Ahhhh… Those Golden Hours…
You know, the special light and moments we who manage to get up way earlier than the crack of dawn or stay up way later than sunset get to enjoy!
Ruth, Laura Harris, John Snell and I ventured to the Red River Gorge one special afternoon. It was the oncoming night of the blood moon and the full lunar eclipse. What an event. Won’t happen again till… well, let’s just say it’s unlikely we’ll be trekkin’ to the Auxier Ridge Saddle to marvel as we did on this particular evening.
We did have a whole crew signed up to join us for this astronomical event, but the forecast of total overcast depleted our numbers till just the hale and hearty (or is that dumb and dumber??) of our company of adventurers ventured on.
A wonderful hike into the wilds found many great photo ops, including a reprise shot for John of one in his latest book. It was a small pine, now a bit larger, growing out of a burned out stump. What a find!
So we made the saddle and enjoyed the view of Double Arch and more as we set up gear, wolfed down a bit of food, grimaced at the sheer drop offs on either side and grinned at each other in unbridled anticipation of the evening’s shooting.
Then… as that evening Golden Hour crept up, it happened.
The sun decided we, being the staunch and sturdy photographers we strive to be, were worthy of fireworks, and lavishly put them on for us!
The sun threw crazy colors across the sky for seemingly an eternity. Our mouths and eyes agape, we burned up our lenses getting all we could… full knowing we had to save some burning for the main event!
The next morning, when comparing notes with those who deemed the venture unworthy, we could do nothing but grin somewhat smugly. Not only did we have the fantastically lit and painted sky, but we got the images of the lunar eclipse we ventured to find. The sky cleared as the moon rose and we shot the eclipse progression all the way up to totality before we hiked back out in total blackness. Totally (pun intended) Amazing. Something none of us are likely to see again in our lifetime.
And those that didn’t venture our adventure… missed it.
…and they missed,
Ahhhh…..That Golden Hour!!
