Returning home after a full day of hiking in the remote Utah backcountry, a glowing row of backlit cottonwood trees practically demanded to be photographed.
Nancy and I spent several days exploring the more remote regions of Bears Ears National Monument last November. The trailhead on this day was reached after many miles of gravel road. A cloud of dust billowed behind the car as we drove. It took several minutes to settle after we stopped. Our hike took us into a few unnamed canyons where we encountered a number of ancient structures that were left behind by the Ancestral Puebloan people nearly a thousand years ago. A blog post about that hike can be found on our Rommes Arts website here.
Returning to the trailhead in the late afternoon, we rested a bit, then started the hour's drive back to our motel. The road descended a hill into a broad cottonwood-filled drainage. As the sun got close to the horizon, the road turned, and we drove parallel to the line of backlit cottonwood trees. The yellow leaves of the cottonwoods and the tips of the sagebrush glowed with the last of the sunlight. The dust we raised upon our arrival lingered in the air, softening the scene.
The glowing, diffused tableau in front of me would be something I would enjoy looking at if I were stuck indoors, so I made the photograph. In processing the photo, I tried to re-create the feeling I had when I was there—tranquility in the soft, glowing light.
Just about to set below the ridge, the sun bathes the scene in yellow, dust-softened light. Clicking on the photo will take you to its location on the Iris Arts website. For more on Cottonwood Canyon, click here to go to our RommesArts gallery. Photo: © Donald J. Rommes
I thought this might look good as a moving pano, so I created a little 20 second video to show just that.
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