December 1, 2014
Brain Rock Sunset, White Pocket, Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, Arizona

I've gone to the White Pocket area of Vermilion Cliffs National Monument several times during our recent visit, and two nights ago the clouds turned out to be fantastic. However, when I first arrived late in the afternoon, I wasn't really excited about the clouds because they were in an odd location and moving away quickly. They were over an area of brain rocks that I haven't photographed much, so it was a real challenge to find an interesting composition. I wasn't finding any interesting compositions and the clouds were breaking up, so I abandoned the attempt and started to make my way to another area. I turned around one last time and saw a possible composition. I set up with my 17 Tilt/Shift and photographed until the remaining clouds were too small then I switched to the 24 Tilt/Shift and finally switched to the 45 Tilt/Shift. The clouds developed some color at sunset, but I stayed in place and the clouds developed some vibrant color about 20 minutes after sunset as shown above.