Palisade Dawn

Palisade Dawn
Originally uploaded by McF Studios

It's a fact that one can drive faster down a canyon road if one can't see what's over the edge.  The most unfortunate thing about this road is it's the only way to get back to those aspens.  But it's a year away and I might forget how bad the road is... probably not.
After the bouncing, i was scrambling to find a perch.  Spent most of the day before looking for evening shots with the full intent to shoot from the east rim in the morning.  Now that wasn't happening.  I remembered stopping at a place in the bottom of the canyon I camped above because the view of the Palisade was great. At the time it was noon-ish and something like f/78,000 on the face and f/-9 where I was standing.  Glad I stopped though, because it gave me my morning perch.  But I couldn't remember exactly how far up canyon it was.  Only that it was belos teh first switchback.  Honestly, it's not difficult to find in the daylight, but there aren't any landmarks in the dark.  Which means I drove the road twice in each direction.  As the sky started to brighten I could make out the face I wanted to shoot, so I parked and started grabbing gear.  My usual rig is the modular stuff made by thinkTANK.  It's good and does me well enough.  But I was standing at the bottom of a thirty foot slickrock wall.  So, now I'm going hands and teeth up a wall in the near dark with a camera store slung around me like Pancho-Somebody that outlaw guy all the while deflecting the swinging camera away from the rock with my elbows. Needless to say... when I go to the top I was a little winded.  Tripods, get a good one and strap it to you. (Oh yeah, I also had a tripod on me.  Everything is slung bandolier style - I'll get a picture of that someday and put it up here.)  So, I told you all that to intro this photo.  when I first started reading about this formation, this is what I saw in my head.  I had a topo map and a compass and an idea of what it should look like.  Enjoy.
     From the notebook:
Very good spot.  Leaving Gateway w/o coffee to check out the seep area, probably missed the good light.  Must return to that other canyon and get the hoodoos next summer when the sun returns.
Photo Details:  Nikon D3, 14-24mm @ 16mm, 5 stop HDR, f/16, caffeine free.