I recently got home from rock climbing – bouldering to be exact – at Hueco Tanks State Park in Texas. It was a lot of fun and I came back with some great pictures. My friend Kenton and I drank a gallon of Rough Neck Red and sat in his truck listening to old school rap on XM radio. Above, Kenton has a sweet grip on the cross. I snapped this just before he exploded and reached for the hold on the right. It’s all natural light. I metered above where his hands are and upped the ISO to ensure frozen action. Focusing was definitely a challenge all day. Above I used the left focus point, pre-focused and continuously re-focused and re-composed as he moved up the rock. Focus is pretty good overall – not perfect – but with the super wide ( 17mm I think ) lens, focus is not too critical.
I shoved my 580Ex in Britt’s vacant shoe on the ground, maxed out the power, and dropped the high-noon sun down quite a bit. The next shot is one of my favorites. The composition is awesome and I feel like you get a real sense of what it’s like to be in Kenton’s position above the ground clinging to a ‘granite-like’ rock. I shoved my 580Ex back into Britts shoe and set it on a tree branch using the shoe tongue to position the strobe.
I decided to carry a stand around later in the day and used an orange gel to warm things up a bit. Overall, I brought up the shadows in post a bit.
What can I say, the Chihuahua desert is absolutely beautiful. I sometimes forget how amazing this place is when I don’t get out of town for weeks at a time.