I sat on a cactus to get this shot.
No, really. And I mean, really, really sat on a cactus, that kind with the dozens and dozens of nearly-microscopic needles that go right through any fabric, glove, or whatever else you want to try smothering it with. [cough!]
Anyway, sometimes I just have a feeling when something is going to work out, and tonight it was like something was pulling at me to remain outside, despite the dropping temperature and impending dinner guests. I was finishing a 7+ mile hike up and around Mt. Galbraith (sans camera), and as I descended the last 500′ into the neighborhood, the strong northwest winds hitting North Table Mountain were rapidly creating a repeating series of amazing orographic clouds (previously described in a prior post). I got home as quickly as I could to get camera gear, and hoofed it right back up the hill high enough to get above the ‘hood.
The image above was captured as the sun descended into a bank of (relatively) low-level winter clouds to the west, between 4:03 and 4:32PM. This TerraLapse composite image represents:
- 433 50 MP images (Canon 5Ds, 4-sec intervals)
- 27.7 GB of images
- 28 minutes, 52 seconds of time
- ~3.5 hours of computer time
- 60+ minutes trying to remove microscopic cactus needles from several things.
I’ll take that cactus.
