Vermilion Eye

This is from my recent trip to the remote sandstone world otherwise known as "white pocket". This is one of the most remarkable landscapes I've ever stepped foot on, and from the moment I stepped out of the truck, it was non stop photography. Within the length of a full day, I snapped my shutter well over 300 times. Normally, I will shoot that many in 3-5 days. It was cloudy and rainy as we arrived, "perfect", I thought in my head. These were the exact conditions I wanted for this trip. For such a unique landscape, I wanted to have dramatic skies to go along with it. After shredding my boots into oblivion from running across the hard stone, it was time to rest. A few hours of sleep (2-3), and I was awake in the dark of night ready for more shooting. Myself and one of the other photographers I was with decided to venture out into the sandstone to catch the milky way over the martian landscape. All that was missing was my spaceman suit. It was so quiet, the quietest place I've ever been for sure. After shooting the stars until they disappeared, we ventured around shooting the various formations under some fortuitous light. By then, it was nearly 6:30am. The two photographers I was with had been here before, and informed me they were going to shoot this area called the "vortex". With a name like that, I figured I would go with them. After climbing up and over some brainrock formation we came to this spot, the one you see in the image above. It was like nothing I've seen before. The twisting and turning and converging sandstone was just pure bliss for the camera. We spent a good hour or so photographing this spot. The area almost consumed three cameras and lenses along with a photographer (not me), so getting the shots we wanted were actually quite risky. You see, this is sandstone, which is solidified sand. However, there is always this thin layer of fine slippery sand over the red rocks that can cause one some damage. I slid down the steep sandstone slot to a point where I knew I would be able to make it back up without slipping into the unknown abyss below. Finally getting a composition I desired, I got out of there as quickly as possible to avoid any more camera catastrophes. I am definitely dying to get back here now that I had a taste of the landscape. For some sense of scale, that little sand patch in the center could probably hold 3-4 people standing up with a little room to spare.

White Pocket- Arizona.

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