Picture of the week

Cathedral Gorge at sunrise

Heavily eroded sandstone layers of Cathedral Gorge state park of southeastern Nevada.  I stopped here with friends to camp for the night while on the last roadtrip from Sacramento to Escalante, Utah for canyoneering about a month back. This state park is at the eastern end when traveling across the state via the ET Highway.  We also took stopped at Rachel and Tonopah, noting the high amount of decay in this latter town from its heyday as a base for operations of the Nevada Test Site.

The weather was a bit stormy for both that evening, as well as the next morning.  But we ended getting some breaks when the light broke out of the clouds at time to allow for some more captivating compositions.  Some may find travel across Nevada boring, but I continue to be impressed with the understated nature of the scenery, often that can be quite interesting for photography.  This is especially true if stormier weather is present, that seems quite frequent in the winter and spring for the Great Basin.  The above image was captured with a Canon EOS 5D mark III with the EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS lens.  I purposely compressed the background with the foreground by maximizing the focal length to 105mm, walking back far enough from the foreground pinnacle to properly frame it.  Settings were ISO 400, 1/500 sec, and f/9 at +1/3 of a stop given the more monochromatic sky.  The modest aperature also helps to create more separation and depth by creating a touch of blur on the background.

All content and images are property of Stephen Fischer Photography, copyright 2010-2016.  Last updated: 5/1/2016   ()