After two days of shooting close to the four corners region in Arizona, I wanted to find a final location to complete my long weekend of photographing. After searching for several hours, I came upon a very unique rock formation towering out of a vast canyon. I took a closer look and decided to come back to that location very early in the morning. My only concern regarding that spot was the danger factor. The necessary vantage point required placing the camera overlooking a sheer drop greater than 700 feet. The only thing protecting me from an accidental death was a short rock wall that stood about two-and-a-half feet high. One of the two greatest dangers with this location was walking over the curved, uneven, pitted boulders in the dark. In the middle of the night the boulders would look pretty much the same, so finding my bearings and landmarks wasn’t going to be a simple task. The second potential hazard was if I veered too far off to the right or left, it would probably be my last step on this planet. After making some mental notes and looking at my compass, I returned to my campsite and prepared for an evening of photographing.
My alarm clock went off at 2:45 AM. The early morning air temperature was hovering around forty degrees with a slight wind and a crystal clear night sky with thousands of sparkling stars. In the dark, I systematically gathered my belongings and proceeded to my location. Everything seemed very quiet and still.
Having safely arrived at my location around 3:30 AM, I began the process of setting up for the shoot. I carefully placed my tripod in a position so the camera would stand about five feet high, with a slight angle projecting out over the edge into the canyon. Two legs of the tripod leaned against the short rock wall with the third leg angled back away from the sheer drop. Everything was going well, but I must admit the set-up was a bit scary due to the relatively short rock wall and standing on significantly uneven wet footing. Other than those concerns, the sky was looking magnificent, promising to make for a successful endeavor. The moon had just risen above the horizon line within the past thirty minutes and was creating a marvelous silhouette of the far side of the canyon wall. Everything was coming together for this shoot. After the set-up was almost complete, I began test shooting to make certain the framing of the image and focusing (both particularly challenging tasks at night) were addressed.
Lighting this vast canyon and highlighting the distant unique rock formations posed a large artist and technical challenge. This required moving around during the time exposure, and changing lights as well. Of course safety must come first, so I wanted to maintain economy of motion as much as possible. The shoot was going very well, and after several minutes I felt all the effort was paying off. The shots being produced were among some of my best. The excitement was growing as I continued to work the shoot and introduce slight changes and variations on the theme. “Wow” was my thought as I did a triumphant gesture in the dark and let out an audible “YES”! With lots of excitement, I continued to work the process.
No more than ten minutes later came an unexpected surprise. An incredibly powerful storm front came blasting through the canyon from behind. It was so powerful that it literally lifted me nearly off of my feet! It sent me upwards and forward a few inches in both directions. This was not a good place to be blown off of your feet. Simultaneously, my camera and tripod were catapulted forward, sending them over the upper portion of the two-and-a-half foot rock wall. My camera, tripod and attached gear weighed at least 16 pounds! The tripod smashed into the rock wall, but luckily didn’t dislodge the camera from its firm grip. The next thing I knew I was seeing stars, but in a different way. This entire experience was happening in slow motion. As the camera was about to do a flip over the edge and plunge 700 feet, the third leg of the tripod smashed into a place no man alive cares to experience pain. Alas, that explains the extra and unique stars. By virtue of the third leg of the tripod hitting me in the crotch, I still had enough reaction time to grab the upper portion of the tripod with my left hand and try saving the camera from a certain death. Almost as amazingly fast as this storm front blew through, did I somehow grab and prevent the camera from going any further over the edge. The camera had catapulted about two feet over the edge before the rescue grab saved the early morning shoot.
Even after scrambling and trying to regain my composure and reposition the camera, another few amazingly powerful bursts of wind blasted and delivered the final exclamation point to the message of…’you are done’!
Still being a little dazed, and certainly having a bit of my male pride and ego damaged, I started packing up my gear and eventually headed back to the campsite. All I could think about was how fortunate I was that the camera didn’t dislodge from the tripod. Not only would I have lost the expensive camera gear, but worse yet, the memory card in the camera. That memory card had all of the great shots from the morning shoot, plus all of the shots from a different location taken earlier that same evening. No matter what, I still went home with some top notch shots and an ice pack to heel my wounds.
The ending to this story does have a silver lining. Once safely back home and reviewing the trip’s photographic successes, I noticed something truly exceptional and unimaginable. There was a single picture that had a portion of the image completely blown-out, which means harsh white throughout part of the picture. Upon closer inspection, this one and only shot had the shutter open long enough to record the main landscape and image, plus an additional amount of time left to capture the camera’s motion as it collided into the rock wall and began its plunge over the edge. You can clearly identify a whoosh of light and motion that is unmistakable in the lower third of the photo. This truly remarkable stroke of luck will always be displayed next to the amazing shot I recorded just ten minutes prior to “taking one for the team.”