Arriving here after a drive along Movie Flat Road you quickly understand why this area has become a favourite location for many filmmakers. The rugged, barren and geologically diverse landscape can be seen in hundreds of films, from classic westerns like The Lone Ranger to more recent films, including Iron Man and Gladiator.
The Alabama Hills sit near the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range in California, technically they are actually part of the mountains. The area is formed of two types of rock, 80 million year old monzogranite boulders, which have become rounded due to millions of years of spheroidal weathering and metamorphosed volcanic rock, more orange in colour, which is over 150 million years old.
The spectacular storm clouds certainly add drama to the shot, but there was a moment of realisation whilst shooting it that I was stood in the middle of nowhere, on top of a boulder, with a carbon fiber tripod, not too clever.