Shooting Wide Open

Joke's on me

2009-04-22T22:18:00.000-07:00

The two-day heat wave brought amazing sunsets to the bay area yesterday and the day before. As the Wif was out of town, I was on daddy duty and not free to jump in the car and go photograph some of that amazing dusk color. But I got a chance tonight. If there was color in the sky, I couldn't see it past the thickening fog as I arrived at Fort Baker. I waited at the point to see if the fog would thin to reveal the bridge, but found it getting only thicker and thicker. I listened as two approaching ships sounded to each other with their horns, one making a single, low pitch every 15 seconds, and the other answering back with its double pulse nine steps higher on the scale. It made for an interesting time, sitting there in the truck with Charlie, imagining the ships beyond the Golden Gate slowing approaching, wary of a collision in the thick fog. I wondered why one ship's radar wouldn't be enough to locate the other vessel. The wind howled and blew the sounds from the horns to and fro, making it difficult to tell how far the ships were. Sometimes it sounded like one or the other must appear at any moment, and then it sounded like they were miles off the coast.

I decided that I might have time to make it back across the bridge to Fort Point, where I'd have a better view of the first ship to arrive. As I drove over the bridge, I could hear no horns, which was strange. As I arrived at Fort Point a few minutes later and got out of the truck, it sounded like the first ship, the one with the single lower note, was right there, just coming under the bridge. But there was no visual sign of it. I got out and walked to the point where the metal fence keeps you back from the rocks. There I realized that the single blast of the horn was coming not from a ship, but from the base of the southern bridge tower, an audible warning for ships that something solid was there in the fog. The other, double note, was coming from the northern tower. All that I'd imagined out to sea was merely that, imagination.

Past and Future

2009-04-20T06:18:00.000-07:00

I recently donated one of my landscape photographs to an elementary school benefit auction. I was then contacted by someone who’d seen the photograph at the auction and who now regretting not bidding on it. Turns out this guy is, like me, an ex-bike racer, and one who was peddling his heart out in the late 80s, same time I was. In an email asking about the photograph, he also wondered if I’d stumbled across a gallery of bike racing photos from the same era.
I had not, and as I looked at these amazing photographs of the heroes whose level of performance I’d aspired to, I got to thinking about the photographer, James Mason, and how, if I were in his position, how pleased I would be 20 plus years later to have taken those photos and to have them in my collection. Young Greg Lemond, Roy Knickman, Steven Bauer, Andy Hampstead, and on and on, ride classic bicycles at Nevada City, Santa Cruz, and other locations that caused so much pain for bike racers they still haunt our dreams. The distinct colors of old slide film give the shots a fantastic retro look that suits their subjects very well.

Of course, who knew that Greg Lemond would become the first American Tour de France winner when he was 15 years old? By the time Lemond had won his first Tour and come home to race in his La Vie Clair jersey, he was a star in American cycling, and photographing him must have been as exciting as photographing, say, Valentino Rossi.

For motorbike racing fans, attending even a single MotoGP event since Rossi started his remarkable premiere class domination is an experience to remember and look back on as something special. Imagine 10, 20 years from now, saying, “Sure, I saw The Doctor in person,” or even better, “Yes, I was at Laguna in 2008.”

As one of the photographers on the rails in Qatar, I felt incredibly lucky to be there at all. But having been looking at the old cycling photos of James Mason, I also think about the future when Rossi’s sun and moon thunder through the night only in our memories, replaced by the next generation of ultra-talented riders on machines that make the 2009 M1 look primitive and quaint.

Perhaps then I’ll go back into my photograph archives and pull out the images from 2009. The photographs of the future may be stereo, 3-d, or holographic, who knows? Whatever form they take, my old 2-d images will look quaint themselves. But there will be Rossi, Stoner, Capirossi, Hayden, and so on. And maybe photos of young Danny Webb or Bradley Smith or Cameron Baubier will be like those shots of 15-year old Greg Lemond.

I hope my photos from 2008 and 2009 will be the first in decades of MotoGP images, just as the archives of the veterans photographers with whom I rubbed elbows at Laguna and Losail go back to Rainey, Schwanz and beyond. But whatever the future holds for me as a photographer, the opportunity to watch and photograph Rossi in his prime is a rare honor indeed. I am so lucky…

I'm Home!

