This is a continuation of my series - The Story Behind the Images - the stories about my favorite photographs as I remember them. I hope you enjoy and please share.

In 1999, I spent New Years at Arches National Park. It was my first trip to Moab and I was focussed on getting a shot of Delicate Arch in the last light of the millennium. Although the sunset at Delicate Arch was nice, the images I created there were not the best of the trip.

On New Years Day, I woke before sunrise to a dense fog and some light snow. I decided to check out Landscape Arch and drove to Devils Garden Trailhead which was a short trip from my campsite. I tried a few compositions at Landscape Arch and then made my way to Navajo Arch and Devils Garden. I found this lone pinyon pine growing out of the slick rock sandstone a few hundred yards from Navajo Arch. I only took two shots, remember these were the days of film so there was no instant feedback. After returning home and getting the slides back from the local lab, this quickly became my favorite image of the trip. I shot it with a Nikon 80-200mm telephoto zoom lens which was able to isolate the pine within the sandstone surrounds.

Photo Details - Nikon N90s and a Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 lens on Fuji Velvia 50 transparency film. It was scanned by West Coast Imaging using a Heidelberg Tango Drum Scanner. If you enjoyed this post please share and visit me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Flickr (links on the left).

Thanks again. Jason C. Ruf

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The Story Behind the Images: Pinyon Pine (2000)