Sometimes its nice to photograph a particular place over and over again and other times it's nice to get some variety and photograph a different place. There's a few places that cause me to come back over and over again and that's when the scene changes over time and you can capture it differently every time. When I first started flying the drone over this year some of the rivers were filled with clear water. Later the water turned orange or red. And even later some of the streams dried up and white salt took its place. Willie and I came back here almost 2 months after we first started photographing it and I was inspired how it looked like tree roots searching for its water source. Can you see it? DJI Mavic Pro 2 w/Hasselblad L1D-20c: 10.26mm, f/5, 1/100 sec, ISO 100
It's amazing how different lighting can completely change a scene. And it's also amazing how quickly nature changes. The first time Willie and I ventured out to this Salt Pond, the sky lit up with orange and reds and we spent most of our time composing scenes that included salt and sky. Later on, when we had clear skies, we focused our attention straight down, where the last bit of sunlight caused the edges of the salt formations to glow orange. This was our 4th visit to the salt ponds and it was an evening of clear skies. We knew that our cameras would be pointed to look for the glowing edges, but to our surprise, some of the rivers were starting to turn orange as the algae in the stream reacted to increase salinity levels. The orange color of the streams matched the orange flow on their stream banks. What I loved about this scene was how the salt formations created what looked like scorpions on the ground. Every time I look at this I have a slight shudder as I can imagine 3 or 4 scorpions coming out of the ground to hunt for food. Combine the critters with the golden stream and you get this photo. DJI Mavic Pro 2 w/Hasselblad L1D-20c: 10.26mm, f/5.6, 1/40 sec, ISO 100
From the ground you'd just see a bunch of brush and some salt and mud. When you fly above and look down, though, shapes and patterns come out. It's one of my favorite parts of flying the drone; i can see patterns that didn't exist from on the ground. I gravitated to this particular spot because of the red and yellow brush that was growing after the water levels dropped. The salt formations created ridges that reminded me of a maze, where the treasure is a few green plants popping out of the ground. DJI Mavic Pro 2 w/Hasselblad L1D-20c: 10.26mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO 100
