Monument Valley at sunrise

One of the great views on the planet is this elevated vantage on the top of Hunt’s Mesa in Monument Valley. This picture was taken at sunrise. I used a 24-105mm lens, and the settings were 1/80, f/8, and 200 ISO. Notice I have complete depth of field even though the lens aperture wasn’t closed down all the way to f/32. That’s because all of the elements in the landscape were far enough away – past what I call ‘optical infinity’. Also notice that even though there is contrast due to sidelighting, we can see detail in both the highlights and the shadows. That’s a function of the low angled sun. I shot this about about 2 minutes after sunrise.