National Monument Poetic Style

Yesterday, with a shared day off, we headed to the Chiricahua monument. I had been last time I was in AZ, and was happy to be heading there again. Ancient volcanic activity and erosion has left tall pillars of rock that cover the mountain sides, which gives you a very awesome and eerie feeling. We decided to go on one of the long hikes, which was great as I got to walk along the Heart of Rocks trail, which I had no been on before. It takes you up amongst all the hoodoos.

I was looking forward to taking some photos, but it was a cloudy/rainy day which is perfect for hiking, but not perfect for making your photos look cheery. So, I will rely on the greyscale to make my photos appear artsy and deep.

Denise walks amongst some hoodoos in the Heart of Rocks

Attempting to wreck the landscape. But doesn't it look poetic in black and white?


We borrowed a jeep to head over the mountain and back. This is one of the few times Denise didn't have a grin on her face while driving :) Yeehaw!

Electricity

Blue, my laptop, has sprung back into life, but I'm assuming its fleeting. Must be some kind of connection problem. And I was just about to take the whole thing apart too, he woke up not a minute too soon.

So, last night I was lamenting that I had not been out taking many photos, for various reasons. But last night the skies opened up, poured rain, and gave me a very good reason to stand in the parking lot getting soaked.









Can you hear it?

The loss of Blue (my laptop)

Hello all,
Finally, the moment I was dreading. My laptop seems to have kicked the bucket. Which means, this blog is about to get a whole lot less exciting. I will try and post photos when I can using the station computers. Sigh. Sorry to all my fans :)

Night Moves II

More fun with long exposures and pretty lights. With the full moon and a clear sky, we headed down to the desert to catch the sunset/moonrise.

Not bad, for a moon. But hazy unfortunately.

The moon a little higher, with a longer exposure. (the funky lines around the moon are due to compression of the file size, but looks kinda funky no?)

My zen friend


Me, not as zen, but cool, which is equally important

Denise had the idea to play with some backlighting. Having looked at the photo I think we should have kept playing with the idea, it makes a pretty neat effect


And finally, what I think of as the coolest photo of the whole evening, the horse we rode in on (lovingly known as Padiddle). Denise sat in the car holding a light stick (she's the best and most flexible assistant a photographer could have, willing to jam herself into uncomfortable places for effect) and I shone red light on the head lights. This is a 40 something steamboat exposure


Grrrrr

Working on my night moves I

The other night, with Denise frolicking with Chiropterans, I took advantage of the almost-full moon and played with some long exposures.

This dead tree has an Elf Owl nest in it, but it was pretty quiet the evening I was out there.


Spooky signs out front. Not as spooky now as Denise and I are working on refinishing them


Inspired by www.lostamerica.com (look at his photos, seriously, they are incredible)


Oooo, spooky spirally ghost in the woods. Its so tangly.

This is about a 70 steamboat exposure, I walked in front of the camera and traced myself with an LED. Freaked myself out a little bit with this one, being an almost-full moon and all the crazy noises around me, I ended up spending the rest of the evening under a wool blanket

Desert Nights

The other night was a beautiful one here, the clouds were just perfect for an excellent sunset. Denise and I threw back dinner and headed down the mountain about 7 miles to the desert in time to catch it. I had spent some time on Foothills road before and knew that it was a really neat place; typical desert and no cattle fences, so you are able to wander. We also played around a bit with some night photography, I'm looking forward to the full moon

The mountains opposite the sun, big sky

The gravel road from whence we came


Octotillo and the moon


One of the many spiky things found in the desert, displayed in a poetic manner (still hurts when it jams into your leg though)


The sun slowly descends

I remember this plant has very nice flowers in late May, but I have no idea whats its called


After the sun went down, we played with an LED light and long exposures, Denise stands still for 15 steamboats.



Tee-hee...

The last few days

We've been spending a fair bit of time walking through the forest (I've accelerated from couch to 4 miles/day in under two weeks), and now that we are the only volunteers, Denise and I are on permanent dish duty for the next few days until the reinforcements arrive. But, I digress,
random photos!

As a gift to myself, I purchased a remote shutter release, so I've been playing with a few night shots. In the next few days the moon will be full, so I'm hoping to get out and do some more when the light is bright. These are the solar powered lamps that run along the pathway through the station

A little fun with 'light painting' and my headlamp. Used to illuminate the trees (with a shutter speed of 90 steamboats)


This Wild Turkey says "gobble gobble gobble" in a slowly descending tone, translated to "heyyyyy ladies"

An Arizona Sister butterfly



Sadly, I just couldn't get this one in focus as much as I would have liked. These are ants tending to aphids. They actually care for the aphids, feeding them. In turn, the ants eat the honeydew (sugary poop) that the aphids produce. Yay commensalism!