Category Archives: The Grand Landscape

The overview of the natural landscape.

Temple of the Moon

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Temple of the Moon
Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Following yesterday’s post, this image is the Temple of the Moon. Looking at both of these “Temples” in the valley and the heavily eroded hill sides on the perimeter makes me wish that a time-lapse camera could have caught the changes over the eons of time. How interesting it would be to watch nature’s elements carve out these natural structures.

As reference, the image of the Temple of the Moon and rising moon on 28 March was taken from the perspective of the small peak on the left.

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Temple of the Sun

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Temple of the Sun
Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

The sun was starting to set over the western rim of the valley. I was standing on a small rock outcropping. My focus was moving back and forth from the Temple of the Sun on my left and the Temple of the Moon on my right. The clouds were rapidly moving as the sun was setting, providing different levels of interest and shadows on the two “Temples”. I was hesitant to switch my composition from one to the other. I did anyway…

Tomorrow, Temple of the Moon

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Capitol Reef: Temple of the Moon

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“Full Moon Over Temple of the Moon”

Sometimes I get lucky.  Walking along the washes between the Temple of the Moon and Temple of the Sun in Capitol Reef, I looked east and saw a full moon rising over the horizon. I positioned myself west of the Temple of the Moon.   I waited over an hour for the sky to darken and the moon to rise above the temple monolith.  While waiting, I thought about the spiritual ramifications that were felt by the ancient native Americans thousands of years ago.   It was well worth the wait.

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Capitol Reef: Skyline Point #2

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Skyline Point – The Henrys

Back to black and white.  I photographed this image in the middle of my last afternoon at Capitol Reef.  Who says you can’t create a good image in the middle of the day.  It was a beautiful afternoon.  The overhead sun lit up the Henry Mountains as well as provided nice shadows in the valley below.  I had the point all by myself.  It was a wonderful and peaceful feeling.  Looking down at the cliff walls and valley below, I was experiencing over 100 million years of history.  Human existence is pretty insignificant in the scheme of the natural wonders of our planet.  Let us all protect it for future generations.

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Capitol Reef: Yellow, Orange, Red, Blue, Purple, Grey

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Skyline Point Near Capitol Reef, Utah

I recently completed a workshop with John Barclay and Mitch Dobrowner at Capitol Reef National Park, Utah.  This view is from a plateau cliff overlooking a valley 400-500 feet below.  My knees were shaky as I got near the edge.  My tripod saved me.  First, it was a nice brace to have between me and the edge.  And second, there was no way I could have hand-held a shot with my wobbly knees.

My focus for this workshop was to work on my black and white skills with Mitch Dobrowner.  However, when I saw this variety of color, I could not pass the opportunity to share this experience in color.

The view from Skyline Point was breathtaking.  It is a 270 degree panorama of a colorful unearthly landscape.  The point is a sheer cliff falling down to the valley down below..  Approaching the point, one has no idea that the plateau stops abruptly to this scene.   

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Alabama Hills #6

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“Moon-Set Over the Sierra Nevada’s”

We got up early to see the moon set over the Sierras and Alabama Hills as they were being highlighted by the early morning sun.  It was a great morning.  We feasted on pancakes in Lone Pine afterwards!!!  The morning even got better!

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Alabama Hills #3

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Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, CA

This image is looking due west from the eastern side of the Alabama Hills.  The Sierras still have a little snow.  Notice the difference in the erosion patterns on the Alabama Hills boulders and the the sharp eastern Sierras.  Both ranges were formed near the same time.  Nature does funny things.

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Getting Ready …

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Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California

I am getting ready for a photography workshop with John Barclay and Mitch Dobrowner at Capitol Reef in southern Utah.  Part of the preparation is to select images of past work to show to the workshop group.  I’ve spent the last two days reviewing my images over the past year.  My focus for this workshop will be black and white photography.  Overall, I am disappointed in my progress in 2018.  I could not identify many individual stellar single images that stand completely by themselves.   However, I did notice that I have several good images when taken together tell a story of the feeling I had experiencing a particular site.  A collection of my images is stronger than any single image.  For the next few days I will post a series of images from the Alabama Hills last April.

The Alabama Hills is a series of rounded rock hills and rock formations on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range near Lone Pine, California.  Mt. Whitney towers above the range.  Since the 1920’s the rugged area has been used as a location for over 150 movies and TV show’s.

This image was taken looking northwest over some large boulders of the Alabama Hills toward the eastern Sierras.

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