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.  

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.

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.

How hot was it? It was so hot....

... last week that even the local squirrels were just too gassed to move!  Actually, I kind of felt the same way:) Living in the forest at 6000 ft. elevation normally protects us from really excessive heat, but a few times per year, seems like the mercury travels into the mid-90's, even here. It was close to 100° just below us in the main part of town, at 5000 ft.  Of course we can't complain too much, since down in the desert not that far from here, they are routinely around 110° this time of year and were toying with 120° last week. We drove down there one afternoon and wow.. takes your breath away if you're not used to it. At least we cool off nicely at night, where they don't so much.
In the summer, I always leave a pan of water out for the local critters, because there is no natural water to be found for quite a distance around where we live, and they seem to really appreciate it.. more than food I think.  Guess this guy was deciding if he had the energy to get down to the ground for a cool drink.
Yes, I know... I haven't been updating posts here much recently.. I have quite a bit of deferred maintenance work to catch up on the house and yard this summer,  and then we had a rather large and unexpected vet bill that postponed our plan for a July road trip to Arizona and Utah, so I just haven't had the opportunity to get out and shoot much new work.  In the meantime, I've got plenty of backlogged stuff to process and print anyway, so no hurry!

Red Rock Fix

Our original plan for last weekend was a camping trip to Sedona, but some work stuff came up and forced a change in the schedule.  Probably we'll head out that way sometime in June and expand it into a longer trip. There is a particular ruin up towards Arches that I have been wanting to shoot,  and my wife wants to go to Arches, so we'll see if we can make it that far next trip.
In the meantime, I'm revisiting a few more favorites from last Fall in southern Utah. Another one here of amazing red rock goodness from Snow Canyon... shot with my Mamiya on 6x7 medium format Velvia.

More from JT

Another quick study from a few weeks ago out in Joshua Tree. The big rocks near the right of the frame in the distance are a very popular spot for rock climbers.. you can usually find a bunch of them up there on the weekends.  Guessing they're approx. 80' high. Not for me, but fun to watch:)
Two really great camera phone apps that I have been using recently are Camera Awesome! by the folks that run SmugMug (it's free), and KitCAM, which is very similar and costs only about $1.00 (basically free).  Besides adding a kit full of shooting utilities, both come with a very good selection of useful presets for processing and framing right in the camera... and then quick export links to update to your various on-line accounts, or your regular camera roll, for later processing or storage on your computer.  The in-camera processing maintains the original exposure also, so you're not damaging anything by playing around with the more creative processing possibilities.

Evening Light-JT

Another "phoneography" example from my most recent afternoon out in Joshua Tree. Once again, a little over the top on the contrast and color compared to normal taste, but guess I'm just enjoying that look right now, for a change. My nice, convenient clouds from earlier had dissipated, but I found another way to occupy the sky:)

More on "Phoneography"

I drove out to Joshua Tree last weekend, specifically to reshoot this scene that I had made some quick studies of last year. I've been waiting for the right day, weather-wise, combined with the free time, but it never seemed to work out so I finally decided to just get in the car and go, win or lose. Didn't have high hopes when I left.. you can usually control the time of day, but not the sky, and that was crucial to my vision of the shot.  The sky was way too clear and blue when I left, but by the time I arrived, these perfect high, thin clouds had thankfully appeared and not only did I get the shot I had in mind, but a few other good ones, as well, over the course of the afternoon.

This stands as another example of "phoneography".. shot and processed entirely on my phone's cam, (which explains the blow-out in the clouds, but that is from the uber-contrast of the processing, not the original exposure). All I did on the computer was down-size it for posting here.

This is likely not my ultimate, finished version; I'll go with the more conventional version in this particular case because I want to print it, but while I had my regular Nikon setup on the tripod, I simply pulled my iPhone out of my pocket and shot hand-held from the same vantage point. I kind of like this over-the-top interpretation, though. It's a great way to change up your process, experiment and most of all have fun, as opposed to always doing it the technically "correct" way. 

Check out the kid sitting on top of the rock:)

New Tools and New Ways of Seeing

I love wide format for landscapes.  Not necessarily just super-wide panoramas, although those can be fun. Since I don't have a real panoramic-format camera (there are some), the two normal techniques I use are a 6 x12 roll film back that fits on my 4x5 field cam, or the usual digital method of shooting multiple overlapping frames from a tripod and stitching them together later.  Make that I "didn't" have a real panoramic camera, because the iPhone's new pano capture feature is the real deal. Considering that you not only don't need a tripod, but you are shooting hand held with the camera in motion, the results can be pretty remarkable.
It's all instantly and seamlessly patched together... and best of all, you're actually shooting in vertical format, which flips the full 3264 pixel WIDTH of the camera over to the VERTICAL... and then you can extend the horizontal as far as you want. ( I kind of have trouble twisting my body enough to fill the entire possible frame:)  You don't need to utilize the entire possible width of the panorama.. you can stop anywhere that looks good and end up with a file resolution that rivals many dslr's. This one, before I cropped some of it off, came out to over 30" wide at 300 dpi! That's some printable stuff, folks.. and the grainy, soft, low dynamic range pics that you would have expected, even a couple years ago, are history due to advances in the technology.
I'll have some more to say about how much I have been using my phone cam in place of a standard dslr recently, and why.

More Red Rock Textures

Another from my last stop in Utah, just after the heavy rains. Love the complex, layered textures of the red rock accented by this neat little reflecting pool. I made quite a few shots with this uniquely-shaped white rock mountain on the horizon.. that impressed me right away a perfect eye-catching element for the background.

