from our Thanksgiving trip to Yellowstone
Mammoth Mornings
It’s been over a month since we left Yellowstone, but I still am going through my photos. Here is a shot of the chapel with an elk grazing outside.
And below is a very early and very cold morning view of the Yellowstone Justice Center. Can you spot the elk in this photo? 🙂
Snow at Daybreak
This is an early morning view from our driveway of the hills to the southeast of us. I posted the original photo on Facebook last week, but had fun playing with it yesterday, using two filters from Topaz Impression plus an added texture.
Snow Delay
The El Nino storms have been hitting Prescott this week. Here’s a very early morning shot of a snowplow clearing the street yesterday, making it safe for the kids to get to school on a “snow delay” day.
Edited with Topaz Impression and Topaz Texture Effects
Mammoth Morning
When I’m staying with my daughter’s family at Yellowstone in the winter, I never get tired of going out on the porch in the early morning to check the view- the snow, the sky, and any wildlife that might be there.
Painterly effects added in Topaz Impression, textures in Photoshop
The Heron in the Dell (sing along. . .)
On our way home from downtown on last week’s snowy day, we stopped at Watson Lake to see if the Dells were covered with snow. Â The sun had just started to peek through the clouds, and there was only a slight dusting of snow visible. Â I watched from up above as the heron waded along the shoreline- a peaceful sight.
Granite Mountain
Granite Mountain is the stark backdrop to the northwest area of Prescott and one of my favorite views. On Labor Day, my husband and I decided to take a short hike on the trail leading over to the mountain. As we walked along, we saw bikes and horses as well as hikers; it’s a popular area. After walking for a half hour (and continually stopping for me to take photos), we could see the mountain getting closer, but we were not yet near the base. It was time to turn around- we definitely plan to come back on another day.
Granite Mountain:
Gates near the beginning of the trail:
Golden Hour, once more. . .
Golden Hour
From last week’s walk with Carol at Willow Lake during the golden hour:
Red Rocks at Sunset
Here’s another image from our visit to Sedona on Monday:
Tucson Evenings
Even though we only spent two full days there, I still have Tucson photos to share! Here are two views of the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains taken from the balcony of our hotel room.
Double rainbow and rain!
Sunset
In the Desert
Probably the highlight for me of our trip to Tucson (beyond lying by the pool and having guacamole with every meal) was seeing the Sonoran Desert. I now get why people love the desert. The landscape there is different from what we’ve seen around Phoenix and definitely not like the high desert climate we live in- it is BEAUTIFUL and full of life. I would love to go back and see more.
This view is from when we stopped the car on the way to the museum.
This is the view next to the museum.
I can only imagine what this looks like at sunrise or sunset (these were around noon. . . and it was SO HOT! ). Beautiful country!
Tucson Morning
I’ve just returned from a wonderful, quick midweek getaway to Tucson, where we celebrated our 44th anniversary at a beautiful resort. We did a couple excursions in the mornings and then spent the afternoons relaxing by the pool- my kind of vacation! I always say (correctly so) that I am not a landscape photographer- I don’t have all the best gear, I hate to use my tripod out in public, and I don’t like getting up early to get the best light! But recently it dawned on me that, when I travel, I always take landscape photographs anyway- usually without a tripod and never in good light- even though I KNOW BETTER. I decided that on this trip I would take my tripod and perhaps even use it in public if appropriate. Since we had a view from our hotel room of the mountains, I decided to get up early one morning and do it right. The night before, I put the camera on the tripod, attached the cable release, and adjusted the settings. I set my alarm and got up well before the sun came up; I haven’t counted the photos but I clicked that cable release many, MANY times over the course of an hour. I really like how the rays of the early morning sun peek up over the horizon in this image.
I also took my tripod along when visiting the Mission San Xavier del Bac- but you’ll have to wait for those photos!
Backroad WIldflowers
My wonderful son-in-law drove me and my sweet and very patient family through a section of Yellowstone to see some beautiful country- and mostly so I could take some photographs. Although it was midday and therefore not the best light, the sky full of white puffy clouds made a beautiful backdrop- and there were wildflowers everywhere!
These were all taken on Blacktail Road. The Gallatins were behind us; the predominant mountain is Electric Peak.
Persistence at Garden of the Gods
After leaving the plains of Kansas, we drove to Colorado, spending the night at Limon. We decided to get up early-ish (early for us, late for landscape photographers) the next morning to drive to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs before heading to Santa Fe. We woke up to overcast skies and got to the park around 9:00 or 9:30. Garden of the Gods is a public park with paved walkways among gorgeous red rock formations. It was relatively uncrowded, probably because it appeared that it would rain at any moment. We were both eager to see the iconic view of Pike’s Peak through the red rocks, but of course, you couldn’t see the mountains because of the clouds. I love the combination of gray clouds and red rocks, but I was really hoping to see Pike’s Peak!
After walking through the park for awhile and monitoring the skies in case we had to make a dash to the car, we finally decided a drive around the park might give us a glimpse of the mountains. We drove around, but all we saw were clouds and red rocks- and more clouds. But as we got out of the car to look at the Balancing Rock, we noticed that the skies were beginning to clear a bit.
We ate a quick snack at the Visitors Center, and then drove back into the park to see what we could see- and VOILA!
The above shot is of the same rocks and walkway (from a different angle) as the first one a couple hours earlier.
Persistence pays off!
