Slickrock and Shadow

Gibraltar Rock Gibraltar rock is one of those things that makes you tilt your head.  When I look at it, I'll just feel like I'm a little bit off balance or that the earth is slanting one way.  That is because Gibraltar rock does not go straight up and down.  In the photo above, you can see that the left face has a significant overhang.  As you get closer to it, this becomes more exaggerated.  It looks like it is about to fall over any second. Visiting Gibraltar rock is easy.  It is on the trail to the "fire wave".  You walk right by it.  The photo above was taken about half way between the fire wave and Gibraltar.  Lots of small rocks strewn over the textured sandstone make for a fantastic view.  This is best at sunset when the shadows are long and the light is golden-orange!

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...

Fire Wave at the very moment of Sunset One of the newer icons in southwest photography is the so-called "Fire Wave" of Valley of Fire.  This is a remarkable striped sandstone formation with curves.  It faces the west and takes on fantastic colors at sunset. Capturing this photo proved to be a little more challenging than I anticipated because of the popularity.  The state park has made an easy trail, well marked (if not a bit circuitous) leading to this formation.  Plenty of people traveled here on the same day of my visit.  Most of the people I saw were leaving as I came.  I was heading down the trail with only about 45 minutes before sunset. Fortunately the distance passed quickly.  I reached the fire wave with time to spare and set up my equipment.  I had been taking pictures for about 3 minutes when 2 other visitors arrived: a man and woman couple.  With my wide-angle lens taking in the landscape, I could not avoid taking them in als...

Sandstone Mountain Arch Drink lots of water The big arch This is the trail report about the area around sandstone mountain.  Sometimes there are nearby locations that have never been explored or are relatively undiscovered.  The Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, an area set aside to protect the special environment of the desert tortoise, has some wonderful hiking trails.  These don't really get a lot of traffic.  I decided to explore one area this spring: the hike around sandstone mountain. Although this was not a very hot day, the exposure here to the sun shine is extreme and I would never recommend this in the summertime.  There is a trail that is very well-established going from the parking lot down to the Virgin River.  It goes through some sandstone fins and towers.  Then it leads to a very large arch that you can actually hike under. Rough country After it reaches the river, the trail basically disappears.  It turns to the eas...

Seven Sisters of Valley of Fire State Park On a recent trip to Valley of Fire State Park, I arrived early.  I was hoping to be present for the sunrise and even consider doing some night photography. Night photography requires a few elements in the subject for it to be successful.  Typically there needs to be something that extends vertically into the sky, there needs to be some movement either in the clouds or the stars.  If the stars are the subject, everything else can be dark.  If the stars are not the subject, there needs to be enough light to show some of the land. On this particular evening, I had a full moon.  There were some clouds that were moving by relatively quickly.  I decided to stop next to the road at the rock formations known as the "Seven Sisters."  In what is the controversial subject, the state park has put a lot picnic tables between these beautiful rock formations.  That's very nice for picnics but it kind of spoils ...

Windstone Arch in the Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada Despite going between St. George, Utah and Las Vega,s Nevada innumerable times over the last 13 years, I had not stopped at Valley of Fire State Park until recently.  In the last 6 months I have made 3 separate trips to this wonderful discovery.  It is a discovery to me although I know it is not a secret to other photographers.  It is easy to see why photographers love this location: lots of beautiful scenery all in a very compact location. There are many iconic photographs from this small state park.  One of them is Windstone Arch.  There are several different photographs of this small, delicate arch.  Each is slightly different.  I wanted to visit this location and take my own photograph. It is very helpful to have accurate GPS coordinates for this arch.  It is so small and it is located inside an alcove.  It cannot be seen without sticking your head inside a rock.  I hav...

Undressed I find it fascinating that hordes of people from all over the world will come to Zion National Park during the first week of November.  This is a special time. Autumn leaves are changing and beginning to fall and it also marks the first week that the shuttle system becomes optional instead of mandatory. Those are 2 good reasons to visit the park during this week. Joking aside, the autumn leaves are the main attraction and put on a wonderful show every year. In 2011 I had the timing perfectly right. In 2012 commitments prevented me from going the first week of November. Instead I went the 2nd week.The leaves had mostly fallen to the ground but were still highly colorful. I found this tree after wandering around on the west side of the Virgin River. It was quiet, beautiful and peaceful. Seeing the tree standing with all of its usually adornments dropped at its' feet reminded me of the process of undressing, hence the title. 

