2018, Whitewater Draw

This January trip west was delayed in southern LA by an ice storm. Sitting it out until I 12 and I 10 were opened in a mall parking lot behind a Cracker Barrel was interesting. After setting up a solar panel I made the best of the record breaking cold as I watched the area fill with 18 wheelers. Nearly 32 hours later we all got back on the road and the trip west to AZ was uneventful.

Once in AZ I stopped at Whitewater Draw to spend some time observing the Sandhill Cranes that winter there. The cranes number in the thousands and have a very different schedule than those I watched in Bosque del Apache over two years ago. IT was cold in AZ, too, but worth it to see the birds. 

I got to see a Vermillion Flycatcher, watch some handsome ducks and a Killdeer, too. 

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2017 Moab

When I left the Tetons I headed south to Moab, figuring it had to be warmer there. When I got to Moab late on Thursday afternoon, all the BLM campgrounds were full so I decided to go to the bare bones place just off 191 where I’ve seen lots of rigs with ATVs/ORVs parked. Turns out the land owner has realized he has a good spot there so it is now set up as a basic campground. Pros, large sites, level, small gravel, neat and clean, $15/night. Cons, if you need any amenities don’t bother. No water, shade or dump, 1 portapotty. Since the Casita is self contained, I use solar and it wasn’t an extremely hot time of the year the site worked fine for me. It is also very close to the entrance to Arches and to Moab so instead of traveling several miles in windy roads it was very convenient, worth it to me. The site is backed by grand high red cliffs and a nice spot for the sunset and early morning images.

I’ve been to Arches and posted images from those visits so this time I decided to concentrate on other places. Also, the park is open only Friday and Saturdays nights now because of road work and both nights were cloudy. Anyhow, I drove out 128 along the Colorado River one morning and made several stops. Not only was I enjoying the day time drive I was scouting for night images, too. I’d been through Castle Valley once several years ago and wanted to check it out, too.

Back near the campground I was able to find a good spot for some Milky Way images, too. 

 

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2017, Tetons, short visit

On my way to Yellowstone I stopped in the Tetons for only 4 nights. Got another great site at Gros Ventre CG. There is a lot of smoke around, sometimes you could be at the south end of the Tetons and couldn’t even see the north end of the range. Last year the fires were raging in both Yellowstone and GTNP, this year they are not in the parks but still affecting them.

The second night I was there it was wonderfully clear so I went out to see what I could photograph. First stop was one of the old Mormon barns. There were a couple of guys there already and they were using some LED flashlights to light the barn. Not the best light since it tends to be a very cold white but I warmed it up a bit in the processing.

 

The night was so clear I wanted to take advantage of it so I headed down to Schwabacher’s Landing unsure if the setting would work or not. Yes!  Just the spot to capture the Milky Way over the calm waters.

2017 Florida Storm

Night photography is a passion of mine and one of the challenges can be to try for lightning images. Summertime in FL usually means plenty of storms. Unfortunately this summer while it has been wet the evening storms have been infrequent and the opportunity for lightning even less. Last week we finally got a break. After checking the radar often it appeared a line of storms to the northeast was heading south. I called a friend and her first words were “I wondered when you’d call.” I grabbed my gear and swung by her house. I’d heard about a small park with picnic tables that had shelters over them and the bonus was it faces east over a lake. Perfect for us. We got there as one storm was passing to the east so we each picked a table and set up the tripods. There wasn’t a lot of rain but the shelters enabled us to keep on shooting without risking the cameras.

After a while the storm passed and it appeared that part of it was heading west, towards the Gulf. We hopped in the truck and headed west. Deciding to go straight out to Ft. Island Trail Beach. There are tables there with shelters, too. The beach is lit by large sodium lights, so the sand looked pretty orange in the images, but I toned it down a bit. It was a good night all in all. 

2016 Bandon, first week

Bullard Beach SP is a really good location to use as a base. The campground itself is really nice and it’s handy to so many interesting places. Soon after I arrived I took a drive up to the Charleston area, to Sunset Beach SP and Simpson’s Reef. Photographing wildlife is always a draw for me and I spent about 3 hours watching the sea lions (both California and Stellar) and seals (harbor seals and Northern Elephant

Northern Elephant Seals

seals). The N.E. seals were pretty lethargic, laying on the beach and occasionally using their flippers to toss sand on themselves. I never did get to see one in the water but the others were having a great time of it.

Bandon has lots of sea stacks and good access to the local beaches. Yesterday there were some harbor seals resting on a large rock so I was able to get a few images.

This morning there were some clouds with sunlight breaking through so I spent some time photographing some of the sea stacks. I haven’t used ND filters much and decided it would be good to play around with them. Very interesting results I think.  

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2016 Goosenecks SP, Utah

My last night on the road before getting to Goosenecks SP in UT was at a small campground in Bernalillo, NM, just north of Albuquerque. Each campsite has electric

Coronado RV park, Bernalillo, NM

hookup with water nearby. What caught my eye was the special shade shelters each site has over their picnic tables.

I decided to try to get into Goosenecks SP in UT because I’d heard so many good things about it. It is dry camping with no shade and no water available but if you arrive prepared you can really relax and enjoy it. It is named because over millions of years the San Juan river has carved deeply into the desert rock making several unique goosenecks. We did see some rafters on the river. I think they put in at Bluff and given the distance to be covered it must be an all day trip at least to get to the take out.

I met some really nice folks at the campground, campers like me. One group was in a borrowed coach and they hosted campfires every night. On Friday we were able to watch the ISS (International Space Station) pass overhead. I didn’t think to get my camera out but did 2 nights later and captured it. Another camper here was an experienced astronomer with a large telescope. His knowledge of the stars was impressive and he invited folks to view various planets and stars each night.

One gentleman expressed an interest when I mentioned photographing the Milky Way

Milky Way over Goosenecks SP, UT

so I helped him get started with night photography. I think he’s hooked now!

This has been a really good place to spend a few days and I look forward to staying in touch with my new friends.

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2016 A Florida River Trip

When I was at Bosque del Apache in New Mexico last November I met a nice couple (from NM) with ties to the Lake Panasoffkee area (about 25 miles from my home). I suggested they get in touch if/when they came down later in the winter.

Osprey

They did and since Bob is an avid photographer he suggested we rent a boat and go out on the river to see what we could find. Great idea!  Fortunately he is familiar with the river and outboard motors and was willing to navigate. As we started out there were osprey working on a nest. We started out on a small inlet into Lake Panasoffkee and headed west towards the Withlacoochee River via Princess Lake.

We saw quite a few birds, but getting sharp images was a challenge since the boat was in motion 99% of

Wood Stork

the time, either because we were going forward or drifting in the current.  It called for fast shutter speeds and a steady hand (no tripod). I got many more blurred images than sharp ones but it was a good day over all. We saw only a couple of other boats, fishermen.

 

There was a good variety of wading birds and many Red Shouldered Hawks.

Red Shouldered Hawk

Some of the birds were very skittish, others much less disturbed as we went by or slowed to watch them.

Black Crowned Night Heron

Black Crowned Night Herons are very difficult to capture so we were very pleased this one didn’t take off immediately when we slowed and circled near it.

 

We also ventured into a couple of sloughs looking for birds, didn’t see any

Cypress swamp

other than a few ibis in among the cypress but the waters were very still and we took advantage of that to get some nice reflections.

We were rather surprised that the only osprey we saw were right at the start, none along the river or small lake and we only saw 3 gators. I suppose the gators were there but staying down in the water nice and warm since it was rather chilly.

 

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