2009-04-17T13:45:00.000-07:00

SOrry for the delay, and if I left any of you wondering if I was still at the Doha airport. I left the track with 2 laps to go and arrived back at the media center just as Casey Stoner crossed the finish line. I packed up my gear, gathered by backpack, photo roller and suitcase, and took off for the main gate, hoping my taxi would be waiting. There was a line of taxis, in fact, and I needn't have rushed quite so much, but I didn't know that out on Turn 6.

I got to the airport with five minutes to spare, but Lufthansa wouldn't let me have two carry-ons. They have a weight limit of 10 kilos for carry-on luggage, and my photo roller with two bodies and all my lenses weighed 22 kilos. Had to get a manager to approve it, and she demanded that I check my backpack. I did, and got to the gate a few minutes before they started putting us on the bus out to the plane. As I waited, many others from the track arrived, and I started regretting not having stayed a few more minutes for the end of the race. But I hadn't wanted to take any chances of missing the plane.

The flights back were long but not too bad. I took BART from the airport and found the car my wife had left for me with no trouble. What a warm welcome home a few hours later! When I finally turned in around 7:30 PM, I felt much more tired than usual from a Europe-USA trip. I just had time to work out that I'd been up for over 45 hours, excepting having nodded off once or twice on the second flight.

I'm been buried since I got home, going through mail, running errands, and trying to get through the rest of my race photos. I'm almost done with that and will be putting more up tonight. Here's one of my favorites of the weekend above. Took many tries to catch the blue flame escaping from the exhaust pipe!

There is now a photo link on the toolbar at motogpmatters.com, or you can click here for the posts containing my images from Qatar.

Easter in Arabia

2009-04-12T21:09:00.001-07:00

When I got back from the hotel last night, this was waiting for me as a gift from the management. Easter Bunny, watch out! This chicken wants your job.

Update: Turns out that in France, the chicken already has it! There they don't have an Easter Bunny, the have an Easter chicken, which makes more sense, given the egg thing.

Rain.

2009-04-12T14:59:00.000-07:00

No rain, no rain, no rain...

2009-04-12T05:58:00.000-07:00

The sleep deficit finally hit in a big way last night. After going to bed at 4:30 am, I slept until housekeeping called at 2:30 pm to see if I was alive. Just had time to hit the lunch buffet before it closed, and now my taxi driver, Purna, is coming to get me in 20 minutes.

After some rain last night delayed the last qualifying session, local weather said 80% chance of rain tonight. Usually these boys race in the wet, but because of the bright lights, there is a special situation here in Qatar. Concerns about the lights reflecting off water make rain racing to dangerous. So if it rains tonight, no race.

So we're hoping for a dry desert. Seems that would be pretty likely, right?

They come out at night

2009-04-11T03:34:00.001-07:00

Hectic yesterday once I got to the track. The 125cc class group photo was very amusing since most of the riders are quite young. Once they had everyone lined up, I don't think there was every a moment when at least one of them was scratching his head or adjusting his shades or giggling or drinking from his sports bottle to fulfill an endorsement contract. The 250 riders, being slightly older, were only slightly better. Dorna waited for the nighttime to do the top class, which got off to a late start: it seemed that none of the MotoGP riders wanted to be the first to go out to the staging area and wait for the others, so they milled around on the pit lane until the rookies finally accepted their lowly chore. To Casey Stoner's credit, he was the first star to join them, and he seemed to want to get it over with.

AFter a good breakfast here at the hotel, I'd skipping lunch because an acquaintance who runs a MotoGP travel package business had promised me dinner back in Doha. After the last photo session, I quickly packed up my gear and raced to the meeting place, only to find myself all alone. By the time we'd sorted out what was going on, or rather, what was not going on, it was too late to go to Doha and get back in time for the first practice session. I went back to the media center to see if there was any food. There was a little orange juice left, so I had some of that for dinner. In today's Gulf Times there's an article on the front page about Losail International Circuit winning the Best Grand Prix award for its facilities. My vote would go to Laguna Seca, because I have NEVER gone hungry there.

The weather for the first race weekend practice sessions of 2009 was good in spite of last's night short shower. The sky was clear and the breeze wasn't too strong. I wore a t-shirt the entire night and was never cold, which was a nice break from last year, when those working out on the rack had complained about a dramatic drop in temperature that left them very uncomfortable after the day's blistering heat. I was pretty ripe by the end though. I'd planned on getting a change of clothes when I came back to Doha for that elusive dinner. So I was starving and stinky by the end of the night, which is no way to go through life.

