Nature Photography of our Amazing Planet

Milky Way Over Totem Pole

I had been wanting to shoot the Milky Way over Totem Pole at Monument Valley for some time. I learned it required working with a Navajo tour group to be able to shoot at night in the back country of the Monument Valley Tribal Park. Fortunately, I was able to find a guide willing to ride with me in my vehicle and on my schedule for a reasonable $100 fee. It was a 20 minute drive from the park visitor center then a hike through the sandy desert and scratchy brush to arrive at my location at around 9:30 PM. What an awesome place to shoot the stars!. Made me wonder why I hadn't done this sooner. The skies were perfect with minimal light pollution and the Milky Way band of glory blasting up over our heads across a totally clear sky. Such an awesome sight - it was just dreamy!! I finished my shots and we started back for the Isuzu and couldn't find it! We had parked on the sandy depressed road putting it far enough below the brush that our flashlights weren't hitting it. Took an extra 20 minutes to zig zag our way through the sand to find the road that lead us back to the vehicle. Next time I think I'll bring a pole that I can tie something reflective on for return navigation. Wish it wasn't so late in the astrophotography season - I'll look forward to spending a lot of time in Monument Valley next year I think. . Technical stuff; Sony A7Rii, Nikon 14-24 f/2.8 at about 20mm, ISO 6400, (14) 15 sec exposures stacked to reduce noise. Edit in Starry Landscape Stacker, Lightroom and Photoshop

Forrest Gump Point Under the Milky Way

Forrest Gump Point just north of Monument Valley. Daytime shots at this location can be pretty hectic with all the people - its a very popular spot. You actually have to wait in line at busier times to get a shot without anyone in the road. But you don't need a tripod in daylight as is necessary for astrophotography. This shot was worked together from 12 sequential 15 sec exposures so I needed time to set up the tripod, get things aligned, focus and shoot for just over three consecutive minutes. Lucked out with a successful round of shots in between traffic at around 11:45 PM in late August just as the Milky Way rolled into position. Love it when the stars line up just right for my shots!

Monument Valley Pinnacles

I just can't get enough of these amazing slender pinnacles. They speak volumes of the passage of time and are among my favorite illustrations of the awesome beauty of the southwest. I launched the drone from just outside of the Tribal Park and captured this frame with four sequential shots (5 bracketed shots each for a total of 20 images) to compose a nice vibrant HDR edit from an unconventional perspective. I positioned the drone with the top of the spire to the right extending just above the horizon as my primary focus and balanced with blade and centered pinnacle in shadow. Love the flow from the central pinnacle back to the left along the blade leading to the slim lower ridge the sweeps back to the right and up to the base of my foreground pinnacle.

Cool Clouds overMoab, Utah

Returning from productive photo trips to amazing destinations, I can sometimes overlook worthwhile shots - like this one that sat for 3 months in my files before i noticed it. Maybe thats partly because my edits can be fairly complex and time consuming. I try to make the very most out of shots like this one in Canyonlands Nat'l Park from early 2018. This is a tripod based 5 shot HDR edit and includes a lot of work with shadows and contrast to bring out the depth and get the balance of the composition just right. Excellence in anything takes time and extended effort start to finish.

Superstition Buttes Sunset

The Buttes at the north end of the Superstition Mountain range are probably the most photographed part of the range. But the most common if not only perspective of the buttes os from the west looking east. I have wanted to get this perspective from the east looking west back into town for some time. Saw what looked like a nice sunset coming so go myself out to the east side.

Electrical Storm over Red Mountain

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Monsoon Lightning Storm over Red Mountain

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Arizona Saguaro Cactus Monsoon Lightning

Everyone loves lightning right? Can't image otherwise. And lightning storms are one of the coolest things about our monsoon season in Arizona. But a good lightning shot, like Milky Way shots - need something framable (or worthy of a shot all by itself) in the foreground - all part of the composition thing right? So first find yourself a cool foreground subject and line things up to get the lightning in the background. I lucked with this one. Stumbled onto this nice Saguaro which lined up well with a couple of others in the distance, and Red Mountain to the right also helped with the frame. I shot 22 exposures at this position and used five of them with good lightning - so this is a five shot composite. In other words, camera on the tripod, adjust the frame and focus then set the intervalometer to shoot every 10 seconds and hope for the best. The shots with the best lightning strikes are loaded into photoshop to create what we used to call double exposures - where two images are combined. But Photoshop lets us do that with many images - same cactus and foreground but with different lightning strikes all added together to create a single final composite. Cool thing here was that all the good lightning exposures were centered just right around and over my primary Saguaro ... planets were in alignment maybe? . . Technical; Sony A7Rii, Sony 24-105 f/4.0@4.0 24mm, 10 sec exp @200 ISO

Red Mountain Sunset from Salt River

During monsoon season in Arizona, I am always watching the western skies through the afternoon in case conditions might be right for nice sunset. If it looks like the sky will be sufficiently clear to the far west for the sun to shine up under cloud cover to my near west then we might get a sunset and I head out to find a shot. This was my first attempt at a drone based HDR sunset panorama using the DJI Mavic 2 Pro. As drones have evolved, using them as tools for high end still photography has gotten better and better. This is a combination of 3 frames, each frame compiled as an individual HDR image from 5 bracketed exposures. It excellent as a still photography tool because I can position the drone in just the right spot very quickly in order to get the composition that works best for me.

