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Image Description
In the remote area of New Mexico known as the Valley of Dreams Badlands, is a geological oddity. The entire area is a maze of toadstools, eroded formations, little windows, petrified wood, and more. On this evening a full moon rose, partially framed by a few of the many hoodoo formations.
Technical Details
Canon EOS 5DIV; EF28-70mm f/2.8L @ 50mm, f/8 @ 1/20 sec; -1 EV, ISO 400
Hey Bob, this is pretty otherworldly - reminds me of cover art for a science fiction novel, maybe Vonnegut or Bradbury. The way you have the moon just touching the clouds must have taken some patience to achieve. I’d like to have separation of the big formation on the right and the one just behind it, but maybe that wasn’t possible. I imagine it’s difficult to get everything to line up in a scene like this and the dilemma over what to cut off on the edges falls into that as well. You have some great light and tonalities here - I want to touch the rock. It looks like you were fairly high up, but the scale is a bit of a brain bender. Quite striking and dramatic.
Bob: What a cool scene and juxtaposition of elements. Since this is moonrise I would have been tempted to wait a few more minutes and let the moon clear the cloud bank completely but that’s a pretty small nit. Nicely done. >=))>
Really cool and dramatic shot Bob, soft, pink clouds against the hard rock formations. Had to look up the location, reminds me of hoodoos in Bryce Canyon NP. Great timing too, but would prefer the moon a bit off center one way or another, and still including the dominant formations, if that were even possible.
Wow, what an image. All the texture and shapes. The moon on the bed of a cloud that we can barely see…just tops it all off. The “cherry on top”, if you will. Beautiful image and thank you for sharing.
Thank you, Ms. Smith. I actually waited until there was a sight overlap of the clouds remaining to show the moon was , indeed behind the cloud. The right hand rocks overlapping would be difficult to separate due to their proximity, front to back. I evaluated what moving the camera to the right and left would do, but the scene became unbalanced. I think because of the differences in color and tone there is not much of a merger effect. I was not at an elevated spot. The camera was at standing eye-level.
Thank you, Jim. I wanted to capture a relatively centered scene. Moving the camera position to move the relative moon position would have defeated that intent.
Hi Bob,
Very nice photo and including the moon gives your photo that extra element that makes folks go wow. Valley of Dreams is one of my new favorite locations. Having been there, I can tell that the sun was low in the sky for you to get the nice yellow/orange light on the normally mostly white hoodoos.
My only visit there was this past fall and was more for exploration to plan a future photo trip. There are so many isolated pockets of hoodoos in the area one would need multiple trip to photograph them properly. I’m considering night photography for my next trip. Maybe the Milky Way with low level lighting on the ‘Three Wise Men’ or other formation.
Thank you, David. I was very fortunate to arrive at this venue. This was my first venture into the area. It certainly is worth planning a return and exploring more widely. Other-worldly.
