Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend

The Shoe Tree

I thought I would start this post out with an interesting and amusing spot in the Nevada Desert. Somewhere past Fallon Nevada is the "Shoe Tree". Not only are there lots of shoes in the tree, there are just as many if not more around the base also. I did not have any shoes I wanted to part with here but saw a couple of good pairs of hiking shoes I almost grabbed (kidding)

Illumination

When I left the Grand Canyon I made a last minute change in plans and went to Page Arizona which is about 60 miles from where I was at the North Rim. At Page is the Horseshoe Bend and also a wonderful "slot" canyon called Antelope Canyon. My purpose was to get a Sunset and then Sunrise shot of Horseshoe Bend but I got here early with plenty of daylight left so I thought I would try to make it to Antelope. I was here two years ago and did the normal "tourist" tour where you are shuffled thru with a large group and not much chance of getting any good shots. Several tour groups comprising about 300 people total are meandering thru the canyon on a constant basis throughout the day. This time I was fortunate to get in on a "Photo Tour" where the guides have the power to hold up the other groups and keep them out of sight while you get your good shots. They also get you to the "light beam" areas at the right time.

Abstract Synapse

A very pleasant Navajo woman named Carol Bigthumb runs the photo tours and her family owns the land where the canyon lies. I asked her to show me her big thumb and she held it up but then said that the real big thumb comes from her husband and that he would tell me the story of how that name came about. He started to tell me but then got caught up with customers so I'll have to get the full story next time I'm here.

It was interesting that as I was here there was a "pro" photographer conducting a workshop. As I was listening to the questions his group was asking and the answers he was giving, I thought "Man, I could do that!" Perhaps I might start doing that later on, not at the moment though.

Ephemeral Falls
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During a sand storm, these sand falls occur naturally, but during the tours the guide throws handfuls of sand up there and then you get your shot. I was very happy with the shots I got here. Eleven photos total uploaded into this gallery. Please view them larger.

Bending Space and Time
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This was my second time here and it still took my breath away as I stepped to the edge. Not that I was afraid of the height but that as the title alludes, you cannot help but think of the time that it took the river to cut this and the space that you can actually "feel" across the expanse.

I was again fortunate to get a fantastic sunset. As I sat at the edge waiting for the right light,........ and I was literally sitting about a foot from the edge with my tripod low and setup where my lens was actually peering over the ledge, I met a nice young French couple who I saw twice again over at Zion NP. Also a very nice Asian woman named Jean came up for a moment, looked around and went off to another area with the little bell she had on her camera backpack tinkering away. I met up with her also again on my last day at Zion. That's when I learned her name and that it really was her here at Horseshoe because of her bell.

If you view this photo larger in the gallery, you can make out some river kayaks down at the edge of the water. Several docked there and it looked like they were going to camp for the night. I would love to do that trip sometime.

Stay tuned for Zion Nation Park and "Angels Landing"

The Grand Canyon

Step into my Office

Right behind me it's about 1,000 feet down.

Photo taken with my 2nd camera via wireless remote.

Last Light

This is looking extreme west at Cape Royal which is the furthest point at the North Rim. It was good that I was able to spend 5 days here as I returned to this point for two more sunsets trying to get the best light. I got it on the first try.

The Grand View

There is no photo that can truly convey the Grand Canyon. When you are here, you can actually "feel" the expanse in front of you. It is absolutely amazing. This shot is from a ledge just below the main Lodge. There are two tourist viewpoint (with rails) on either side of me but I like the road less traveled and so I saw this ledge (no rails) and found the small path thru the trees to get to it.

Time to Change

I was hoping for lots of autumn colors but there was just a few here and there. This was a small patch of aspens turning color along the road to the North Rim from Jacob Lake where I was staying. I met a nice couple out here who trying to capture these trees as well. I hope their photo was good.

Over the Edge

to see photos in gallery click HERE

This is a ledge across from Angels Window which is a hole or arch of sorts thru a viewpoint area. The "window" has the tourist rails and again I saw a ledge where most people would not have gone. I found the small trail leading to it and thought it would take me right to the top but when I got to the formation, the trail stopped and it was obvious if I wanted to get up there I would have to free-climb for about 10 feet. That may not sound like much but when everything is sloped around you where if you fell you would tumble a good distance if not quite a ways and also the 30 pounds of gear on my back did not help either. When I got up here, I scared two condors that were hanging out. Magnificent birds. At Cape Royal there were six of them flying around.

Journey to the Center of the Earth

to see photo in gallery click HERE

This is a place in Nevada close to the Utah border called Cathedral Gorge and is similar to a small Bryce Canyon. I walked into one of the "slot" areas as far as I could go and then looked up and there was my shot.

Stay tuned for Antelope Canyon photos and Horseshoe Bend

Peaceable Kingdom

Peaceable Kingdom

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"And they will actually sit, each one under his vine and under his fig tree, and there will be no one making [them] tremble" (Micah 4:4)

"The whole earth has come to rest, has become free of disturbance. People have become cheerful with joyful cries. Even the juniper trees have also rejoiced at you" (Isaiah 14:7)

"They will not do any harm or cause any ruin in all my holy mountain; because the earth will certainly be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters are covering the very sea" (Isaiah 11:9)

Last year I took a shot from this same spot and called it Peaceable Dawn, and it certainly was.

Can you imagine for a moment the whole earth existing with the above conditions. Take a moment, sit back and IMAGINE IT. What would it take for the above conditions to exist? I'm reminded of a phrase from a famous song...."nothing to kill or die for".....IMAGINE IT. For the above conditions to exist, the things that people around the world are killing and dying for would have to become non-existent. IMAGINE IT.

