A Stroke of Luck

From the photographer: “It started out as a disappointing evening in Arches National Park in Utah. I had made a special effort to head out to a area they call The Window Section. There is a high concentration of wonderful aches there, and it was one of the places I wanted to do some night photography. But as the sun set in the west that night, a bank of clouds moved in from the east, eventually hiding the night sky from view just as I wanted to start my shooting. I could tell there were some storms that had come in with the clouds, as I could see the sky flashing off to the north behind the formations. I realized it was time to abandon my effort at the arches, so as I drove away from the Window Section and drove past the Garden of Eden area, I could see out to the north ahead of me the small storm that was causing all that flashing in the darkness. There was a single storm cloud out over the desert that was the center of all that activity. I was about to drive away from of the concentration of rock formations of the Garden of Eden and enter more open country, but from where I stopped I could still see off to my right some of the stones that make up part of that formation. Luckily there was a very nice pullout from where I could set up my camera to get exactly the view I wanted. Those final rocks of the garden on the right were nicely silhouetted against the only light in the sky, the last of the twilight glow coming in from the west, off to my left. It made for a one of a kind simple scene for me. Here I had given up hope for shooting that night as I was forced away from the arches I hoped to shoot, but instead stumbled on this scene on the drive back to the campground. Sometimes nature puts us where we need to be.”