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.

  

Central Illinois Landscapes

 In a recent post I comment on the challenges of doing landscape photography in my area of the world. While I would love to do more of the iconic scenery that can be found across this great county, I can find excellent scenes to photograph close to home. These are photographs I created within a close radius of my home.

Clark Bridge, Alton IL. at sunset

Goshen Rd. barn and building storm clouds

Goshen Rd. Sunrise

The barn in this sunrise scene is the same barn in the B&W above it. Amazing how the same scene can be photographed from different perspectives and angles to create many unique photos of just this one subject.

Fading Away Rt. 16 and Rt. 127, Hillsboro IL.

With Illinois being such a large agricultural state, the mostly pancake flat central part of the state has many of these old barns that are no longer being used because modern farming has made them obsolete.

They are usually left to rot away until they collapse and get burned or hauled away. I love to photograph them. 

Black Sand Beaches

Approaching Storm Along The Southern Coast

After leaving Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, my next planned stop was one of Hawaii's most famous black sand beaches. The problem was there was a pretty big storm brewing up and the weather was going to turn nasty. Yes, even in paradise they have crappy weather once in a while.  

     

                                              Punalu'u Beach

Punaluʻu Beach (also called Black Sand Beach) is a beach between Pāhala and Nāʻālehu on the Big Island of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The beach has black sand made of basalt and created by lava flowing into the ocean which explodes as it reaches the ocean and cools. This volcanic activity is in the Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Punaluʻu is frequented by endangered Hawksbill and Green turtles, which can often be seen basking on the black sand.

After A Rain Shower

While I did not have good weather for my time at Punalu'u Beach, it was still an amazing experience to see and feel that black lava under your feet on the beach. This had been my first and only time on a black sand beach. I did see a few turtles in the bay swimming around, but none had crawled out onto the beach while we were there. No sun to bask in!   I still had a few hours of travel time before getting to my next stop, so I sadly left this amazing place to try and make it to my hotel along the Kahalu'u - Kona Coast before dark.

                                     Tiki Torch Sunset

Rolled into my next stop along the Kahalu'u-Kona Coast. I arrived just in time to catch this stunning sunset over the offshore reef.

Hammocks By Moonlight

I woke up about 5:00am to the sound of the surf over the reef from my open window. I took this 20 second exposure very early in the morning while I was wandering around looking for a good composition. This turned out to be one of my favorite photos from my Hawaii trip.

Waikiki Beach

When I planned my trip to Hawaii, I flew in and out of Honolulu, which is located on the Island of Oahu. Honolulu is a city of about 400,000 people, but it feels much bigger since much of it is packed along the famous Waikiki Beach. Oahu, an island occupying 597 square miles, is the second oldest island in the Hawaiian chain of visitable islands. She lies between her sister islands Kauai and Maui.

Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, HI.

With its calm waters, the beaches of Waikiki offer a great place for swimming as well as your very first surf lesson.  Waikiki is known in Hawaiian as “sprouting waters”. The water is very calm and a great beach to relax on and people watch. It will get pretty crowded though with the urban population so densley packed around it. I really enjoyed the sunsets from the beachfront area though.  The sunsets  I experienced in Hawaii were pretty amazing. Pull up a beach chair and have a cooler with some relaxing adult beverages and watch the show.

                             Sunset from Waikiki Beach

The weather on Oahu is ideal, and tempreatures range between 75-88 degrees F.  With moderate humidity and constant ocean breezes, even the hottest months are very comfortable. There are many great attractions, and resturants in the Honolulu area. I knew that Hawaii was going to be expensive, but the sticker shock to my conservative (cheap) mid-western values was painful. It is very easy to bust your budget trying to see and do all the tourist things you want to do while you are there.  I only had three days to spend on Oahu, so I rushed around to see as much as I could fit in and afford. At least the sunsets were free.

 

          The Sun Sinks Slowly Into The Pacific Ocean  

I think this photograph is a good representation of the Honolulu area. Beautiful but somewhat crowded. You see a commercial air plane, cruise ships, sailboats,and swimmers and surfers in the water. Although I prefer my beaches to be less crowded, Waikiki is a very cool place to hang out.

 

                           The Honolulu Pier after Sunset

This was my favorite photograph of my numerous attempts at long exposure shots and sunsets. The sun had dipped below the horizion and left the orange after glow in the sky. I took numerous exposures to try and capture people when they were not moving much so they would retain their forms. This was my best shot of the bunch.

Sunsets and Fishing Piers

There are always certain types of photos that we love and are drawn to. Personally I have always loved the sunsets over the ocean with a fishing pier in them. Many people would say they are cliché type post card shots, but I don't care. When people see the photographs I do of them, they love them. I sell quite a few prints of them. I also do them in note cards that are also quite popular. Having been born and raised in the mid-west, I only saw the oceans when I went on vacation. Fortunately my parents loved to travel and we always took some great vacations. If I would win the lottery someday, I would split my time between a home on a tropical beach, and a small ranch out west somewhere in the mountains.

Hanging out on a beach and watching a glorious sunset into the ocean is truly a relaxing experience for me. What most people miss is the best part of the show. As soon as the sun slips below the horizon, most people take off thinking the best part is over. Actually some of the most beautiful light and colors start then. There is a window of time, usually 10-20 minutes, when the sunlight is reflecting back into the sky over the curve of the earth and lighting the underside of the clouds. That is when you see the most vivid colors in the sky. This also applies to the sunrise before the sun comes up over the horizon, but the time frame for the best colors is much shorter.

