Slickrock and Shadow

Red Sand Beach, Maui at sunrise Red sand beach near Hana, Maui is a great location for sunrise. It faces east so that the rising sun's for strays will strike it. On my recent trip to Maui, this was my first landscape location. I had driven the road to Hana the night before in darkness. The next morning I woke up and drove in darkness to the trailhead for Red Sand Beach. I then walked down the trail in darkness using my headlamp. It wasn't until the sun came up several minutes later that I saw sunlight on the island of Maui for the first time. The clouds were illuminated for about 20 minutes before the actual sunrise. During this time I took several pictures from the beach looking east. My favorite one I have titled "Red Sand Beach:  Watercolor" because the beautiful color in the clouds is reflected in the water. Red Sand Beach:  Watercolor, taken at dawn Although it is not legal, I found two couples had camped out overnight on the beach. One woman had h...

Zebra Hoodoo  Zebra hoodoo in southwest Utah was a delightful find I had recently. I had been exploring a fairly remote canyon hoping to find some interesting formations. I was rewarded with this. I had a very fun time photographing this lovely hoodoo and enjoying the desert silence.  It actually snowed lightly while I was there. House of Hoodoo For scale, here is Zebra Hoodoo's partner along with the photographer

Green, brown and white stripes cover everything in Sidestep Canyon Sidestep Canyon is often overlooked because so many other world-class features are located between Page, Arizona and Kanab, Utah. However, taking time to explore this area is certainly rewarding. It's a fairly simple drive to the rim of Sidestep Canyon. Climbing down into the canyon is more of an adventure. There are no trails. Many of the rocks are rounded like the ones pictured above and jumping from one rock to another is not only the best way to travel but it is also quite fun. As you can see in the bigger picture above, Sidestep Canyon is quite deep and there is a lot to explore. Many impressive hoodoos are located on the north and south canyon walls. Within the canyon itself on are beautiful colored rocks, some with green, brown, red and white of course. On this particular day, the sun was out and beautiful to begin the day. At the end of the day the class came in and it was snowing lightly. It did not ...

Poomau Ditch Trail Views are awesome! The island of Kauai sees innumerable tourists every year. Trying to find some solitude was very difficult on my first trip to Kauai. Five years later, I went again but I had a plan. After doing more preparatory reading, I selected several locations which I thought would provide beauty and solitude. One such location was the Poomau Ditch Trail as described in the Kauai Revealed travel book.  This is located deep within the Kauai jungle in Kokee State Park.  Our adventure began at the ranger station. I walked up to the ranger and asked her what she could tell me about the Poomau Ditch Trail.  She paused, gave me a strange look and then asked the question "Where did you hear about that trail?" in a very accusing manner. I calmly said that I had heard good things about it. She looked at me like I was crazy and told me "the trail was overgrown and was not in any passable condition."  Normally that would discourage me from goin...

Lacy Rocky Spire of Coyote Buttes North The "wave" is world-famous, one of the most in all landscape photography.  Pictures like the one below have made it an icon.  However, one wants to explore and discover.  That's part of our nature and certainly is a goal when I set out to photograph a location.  I want to find some place new, an undiscovered gem. Well, this time I hiked to Coyote Buttes North (the Wave) and did so in snow.  The beginning temperature was 17 degrees Fahrenheit.  The sun did come out and warm me up.  I can't complain too much.  Snow made everything different, making it a little more challenging to find any classic Southwest picture. I had heard of a cliff that had lacy rocks on the very top. However, the climb up to the top was on the north side of this mountain and covered with snow. Climbing up snow-covered slickrock is an exercise in persistence, gravity, friction and sliding down.  It took quite a while to ma...

Normally a photographer must account for the sun's position when composing a photograph.A basic rule or guideline says to keep the sun from directly shining into or across the lens. That is why lens hoods were invented in the first place:  they keep the sunlight from hitting the lens. Another rule, the most famous one, is the rule of thirds.  That states that the main subject of the photograph should be about one-third  and from the top and one-third in from the side of the photograph. I normally try to follow these rules but not on this occasion. On this afternoon  the position of the valley and the summer sun were such that I had to shoot with the sun in the upper corner of the lens to capture the golden moment.  The light is literally captured in spots of gold coming across the photograph in a diagonal from the upper left to the lower right.  Is that a flaw?  Some would say "yes" but breaking the rules works for me here because the light just el...

At the end of September I began a hike that I had planned on doing for several years: hiking up the right fork of North Creek in Zion National Park. This fork is adjacent to the more famous left fork, a.k.a. The Subway. The right fork is scenic in its own way but you work for your reward: 6 miles one-way hiking to reach the destination of Double Falls. This beautiful waterfall is part of a series of cascades coming off of slickrock. This is a perennial waterfall. While I was hiking in, I discovered a coyote following me, I came face-to-face with a raccoon and I discovered a very recent landslide which had created a very large pond where the trail had been. I decided to hike up the landslide and then descend back onto the trail farther along. This took a long time. On my way back, I chose to wade neck-deep to pass this obstacle. Double Falls is beautiful, private, clean and perfect.  The main waterfall splits into two separate falls just above a lovely pool.  I spent 2 t...