This is one of my favorite New Mexico back roads, and this tree has always been my favorite feature. It stands all by itself, out in the middle of the desert. I've wanted to shoot it for quite a while, but I've never been able to envision the right scene in my head. So, every time I take this road, I just drive past and smile at it, thinking that someday I'll get that shot.
And then there was this shooting challenge. I knew what I had to do.
I started shooting around 11:30 at night. The moon, about 2 days past full, gave me a nice side light. I used my old manual Vivitar 19mm f/3.8 wide open on my Nikon D300, daylight white balance, ISO 1600, and a 20 second exposure. This let me snap off one or two before having to move the camera and tripod out of the middle of the road for traffic. However, none of those middle of the road shots came out as nice as this from-the-shoulder one did.
When the coyotes started circling, I decided to pack up and call it a night.
-Adam Wolf
