Slickrock and Shadow

Barren Winter:  yellow stubble for grass and a hidden sun A winter visit to Montana afforded me an opportunity to shoot my little remote cabin in subzero temperatures.  Wind and rain made things cold indeed.  The large cloud did not however spoil the sunset because some golden yellow rays came down between the cloud and the mountains.  Grass was short, dead, awaiting summer temperatures to revive.  

Abyss Pool at West Thumb Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Abyss Pool violently erupted in the 1990s before settling into a placid phase.  This green goddess is one of the most beautiful pools in the entire park.  Like many pools in Yellowstone, the colors defy description and even photography is challenged to show the brilliance and full spectrum of greens on display! I chose this as my  Photo of the Month  pick for June because of the wonderful colors, the clouds sweeping across the sky, the absence of humans and the balanced composition.  This was my best landscape shot from Yellowstone this year. Some Technical Information: To photograph such colors I used a polarizing filter to reduce the surface reflection.  This allows the greens underneath to shine better.   I shot 4 vertical pictures from left to right with identical aperture and shutter speed and then stitched these photos together in Photoshop back home.  My widest lens, the 17mm...

Colors and Textures of Black Pool Yellowstone Park is filled with amazing discoveries.  Since 1984, I have visited the park every summer except four.  To satisfy my children, we see Old Faithful nearly every time.  But we also love to explore further off the beaten path (or at least away from the teeming crowd).  It'd been about 10 years since we last visited West Thumb geyser basin.  This is a colorful collection of pools and cinder cones right beside the massive Yellowstone Lake.  On a clear day the scene is breathtaking. My favorite feature from this area is Black Pool.  The orange-red bacterial mattes are outstanding and so close to the lovely blue depths of the pool.  You really can get up-close and personal with this feature.  The colors are similar to Grand Prismatic Spring but on a smaller scale.  I tried to capture the fine detail and contrasting colors in this photograph. Black Pool is no longer black.  A couple d...

Gardena Pass Church at sunrise I found myself on top of Gardena Pass waiting for the sun to rise in June.  According to my calculations and the Internet, the sun was due to rise at 5:20 AM.  I was in position at 5 AM.  I wandered up and around a lovely church.  Above the church the trail extends farther into the mountain peaks.  The wind was blowing and warmth nonexistent.  The storm had come through the area the previous several days and today the storm had finally cleared out.  A few clouds were here and there.  I expected it to be a beautiful sunrise. Slowly the light grew.  I was in position to catch the very first light shining on this beautiful mountain church surrounded by rugged peaks.  5:20 passed.  Now was 5:21, then 5:22 and still no sun.  Because I was so cold, time slowed down and 10 minutes seemed like an hour.  The sun finally rose at 5:30.  I've never known the sun to be tardy before but on t...

Portal Arch  -- The biggest in Valley of Fire Another post from photogenic Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.  I hope nobody is tired of this beautiful location.  There are still some wonderful spots that I have not written about or posted pictures from. In planning my trip to Valley of Fire, I wanted to find Portal Arch. I'd seen some other photos of it and tried to figure out where it was and when to visit. Sometimes information is lacking. . . . A wonderful resource that I discovered was from Steffen Synnatschke.  He has created a PDF specifically about Valley of Fire and good photographic locations.  It is available for a very small cost and I found it extremely worthwhile.  I would highly recommend it. He documents portal arch in his writing.  It sounded very intriguing to me.  I studied several pictures of it.  I was trying to discover whether it would be best at sunrise or sunset.  Taking a picture of an arch in th...

Chimney Rock of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument Chimney Rock is an intriguing sandstone formation can be seen for several miles near the towns of Big Water and Church Wells, Utah.  Although it is easy to see, it is difficult to reach.  There are no roads that go directly to this monument.  Instead it is surrounded by sand, cacti, bottlebrush and very dry air. During my visit, I wandered across the sand to reach this monument and felt that this was a very typical view of southern Utah on a typical day:  fluffy intermittent clouds, beautiful blue sky, classic red rock surrounded by a dry environment.  This was not the golden hour when the light changes color.  This Utah in its' full, hot, desert glory! I took several pictures of this monument.  Ultimately I felt that the closer, wide-angle shot was the best.  I corrected some wide-angle distortion in Photoshop in order to accurately show this beauty.