Photo Of The Day

Ft. Jefferson is located about 70 miles west of Key West Florida in the Dry Tortugas National Park. The fort was started before the civil war and was one of the largest coastal forts ever built. Due to continued improvement in modernizing artillery, the fort was obsolete before it was even completed. A must see place if you ever go to Key West Florida.

Ft. Jefferson, Dry Tortugas National Park

Photo Of The Day

This was a photograph that I thought looked much better when it was converted to a B&W. This barn sits along a country road that was once far outside the city. The urban sprawl will soon turn this farmland into another subdivision. This was a massive summer storm that was moving about 30 miles per hour.

Photo of the Day

Sand Key, Clearwater Beach Florida

It has been a brutal winter so far his year. As of today, 01-12-11, there is snow on the ground in 49 out of the 50 states in the United States. Currently only Florida is the only state that is snow free. So in honor of the Sunshine State, I am posting one of my many Florida Seascape photos. As I sit and look out at the grey cloudy skies and eye the thermometer at single digits without adding in a wind chill factor, I am wishing I was back down in south Florida. I used to make fun of the "snowbirds" who would flee the winters and head to warmer climates for several months. Now as I am getting older I am trying to figure out how I can do the same thing!

Photo of the Day

South Rim View, Grand Canyon National Park

This is a bracketed 3 shot exposure and processed in the new NIK HDR Software. The weather that day was very cold, cloudy, and windy. The light was flat and colors were very muted to the normal eye. I think this turned out better than any single exposure that I could process in Photoshop CS5.

Monument Valley

 

This past fall I took a road trip out west and visited some amazingly beautiful places that were very inspiring. I spent a lot of time in central and northern Arizona visiting national forests, parks, and wilderness desert areas. Sedona was beautiful, and the Grand Canyon is one of the most amazing natural wonders on the planet. As I moved north into southern Utah, I had been longing to return to a place I had briefly visited on a family vacation a very long time ago. Monument Valley.

Hwy. 163 coming into Monument Valley from the North

If you have ever watched the movie Forrest Gump, the scene where he stops running across the country was shot in this exact spot in the photo above. Highway 163 running south from Mexican Hat UT. into Monument Valley. In my opinion, one of the most iconic scenes you will ever see while driving on a road trip.

Massive Sandstone Mesas and Buttes rise from the desert floor

This area is a place you may feel very familiar with, and yet you have never been there. This area was discovered by Hollywood director John Ford in the late 1930's and there have been parts of over 70 major movies filmed in the area, along with countless television commercials and videos . So in your subconscious you have been here many, many times. But I highly recommend that you visit it in person. Like the Grand Canyon, this place must be visited in person to truly appreciate the stark beauty of the landscape. I spent three days here and wished I had at least a week.

Massive Butte with a daylight moon

For a landscape photographer this area is a pure paradise. Monument Valley lies within the 16 million acre Navajo Indian Nation. 

Along HWY. 163 south of Monument Valley

There are only a few options for lodging in Monument Valley. I stayed at The View Hotel, owned and operated by the Navajo Indians. This is the only hotel located inside the tribal park, and I highly recommend staying there. A bit pricey, but the view from your balcony is just amazing.

View from my hotel room balcony of the Mittens and Merrick Butte

If you just do a Google search on Monument Valley, you will find many links with all kinds of information you would need to learn more and plan a trip. My goal is not to rehash all that information here, but to inspire you to really consider visiting this place with my photography.

The North Window

I also highly recommend signing up with one of the local Navajo Indian guides for a tour. You can drive much of the area on a rough dirt road, but they have access to areas that are restricted unless you are with a guide. They provide great insight and information you would not get just driving it yourself.

The View Hotel, Monument Valley UT.

Three Sisters Rock Formation

The tough part of visiting Monument Valley as a photographer is trying to photograph as much as possible in the limited time you have. The desert light is extremely harsh within a couple hours of sunrise so starting very early is a must. Sunrises and sunsets there are spectacular if the weather cooperates.

Clouds add dramatic textures to the sky

A Monument Valley Sunset

I found a real sense of peace and rejuvenation in Monument Valley. While I was wandering alone in the early morning darkness or late afternoons looking for the perfect landscape photo opportunity, The desolate beauty and remoteness of this place are inspiring. I just wish I could have captured it better than I did on this trip. I know I will be back again.

  

Scenes from the Grand Canyon

A cold and cloudy morning hike

Many people visit the Grand Canyon, and if you have never had the chance to visit, put it on your must do list. I had visited a very, very, long time ago as a youngster on a family vacation. As an adult I had always wanted to go back, but it just never seemed to work out. I had flown over it many times on trips out west and watched countless programs on television. It does not matter how many films, television programs, or amazing photographs you see of the Grand Canyon, they do not begin to convey the size and beauty of one of the greatest natural wonders of the world. You must see it in person to truly be awed.

