced this image. There were clouds moving in and an hour after this image the entirety of the sky was covered and there was lightning playing about in the sky. Any rain that may have accompanied the clouds rolling into the Moab area evaporated before reaching the ground, although it would have been welcomed in the 106-degree heat. I was headed back home after 10 days on the road, sleeping at the highly rated, if somewhat damaged, Hotel Jimmy Envoy.
The next night I would be in Victor Colorado and then home after 5,200 miles of driving in 11 days. I had seen this scenic little spot the day after descending from “On Top of The World” the scene of Jimmy’s near death experience. I made a note to try to catch this spot on the way back home if possible.
This is actually taken from on top of about a 500-foot ridge that has a horse trail that leads up to it. You can see the horse trail continuing on to the right. To the left, there was a jeep trail that went to parts unknown. I would have explored it but with the damage to Jimmy, he was in no condition to go trail riding.
As I had climbed up the steep ridge to get to this spot the clouds and storm were rolling in with distant lightning flashing occasionally on the right side of the picture. I quickly set up to start imaging before the clouds rolled in. As I was watching the camera working, I saw lightning silhouetting the left plateau. I was curious how it would look and figured it would make the image not usable. When I looked at the camera after the image finished I was shocked at the flashes and how interesting they looked in the images, truly a picture worth processing after all.
Focused with the Dave Lane Astrophotography Reveal Filter and protected from dew by the Dew Destroyer both available at:
http://davelaneastrophotography.com
42 images ISO 8,000, f1.4, 50mm Sigma Art