Colorado River Under The Milky Way

Beautiful astrophotography photo of the Colorado River at Gooseneck view shot in late June 2019 when the colorful Milky Way center is visible to the southeast with the lights of Moab, Utah on the distant horizon.

Gooseneck View on the Colorado

Panoramic view of the iconic Colorado River at it gooseneck curves through the majestic landscape of southern Utah west of Moab. I'm actually in this shot, standing atop one of the white rock capped plateaus (Gooseneck Viewpoint) to the far right of the frame. This is a 9 shot (5 exposures each) 45 images in all panorama composite image shot with the DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone (just outside of Canyonlands Nat'l Park boundries). The road to get here (Shafer Canyon Road) is accessed from Island in the Sky Road which is in the park and was quite a trip, offering amazing views - right on the edge in paces of cliffs dropping hundreds of feet to the canyon floor. No texting and driving while negotiating those curves.

Lake Powell Sunset from Alstrom Point

We have boated around, camped and flown over the Lake Powell area for decades and have been forever eager to get to one of those highly inaccessible but alluring plateaus on the north side. I recently became aware of this spot, Alstrom Point, which is accessible by a 2 hr 4x4 ride from Big Water. So I planned a trip during the astrophotography season to camp, shoot the sunset and to finally shoot the Milky Way over this awesome terrain - which requires a frame to the southeast. It all worked out without a hitch. We built a nice fire and grilled some awesome ribeyes right in front of this crazy scene - very cool. Just don't want to be stumbling around in the dark with our camp being literally at the edge of a 400-500 ft drop-off to the Lake level. This is an HDR edit panorama from four frames of 5 shots each - so a total of 20 images were used to compile what you see. I really can't get enough of the beautiful red rock layering of the Colorado Plateau

Milky Way Over the Grand Canyon North Rim

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Sunset Rain Showers at the Grand Canyon

We were fortunate to catch an awesome Grand Canyon Sunset with picturesque light showers scattered across the view from the North Rim. May, 2019

Grand Canyon North Rim at Sunset

Caught a clear day with perfect clouds and little rain cells for a sunset shot at the North Rim of the majestic Grand Canyon in Arizona. I was born and raised Arizona but had never visited the North Rim. Iconic majestic places like this can look good no matter what the weather is doing I guess.

Sunrise at the Grand Canyon North Rim

This was my first trip to the North Rim - a little strange since I am an Arizona native. As always, we were hoping for the best as far as weather goes for sunset shots, Milky Way around midnight then sunrise. Got some good star stuff until around 1:30 AM when a system came through and rained us out. Sunrise came too early after sleeping in the back of my Suburban in the lodge parking lot. Finally forced myself out of the sack and was able to snap a few nice shot on an awesome clear morning with a few clouds still hanging around after the over night weather system. Glad I got up!

Lake Powell at Alstrom Point by Starlight

Overlooking Gunsight at Lake Powell from Alstrom Point in southern Utah. We camped right at the edge of a plateau on the north side of Lake Powell, cooked some steaks and hung around the fire waiting for the Milky Way band to rise high enough for the shot. Takes some work and planning for a shot like this, composite of about 40 images. And not an easy place to get to either - 2 hr drive on a dirt road that requires a 4x4 for the last half hour or so. Fortunately all the clouds cleared out to give us an awesome dark sky. Frame is to the southeast with Navajo Mountain in the distant center frame.

Active Volcano Fuego Sunrise Eruption

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Little Corona Del Mar, Newport Beach, CA - 2019

Sunset at the iconic Little Corona Del Mar Beach - long exposure to create that ethereal misty ocean look against a cloudy sunset on the Pacific

Volcano Fuego near Antigua, Guatemala

It was an adventure for sure getting to the top of the dormant Volcan Acetenango near Antigua Guatemala in May 2019. We hired guides and horses for the 5000 ft accent to 11,500 ft (pretty cold up there) where we camped and shot the volcano until clouds and rain moved in around 1:30 AM. This is a pretty popular thing in Guatemala. There were maybe 100 to 150 people spread around camping terraces on the steep sides of the cinder mountain. We could hear some of them but our camp was fortunately not in the middle of a crowd. The summit of Fuego was 1.6 miles away so the sound of an eruption was delayed by about 6 seconds. Shooting 10 second exposures, you had to keep your eye on the volcano, hand on the shutter button and react quickly to the visual eruption in order to start the exposure quick.