It was great to be photographing the Grand Prix bikes again, to hear the tinny sounds of approaching 125s and smell their strangely sweet exhaust as they smoke past. The 250s seem like real motorcycles when they tack the track, until the bike bikes show up and nearly rip you ears of if you manage to forget your earplugs, which I had done. When the Ducatis went by I had to turn my head so the could hit me in the face; if I left one ear to the track, the sound was so loud it was painful. I have my earplugs sorted for tonight, Mom. :-)

Losail kindly offer a good number of Media Shuttle vehicles, but once again fails to live up to the efficiency of Lagna Seca, which uses golf carts. Losail has BMW 5-series sedans. Sounds good, but a sedan of any brand is difficult to climb into with two camera bodies, bags, and four lenses, one of which weighs 10 pounds, is two feet long and attached to a monopod. Getting out of a sedan with all that stuff is even harder. Golf carts would've been much better, if less elegant.

Shooting at Losail is every bit as challenging as Andrew Northcott warned. Being a modern track, there are huge run off areas for rider safety which keep cameras miles from the action, or so it seems. Getting a head on shot with a 400mm lens, 1.7x extender and on a 1.5x crop factor body is nearly impossible if you'd like to be able to read the number on the motorcycle. And even though Losail seems brighter than Daytona, the camera says it is only slightly so. In most of the corners where I needed a shutter speed higher than 1/200, I could barely get that with ISO 3200 and the lens wide open. Tonight I'll put the big lens and extender on the D700, which will help with shutter speed but give up quite a bit of focal length. As ever, it's a balancing act. I'm happy with many of the photos I got last night, but there was a huge kill rate, which I hope to improve on tonight with what I learned yesterday.

One of the best things about this race is that there are so few people here relative to other rounds that the teams and riders are very accessible. Rossi gets mobbed, of course, but by a mob of 15 or 20 instead of 200. Most everyone else just wanders as they wish without ha ing to dodge fans and autograph hounds. I had another nice, brief chat with Colin Edwards last night. He sits in the hallway to get his wi-fi to work.

I'm going to have a lot of sleep to catchup on when I get home, but it's worth everything it took to get here. The trip has been fantastic and the two best night are still to come.

Losail

2009-04-10T05:39:00.000-07:00

I went out to the track for the first time yesterday and it was great to be at another familiar place that is so far from home. It really felt like an accomplishment to find myself there. I also had a moment of irony, thinking about how many anxieties I’ve had over the past few months related to this trip and its uncertainties compared to how well everything has gone.

The first MotoGP photos of the trip were of the new bikes and their 2009 trims, as seen above. This afternoon we have riders and their bikes on the grid for the group shots. Then at 8:30, the bikes hit the track. I can’t wait!!!!!

I’m back at the track now after working on my interview with Guy Coulon, which should get posted to MGPM shortly. I just walked part of the track in the desert heat to plan my shooting strategy for track time. Losail has huge runoff areas. At some points you’d need a 600mm lens to take a portrait of an elephant! But I have a plan that will give me 8 different shots in a distance manageable without a scooter. I’ll try it out during the practice sessions tonight and refine it as needed.

In half an hour the next photo session starts, with riders and their bikes on the grid. They do this bit at the beginning of each season, and it’s exciting to be here to witness and photograph it. Better get my gear ready.

The Souk and The Museum

2009-04-08T11:02:00.000-07:00

Had a full day today, starting with my clever sleeping scheme going right out the window with the morning call to prayer. I’d stayed up until around 2:30 or 3am last night, and planned to sleep until 9 if I could manage. When the mosque speakers started their chanting at 4:45, I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. I tried, but gave up an hour or so later. Once I’d given up on more rest, I made good use of the odd hour by Skyping home to catch up on how things were going without me.

Later in the morning I decided to check out the Souk, a market area mentioned by just about everyone to whom I’ve spoken about Doha. A quick check on Flickr revealed that I’d walked past it the night before without realizing it; someone had posted a photo of the exact view I’d seen as I walked toward the water.

