Everyday commute can sometimes provide a breath-taking scenery. Driving highway 40 in St. Louis is my daily routine and sometimes I can go in almost autopilot mode, listening morning show @ Y98. But in last few days, thanks to a two specific conditions, I am rewarded with this stunning view (together with thousands of other commuters travelling from West County to downtown). Well, day is a bit brighter in the morning! Those two conditions creating this magic moment: a) time change from winter to summer time, when a typical commute time is during a sunrise – about 7.00-7.15am. b) only during a limited time of the year (twice a year, actually) you can have sun rising right in front of you, popping up from the highway at the hill where Hwy 40 meets Hwy 270. You must admit this definitely looks like riding towards a very sunny day! When I’ve noticed existing opportunity, I’ve spent next three mornings waking up at 5.40 to find a safe spot, where I was trying to capture with my camera what my eyes were seeing. Not an easy task! Let me tell you why… First of all, weather didn’t cooperate. One morning rain arrived 20 minutes prior the sunrise. Second morning  a thick fog hide the sun above the horizon. However, both those mornings I’ve transferred into my advantage and took a very pleasing shots, as heavy clouds and thick fog gave sky a very dramatic look, full of lights, colors and  rays. Raining clouds are approaching. Foggy dawn with a soft lights in the background – vs “standard” morning dawn. And thanks to a really thick fog I didn’t have a chance to catch sun rising from the horizon, but later on, when sun was reaching top of the fog – oh boy, that was a […]

It’s exactly a year I’ve spent a fantastic photo 5 days in Death Valley with Scott and Jen and other fellow photographers and I still have to get back to my pictures. I just love them! 😉My dear friend Andrea send me few months ago a nice snapshot of myself at the Racetrack and that reminded me favorite topic about the power of photography to mess with your size perceived vs the real size. One of the most common reaction when presenting “Moving rocks” from the Racetrack was: “Wow, those are HUGE rocks! How they can move?” Well. It’s actually just a perspective trick when you use very wide angle lens and you get very close to you subject. With an aperture at f/13 and combination of wide angle I’ve got a pretty sharp background, but heeeey, that rock in front is enormous, right? 😉 Well, not really. You can compare here. All moving rocks are actually pretty small 🙂 It’s just again another evidence supporting our men’s position – size really doesn’t matter, right boys? 🙂The best of my Death Valley is located here. (c) 2011 photo by andrea cannistraci