Slickrock and Shadow

Fetid-Marigold, Dogweed Enjoy some wildflowers from the Grand Canyon.  Spring 2019 was very wet and our wildflowers were outstanding. Beavertail Cactus Flower Flowers by Tapeats Creek Cactus and Flowers, separate Brittlebush growing in a rocky niche Brittlebush bloom in the Grand Canyon

Dead twisted tree at the trailhead for Boulder Mail Trail:  taken at dawn after a stormy night. Dawn after a storm welcomed me to a new adventure.  I was about to hike down the Boulder Mail Trail (BMT) to Death Hollow but this awesome twisted tree and developing sunrise made me stop and enjoy a little pre-adventure beauty.  I set up my tripod several minutes before this shot and took a photo about every 2 or 3 minutes.  The clouds grew more colorful and purple.  Then the light touched the treetops around me and I took this exposure.   This is the apotheosis of a beautiful dawn.  

Half and Half Rock:  Yellow and Purple Strips run through everything here! Half and Half Rock is an extension of the surrounding stripes running throughout Coyote Buttes South.  Not only is it amazing that the stripe runs exactly though the middle of the rock but it's mind-blowing that the same stripe continues across the ground and up onto the northern wall of sandstone.  It's like someone with purple chalk drew a wandering line through the whole landscape without regard to obstacles.  This small wonder is one of the first places the casual visitor to Coyote Buttes South discovers.  He sits right on the eastern border and the sandy trail leads to this general area from the parking lot.  If you seek, you will find.  If GPS coordinates help, then here it is:  N 36°57'39.3"  W 111°59'16.9". A literal rock star, this little guy has been photographed by some of the most famous landscape photographers.  Fatali flipped his photograph ...

Purple Blossoms of Spring as seen on the Hellhole (or Hell Hole) Trail in Red Cliffs Desert Reserve The Red Cliffs Desert Reserve is a vast area north of St. George.   The reserve was initially formed, in part, because of the desert tortoise.   These seldom-seen residents are a threatened local species.   The reserve status protects this land for recreational use and I’ve enjoyed several jaunts into various parts of the reserve.   Some have famous names like Yant Flat or the Vortex.   Others are unknown.   On this day I hiked into an unknown area named “Hell hole” because of the miserable heart in the summer.   My visit had clouds and rain and I felt it more like a desert garden than a pit of despair.   I know that a waterfall can appear from the high cliffs if it rains enough.   I hoped for a waterfall appearance . . . but got something different.   The trail heads up a wash on the west side of Red Mountain.   The san...

Alien Planet:  Dramatic skies with orange and purple reflected light shone over Lake Powell's Dungeon Canyon I've done some posts on Lake Powell before and this year I'll add to this growing category.  Each year Lake Powell gives me a surprise.  The changing water level reveals or conceals different things year to year.  A great beach one year is gone the next.  A picturesque promontory can disappear in a season. Dungeon Canyon is near Rainbow Bridge.  It's pretty small and cannot give anchorage to more than a handful of boaters.  This year I found a good beach to anchor a boat and enjoyed some family time.  Storms threatened but did not truly strike until the final day.  With these storms came some dramatic skies.  One evening the sky shone bright orange long before the last light of sunset.  I grabbed my camera with its' 16-35mm wide angle lens and began searching for a good photography subject to match the dramatic skies....

Ocotillo in Fading Light Ocotillo are my favorite plant and I found a few perched over Fonts Point when I made my sunset visit.  The star of this location is the badland formations extending out far into the distance.  I used the ocotillo plants as foreground subjects with the obvious background being the badlands. Some shots are from sunset and others from dusk.  I even found a fallen plant nearly ready to drop into the canyon.  I shot its' photo very close to the canyon edge. As things became darker, my shutter speed went from 1/60 second to 1/4 second.  To prevent even slower shutter speeds, I increased my ISO to 400 for the above shot and opened aperture to f/8.  I had to do this avoid blurred ocotillos as the wind made them sway back and forth. My last is the same plant as my first shot, just about 60 minutes earlier. Ocotillo silhouette in Anza Borrego Clinging to the Edge at Fonts Point Fonts point with Dead Ocotillo Fonts ...

Black Rock Cottage with Buachaille Etive Mor and Sweeping Clouds I believe there is such a thing as luck and on my first sunrise in Scotland I received beginners luck.  It does take some effort to rise early in the summer at such a northern latitude.  My alarm clock went off at 3:30 AM.  Sunrise started developing around 4 AM.  On this day I did not regret losing any sleep because some wonderful clouds were filling the sky, sweeping from the south to the north. I expected the sunlight would color these purple or orange.  They also seemed to fill in the space between the distant mountains.  The one on the left is the famous Buachaille Etive Mor. This monolith plays a major role in this photograph.  The other players include the quaint Black Rock Cottage, the sky itself and an minor role is played by the foreground grasses.  Everything works together in this photograph to create a strong and beautiful image of Scotland.  The Highlands ...