Month: September 2021

Saturday evening, I’m hearing Mary Travis singing in the back of my head, “My bags are packed, I’m ready to go…” so I sat down with a glass of my favorite red (kudos to Snoop Dogg and 19 Crimes). When I looked out the window I saw a Black Phoebe perched on top of the shepherd’s hook that holds one the the hummingbird feeders. It’s not exactly a new visitor but always before its visits have been fleeting and I have never had time to pick up a camera while one was in my yard. I opened the patio door slowly watching the bird the entire time. It didn’t seem to notice. I decided to go for it and went into the other room, unzipped my camera bag and extracted my Nikon Z6II with the Nikkor 500mm PF already attached. When I returned to the open doorway, the Black Phoebe was looking around and when I pointed the camera at it, it didn’t flinch. I got a dozen or so nice shots, the first time I have photographed a Black Phoebe. I think it’s a good way to start a trip. I’m leaving on a jet plane (couldn’t let Peter, Paul, and Mary go) this morning to fly to the Oregon Coast to photograph shore birds, one of my favorite kinds of photography.

I love the drama that black and white brings to landscapes. When there are clouds to enhance a stark landscape like that in Monument Valley it’s even better. And silhouettes like these spires add mystery to the drama.

The slot canyons in Antelope Valley twist and turn and sometimes you wonder if you’ll fit because the path can get pretty narrow in places. Luckily for us, we did not have to squeeze through this crevasse but it is an example of the intricate patterns and varied colors in the sandstone. The light is coming from the canyon opening far above us.

The last sunrise I got to watch from my balcony a week ago in Monument Valley was brilliant, mostly cloudless, and once again, gorgeous. The sun had moved so far in the few days that it never came close to touching the tip of the thumb as it did on my first morning but still it glowed brightly behind East Mitten Butte. That pair of mittens was my favorite subject during my visit to Monument Valley. I wanted to frame both mittens in my last shot to indicate sort of a double wave or a “hug” good-bye. I never tired of the view from my balcony and it was so nice to be able to photograph the same scene at morning, noon, and night and see how different it looked each time. It was eye-opening to see how the position of the sun changed ever so slightly and ever so quickly over those few days. Each sunrise was different. Each sunrise was memorable. Each sunrise was stunning.

Every time I looked out on Monument Valley from my balcony, the scene changed, sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically. This day, when the red was gone from the sunrise skies and the clouds moved in, magic happened.