(Leaving) Home on the Range

We will be in Colorado this week for a much-needed vacation.  We finally made it to the mountains this evening, but this was much more representative of the day.  Lots of open, rolling plains.  An advancing storm was looming up north.  We realized that we weren't going to make the mountains in time for a picture before sunset, so we stopped along the interstate about an hour out for this shot.  It is probably a bit frustrating to be my driver in these situations: "Ooh, that looks pretty.  Can we stop at the top of the hill?"  [slows down]  "No, that doesn't work. How about the next one?"  [speeds up]  "Ooh!  Stop now!  [screeching halt]  But, all of this gave me time to estimate my shot settings, since I didn't want us to be stopped by the side of the road for long.  My thought process was a lot like yesterday's; set the ISO for best quality, get a nice medium aperture for fine detail throughout, and then a shutter speed to get the desired dramatic exposure.  It is a good exercise to think these things through before you look at your meter; over time it will give you a good eye for settings, and you won't have to be tied to the meter so much.  I was quite pleased to get it pretty close on my first try.

Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 24-105mm f4
24mm - ISO 200
1/15s- f/11