Slickrock and Shadow

Tallest Grass  In the field, looking at the bland clouds and hazy grey skies, I had to decide how to make an interesting photograph of my dear little cabin.  I wasn't satisfied with my standard shots taken from 2 to 6 feet above the ground.  The ground cover wasn't interesting enough to shoot down.  The skies weren't good enough to shoot up.   So I changed perspective radically by inverting my tripod and getting very, very low to the ground . . . so low that my subject (the cabin) was mostly obscured.  It became a complimentary subject while the grass and yellow flowers became my new star.  Even so, this is a less saturated picture than most landscapes.  It feels grey/neutral in many ways and accurately represents the colors that day.

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

Schist Narrows:  a geologic rarity! Schist is the stuff that doesn't belong in the southwest.  It's not sandstone.  It's weird metamorphic rock that seems marbled and smooth, dark and evil, even mysterious.  Making it more mysterious is the fact that it's so old and only exposed in some of the deepest parts of the Grand Canyon.  You've got to reach far back in time to see schist. Even more rare is a slot canyon with flowing water and schist walls.  Such a place exists only in Monument Creek, by Granite Rapids, deep in the Grand Canyon.  The black is schist.  Pink stuff is granite (hence "granite rapids"). Monument Creek is pretty but the rocky surface makes hiking a trudge.  Also, beware of schist.  Shoes do not stick to schist and you can just slide right down the slick surface.  It's not like any other rock I've been on.  Smooth schist is like ice in many ways. Some other pics from Monument Creek: Schist, Granit...

The Queen in Little Egypt Geologic area Little Egypt landscape photography: Rain drizzled for 24 hours straight before my arrival at Little Egypt.  Clouds hung low.  I went here instead of searching for trickling waterfalls in Capitol Reef.  Laurent rates this place as less interesting than nearby Goblin Valley but the more colorful formations here appealed to me.  Many of the goblins here have a unique white stripe of rock running horizontal through them.  The most interesting formations were photographed from a distance using a telephoto lens.  With a focal length of 50-105mm, the plane of focus becomes small even with apertures of f/16.  Focus stacking is a technique to deal with this.  On site, I took 3 photographs of the foreground flowers, the midground bush, and the Queen rock formation.  These must have the same aperture and shutter speed.  They must align perfectly so a tripod is required.  They must be identical ex...

Yellow Wildflowers growing among Lava Rock Unexpected beauty in the bleak desert is the reward that "desert rats" have come to love.  On a Sunday evening I went out for a casual drive to Joe Blake Hill.  Never knowing what I would find, I got out and looked around.  In the peak of bloom these yellow flowers popped with color.  The black lava rock provides a natural dark contrast to the lovely yellow.  I adjusted my ISO to allow a quick enough exposure to prevent wind from blurring my flowers.  Then I composed my shot and pressed the button.  Sometimes I just don't know if a shot will be any good but I shoot with hope.  This was one of those moments.  I believe there are several stages to photography. 1.  Planning the excursion. 2.  On-site photography:  composition and camera settings to capture the moment. 3.  Post-processing to polish and develop what I saw in step #2. On this occasion I only saw the p...