September 6, 2012 / Bay Area

Drought's Bane

Drought's Bane

I must have had some kind of precognition into the future because I dont normally keep my camera in the trunk of my car, but after trying to photograph the fog yesterday I decided to leave my camera in the trunk just in case. Sure enough, that time happened to occur on Wednesday.

Willie and I arrived at our favorite San Jose spot just as Lukas Wenger and his wife pulled up. Jave arrived shortly after and we set off to find the cracks. I decided I wanted setup near some still water that I had found, knowing that I could shoot east or west from here and still include both cracks and reflection in the water. Turns out the sky in the east did nothing but man the sky in the west

Wilson Ng and Matt Levine showed up just as the sunset started to get good. There werent any of those high, thin, textured clouds that we photographers normally like. Instead, the entire sky just LIT up. Lit up is probably the wrong term — it EXPLODED with color Rain started to fall in the west and the rain clouds started turning yellow, orange, and pink We stood there hooting and hollering at how beautiful the sky looked. Man was that a beautiful night

For anyone who wants to find this spot, I offer you a warning: Despite knowing the safety issues here, I pulled a Willie tonight. Our first time here Willie got stuck in the mud and had to be rescued by another friend. Knowing this, I am normally very careful and test each step before I put any weight down. At one point during this sunset I started walking around trying to find other compositions. As I walked around this little pond of water I started to see the entire pond just GLOW with beautiful red and orange colors; I wanted to get closer. I was so excited that I started to run. I took about 2 steps and realized I was stuck knee deep in the thick, gross mud. I was able to get myself out but it could have easily been much worse for me. If you find this place, be extremely careful that you do NOT get stuck Seriously — even when I knew about, I still got stuck Cleaning up the mud was not fun, took a long time, and smells horrible

Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S:
17mm, f/18, 3 sec, ISO 80
Lee Filter Holder HiTech 0.6 ND Grad

ExposureTime: 3 sec | FNumber: f/18 | Flash: No Flash | FocalLength: 17 mm | ISOSpeedRatings: 80 | Model: NIKON D800 | DateTimeOriginal: 2012:09:05 19:31:24

CategoriesBay Area Land

TagsAaron Meyers Photography Alviso Bay Bay Area beautiful blocks Clouds color crack cracks crane D800 dead Death Don Edwards Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge draught dried dried up dry explosion extinct Lake Lake Bed lakebed Land Landscape monsoon mud muddy Nature Nikon Nikon D800 Northern California Photoblog2012 photography pinks pond pretty reds reflection Refuge San Jose scenic SF Bay Silicon Silicon Valley Silicon Valley Photography Sky stuck Sun sunset swamp textures texturessmell valley Water West Coast wildlife

Aaron M Written by:

Aaron Meyers is a landscape and wedding photographer living in Silicon Valley, CA. His love of the outdoors makes for frequent forays into the Californian wilds, where he delights in the stunning vistas of Yosemite National Park, Lake Tahoe, Big Sur, and the Pacific Coast.