In an effort to get this blog fired up with some actual content, I’m kicking off a “behind the image” series where I talk about some of my most popular photos (and a few I like whether anyone else does or not).
Burros and Rays seems like the obvious place to start. This one resonates with many who see it and has ended up on a fair number of walls. If I somehow sell ten thousand images in my lifetime, I’ll still never stop being honored that someone wants my work hanging in their space.
On this particular morning, I drove out the old Wendel Road — some folks call it the Wendel/Pyramid Road since it’ll get you to Pyramid Lake from Lassen County California. I had a very specific sunrise composition in mind (which still hasn’t panned out), and I thought the clouds might line up for it. But as I headed east, the clouds stayed low and thick with a lingering storm system. I was driving home, mildly annoyed at the universe, when I caught some perfect sun rays breaking through the clouds in my rearview mirror. I thought, It’d be great if I had something to use as a foreground under those rays.
About another hundred yards up the road I saw a decent herd of burros looking at me as if to say, “What are we — chopped liver?”
I stopped the car, slapped on the 70–300mm lens I had with me, and carefully walked out into the brush. In my experience, burros aren’t quite as wary as the mustangs they share the desert with, but they were starting to look a little nervous, so I kept my distance. The light was still lower than I’d have preferred for the gear (and frankly the skill) I had at the time, but I managed to get one usable frame out of the 25 or so I fired off.
Our little patch of high desert is home to a large population of wild/feral horses and burros, and this was one of the bigger groups of the latter I’ve seen in this area.
Gear / Settings
Canon 6D Mark II
Canon EF 70–300mm f/4–5.6 IS USM
1/800 sec • 300mm • f/7.1 • ISO 640
Prints available here.