Volcan de Fuego circa de Antigua, Guatemala

Shot from dormant volcano Acetenango at 11,800 ft and 1.6 miles away as Volcano Fuego launches molten material high into the night sky

Guatemala Volcano Fuego and Milky Way

Volcan Fuego near Antigua Guatemala erupting as thunderstorms move in and the Milky Way passes over head.

Red Mountain at Sunset

Caught this fun sunset east of Red Mountain one afternoon. It seems to happen a lot where I head out with a particular shot in mind but in the process of shooting along the way - end up with something very different and more appealing than what I planned for. The desert was pretty thick after some good rains a few weeks earlier and I had to stop a couple of times for scenes that caught my eye - like this one. Lots of tall dead grass out there. The biggest challenge getting this shot was all those dang burrs that stick in my socks! I need some anti-burr hiking socks I guess.

Little Tree on a Rocky Knoll

Zion National Park, Utah - 2019

Lone Pine, Zion National Park, Utah

Lone Tree growing out of an awesome sandstone formation under the starry skies of Zion National park. Astrophotography has many challenges, not least of which is lighting your foreground subject just right for the composition. Many times I will try to keep things as natural looking as I can using just the ambient light from the stars overhead. But now and then, I will use artificial lighting to bring a worthwhile subject out - as with Lone Tree here. The cliff where i had my tripod set is very steep - surprised I was able to get it to stay there at all, much less get myself further down below it to see the frame and set up the shot. Not easy. To light a shot like this I will set the camera to shoot 25 second exposures back to back while I run off to one side or another with my lights, a small flashlight in this case. This process is repeated a number of times, lots of trial and error to finally get the shot that works. This frame was especially difficult with the cold and steep ledge I was dealing with. Amazingly, it all came together on my second round of shots resulting in the frame you see here. So I happily gathered up my garb at around 1:30 AM and hiked back to my wife patiently waiting in the car ... what a trooper she is!

Hoodoo at Zion National Park

Zion National Park, Utah

Delicate Arch at 4:00 AM in Early April

Arches National Park in Moab, Utah

Superstition Snow Storm

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Peralta Trailhead

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Saguaro Cactus against Snowy Four Peaks

A beautiful stand of Saguaro Cactus highlight this sunset shot of Four Peaks east of Mesa, Arizona after a fun desert snowfall - Feb, 2019

Superstition Mountain Snow Storm

The great Arizona snow storm of 2019 dumps on the Superstition Mountains east of Apache Junction, AZ - Feb, 2019

Gnarly Old Ironwood Tree at Dead Horse Point

Picturesque old tree overlooking the Colorado River at Dead Horse Point near Moab, Utah

Fall Colors in Oak Creek

Oak Creek Canyon - Sedona, Arizona

Arizona Desert Saguaros and Boulders in Snow

Desert Saguaros and boulders in the great Arizona snow storm of 2019

Fall Colors at Zion National Park

20181107-03356HDR-skyINST.jpg Someone said the fall colors were peaking at Zion National Park in Utah so we stopped for the night while driving back to Arizona. Cold hiking in the early morning but definitely worth the effort.

Arizona Snow Day at Superstition Mountain

Green desert and stormy skies help to set off the Superstition Mountain range after an uncommon overnight snowfall - Feb 2019

Milky Way over The New Wave

These formations are very convenient to Page, Arizona - just across the river/dam and a 15 minute hike to the north of the highway.

Horseshoe Bend at Sunset

This image was created from a combination of longer exposures captured about 45 minutes after sunset and combined to utilize the best lighting across the frame

Snow Covered Mount Timpanogos

Shot from Squaw Peak Rd in Provo Canyon - Utah, Feb 2019

Amazing Layered Rock Formations in Snow and Ice

Icicles and snow along picturesque rock formations along Provo Canyon in Utah - Feb, 2019

Snowy Oak Trunks Sway to the Light

Winter in Rock Canyon above Provo, UT - Feb, 2019

Horseshoe Bend under the Stars

Horseshoe Bend is close to Page, Arizona but sp close the the city lights cause too much problem when shooting the stars. This shot took a whole lot of planning and work to both shoot and to process. First of all, the classic Horseshoe Bend shot is framed almost directly west - which doesn't work well if you want the colorful Milky Way in the frame. Most of the time, Milky Way frames are pointing to the southeast. The stars don't come this far west until August. It's also a little precarious to be hiking around the 800 ft drop in the middle of the night on what is hopefully a very dark night. What you see here was complied from about 40 exposures - a bunch for the starry sky and a bunch more to bring the minimal light out of the dark canyon.

Page, Arizona

View Looking North from The New Wave

Sunset at the New Wave area looking north over Lake Powell, Arizona

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Arizona Desert Monsoon

So that's an Arizona monsoon, right? Got the shot, grabbed the tripod and camera and ran for my car. 🚘🏃🌩