That’s the Islamic Center building in the background. The souk area winds around toward the bay for quite a distance, and is composed of the main outdoor lane that leads off into mazes of interior walkways lined by shops selling just about everything you can image. I saw more western tourists here than I’ve seen since I arrived, and I think most of them are families of Americans or Europeans working here temporarily. I saw several sets of mothers with children, no dad in sight, the kids wearing the uninterested faces of those wishing they were somewhere else.

There were quite a few Qatari families and individuals strolling along or eating in the outdoor restaurants. This led, on occasional, to some interesting meetings of east and west.

By 11:00 it was HOT outside and I just wasn’t of a mind to take many pictures. The light outside was harsh and inside the interior sections were very dark. I decided to come back later in the day. I sat on a bench in the center of the souk’s main path and spoke to some GIs here on a military-organized vacation, a woman from Kansas and a man from Georgia. Both commented on how much they liked Doha, and how pleasing it was to be meeting Arabs who meant them no harm. I asked where they were stationed, and they politely declined to say, adding that they weren’t supposed to talk about it. That pretty much answered that question. But it was quite touching how appreciative they were to be welcomed by the Qataris. They seemed worn and weary of the Arab experience arranged for them by our former president. They were dressed as civilians, of course, and I wondered if this made any difference. Qatar has excellent relations with the US, but it was probably wise to put those soldiers in civvies rather than fatigues.

I sat down at one of the restaurants to have lunch, only to be handed a breakfast menu by one person and then told a minute later by another that breakfast had just ended. Further, lunch wouldn’t start for half an hour. I figured this coincided with the recent midday call to prayer and rather than wait in the heat came back to the hotel to eat. In the restaurant I found that the Tech 3 Yamaha team is staying here. They were in their team t-shirts and preparing to head to Losail.

I’d made an appointment the night before to meet one of my new Qatari friends, Rashid, at the Museum of Islamic Art, which is a very cool building combining modern and antique architectural styles.

When Rashid and I entered the museum, I was dismayed to find that they would not allow my backpack inside. Any bag large enough to whisk away a national treasure must be checked. I’d brought a camera and 3 lenses, as I like to be prepared for any photographic occasion. But carrying 2 extra lenses by hand while trying to shoot? Impossible. I had to leave one in the backpack and trust to Allah. I didn’t worry much, though—as I’m finding out bit by bit, Islam has some very appealing characteristics. Security at the museum is handled by women in stylized burqas that look like navy uniforms while meeting the requirements of covering everything but the hands and face. I didn’t believe they would even consider opening my bag while it was in their custody. And I was right. Nothing to worry about.

It was an inconvenience, however, having to lay one lens one the ground while taking photos, and having to be so mindful while walking of keeping a tight grip on whichever I was carrying. Still, we world travelers must meet the challenges we face, and this one was worth it.

The museum has many amazing items of Islamic art, which is characterized by incredible attention to detail: Wood and metals are often fashioned into useable or decorative pieces bearing minute engraving of figures or text.

The workmanship is astounding, especially given the antiquity of some of the pieces, and on display is a wide variety of items, from rugs to weapons, vessels to lamps.

This mask was striking, and I wish they’d had more examples.

This is what your interior looked like in the 18th century.

I was extremely pleased to visit the museum with Rashid, who answered my questions about Muslim customs and lifestyle patiently and thoughtfully. He is quite a good photographer as well as a courteous and friendly host, and I will see if I can get a link to some of his photos. One of our favorite pieces was the one Rashid calls the Patient Monkey, who seems to be staring at a bronzed banana on the wall facing his display.

After viewing the museum, we stepped outside for a moment to see these fountains and the view of the bay. I managed my favorite shot of the afternoon: Rashid getting the proper angle of the fountains, with Doha’s financial district visible through arches more traditional in style than the buildings they partially obscure.

Rashid brought me back to the hotel in his Pathfinder, and I intended to revisit the Souk in the nicer afternoon light. But the crazy sleep schedule caught up with me and I dozed right through dusk. I have two more chances at that and hope to provide some more interesting photos of a very interesting place. I’d also like another crack at the Museum without having to juggle lenses, and as admission is free, I just might head back before I leave. It’s worth another look.

Finally, I created a panoramic shot of the view from my balcony. It’s wide, but you can scroll side to side and see in better detail what I see when I risk a sudden sand storm. ;-) Please click on the image to see it at full size.

