Not to say that Picture 3 here is going to be an awarding winning image, but there is definitely a story to be told. This goes back to what I have been telling you all along: the real value of pursuing photography is not about producing a few static images. Rather, it is about experiencing life in a much deeper and more conscious way.
(Refer to Day 5 from my essay below: 10/20/2013)
So, we planned to photograph sunrise at 巴丹吉林 desert early in the morning on 10/20/13. The night before, we agreed to meet at the hotel lobby at 6:15 AM the next morning to be fully prepared for the sunrise at 7:21 AM. By the way, we stayed at this exotic hotel in the middle of nowhere deep inside the desert -- it soooooo totally didn't fit in with the wilderness...
The night was extremely quiet, as we were one of the only 2 groups in the entire hotel. I packed my camera gears and set my alarm clock for 5:55 AM. Guess what, when I woke up the next morning, in the total darkness, I saw 6:36 AM on my lovely iPhone! No idea what happened to 5:55 AM, but I grabbed my camera bag and ran downstairs... It was so dark and quiet in the hotel lobby that I actually got scared. But I didn't have time to think, ran out to the parking lot hoping to see my friends. I saw no body, but noticed our car was still there -- thank goodness!! I felt 100 times better and immediately ran upstairs to find my friends.... Believe it or not, this lavish hotel didn't even have an elevator, so I had to go through stairs up and down in the total darkness -- don't ask me why they didn't have lights either...
Rushed into my friends' room and realized that they were in no hurry at all. They told me that we should NOT go for the sunrise because there were thick clouds. Do you think I would take "No" for an answer?
We left the hotel and headed out to the desert. Ran around in the dark trying to find the best spot (literally had to use headlights from the car to see where we were going -- pretty crazy and frantic out there). Finally, we found the spot, but sunrise was nowhere to be found!
You can finish the rest of the story. The disappointment was so overwhelming that I had to calm myself down by practicing meditation in the open desert (see Picture 1). The sunrise was supposed to be at 7:21 AM, but even at 8, there was no sunrise. When we all went down to our car, the sun finally came out. Just imagine the chaos at that point....
Picture 2: the little insignificant blue dot was me taking The Shot -- after being tortured mentally and physically for about 2 hours...
Picture 3: The Shot taken at 8:33 AM on 10/20/2013.
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