Hopefully I will be able to have quite a few more peaceable photos as I'm headed for 5 days at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Then 4 days at Zion National Park and all points in between.

Someone asked me today if I do these trips solo and I said that unless they were also photographers, it would probably not be fun for anyone as I'm getting up at 4am to get to hopefully catch a rockin' sunrise and then staying out on the trails all day or walking in knee to waist deep water for 8 hours as I'm going to at the Narrows in Zion. Then after I've gotten an also rockin' (hopefully) sunset shot and it's totally dark by the time I get to my car, get back to town and go into the grocery store all sticky and stinky to get food for the next days activity, get to the motel (yes, motel, I'm not that hard core) and eat something, shower, try to sleep till 4am and repeat it all over again............but it's where I find my peace.

Wish me drama in the skies and awesome light.

The 8th Wonder

The 8th Wonder

The Quiet Hope

to see photos larger in gallery click HERE

The 7 Wonders of the world are truly wonderful but for most of us they are distant lands which we will only read about. Don't feel too bad though, your 8th Wonder may be as close as your next dawn.

FINALLY, I get a break from the cloudless hazy skies we've had for too long a time. I took advantage of this morning's scene and needless to say I was late for work but it was worth it. And the next day? Back to hazy skies. I'm quietly hoping.

Dreamscape

Dreamscape

The Mist
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I feel very fortunate to live where I do as I can head over to the Mendocino coast in the afternoon, shoot until dark and get back home by 11pm.

Another gamble with the sky. There was the possibility of patchy clouds which is what I was hoping for but as I pulled into Ft. Bragg the high fog bank had moved in. There was this very thin sliver of clear right at the horizon that you can see in the above image and I was hoping as the sun set it would make an appearance and make some magic but it set too far to the left where it was not clear.

In the "Dreamscape" image above, I was positioned high on the bluff above Glass beach and using a long exposure, I tried to get the feeling of flying over the coast as if in a dream. Please view it at Large x3 in my gallery for full effect.

The "mist" image was my last shot of the night (9pm) and it was almost pitch black. I normally manually focus to get the sharpest photo but it was too dark to see enough detail in anything to focus on and it was too dark to use Auto Focus so I had to get out my little flashlight and manually set the lens on "Infinity" and hope for the best. This was a 30 sec exposure which gave the white waves that came in and out several times during the exposure the look of a low mist or fog and it makes the image seem as if it's not that dark. The small starburst on the horizon is a light from a ship in the distance. I was surprised how bright it was given how far away it was. Had to use the flashlight to get back to shore and on the trail back to car.

Potpourri

A Pier Worth Peering From

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I've titled this post "Potpourri" as it's a mix of things because the weather has been so "touristy" lately, meaning clear skies and warm days. Great for tourists, terrible for photographers. So when I read a weather report that shows some interesting things happening, I try to be there but that is not happening with much frequency.

The above photo is from the north east side of Clear Lake looking at Mt. Konocti in the distance. On my way home from work in the Napa Valley which was completely cloudless with lots of haze, I started to see cloud patterns as I entered Lake County.

I drove around the opposite side of the lake as to where I live at the suggestion of a friend, looking for a particular road that would take me way up to a grand overlook of the lake. Well, typically me, I could not find the road but was able to find this wonderful view off this pier.

The View From Up Here

The Spattered Sky

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Again searching the weather reports showed there was possible thunderstorms happening at Table Rock which is at the north end of Napa County. It is the hike in the opposite direction of the Mt. St. Helena area. I was going to go Sunday late afternoon as I had read there was going to be scattered clouds but then mid-day Saturday the weatherman said there was the possibility of thunderstorms on Saturday!! I thought it strange as there was nothing happening around there, just at Table Rock.

I got there about 4:30pm hoping to get a few good sunset shots. It is an approx. 5mi round trip hike and by the time I got to the overlook it was obvious there was not going to be any thunderstorm. Clouds started coming in but stayed to the south which is the view direction of the two photos above.

I stayed as long as I dared and it was a good thing I left when I did as the last half mile I was waking in pitch black. I only see a faint glow of yellow leaves on the main trail and then had to resort to my mini flash light that holds one AAA battery and has one LED bulb. Surprisingly it was pretty bright. I was glad I remembered it as at one point I shut it off and it was so dark, if I had forgot the light, I would have had to just find a place to sit down spend the night as I could not see anything.

The Weeping Wall

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Since the skies have not been so great, I went back to Socrates Falls where I did not need any skies to get a good photo. The creek was still running but a little less than usual.

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Burning Off The Dawn

Burning Off The Dawn

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When checking the weather and scene of a location where I have some commissioned work to be done, I came across this scene in Lower Chiles Valley in Napa County.

The morning sun is silhouetting through the low fog across the vineyard.

The Uncommon Calm

Pt. Arena Lighthouse

(click here to see larger in gallery)

The weekend before the vineyard photo above, I went to Pt. Arena to test out my new camera. It's a Canon 5D Mark II which has the largest sensor of Digital SLR cameras. The sensor has 21 megapixels which is also next to the highest pixel count of DSLR's. The highest pixel count is 24mp but I did not want to spend $8k on a camera. Any larger of a pixel count, a person would have to get a Medium Format digital camera and they run between $15k - $30k and up!! Ouch!!! With the camera I also got an ultra wide angle lens which I'm still getting used to. I have wide angle lenses with my other camera system but not quite this wide

The water was unusually calm this day. Normally I'm fighting strong winds with lots of spray and waves that would really like to take me for a ride. I really liked the no wind part but would have liked to have a little more water action.