What you see above is one of my more enduringly popular images. It almost didn't happen.
A few years ago we had a nice Australian gentleman working at my office whose name was Paul Materatzzo. Paul shared a passion with a few of us for taking photographs. There was also an Indian gentleman named Kaushal and a Sri Lankan gentleman named Reggie. Together we planned to take a trip out to somewhere wild in Qatar and do some shooting one day after work. After a month or so of attempting to plan this it all came together one Thursday and we left work in Paul's car headed for the Western edge of Qatar. A place called Zekreet.
Zekreet is a place where the normally flat and featureless landscape of Qatar is broken by some small buttes and valleys between the buttes. A lot of this area I had seen from the road but not explored because I don't have a four wheel drive. Paul had a four wheel drive.
We started out by exploring some places I had been before. The sun was setting on the water's edge and we took some photos like that but decided to start heading back. As we started back we saw a path that lead into a valley between some buttes and decided to explore. It was an interesting scene because it also contained some small trees which are otherwise very rare in unsheltered parts.
As we came to a halt in the valley I almost immediately saw this scene. I saw the shape of the bush, the colours in the sky and the position of the sun. I knew it was a scene that was not going to last and I ran out the car door almost before we had stopped. I grabbed my camera and tripod and raced to extend the legs as I ran to position. I was so enthusiastic that I actually ripped one of the legs completely off.
Panic!
I raced back to see if anyone else had brought a tripod along and there was only Kaushal's cheap and flimsy little video tripod. After asking if I could use it I raced to take my shot. I shot at full aperture in order to get as fast a shutter speed as possible for the ISO50 slide film I was using. I had a fast f1.9 lens mounted on the Mamiya and with this and the flimsy tripod I was able to get the shot. In fact, I had the presence of mind to turn around (something I always recommend when shooting dramatic skies) and see an equally amazing sight behind me.
It is not every shot that you know will turn out well but these two were so clearly seen by me at the time I just knew they would be strong.
P.S. Here is the other shot:
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