Red Mountain at Night
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 · Flickr (Creative Commons) · 2015
Red Mountain Numbers 1, 2, and 3 (left to right). I was down in the hoodoos of San Juan County, New Mexico, walking around and sleeping in my truck. After the first hot day and night I decided to look for a cooler climate. That’s how I came to drive up to the San Juan mountains of Colorado. A dozen miles north of Silverton, US 550 goes over Red Mountain Pass and begins a series of sharp hairpin curves as it winds down into the valley. There’s a little pull-off with a parking area and some signs containing information about the Idarado mine. You can almost get a good view of the Red Mountain range there, except for the trees that block the view. But near the parking area you can walk eastward about 20 yards down a little trail that takes you past the trees to a location right over the highway, across from the mine. The view from there is excellent. You can see the peaks, the mine trestle in the foreground, and in the distance the Yankee Girl mine buildings. It was a good location for a time lapse session. The moon was just a sliver in the sky because it was only a couple of days after the new moon. The scene could have used a bit more light after sunset. But I decided to try it anyway. I set up the D800E with my Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 lens mounted and programmed the Ramper Pro to start at 1630 hours and take a shot every five seconds until 2100 hours. After than, the interval would feather up to a shot every 30 seconds until 0430 hours the next morning. ISO would start at 100 and gradually increase to 3200 as it got darker. Maximum exposure time was 25 seconds. The sunset went pretty well, and the Milky Way rose in darkness over Red Number 3. At about 0030 hours, I had had enough and decided to end the session. (Because it was a public place I didn’t want to just climb in the truck and go to sleep with my gear sitting out there. Also I was worried that the wind might pick up and blow my camera and tripod down onto the highway below.) So I gathered up my stuff and got in
