My favorite image from a wonderful trip this last Sunday to Coal Mine Canyon. This marvelous canyon is vast, deep, and filled with amazing colors of geological layers and hoodoos. If you took a quick glance at this photo you'd think it was the Grand Canyon, but that is over to the west by about 150 miles. This location is on the Navajo reservation and you buy a permit in Cameron (at the trading post) for hiking. You are not ok to hike down into the canyon because there is a dividing line of sorts between the Navajo and Hopi and a dispute of some sort. The Hopi do not sell permits for their side of this canyon. But I can tell you there are plenty of places up on this top rim to climb about and see wonders. Some of the hoodoos there are so much like what you think of a Bryce and Zion in Utah. I highly recommend this trip. Mark and I were the only people out there on a perfect afternoon and evening for photography. Just think, hours and hours alone in this place. Yes, cobalt here was in Heaven for sure.
Excellent online article, I read it and agree with this author heartily:
www.americansouthwest.net/arizona/coal-mine-canyon/index....
Tags: canyon Coal Mine Canyon Arizona not the Grand Canyon near Tuba City northeast Arizona vast scenery landscape EF 70-200mm L f/4 Canon 40D amazing wonder geology geological favorite 2010
A sow thistle bloom ready to go "poof". This macro shot was taken a day after the two previous images of the Sow thistle weed in my yard when it was in full bloom. Compare the bloom with this one gone to seed for a surprise. I really had fun trying for this shot handheld. Yes, I know I should be grabbing the tripod but then it is a challenge to see just how still I can hold. Setting the focus to manual on this Canon 60mm EF-S f/2.8 lens is how I do it.
Tags: poof soft Sow thistle macro white delicate handheld Canon 40D 60mm EF-S macro lens weed square format bestviewedlarge compare to flower see link on photo home Phoenix Arizona squaredcircle magic
A brilliant skyscape just after the rains and overcast sky suddenly disappeared in the late afternoon. This was taken in the San Rafael Valley of southern Arizona. This place is about 10 miles north of Lochiel, close to the border with Mexico.
Without a wide-angle lens, I would not have been able to capture this scene. Now that I see what an inexpensive lens can do, I want that Canon 10-22mm wide angle lens even more. I'm waiting for that bluebird of happiness to drop about $700 on me. I may be waiting a long, long time for that bird.
Tags: sky clouds skyscape big sky scenery landscape San Rafael Valley Arizona near Patagonia southern Arizona technicolor vivid dramatic Lochiel Canon 40D Sigma 28-300 mm wide-angle
A capture at sunset at Patagonia Lake...
I don't know why my camera caught the image in a near-sepia tone, but I like it. I will have a more "true color" version of this image appear at some other time, but this one I have been waiting to post till I got back from another business trip. My friend Mark also got great shots of this sunset and when he posts them, I will link to them in this description. It was a marvelous time to be out at this lake at sunset.
Tags: sunset Patagonia Lake fishing fishermen composition silhouette brown yellow orange glow Patagonia Arizona Santa Cruz County catchycolors
My friend Mark, getting a great shot no doubt, at the Imperial Sand Dunes in California last week. He's out there, really really out there. This is a zoom shot with my 70-300 mm lens, courtesy my friend dbuk2. Hey dbuk2, now you know I am getting the use of it! See the other photos and you will now see why I wanted a composition to include Mark. It's hard to fathom the vast space out in these dunes. An alien world, and in fact, the site for many a movie, including Star Wars and the Dune movie.
Tags: dunes photographer mwillocks scale vast sense of scale bestviewedlarge Imperial Sand Dunes California landscape scenery wilderness early morning composition dreamin' California