There Are Those Moments... (Big Bend National Park) by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: When one stops driving and takes in a view of mountains that seems to stretch across the horizon as well as the near to far. I'd just finished exploring the Santa Elena Canyon and was heading back into the main part of the national park to enjoy a hike on a desert trail (I found myself enjoying two, but that's a later story). For this setting, I wanted to capture the rolling hillsides and folds in the desert landscape nearby. Not only was the view one to soak in but I also found the color contrasts to complement the far off view to the rugged Chisos Mountains off in the distance. The Chisos Mountains with Emory Peak and the South Rim just seemed to stand out from this roadside pulloff. By keeping my SLR camera in M mode, I was able to adjust the metering with the shutter speed to capture a slightly lower exposure during the bright mid day sun. By angling my SLR camera slightly downward and then cropping, I found I was able to bring out a feel for a more panoramic image.