TRIANGLE ROCK, EVENING CLOUDS, ALABAMA HILLS, CALIFORNIA

The Alabama Hills, just east of Lone Pine at the base of Mt. Whitney, is one of my very favorite places to photograph — and I am not alone! Ansel Adams made many photographs in the area, and there have been so many movies filmed here that the main road in (and the road in this photograph) is named Movie Road! It was my last night out on a wonderful two-week adventure through the Southwest. Heading down Movie Road towards a favorite off-road camp spot, this wonderful rock, which years earlier I had photographed and dubbed Triangle Rock, was near silhouetted against an amazing sky and incredible lenticular clouds. I screeched to a halt, got out the 8x10, and made the adjustment for a bit of forward lens tilt to help keep rocks and mountains sharp. I placed Triangle Rock on Zone III, calculated my exposure and loaded a sheet of Tri-X film in the camera. But it was WINDY! I couldn't afford a slow enough shutter-speed to use as small an aperture as I wanted, so a compromise had to be made