Friday, October 30, 2015

The Big Picture

Aspen covered lava field, southern Utah.
I made a point of shooting a lot of  panoramas on my most recent tour.. trying to literally get a new perspective on some old, familiar subjects. Since our eyes see close to 180°, not in small rectangles, I find that it more closely matches the impression you get standing in an expansive scene. I really like the results even in very narrow spots where you might not think of using a pano.. the effect can be almost surrealistic and much more interesting than a standard rectangular shot.. more coming on that.

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Valley of the Gods


A rather appropriate name.   No crowds out here, for sure... one of the more remote places I have been. Not too far from Monument Valley, but on public land, whereas Monument is owned by the Navaho and you have to pay to get in, plus they keep the road there in horrible condition so you don't want to use your own vehicle to drive around.  The road here is generally much better.
Caught me some luck here after fighting rain off and on all day.   Good for the light, bad for the road, though.  A very long and lonely dirt path runs through this valley and the rain did a job on it every few hundred yards where little runoff streams flow across.. nothing technical, but teeth-jarring none the less.  

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Lomaki Ruins


My first stop on a week-long, 1900 mile road trip around Arizona and Utah. Had to deal with some pretty heavy rain the first couple of days (as you can probably see by the ominous clouds), but there were enough breaks in between showers to get some good shots accomplished while here, although I did have to pass on some spots that I wanted to get.  Wupatki Monument, just north of Flagstaff, has a bunch of these Peubloan sites, but this was my favorite, built right on the edge of a small box canyon and surrounded by beautiful rolling hills as far as the eye can see.   "Lomaki" translates as "Beautiful House" in the Hopi language.  Built by the Sinagua Puebloan people and apparently abandoned around 1250AD, it's still standing rather proudly looking out over the canyon and the surrounding hills.