Snow, Mistletoe, Doves and Really Cold

Last post for this year; a winter scene in the San Jacinto mountains of Southern California.  Hope everyone has a wonderful and productive New Year.

Foggy Forest

Nothing quite like a misty, foggy Sunday afternoon out in the 6000' elevation forest around my house. Certainly no worries about anyone popping into my shots accidentally (well, maybe a deer, but rare to see them during the day). 

Still Here...

Wow.. thought it was maybe a couple of months since I posted here.. looks like half a year got by. Is anyone reading blogs anymore?  Seems like interest has shifted to Facebook and Instagram. Don't really like Instagram (personally), but warming up to Facebook and will probably be more active over there than here in the future.
Been busy with my design business this past summer, so I've really got quite a backlog of shots that I need to process. This one is scanned from some film I shot way back in March, and just now getting around to working up some finished images to print.

Smooth Flow

All the streams around where I live here in the San Jacinto mountains of California are dry this year... the result of hardly any snow or rain to feed them this past winter. Nice to see water running cold and fresh in Oak Creek Canyon, near Sedona, AZ.

Timeless

An early favorite from my most recent Arizona excursion. Only one day of perfect light on this trip.. the other days were kind of a struggle. But one good day here is worth the trip.

God-Given Light

Spent last week photographing around north-central Arizona for the first time in a while.  An old friend of mine from school days back east teaches art at a private school in Massachusetts, and got himself a sabbatical for the spring semester to come out west for a couple of workshops and some free time to paint.  I figured that was also a good excuse for me to get away for a while and show him around the area.  So, he was busy doing his plein air oil studies while I wandered around and tried to find some new and interesting perspectives, which gets harder having been here quite a few times.

My shot here is at the Little Colorado River Gorge; honestly one of those dumb-luck, fortuitous moments that can't be planned... end of the day, we drove out the east entrance of the Grand Canyon a little early, thinking that the light was done for the day.  We just happened to see a turnout off the road to Cameron where the Navajo set up some stalls to sell jewelry and stuff... and being kind of tired, I probably would have passed it by, but my friend  wanted to stop and see where a dirt road behind the stalls led to, so we garnered up some energy to walk down there and voila!.. wow.  What can you say when an unexpected scene like this just pops up right in front of you?  This is nature's gift right here... all I had to do was be in the right place at the right time as the clouds opened up to light the gorge.  Thankfully I had the sense to bring my camera along for the walk!  The rest of the ride home to Flagstaff was one wow moment after the other,... but that is all huge, open country with no particular subject for a photograph, so we just had to enjoy the distant views, driving along as the sun set behind us, lighting up everything under the dark clouds off to the east.

Peace and Light

Driving home through Garner Valley at the end of the day a couple of weekends ago.  Hard to tell from this, but the hills just behind the fore-most line of hills on the right, is where the Mountain fire tore through the area on the first day, then devastated much of the backcountry way up into the mountains, all the while threatening to destroy the whole town where we live. Only days of hard work by hundreds of firefighters and some amazing luck with the weather got it under control.  Here is what it looked like last summer. We're having a very warm and dry winter, with an historic drought in most of the state, so might be a long and mean fire season coming up this year.

Left Behind

This old windmill still stands watch over the desert, about halfway out on the trail to Wall Street Mine ruins in Joshua Tree. A level, pleasant walk on a cool winter's day.

A Day of Old Stuff

Had not been down to the desert for a while, so we took ride out to have lunch at Pappy and Harriets in Pioneertown, just a short side trip off the main road on the way to Joshua Tree.  This little town was built in the 1940's as a live-in movie set for Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, among others...lots of movies and TV shows used to be filmed here and it's still standing, preserved in the middle of nowhere about 5 miles north of the town of Yucca Valley. Quite a few artists and musicians live around Joshua Tree and there's also a popular recording studio nearby, so if you happen into Pappy and Harriets on the right night, you might be surprised to see some world-class band taking over the stage... many have.
Wandering around and snapping the old buildings got me in a groove for the rest of the day of enjoying all the great aging, textured stuff out here in the high desert. A little break from my usual pure landscape stuff.