Photo Of The Day By Theresa Ditson

Today’s Photo Of The Day is “Last Glow On Cathedral Rocks” by Theresa Ditson. Location: Sedona, Arizona.

“I had to race to this location in Sedona after getting off of work a little late the other day in hopes that I might be able to catch a sunset,” says Ditson. “In particular, this location I had in mind only has these nice reflecting pools after enough rain has fallen, and with the monsoon season underway I was hopeful that I would be able to capture a reflection scene.

“However, en route things were not looking promising at all. I almost turned back as it was actively raining, the skies looked completely blanketed in gray clouds for miles and the sun was nowhere in sight. I continued on anyway, then ran the approximately quarter mile or so to the spot, holding tightly on to my gear, and quite literally at the very last moment before the sun was scheduled to set, its warm rays peaked out from behind the clouds to illuminate the prominence of Cathedral Rocks, albeit briefly, before dipping back down behind another massive cloud and disappearing for the rest of the night.

“There were actually a couple of reflecting pools and I didn’t have time to really toy around with multiple options, so I chose the one I thought might be most interesting, the one with the cactus in the foreground. Due to the extreme depth of field involved in my composition and the fact that my camera was positioned quite close to the foreground cactus, I used a focus-stacking technique with four photos taken from the same spot on my tripod in order to eliminate blur from front to back.”

Nikon D810, f/14, 1/5 second, ISO 64, Singh-Ray ND filter handheld, Manfrotto Tripod with Really Right Stuff ballhead.

See more of Theresa Ditson’s photography at www.facebook.com/treerosephotography.

Photo of the Day is chosen from various OP galleries, including Assignments, Galleries and the OP Contests. Assignments have weekly winners that are featured on the OP website homepage, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. To get your photos in the running, all you have to do is submit them.