I’d like to close with one of my most astute observations: simply watching on TV Muslims of various nationalities burn the American flag and curse our very presence on earth does not tell the whole story. Seeing a Muslim society with my own eyes and meeting its people face to face, I’m more convinced than ever that there is more peace at the heart of Islam than war. As with other religions, it’s only when extremes creep in that hatred of our differences overcomes tolerance. There are certainly common values of courtesy and friendship there to focus on and appreciate if we choose to do so. I hope that when Muslims visit our home we are as warm and welcoming to them as the Qataris and resident expatriates herein Doha have been to me.

Islamic Training Center

2009-04-07T16:16:00.000-07:00

It's after 2 am and time to try to sleep, but I wanted to post about what a nice walk I had just now. Wandering around Doha for the last two hours or so, I felt completely safe and found the people who were also wandering to be very friendly. I spoke to a man fishing off a large pier as I took the above photo of the Islamic Training Center, and after I'd packed up to return to the hotel, found two Qatari men photographing the skyline where I'd been moments before. I stopped to say hello and found them both, Ahmad and Rashid, to be as friendly and open as anyone I've ever met. We spoke at the edge of the bay for almost an hour, I guess, I in my jeans and Polo shirt, they in their flowing white gowns and headdress. Their English was very good, much better than my Arabic, fortunately. Both are engineering students, and Rashid has agreed to show me around the Islamic Museum tomorrow.

I also saw a Qatari man driving a black Corvette. I keep thinking I've seen everything, and then...

Doha

2009-04-07T08:31:00.000-07:00

This is the view from my hotel room. In the distance is the modern, financial district of Doha, or so I'm told. I have yet to visit it in person. From here it looks like one huge construction site. There are as many cranes as buildings across the bay.

Below me is a neighborhood that might as well be a thousand miles from shiny glass skyscrapers and luxury hotels. The roofs are populated with storage tanks and satellite dishes, and men hang out together and talk before rejoining those walking on the streets, passing electronics stores and markets. Everything here is sandy. When I close my sliding glass door firmly enough for the latch to reach, a cloud of sand blooms and wafts into my room. Mosques seem to be everywhere. At a few minutes before six pm the broadcast call to prayer began and filled the city. Loud speakers sent the winding voices on the breeze, as the call from one mosque met the call from another blocks away and they mingled like accidental duets. It was an incredibly strange moment, to be standing on my balcony, here in Qatar for a motorcycle race, looking out over the bay at multi-million dollar construction projects that are thoroughly western, and hearing an ancient cuustom that sounded so foreign to someone from California and yet so immediately identifiable.

I'm definitely not in Kansas anymore...

So It Begins...

2009-04-05T06:45:00.000-07:00

Posting from my iphone at SFO, waiting for the first of three flights that will tale me to Doha, Qatar. First up is Totonto on Air Canada.

Didn't get much sleep last night, too excited for this trip to start. Can't wait to get to Doha and my first city in the Arab world, though due to the high percetage of expatriates living there I suspect things will be more familiar in general than not.

I got lucky once again at security. They didn't bat an eye at all the photo gear, not even a wipe down. I must exude confidence and authority.

Most of all I'm feeling grateful right now for this opportunity. I could not have imagined this trip happening a year ago.

I miss the nipper already though. What a softie!!

More from Toronto if I can find free wifi.

Zabriske Point, Death Valley

2009-04-01T21:28:00.001-07:00

We recently returned from a family get-together in Death Valley. The weather was not very photogenic, with a few exceptions during the several days we spent in this national park. Each morning I rose around 5:30 to see what the dawn looked like, and only once got something like what I was hoping for.

On Tuesday, March 24th, my cousin-in-law Russ joined me for my pre-dawn shot, being quite an early-riser himself. We drove a short distance to Zabrisky Point and in the dark tried to figure out what there was to photograph. As we faced east to shoot the moon, the traffic at 5:45AM made that impossible. More and more cars arrived, suggesting that we were in the right place for something.

By the time it was light enough o to see what was what, there were 10 or more cars in the lot and we followed the other folk up a short climb to the lookout area. As the sky changed from dark to light blue, the point and its surrounding formations emerged. We got lucky with a few wispy clouds for a few minutes, before the rising sun chased them away, including one that seemed to have been cut by the wind into slices.

Later that day I stopped by the reception office of the Furnace Creek Inn and noticed that behind the counter was a poster of Zabrisky Point, the foreground element being a line of 20 or so photographers with tripods, standing just where we had been standing for much of the morning.

