Nature's Hidden Artwork

Digging around in the nooks, crannies and caves at Valley of Fire on this day revealed a lot of remarkable images carved into the sandstone by eons of wind and rain. It's kind of the best option, given the bright mid-day sun, to stay in the shaded areas and try to find the bright light reflecting into the shade, as opposed to shining in directly, which creates burned out hot-spots and looks like crap. The reflected light however, creates these subtle and beautiful shades that bring out the hidden forms. Almost endless abstract possibilities here. This one in particular seems very pictorial.. I see it as a group of trees formed forever into the red rock walls of the cave. The favorite so far of my shots in this spot.

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.

Fall Expedition: Nevada and Utah

Down the Road into the Valley of Fire - October 2012.

Fall is always my favorite time of year for photography, followed closely by Winter. A lot of the places I like to photograph are just too dang hot in the Summer and somehow I can't get too excited about the plain blue skies and bright light that we have here in the southwest during the hot season.
On that note, I just got back from my (almost) annual "Fall Color Tour", so time to fire up the blog with some new work. This year, besides my usual, favorite foliage area, I scouted up a couple of new locations that I have never worked before and they turned out to be the real highlights of the trip.
The aspens in the higher elevations of the Cedar Breaks area where I always go had pretty much dropped all their leaves, since I was about a week behind the schedule I originally intended, but that's o.k... Fall is not just about foliage; it's the light and atmosphere of the season and there are lots of possible subjects if you think about it that way.

My first stop was at Valley of Fire in Nevada.  I can't count the times I have passed this place on my way up north.. partly because it is so hot much of the year and I had no idea it could be such a beautiful place, judging from the dry, flat, gray desert that you drive through most of the way to get here. I liked it so much that I spent an extra day and will definitely be going back often.
I've got a lot of raw material to go through and much of it is on film, which I haven't even sent out for processing yet, so it'll take a few weeks to work on everything and get it presentable... in the meantime I'll start with a few digital images that came out pretty good as-is.
This first shot is a general scenic view at Valley of Fire, shot in the late afternoon sun and I actually had to DE-saturate the colors a bit to make it believable:)

Warm Light on Big Sur

Wanting to print some new greeting cards for the gallery; I am going through some old folders and getting kind of nostalgic for the ocean, since I haven't done much down there recently.  This evening scene is from Big Sur, just south of Carmel, a few years ago. Found a nice outcropping here where I could get some cool views back towards the cliffs. Right down behind where I was standing, is a tiny beach where you can get an iconic shot of a pair of off-shore sea stacks that I have seen done many, many times. Kind of hairy to get down there though and someone was already there, so I had to try something different.
This is one of those spots where you don't want to forget where your feet are while shooting, or you might have an unpleasant surprise:)