Sunrise on the South Rim

As a photographer I was hoping for Mother Nature to give me some ideal weather condition to try and create some amazing photographs. But one of the few things you cannot control as a photographer is the weather. I struggled with some very cloudy and overcast skies much of my short three day visit. If I am anything, I am persistent. I was out shooting as long as there was light, and I took every advantage when there was some breaks in the clouds that allowed some good light to come through.

A Mix of Sun and Clouds Create Amazing Patterns

I spent all three days on the South Rim area and plan to hit the North Rim on my next visit. One could easily spend at least a few weeks here just hiking all the trails and being rejuvenated by the beauty and peacefulness you find here.

Amazing South Rim View

Building Clouds In The Late Afternoon

Heavy Clouds Obscure The Setting Sun

I will not give you any facts or information on the Grand Canyon. There is more than enough of that available from  hundreds of sources. My goal is to inspire you to go if you have never been, or make you want to go visit again.

 I still have a few hundred photos to sort through and process from the trip. I will be back, but I can now say I have been and experienced and fully appreciate what a truly wondrous place the Grand Canyon is.

Scott

Chasing Storms

Beautiful sunsets and sunrises are probably one of my favorite things to photograph. This is a photo of me taking a sunset photo on Clearwater Beach, in Florida. The gentleman that took it was kind enough to let me download it on my laptop that night. But I also like to chase storms and try to get some dramatic clouds and lightning photographs. This is not nearly as easy as setting up on the beach and waiting for the sun to set and casually snap away with no real sense of urgency. Chasing storms and lightning is much more work, and the success rate for good quality shots is much lower.

 One summer my good friend Scott Hale and I spent quite a few nights chasing storms to try and photograph lightning. The difficult part was getting ahead of them and finding a place to set up so that we could have a good overall foreground scene instead of just photographing lightning in the sky. We chased one all the way up to Pere Marquette State Park in Grafton, Illinois. While standing on the overlook near the top of the bluff looking out over the Illinois River Valley, we thought we had gotten ahead of it and we would get some dramatic shots. But the very powerful storm had gotten in behind us and we did not see it coming until it blew in right over the trees on top of us. We were running for the car with lightning, heavy rain, and powerful winds dropping trees all around. Our success rate was low, but we had a lot of fun and managed not to get killed.

This photo above I took in June of 2006 on a trip to Ft. Walton Beach, Florida. That year Florida had experienced several hurricanes, and one was coming north through the Gulf of Mexico. It turned east and headed inland about 120 miles south of the Ft. Walton Beach. It created these ominous looking clouds and some big surf. The next morning it was sunny and beautiful, just like most Florida days.

We had some nice lightning the other morning with thast first spring storm, but I was to lazy to get out of bed at 2:00am and  try to get any photos. I snapped this photograph a couple summers ago. One of those hot August summer thunderstorms that blowup late in the afternoon. The heavy rain prevented me from getting the real dramatic lightning. The storm was already moving south by the time I could get outside to take any shots. This year I have promised myself I will get some better storm and lightning photograhs. Normally I have my camera on a tripod and use a cable release. This works well at night as I can usually get the shutter open before the lightning dissapears. During the day it is much harder, and the success rate is pretty low. There is a device called a Lightning Trigger. It fits in the hotshoe of your camera and triggers your cameras shutter when it senses a flash of lightning. This works much faster than a human using a cable release.

A really useful device, but it is pricey at $329.00 Here is their website for anyone that might be interested. It is another one of those items on my wish list.   http://www.lightningtrigger.com/

Have a great weekend!

Scott

A Week of Key West

Key West Florida is a favorite destination spot for many people who enjoy sun, watersports, and partying.  I took my family on a trip there in June of 2008. I had not been there for many, many moons, so it was good to get back. This was a first time visit for the rest of my family. I do not fly into Key West, as it is cheaper to fly into Miami or Ft. Lauderdale. Besides, driving U.S. 1 down to the keys is one of those great drives everyone should do at least once. The funny thing is U.S. 1 does not end at the beach. It stops abruptly about two blocks away in town. Key West is famous for quite a few things, but the sunsets have to be at the top of the list. The famous nightly ritual is to head down to Mallory Square and watch all the street preformers and the world famous sunsets. As a photogrpaher, this presents an amazing amount of things to photograph. Mimes, Magicians, Musicians, Jugglers, and Artists are everywhere. The crowds pack in shoulder to shoulder to enjoy this nightly free open air circus atmosphere. Alcohol is fairly cheap, available everywhere, and consumed in large quantities.

It would be impossible to cover Key West in a day, so I will devote this entire week to the sights and attractions of Key West. Although famous for it's sunsets, their sunrises are pretty awesome too. I am sure alot of people don't see the sun come up unless they are the way home from the bars, or up to go fishing.The photo on the left is a sunset from the Mallory Square Dock looking out to Sunset Key. The photo on the right is an early morning sunrise off the northeast side of the island.  

The nightlife in Key West is definitely geared to adults, but there are plenty of kid friendly things to do during the day.

Simply a great place to relax, soak up the sunshine, and get some great photographs.