Arizona Range Scene

 

Magic Mountain Morning

 

Looking toward the dawn on a snowy morning

That early morning light was in the west.

There was more color in the west than in the east, too.

In the east, clouds delayed sunrise.

Waiting, waiting for sunrise....

But higher in the mountains, the sun already reached the ground.

And every minute, the light was changing.

The magic was dizzying.

Any moment now --

The SUN!!!

But sun we have almost every day in Southern Arizona.

Snow, now --

Snow is the big story today!

High Grew the Grasses

Look at Sunny Juliet, close to sunset, sitting in this year's tall grass! Good thing she has that bright orange harness so I don't lose her on the savannah! 

 

Even a big ol' barrel cactus can be tricky to spot this year, unless you're right on top of it. 

And Peasy's tree, below -- usually surrounded by cow-trampled bare earth, this year it emerges from a sea of grass. 

Blades of grass as numerous (or so it seems) as stars in the nighttime desert sky. And yet, myriad as they are, they always merit a closer look. 

And now, if you're feeling lonely or altruistic or wise or holidayish or on-the-fence-about-the-hollidays, consider joining the conversation here. Thanks!

Strings of Stars

 

I hope the backlighting of late afternoon sun shows you what I see every day here on dog walks. Most of the mesquites out on the range are untidy shrubs rather than stately trees, but many of them are strung with morning glory vines that look, to me, when the light hits them just right, like strings of stars, each seed pod (having opened to release its black seeds) a five-pointed star. Most of the seed pods appear in pairs. I looked for single pods to photograph, thinking they would show the star effect better, but it's really the overall effect (top photograph), I think, that gives the best impression of what my eye sees.

I'm coming back to add a photograph that is not one of my own but one a neighbor sent me this past summer. It shows the morning glories in bloom in the wash, the vines winding through the green of the mesquite. Very different, isn't it?

Sunset on Amphicar

 

Sometimes our own old photographs can surprise us. I always loved this shot of one of the area's amphicars cruising up from Leland harbor into Fishtown, but only this morning did I look carefully enough to realize that a Leland sunset is reflected in the car's shining paint. What an evening!

Worth a second look

 

The HDR Difference (See for yourself)

 

Everything Looks Better in the Morning Light

 

Hygge Outdoors

 

The dear little things that warm our hearts --

Fall Color Up Close

 

Michigan landscapes right now are bursting with color, begging to be photographed with wide angle lenses or painted on giant canvases. My mission this afternoon was different. Instead of looking for stunning vistas from the highway, I went on foot around the edge of the woods and aimed in close, focused on sunlit leaves. Many of these shots were done in HDR mode, with three successive exposures stacked together, and the wind often kept those stacked images from lining up exactly, which is okay with me. At least one image was a ordinary single exposure. Nothing more seemed to be required. See if you can spot the one I mean -- and tell me which image is your favorite, because I'm having a hard time choosing myself.