Cliche?

Since last we chatted, I spent two days and and night in Joshua Tree National Park and a couple of days touring around the Newport Beach, CA area. Tomorrow is David and Nicole's wedding. It looks to be a wonderful event!

After this, I'll spend almost a week in Las Vegas. Besides playing a little poker, I hit the Valley of Fire park, Hoover Damn, and Death Valley.

This picture is the last of the series of photos I took at the Whitetank Mountain Regional Park near Phoenix. The third morning was very overcast in the eastern sky during the time in which the sun was supposed to be rising. Unlike the day before, the sun never made an appearance. Luckily, the moon was setting around the same time. I covered a lot of ground looking for a shot like this before it disappeared.

Be sure to visit Skywatch Fridays!

Bad Weathers yield Good Photos

When I first went got to the Phoenix area, I went to the Whitetank Regional Park to scout out the area for a morning shoot.

After driving and hiking around, I finally found this spot. I thought that the cactus in the foreground against the sunrise light mountain in the background would make for an interesting picture.

However, the next morning was heavily overcast. I thought for sure that I would get no sun. But, I setup up the tripod and camera and prepared to wait.

And wait.

About the time I was ready to give up, the clouds starting opening up, allowing intermittent light to shine though. What a glorious sight. I hope that my photo captures some inkling of the reality of the scene.

I went back again this morning to capture some other subjects. This time around, the sun never did come out. Still, I'm glad that I put myself in the position to capture such a serendipitous moment.

Atmospherics

Today, was mostly about photography. I awoke at 5am to catch the sunset at the White Tank Mountain Regional Park. Afterwords, I showed my mom how to build a lightbox, and we took pictures of my parent's arts. Processing those photos took much of the afternoon. It's a great day when you can devote the whole day to one's hobby!

This shot is from White Tank Mountain Regional Park looking over Phoenix, AZ. This is a very nice little park and I plan on heading back bright and early again tomorrow.

Be sure to visit Scenic Sunday!

Coronado National Forest

Here's another view of the field of flowers growing in the remains of a past forest fire. This photos show some more interesting mountains in the background. Those mountains are near Portal, AZ - a world famous birding location.

Tomorrow, I'll be leaving Sierra Vista to visit my parents and other friends up in the Phoenix area.

Oasis

I've spent much of my life in hot climates. Since 2001, I've lived in Colorado except for one year. I guess that I've gotten really accustomed to cool weather. This summer at home was very cool. I think we hit 90 F maybe once. In fact, I hear that we had snow on the ground at home a couple of days ago.

This photo was taken at the Tucson Mountain Museum. We got there around 8:30 AM and it was already 88 F. Yikes. Before we left Tucson, it was 104 F. That's a good temperature for a soak in a hot spring on a chilly day - not for walking around.

Tomorrow, I'm heading up to the Chiricahua mountains to camp for the next 5 days. I sure hope it cooler up there! The current issue of Arizona Highways, has a great photo of colorful maple leaves surrounding a small stream. I suspect it still to warm to see something similar.