Purple Stalagmite Fantasy My family and I visited the Lewis and Clark Caverns in Montana.  This state park has and adventurous tour through the cold caves that is truly fun for everyone. I highly recommend visiting. Stalagmite Tower From a photography standpoint, the darkness adds some complexity to the task of shooting.  In addition, I discovered before arrival that they did not permit tripods inside the cave.  I would have to hold my camera very still.  The more light a lens could allow, the better the image would be.  So, I chose one really sharp and fast and sort-of wide lens to take:  the Canon 35 f/1.4 L.  It's extremely sharp and very fast in low-light situations.  This shot is hand-held with ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/40 second. The minerals seem to melt all over one another here, creating tiers of stalactites and stalagmite joining in the middle of the cave.  Stalactites come from the ceiling and the stalagmites grow from the gro...

Raccoon encounter in Zion National Park Tarantula spider in Valley of Fire Being out in nature is one of the great joys of landscape photography. I simply love spending time in the desert amongst the bushes, rocks, buttes, streams and trees. Sometimes I forget that this is also the home of many other creatures. It is very common to come across birds and lizards. Occasionally I come across animals larger or more interesting. This includes antelope, deer, coyote, snakes. In the last 2 months I've come across these 3 creatures: a raccoon, tarantula spider and a desert big horn sheep. The raccoon was going up and down the Virgin River as I was taking photographs in November. It was snowing and he was carefully going downstream when I spotted him. I quickly detached my camera from the tripod and tried to sneak around to get a better look at him. I could not stay hidden for very long. He discovered what I was doing and cautiously walked into the bushes. I waited. After short tim...

A Senior Portrait It is natural to assume that a photographer of loves to take pictures. It is natural to assume that a food critic loves to eat. But sometimes there can be too much of a good thing. A family portrait With the end of the year 2012, there were a lot of opportunities for family photos as well as landscape photography. Winter came early to my part of the Southwest and I had some wonderful photography days in the desert. Several families wanted Christmas photos or senior portraits at the same time.  If you add up family photos and landscape photography you get a lot of work.  this work is self generated. When I'm taking photographs, it is very fun and easy to shoot 300 or 600 photographs in a day. But when I get home, trying to narrow down so many choices to about 10 to 20 "winners" and then processes those is the difficult step. The other stressful thing about the end of the year is a deadline. People photography is something that people want to ...

Orange Tree Reflection Another photo from my visit to Zion last month.   This is also from Echo slot canyon, adjacent to the East Rim Trail.  The curves along the left canyon wall first caught my attention.  I hiked a little closer and saw I could line up the curves like a series of waves in my composition.  Then I noticed the orange tree in the distance and I knew I could make a winner if I just spent the time. I wanted this orange-leaf tree in the slot canyon to be the major photo subject.  I also wanted to line up the tree and its' reflection in the waters of the slot.  Sometimes an inch or two difference in the position of the camera (especially the vertical position) can make all the difference.  I took some with my standard wide angle lens, but the tree was so distant that it had no impact.  I switched to my standard zoom lens (24-105 f/4.0 L) and also my telephoto zoom (70-200 f/4.0 L) and tried different compositions.  This pho...

Echo Canyon Slot Echo canyon is a small part of the East Rim Trail in Zion National Park.  It is not a destination per se, but rather something that people will hike through as they got up to Observation Point or come down the East Rim Trail to reach the main canyon.  Some canyoneering groups will go into the depths of this wet, narrow and dangerous slot. the main trail actually goes adjacent to this and does not require any difficult work other than simply climbing up the trail. There are several points where the trail itself will come to Echo Canyon and access into this slot becomes available.  The above photo was taken as such an access point.  I setup my tripod with its' legs squeezed between two narrow and slippery walls.  Carefully I composed the shot and then made my exposure.  Trouble is, the wide angle distortion is pretty obvious.  I had used the 16-35mm f/2.8 L lens to record the image. It didn't look right.  So I climbed out o...

Portrait As I landscape photographer, I get plenty of practice shooting trees, rocks, streams and clouds.  Things that move in circles and against gravity are foreign to me.  That's what kids do. I had the pleasure of taking some family portraits last week for some family members.  When I get the call to take someone's photo, I always reach for one lens:  Canon 135mm f/2.0 L.  This lens is so fast, so sharp and so accurate in getting the picture that I want.  Some people say the "keeper" rate is very high with this lens and I heartily agree. In one of the moments where she stopped briefly, I was able to focus, compose and shoot. In keeping my lenses straight from one another, they get nicknames.  This one is the "movie star lens" because it makes everyone look fantastic!