On my road trips driving the length of Mexico’s Baja peninsula, I always stop in an area of granite boulders in the Cataviña desert. Part of the Valle de los Cirios nature preserve, the area is home to giant cardon cactus and weirdly shaped boojum or cirio trees. On my last trip, I was determined to make a good photograph of this particular rock formation. In previous attempts I had failed to make an image that really pleased me, despite recognizing the potential of the scene.
Dodging some pokey yucca plants, I climbed up on the huge boulder that forms the base of this outcropping, then inched forward on my belly trying to find just the right angle to frame the top of a boojum tree under the natural arch created by a boulder of unusual shapes and contours. I moved a few inches forward, a few inches left and then right, trying to find just the right composition with a 14mm lens on my Nikon Z7. I hit the shutter button a couple of times and then suddenly a raven swooped over the rocks as I tripped the shutter again.
Reviewing the images, I was happy with the composition in the first frames I made here, but the added element of the raven, the unique moment, really makes the shot.
I hadn’t noticed when making the photo, but when looking closely during processing I saw that there is a second raven in the photo, perched in the boojum tree seen in the arch. That brought a big smile to my face.
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