Teepee Travails
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6th August 2018 Canon 5d IV Canon EF 16-35 mm f/2.8L II USM 18mm f/11 ISO 100 1/13 sec |
Well this one didn't take long, I hadn't actually posted this image and had only shared with a few close friends and family when I was told how lucky I was to get it.
I was staying in the town of Medicine Hat, Alberta and decided I really should make an effort to shoot a prairie icon, the 'Worlds Tallest Teepee'. With storms all around for the entire 3 night stay any decent sunset seemed unlikely. I did try a few shots of storms but they were grey affairs rather than the dark satanic skies that make storm images work well.
I settled on sunset and on the first night looked like I might have made it, but a storm moved in and killed off the shot, I returned to the hotel empty handed. On the second night the sun tried it's best but again was washed out by cloud. By the third night I was losing hope, at 7:30pm the sky was full of cloud moving slowly. By 8pm it had cleared a little but was still very poor and I had almost given up on the idea, but very few images are made from the hotel room so I packed the gear and drove back to the Teepee site once more.
This time the skies cleared and I was able to shoot a sequence taking me from bright yellow sunset through red afterglow to the blue hour and artificial illumination of the structure. I was really happy about finally getting a usable image from the three trips to and from the site.
So, scouting the site and finding the best shooting location, three round trips of 20 km each as well as the usual gear and the knowledge to use it correctly. Not giving up when sitting comfortably in the hotel room and seeing storm filled skies out of the window for the third time, putting up with local scroats blasting 3 different kinds of music at each other in the car park behind me for over an hour and being eaten alive by prairie mozzies, if that's luck I don't want much more of it.
Perseverance is what paid off here, finding the location and returning to it repeatedly until you get the conditions you were seeking isn't lucky, it's anything but.
I was staying in the town of Medicine Hat, Alberta and decided I really should make an effort to shoot a prairie icon, the 'Worlds Tallest Teepee'. With storms all around for the entire 3 night stay any decent sunset seemed unlikely. I did try a few shots of storms but they were grey affairs rather than the dark satanic skies that make storm images work well.
I settled on sunset and on the first night looked like I might have made it, but a storm moved in and killed off the shot, I returned to the hotel empty handed. On the second night the sun tried it's best but again was washed out by cloud. By the third night I was losing hope, at 7:30pm the sky was full of cloud moving slowly. By 8pm it had cleared a little but was still very poor and I had almost given up on the idea, but very few images are made from the hotel room so I packed the gear and drove back to the Teepee site once more.
This time the skies cleared and I was able to shoot a sequence taking me from bright yellow sunset through red afterglow to the blue hour and artificial illumination of the structure. I was really happy about finally getting a usable image from the three trips to and from the site.
So, scouting the site and finding the best shooting location, three round trips of 20 km each as well as the usual gear and the knowledge to use it correctly. Not giving up when sitting comfortably in the hotel room and seeing storm filled skies out of the window for the third time, putting up with local scroats blasting 3 different kinds of music at each other in the car park behind me for over an hour and being eaten alive by prairie mozzies, if that's luck I don't want much more of it.
Perseverance is what paid off here, finding the location and returning to it repeatedly until you get the conditions you were seeking isn't lucky, it's anything but.