Fire at the Factory

I love exploring the South West. There's about the landscape down there that's just so captivating. Perhaps it's because the landscape changes so vastly: from giant red rock canyons, to grand vistas, to mesas, arches, slot canyons, rivers, desert, badlands ... the list goes on. I always love exploring a new area and our trip to Factory Butte, in Southern Utah, was no different. Willie, David, and I spent a long weekend down near Hanksville Utah, exploring the badlands around. On our first night, before David arrived, we had been scouting around Factory Butte when we came upon this little wash. We loved how the S-curve of it drew the eye in towards the Butte. Luckily for us, a few clouds caught some color as the sun set. It was quite a windy night: we had pitched the tent before sunset and I was surprised to find the tent still there when we got back from taking photos. Apparently the rocks I stuck inside the tent had saved us! I gave up on sleeping in the tent and slept in the car ... that is until about 3am when I heard “Meyers! Help!” Willie was trapped in the tent, getting tossed in the wind! We quickly disassembled the tent and spent the rest of the night in the car. Lets just say we were glad to get out of the wind :) Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 26mm, f/13, 1/30 sec, ISO 100

Factory Fire

I love exploring the South West. There's about the landscape down there that's just so captivating. Perhaps it's because the landscape changes so vastly: from giant red rock canyons, to grand vistas, to mesas, arches, slot canyons, rivers, desert, badlands ... the list goes on. I always love exploring a new area and our trip to Factory Butte, in Southern Utah, was no different. Willie, David, and I spent a long weekend down near Hanksville Utah, exploring the badlands around. On our first night, before David arrived, we had been scouting around Factory Butte when we came upon this little wash. We loved how the S-curve of it drew the eye in towards the Butte. Luckily for us, a few clouds caught some color as the sun set. It was quite a windy night: we had pitched the tent before sunset and I was surprised to find the tent still there when we got back from taking photos. Apparently the rocks I stuck inside the tent had saved us! I gave up on sleeping in the tent and slept in the car ... that is until about 3am when I heard “Meyers! Help!” Willie was trapped in the tent, getting tossed in the wind! We quickly disassembled the tent and spent the rest of the night in the car. Lets just say we were glad to get out of the wind :) Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 28mm, f/11, 1/15 sec, ISO 100

Mars Landing

Willie and I had spent the evening exploring Factory Butte and its surrounding area. We had pitched the tent (despite heavy winds telling me we should wait), photographed sunset, and then raced back to our campsite to make sure my tent hadn’t blown away (it hadn’t). That’s when we saw the moon setting over the Mars Research Center. The desert here is pretty neat and I can see why the Mars Research Center setup an observation center here. The landscape is totally surreal and it was made even more so by the moon, which was setting just after sunset. A layer of clouds masked the brightness of the moon and gave off an orange hue to the sky. I loved how the setting sun gave this area a purple-blue glow, while the moon cast some color in the sky. A totally surreal evening, with just the sound of our shutters clicking as we all watched it go down. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 32mm, f/7.1, 30 sec, ISO 800

Mars Landing

Willie and I had spent the evening exploring Factory Butte and its surrounding area. We had pitched the tent (despite heavy winds telling me we should wait), photographed sunset, and then raced back to our campsite to make sure my tent hadn’t blown away (it hadn’t). That’s when we saw the moon setting over the Mars Research Center. The desert here is pretty neat and I can see why the Mars Research Center setup an observation center here. The landscape is totally surreal and it was made even more so by the moon, which was setting just after sunset. A layer of clouds masked the brightness of the moon and gave off an orange hue to the sky. I loved how the setting sun gave this area a purple-blue glow, while the moon cast some color in the sky. A totally surreal evening, with just the sound of our shutters clicking as we all watched it go down. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 32mm, f/7.1, 30 sec, ISO 800

Mars Landing

Willie and I had spent the evening exploring Factory Butte and its surrounding area. We had pitched the tent (despite heavy winds telling me we should wait), photographed sunset, and then raced back to our campsite to make sure my tent hadn’t blown away (it hadn’t). That’s when we saw the moon setting over the Mars Research Center. The desert here is pretty neat and I can see why the Mars Research Center setup an observation center here. The landscape is totally surreal and it was made even more so by the moon, which was setting just after sunset. A layer of clouds masked the brightness of the moon and gave off an orange hue to the sky. I loved how the setting sun gave this area a purple-blue glow, while the moon cast some color in the sky. A totally surreal evening, with just the sound of our shutters clicking as we all watched it go down. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 32mm, f/7.1, 30 sec, ISO 800

Mission to Mars

While exploring Southern Utah, outside of Hanksville, there's an area known as the “Mars Desert Research Station” because it has one of the 4 planned simulated Mars surface exploration habitats. I guess a bunch of science-y guys decided that this area looked a lot like Mars and it would be fun to pretend they were out there, do a bunch of experiments, and practice for a mission to Mars one day. Willie and I spent the night trying to sleep in my tent, despite heavy winds trying to blow us off the mesa we had perched at. After getting whacked in the face for the 400th time by the tent flapping in the wind, I gave up and got a few hours of sleep. That is, until I woke up at 3am to Willie screaming “Meyers! Help!” The tent was blowing away with him in it. After a quick rescue, we disassembled the tent and spent the rest of the night sleeping in the car. David showed up in the morning. During the morning this area is bathed in interesting light. It changes super quickly to boot! As the sun rises it casts a blue-purple glow to the entire scene. Then as the sun peaks over the horizon everything becomes orange, red, shadows creep in, and the landscape completely changes. I enjoyed this purple-blue moment. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f2/.8: 80mm, f/11, 1.0 sec, ISO 250