Back Home

2009-03-12T15:56:00.000-07:00

Working on a post about Daytona, but for now, thought I'd say that I found another GGB cliché spot this morning. Woot!

Facebook Gets Greedier

2009-02-16T13:26:00.001-08:00

I've mentioned to some of you why I don't post photos to the worlds largest photo sharing site, and the reasons for this just grew more compelling. As reported over at the Photo Attorney blog, Facebook now claims perpetual ownership of any photo you post to their site. Ouch.

Road to the Light

2009-02-12T00:19:00.000-08:00

Canyon Fire

2009-02-11T07:12:00.001-08:00

Canyon Fire, originally uploaded by Scott Jones.

Antelope Arch composite

2009-02-10T11:56:00.003-08:00

DSC_4714-22.jpg, originally uploaded by Scott Jones.

On our recent trip I earned the nickname "Machine Gun Jones" because it was my habit to bracket my shots in sets of 3, 5, sometimes 7 or 9 shots. I did this almost exclusively in the slot canyon because the sandstone in the shadows here and in bright, orange light there presented unlimited subtleties of tone that are simply beyond the capabilities of a digital sensor to capture in one exposure. Certainly a single exposure can come close in the hands of a skilled photographer, but by using a technique of combining exposures separated by a third or by two thirds of a stop, we can approach the tonal range of film with the benefit of digital. Above is a combination of nine exposures, which you may compare to the previous post of the first exposure in the series.

Back from the desert...

2009-02-08T21:25:00.001-08:00

It's late Sunday evening, and I'm exhausted from a long but fantastic trip across the Southwest with with friends John Rav, LionTX, and Mumbley Joe. No more bridges for a while. Get ready for sandstone!

02-03-2009

2009-02-03T16:02:00.001-08:00

02-03-2009, originally uploaded by Scott Jones.

This should be my last shot of the bridge for a while. Get ready for rocks, instead! Tomorrow I'm meeting some friends in Las Vegas for a 4-day tour of the southwest. Bryce, Antelope Canyon, The Wave... Should be great.

Mirror Up!

2009-02-02T18:06:00.001-08:00

Mirror Up!, originally uploaded by Scott Jones.

It's a little hard to tell at the small size I choose for Flickr, but this is the clearest, sharpest low-light photo of the bridge I've taken to date. This is from yesterday morning at Fort Baker, and I was playing around with raising the mirror on the D700 before exposure. I think it's worth it, even though it removes some of the convenience of using the remote to trigger 3, 5 or 9 bracketed exposures. In Mirror Up mode, you have to press the shutter twice for each exposure, instead of just holding it down and letting the camera keep track of the brackets.

02-01-2009

2009-02-01T14:07:00.001-08:00

02-01-2009, originally uploaded by Scott Jones.

01-31-2009

2009-01-31T11:38:00.001-08:00

01-31-2009, originally uploaded by Scott Jones.

Grim, hazy sky this morning, disappointing for someone wanting to try out a new lens. Didn't get any shots I was really happy with; this one is the best of the lot.

01-30-2009

2009-01-30T18:33:00.001-08:00

01-30-2009, originally uploaded by Scott Jones.

Maddie's head is about as wide and thick as a cinder block, in spite of this view from the Nikon 12-24 f/2.8 I've rented for the SouthWest photo adventure. I think 12mm could be a touch too wide for this shot, but I only had a moment to grab it before the next wave of life crashed onto my shore.

I plan to take the lens out tomorrow morning for the sunrise to get a little practice with it before we leave for Arizona and Utah. I hope we have some nice color tomorrow!

01-29-2009

2009-01-29T10:39:00.001-08:00

01-29-2009, originally uploaded by Scott Jones.

The other day I hoped over a guard rail up by Hawk Hill to half-climb/half-slide down a hill to find my way out to a distant area that looks directly (almost) back at the bridge. I wasn't planing on doing a mountain goat, and had my running shoes on--not the right footwear for that journey. But I liked the view, and returned this morning, to try it again in the dark. Having my boots on made the difference though, and the going was much easier due to the better footing.

The trick is that the cliff comes up pretty fast, especially in the dark. Thank goodness I'd gone out in the daytime before trying it in the dark or I might have sailed right into the ocean, several hundred feet below.

It was windy and cold out there, but the sky was clear and the sunrise fantastic.