Lonnie and I went with my photo group to Yuma for a couple days last week. On the way we stopped at Castle Dome, an area filled with old mining cabins and buildings-a photographer’s delight!
Here’s a “found still life”- old bottles on display. I don’t think there was a right angle to be found in this old ghost town- so I gave up trying to straighten anything but the door in this image!
I had never heard of Canyonlands in Southern Utah until our daughter, Caitlin and soon to be fiance and husband, Justin traveled there in the late 1990’s. In fact, I had never heard of Arches National Park or even Moab back then. When we traveled through Utah in 2014, we skipped Canyonlands, but this time we wanted to check it out while we were staying in Moab.
What an incredible place- fantastic canyon views and without the crowds of the Grand Canyon!
The above shots were taken through Mesa Arch, reached by a relatively short hike up and down over uneven ground (a challenge for my unstable knees) to reach this stupendous view. This is one of the most visited spots, so getting a view of the arch itself was almost impossible, because of all the tourists. It was almost midday and incredibly hot, but the views were worth the effort to get there.
It was so much fun to stand on the pier taking photos of the surfers at July’s championship competition at Huntington Beach! Oh how I wished for a longer lens (these are cropped). . .
Early morning along the Colorado River
I never tired of this view- here’s another shot of the Colorado River in the early morning.
A beautiful Moab morning!
We stayed at the Red Cliffs Lodge outside Moab on the Colorado River. This was a return trip for us, having first visited there in October 2014. This view is of the grounds by the restaurant, where we had just eaten dinner. I went outside to photograph the clouds at sunset, and then it started to rain.
On the last morning of our trip to Moab, I was standing by the fence looking over at the horses across from our room at the lodge, when I heard the unmistakable gobble of a turkey. From behind me walked a turkey, just as calm as could be, and gobbling all the while. It peeked through the fence, spied another turkey in the brush, flew to the top of the fence, and disappeared into the bushes.
When we were traveling to Utah last month, I took a few shots out the car window of a group of running horses. The quality was not excellent, but I kept them anyway.
Meanwhile, in photo class last week, the topic of clipping masks came up- so that was in the back of my mind as I went through some photos I took in Huntington Beach in July. When I came upon a shot of a vintage window taken inside looking out from the cottage where we were staying, I knew I wanted to replace the view with, with . . . HORSES!
Here is the original window view:
Like every other photographer, I’m drawn to reflections. This one caught my eye at the Eagle River Nature Center in Alaska. I loved the contrast between the bits poking above the surface of the water and the watercolor swirls beneath.
Just had to try the big rock in black and white!
We took a few days to visit southern Utah to meet up with family a few weeks ago- what a beautiful road trip! As we drove along south of Moab we noticed what appeared to be a huge rock Buddha in the distance. The sky was darkening as rain clouds formed ahead, but the “Buddha” sat in a patch of light. I took several shots through the windshield before it disappeared from view.
A little while later we could see that we were approaching the Buddha- or maybe it looked like a huge beehive?
As we drove by, the huge rock seemed to change shape, and no longer looked like a Buddha at all. Maybe a landlocked ship? Or an alien craft? All photos were taken through the car window as we whizzed by.
Here’s one of the many beautiful vistas we saw in Alaska- a view of the Matanuska River.
Dipping into the archives for a little change of pace, I found this image I barely remember doing from last year’s San Francisco trip.
Another sunset palm tree view in Benicia.
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