Doing this type of photography is not very difficult, it just requires a little planning, some patience, and some basic equipment. I will usually scout out the scene an hour or so before sunset to see the angle, and where the sun will be going below the horizon in relation to what I am going to use as my main subject. I think about what I want the composition to look like and I will take a couple test shots hand held to see how it will look. Then it is a matter of waiting until the right light.

These are long exposure shots so the camera needs to be on a sturdy tripod. I use an electronic shutter release to trip the shutter. If you do not have a shutter release cable, you can use your camera's self timer to trip the shutter so you are not in contact with the camera. You want to avoid introducing any type of possible vibrations that might cause blurring. Since these are usually pretty long exposures, I do not use the mirror lockup feature like I would doing macro photography. I usually use the camera's evaluative metering system on the first shot and look at the results on the back of the camera. I usually then have to make adjustments depending on how the histogram looks. I either switch to manual mode and bracket the exposures, or I just use exposure compensation if it does not need much correction.

This last photo was not a sunset photo. This is a shot of the Sanibel Island Fishing Pier and Lighthouse taken about 15 minutes after the sun had set behind me. I wanted to catch the twilight night sky which is the blue to purple colors you get before the black night sky. Long exposures also tend to give everything a strong blue color cast anyway. This was shot from the causeway back to the mainland. I used a 500mm telephoto with a 1.4 extender to give me 700mm of focal length. This was about a 30 second exposure. I thought it made a unique looking photograph.

J. N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge

There are countless amazing locations to photograph wildlife in Florida. There are dozens of books and publications that cover everything you would want to know on the subject. I regularly visit one of the top rated bird photography spots in the country. It is located on Sanibel Island, off the coast of Ft. Myers. J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge is a bird photographer’s paradise. I have made the trip to this place at least once or twice a year for the past five years. I usually spend several days photographing the diverse bird population that can be found there.

 
 
 
 
One of the big attractions at the refuge is the large colony of American White Pelicans that come to winter and start their breeding season. It is fun to watch these large birds come crusing in for a landing in the shallow waters to feed or rest. They are a good target to practice your in-flight photography skills on as they are very large and do not move erratically like many birds do. They will winter as far north as the St. Louis area. You can see them in the Riverlands Wetland Area over in West Alton.
 

Another favorite target of mine is the numerous Ospreys that are found in the refuge. The Osprey (Pandion haliaetus), sometimes known as the sea hawk, is large raptor reaching 24 inches in length with a 5-6 foot wing span. It is brown on the upperparts and predominantly greyish on the head and underparts, with a black eye patch and wings. Fish make up 99% of their diet. They are efficent hunters and have hugh curved talons for grabbing fish just below the surface of the water.

This photo is of a Female Common Merganser Duck. The long, narrow bill with serrated edges readily distinguishes mergansers from all other ducks. Common mergansers are among the largest ducks, but are less stocky than eiders and goldeneyes. In flight, they appear more elongated than other ducks, flying in trailing lines close to the water's surface. Male common mergansers have a greenish-black crested head and upper neck. The lower neck, breast and underparts are creamy-white with a variable pink wash. They have black backs and upperwing coverts with white scapulars. The bill is red with a blackish culmen and nail. The legs and feet are a deep red. Female common mergansers have a tufted red-brown head that is clearly defined from the lower neck by a clear whitish chin. The back and sides are silver-gray and the breast and belly are white. The bill is red with a blackish culmen and nail. The legs and feet are deep red.

Although the weather has been less than ideal for my entire week in Florida, It was still better here than in St. Louis. But the sun has set on my final day here and I will be returning home on Saturday.

Have a great weekend.

Scott

Sanibel Island Photography

Thick clouds, cold temperatures, and a stiff wind do not make for good conditions to do bird photography in a sub-tropical climate. Upon my arrival at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, there were only a few birds around. Most were sittting far back in the trees trying to stay warm. There did not appear to be any signs of a break in the clouds so I did what any good photographer would do. I went to breakfast. Then I took my wife shopping. While keeping my eye on the skies, I saw a few breaks in the clouds. My wife was nice enough to keep shopping and allow me to head back to the refuge.

Small pockets of sunlight started peeking through breaks in the clouds. Although there was not much to photograph, I was able to spot this Great Blue Heron perched on a log.  He was sitting back in a dark spot, but had some sunlight shining on him. I spot metered on the heron and it allowed the background to go completely black. I think it makes for a dramatic photograph. But then it clouded up again and the photography was on hold for a while.

Finally late in the day the skies cleared and I was able to start looking for something to focus that 800mm lens on. I headed to the south end of the island by the lighthouse. There is a nesting pair of Osprey that have been there for a few years using the same nest. I pulled into the parking lot and was setting up when this Osprey landed in the tree right over my head. (My luck was finally improving) It appears that fresh Flounder was on his menu as he started to feed. I actually had to back up across the parking lot to get him all in the frame.  (How rare is that when you have to back up instead of trying to get closer) He kept having to flare his wings to keep his balance as the wind was still blowing pretty hard.   

With the sun quickly going down and clouds starting build, I headed out onto the beach to try some shorebird photography. To be honest, I do not know exactly what species of shorebird this is, but I think it is a Black Bellied Plover, but I will have to ID it when I get home. There was a nice soft light at this point, and I was able to get a few photographs. There were a lot of people on the beach and it became to difficult to do any photography, so I called it a day. I wanted to get a nice sunset, but off shore clouds were moving in. So I have posted a nice sunset I did from Blind Pass Beach that I did last year at this time.

  

Have a great day