Cielo En Fuego

I want to apologize in advance for subconsciously inserting into your head the catchy yet annoying refrain from that 1966 pop tune performed by the Monkees. Rest assured it will remain there all day.

But those three words were innocently uttered after a seminal moment during last week’s Patagonia workshop in Chile and it wasn’t by me.

I’m convinced that the photo above represents one of the most fantastic natural views in all the world. The image itself, however, is flawed. Sure it has some great light and color in the sky but the composition leaves much to be desired: Too much visual weight on the left side  (the highest peak and the cascades of the Paine River); the obtrusive, burned-out bank in the middle ground that dominates much of the scene; the rocks in the lower right corner that are half-in, half-out. But with limited ability to move about (I am standing on a jagged rock outcropping with several of our workshop students in the middle of some very strong river current) it was the best I could do.

But aside from all of that, the light was sublime. The timing was exquisite (5 minutes after this was taken, we were being rained on). The colors were magical. During the walk back to the bus, Phil – one of our students on the workshop – made a confession of sorts. In the afterglow of one of the best sunrise shows I had seen in quite some time, he admitted that he had assumed such light and colors he had seen in landscape images (including mine) were “computer aided.”

That was a charitable way of putting it. But now he had experienced a taste of that sublime light in person and he then went on to carelessly let those three loathsome words fall from his lips in his distinctive Aussie accent. A believer indeed.

Canon EOS 5D MarkIII, Canon 24-105 f4 at 35mm, 1 second @ f11, ISO 125

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