Atlatl Rock Details, Valley of Fire, Nevada - Tyler Westcott Photography

Atlatl Rock Details, Valley of Fire, Nevada

I have just returned from my fourth-annual photo-trip with friends John and Suad. After a long period of infrequent posting I hope to start making up for it as I begin to sort through my new photographs. This was my first really photographically-productive period in about the last six months or more, so I am hoping to have produced some new work worth sharing.

In our past trips we have been on a somewhat restrictive and manic schedule, but we approached this trip very differently, with very little planned apart from our arrival and departures, and a place to stay. We arrived in Las Vegas with Zion National Park being our destination, but along the way we had time to stop at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. As an aside, I'm sure the park's name is meant to reflect the vibrant red rock throughout, but it could as well have been a reflection of the ambient temperature. A trip to the desert during a heat wave is a shock to the system for a visitor from the cool and wet Pacific Northwest.

Our first stop in Valley of Fire was at a place called Atlatl Rock, so named for the petroglyphs of hunters using these ancient eponymous hunting tools. There is a staircase that takes you up high to view the petroglyphs (how they were every produced up high without the aid of said staircase is beyond me). At the top of the stairs I noticed this gap that separates Atlatl Rock, through which the blue skylight reflected off the red rock. In a couple particular spots throughout Valley of Fire there seemed to be areas of very iron-rich rock (I'm not a geologist, but the rust-red color and metallic surface reflections are my basis) which, at the right angle, could strongly reflect the blue of the sky. Regardless of the cause, I found the purple and blue light subtle but interesting between the strongly colored orange and red rock around it.

While this was my first photograph of the trip and my first to share online, the order will likely start to jump around after this. Film should go off for developing today, after which it must be scanned. I managed about 16Gb worth of digital shots over 4 days as well, so I'm sure there will be more digital work to come which I wait for my film to be returned.

Nikon D90 | Nikon 50mm f/1.8 | f/11 | 1/13s | ISO200 | Tripod

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