/// Wild Tracks - Landscape Photography by Eduardo Gallo

WILD TRACKS

Passion for Landscape Photography

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Capitol Reef National Park, UT, USA

October 2012

Capitol Reef National Park, UT, USA

Canon 5D MkII & EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM, 1/45s f/8 ISO400 @58mm

Google Earth for this photo
LUCK

Sometimes you are just lucky and that's it. Not much more to add. The day you expect it the least, you find yourself within a wonderful canyon photographing right and left nonstop. Close to the highway, but completely pristine, without footprints, without noises, without people, and basked with wonderful reflected light.

It had been raining a lot for the last couple of days, most likely the first significant rain storm of the season, drenching the desert and making the dirt roads impassable. It was raining so much that I even went out and rented a motel room to get away from the rain for a few hours. The forecast for the next day was not bad so I made plans for a long day hike without too much thought. One of those you know it is there, close by, but you have never tried because the guide does not say anything special about it, involves fording a river, and requires you to hitch-hike back to your vehicle unless you want to have a really really long day.

So I woke up very early, started walking in the dark, took a few photos of a dull sunrise, and soon after got into the canyon. Sun slowly creeping up, light increasing, and very soon I noticed I was in a rather beautiful place. Wet sandstone cliffs, wet sand at the canyon bottom with absolutely no footprints, clean vegetation with no dust, and good warm reflected light that was getting better by the minute. And at least ten miles of it ahead of me. Those conditions are rather difficult to find nowadays, specially the part about no footprints. So it was my lucky day. The one that compensates for several bad ones. The one that makes you come back to the desert again and again. Took my time in the canyon, as I could not walk for long without stopping to set up the tripod. Did not meet another soul on the whole hike. And what is more important, never saw any sign that anybody had ever been in that canyon. The rain had washed everything away. And all of a sudden the canyon opened up. That was it. I forded the river, waist high because of the rains. Scrambled up to the road and had not even finished pulling out my thumb when a guy stopped to pick me up. As I said, my lucky day.

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