In this moment...When I shot this the sky was nearing dark and desert details were fully engulfed in pitch.

Every photographer within a hundred yards had packed up to begin their night hike back down. To their eyes the sunset long gone. Show over.

Not me.

I stayed there silent, listening to the others talk as they left... not all of them were impressed by the guy that "setup late" and was still sitting there in the dark with his kids.

I get it, but this wasn't our first trip up and we were past sunsets, metaphorically and literally.

Finally, when the air was still enough and the jibber-jabberers echoes were dimming, I clicked the long shot and waited for the colors to say hello.

They didn't show on the back of the camera, no, not these, like shots of old it takes some RAW developing skills to bring the details out of the dark, by design!

Isn't it funny, that's how life can be too?

Turning negatives into positives is a lesson photographers know well, not to bludgeon you in the face with a lesson, but take this one on for size...

Do you ever take time to see the colors where others only see dark? Not just in landscapes but in your whole life?

That night another photographer snidely remarked loud enough for my son and I to hear, "Some photographers have trouble accepting when the sunset is over."

Ouch, that one hit hard. Fair enough.

On the hike down my son and I were chatting amongst ourselves, 
"Sawyer, one day, if the Universe has a sense of humor, that dude will see the shot we just took on a wall..."

He continued the thought, "Ya, with no idea he was standing there in the dark while you were shooting it, right dad?"

"Exactly," I said.

"Dad! You should put this in your book, maybe they'll see it there!"

"Well, I mean, a book is a lot of work son, but we'll see..."

"Dad, you also should put the time and exact spots you stood for all the pictures, that way he knows!"

"Sawyer, would you knock it off, that would be way too much work!" I said, the conversation beginning to sound suspiciously like an endorsement...