SkyWatch: Pools in the Rock

I think I mentioned before that driving out to this site was through a torrential rain that let up, luckily, just as I was arriving.  As a result, I had quite a few opportunities to use these many temporary reflecting pools as an unusual subject matter out here in the petrified red sand dunes. I wanted to use my grad ND filter to knock down the sky, but it kept spitting rain off and on and getting all over the filter, so I had to stick with just a lens hood to somewhat keep water spots off the lens, and then try to catch the moments when the sky was less bright. Shooting with film, I lost a number of frames to bad exposure because of that, but that's the way it goes sometimes. The multi-tiered erosion almost makes this look like a deliberately landscaped pool, don't you think?

Orange Swirl - Snow Canyon

This is a view from up on the petrified dunes, as seen from a distance in my last post's panorama. After the heavy rain, I had lots of nice little reflecting pools of water to work with, which was a rare treat in a normally bone dry location such as this. Challenging though to balance the sky, constantly changing from dark to very bright, with the rocky foreground.. especially shooting with film and a manual light meter. For those of you who have only ever worked with a high tech digital camera, working with a low-tech (or in this case, "no-tech") camera is a considerably slower experience, and in the situations of constantly changing light, you have to really be on your toes. Have to be aware of the smaller dynamic range too, but when you get it right.. wow. This one is a full frame scan of a glorious sheet of 4x5 Velvia. To me at least, no digital photo will ever be as satisfying as getting one of these babies back from the processor. 

Nothing Better...

What could be better than a location where you can spend the whole day in a limited area, easily walk around with your gear anywhere you want to go and not even begin to run out of great subject matter? 
This is a new location for me.. and I'm keepin' it secret (well, if someone asks, I'll tell). It was raining so hard on my way here, that I was sure the whole day would be a washout, but it luckily started to lighten up just after I arrived in the late morning.  For this scene, I was waiting between rain showers and sticking close to the car, so I pulled out my digital cam and tripod and shot 17 vertical frames, which were later stitched into this panorama.  It creates a good overview of the site, whereas most of my other samples are more detail oriented, so this is a good one to start with.  The mid ground area, at this distance, might be mistaken for red sand dunes... and it is in a way, but the dunes are actually petrified into solid rock. Unbelievable texture and color...really, really good for climbing around and shooting lots of different compositions, which I did for the remainder of the day after the rain finally quit.

Bare Trees

I've captured this grove of aspens in full color several times in other years, but I was surprised with how interesting they still are, just standing there naked... I think it makes for a really interesting effect in this shot. Normally, to get this view, I would have been standing on a rock with cold water rushing all around, but the stream was running really low this year, so I was able to move around freely without worrying about where to step, allowing some different perspectives. My main concern was working quickly between rain showers. The black volcanic rocks, being rather dry this time with no flowing water, were not as attractive as usual, so I let the trees be the main feature. 

Aspens and Lava Rock

This area east of Cedar Breaks is one of the most remarkable I have seen anywhere in the Southwest... huge lava flows all around with thousands of aspens growing up right out of the piled rocks.  In the Fall, it's one of the most unique places I could imagine to enjoy the beautiful foliage. I was fighting the on-and-off rain showers for several days this year and it got frustrating at the time, but the atmosphere in the results that I did manage to get in between the sprinkles were well worth it. Couldn't have asked for a more perfect sky even if I had painted it myself. A lot of spots were already bare of leaves, but I found enough remaining here and there to make it very worthwhile.
Getting into some of my film stuff now.. this was shot on 6x7 format Fuji Velvia 100.

Head in the Clouds

A view from the top rim of Cedar Breaks, at 10,500ft. elevation.
Can't see it of course, but the wind was howling and spitting rain, trying to change over to snow, which it did later in the day, so I was only able to grab a few quick shots of it this year.  I always make a point to stop by this spot when heading down to the east side of the mountain to my favorite foliage area. I ran into a blizzard here on October 1 several years ago, so considering I arrived mid-October this year, it was not too bad I guess. You can see that the bottom of the cloud layer was at almost exactly the same level as the rim, obscuring the sky, but leaving the view of the multi-colored formations unhindered. Be sure to click on the image for the full size view of this one. 

Rainy Aspens

I still have more Valley of Fire stuff to go over later, but I feel like moving the subject on up to "color country" in Utah for a while, since that was the original objective of my trip.
I was a little behind the curve as far as the foliage in the higher elevations that I prefer this year, but the lower areas were still great and this area below a small lake that I really love is always beautiful, no matter what stage of the season. This image here is one of my favorites from the whole trip.. I've been trying to get that "perfect" aspen image for years and this might be as close as I ever get. I normally don't judge new work so quickly, but this one just hit me right away so I already have it framed and hanging in the Gallery.
It's just an easy quarter mile walk to get into this spot, but it was raining so I was debating to skip the location this year...ended up thinking that since I had come all this way, I had to give it a try.  I had to walk around holding both camera and umbrella together in one hand for half an hour, and kept busy constantly wiping drops off the lens, but I did catch some nice atmospheric shots, including this one... so glad I did it. You just never know where the good ones are going to come from. I normally go for maximum depth of field, but in this case the soft focus colors in the background just seem to compliment the crispness of the foreground trees really nicely. Maybe I should try some hand-held work more often:)

Valley of Fire: Beautiful Erosion

In one particular area of the VOF, there are these several square miles of eroded red sandstone, with literally tens of thousands, maybe millions, of small caves and hollows to explore. I spent one whole day rooting around in here, shooting the beautiful abstract forms formed by wind and water gradually eating away at the sandstone.