Moments after the “Winter Sunrise” photograph (in this gallery) I hiked down the Navajo trail to one of my favorite locations, the amphitheater which holds the stunning pinnacle known as Thor’s Hammer. Being in this location, at this time, under these unique conditions, was simply overwhelming. Humbling. Over the next 5 minutes while the light was still quite rich I composed several images, of which this is my favorite. In hindsite, I probably should have taken several different exposures so that details and colors in the sky could have been held better – but I really don’t mind the blown-out sky in this image – it’s lightness is consistent with the brightness of the snow. A few minutes after this image was taken, the sun went behind that small horizontal cloud…and the quality of the light was completely changed. Everything was bathed in cold, blue light, making the red standstone look just ‘muddy’. Just as the sun peaked out from the top of that cloud, and the rich light returned to the amphitheater, the close-up picture of Thor’s Hammer (elsewhere in this gallery) was taken.