Southwestern US Trip

My grandson and I are off on a 3 week road trip through some of the scenic areas in Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. We will be looking for dragonflies, interesting geology and thunderstorms to photograph.I expect lots of interesting threads to read when I get back.Cheers,

We appreciate the well wishes. We're staying in a motel tonight but most of the rest of the time we will be camping.My grandson is 13 and this is the 4th year he has been travelling with me. The first year was just around Oregon, but the next year we went to Tennessee for a meet up with some of my other dragonfly collecting friends and then last year we drove up to a meeting in Saskatchewan and then further up north of Prince Albert Park. We got to take a float plane trip and he thought that was great.He and I are making lots of great memories and I have been telling him about the good times I had with both of my grandfathers. They were the ones that set my life on the course of science. I told him to build good memories with his grandkids and tell them about our adventures.He is a great wingman!I hope to have some good images to share of the geology og this region when I get back.Thanks so much for the education you guys have given me in geology. It make this experience so much more rewarding!Cheers,

I am home from a great trip (4337 miles, 3357 photos) to the Southwest. It will take me a while to process the photos, but so far this is my favorite. Grand Canyon South Rim ThunderstormI was able to photograph many of the geological formations that were on my list and also some pretty dramatic skies and storms. I had close encounters with flash floods, a black-tailed diamond back rattlesnake, tarantulas, food poisoning, an injured knee, a girl dancing on the very edge of the Grand Canyon and many other wonders.I really surprised myself and seem to have completely cured my total fear of high places.The heavy storms and high muddy water in the streams we wanted to survey for dragonflies (Arivaipa Cr. and San Pedro River in AZ and upper Gila River in NM) made for lower species diversity and lower population sizes than we expected. It was disappointing , but it's hard to predict what the weather will be like or how it will affect the fauna.I picked up 2 fantastic new books on the geology of the Colorado Plateau and the Grand Canyon. Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau, by Ron Blakey and Wayne Ranney and Carving Grand Canyon, Evidence, Theories and Mystery, by Wayne Ranney.All in all, it was a very good trip and lots of fun.I will post images, especially of interesting geology as I work my way through them

Time flies when you are having fun.I have been sorting images from my 2014 SW Trip folder and realized that I dropped the ball as far as posting images. Or saved you from the incredible boredom of watching an old fart's vacation slide show.I was set up with my camera on a tripod trying to catch more lightning flashes when this young lady walked in front of me, right out to the very edge of the precipice. Then she slowly raised one leg and grabbed her ankle. There are times when you absolutely must click the shutter. I took a series of shots of her balancing there while I held my breath. When she finally came to her senses and came away I asked if she would like a photo. She said yes and explained that she was visiting from France. She gave me her email address and later thanked me after I sent her a set of images. Edited by Tanypteryx, : No reason given.

Thanks Paul. Nope. One of my friends said, "Nutjob." I guess I have to agree.When I arrived at the GC I had a serious phobia about getting close to the edge of a cliff and looking down. I started walking down to viewpoints that were fenced, without having the hole in the ground grabbing me and pulling me over the edge. I forced myself to approach the edges so I could take photographs, but also to just visually take it all in.By the time I left the canyon my fear seemed to be cured. I still will not stand on the very brink, even on two feet, but at least I can enjoy the experience and I look forward to returning.During the whole trip to the SW I thought about the discussions of geology we have had here at EvC. I made my way around the GC and stopped and explored many areas and one thing that struck me was that very few places look like Faith's description of "flat, level layers of strata exposed in cross section. Most of the strata looks uneven, even when observed from a distance. In general, taking the region as a whole, diagrams depict the layering as relatively flat, but up close it is much more complex than that.

Yeah, you are probably right.I have to say that watching gave me a hell of a shot of adrenaline and a feeling of fear that I had not experienced since my daughter at the age of 9 leaned over the edge of the Crooked River Gorge in Oregon so she could see the bottom. Changing the subject .......

Just goes to show you what happens when you read a joke after toking Blue Dream. (A rather psychedelic mellow high that is perfect for working on images in my digital darkroom.) (I am creating a calendar of photos from my recent trips.)I promise I will read it again tomorrow as if for the first time.

OK, I guess it wasn't the pot, just my density.

A Raven, Corvus corax on the South Rim. One of the wild animals that is relatively comfortable with humans closely approaching. They are highly intelligent and interesting to observe.

My friends and I Visited a friend who manages Nature Conservancy land near the Arivaipa Creek Wilderness in SW Arizona. This was on an old ranch that also had a stage station. He was showing us some of the neat old buildings and I was following him and one of my friends when they stepped into the dark interior of a building with a dirt floor. As I stepped over the threshold I noticed a large toad hopping to my left. They turned around and said to me, "Stop! Don't move!" Then they said, "There is a rattlesnake right beside you!" When I looked I could see him coiled and buzzing, but the rattle was so faint I could barely hear it. Even with m y hearing aids it was barely audible. It turns out they rattle at a frequency that is right in the middle of my worst hearing loss and also very close to the frequency of my tinnitus. It was dark and my lens aperture was set at f18 so the shutter speed was 1/5 second., plus I may have been a bit nervous. I shit the image and slowly backed out the door. I think several of my friends got some good images and I will see if I can post one here.If you look carefully you can see the head and the rattle.

This is a shot from the north Rim without any processing in Photoshop except conversion of the RAW file in Adobe Camera Raw. This is the same image with some tonality adjustments mediated by luminosity masks, so I could address issues in the sky, distant canyon, near canyon and foreground separately.The canyon was full of smoke from fires burning on the South Rim.I am not very satisfied with the image yet and I may abandon further work on it, since I have a number of other shot from the same vicinity. I had to adjust the saturation to cut a blue shift in the near canyon and it still look over-saturated in the blue.There are actually faint sunrays visible in the haze that I have not been able to enhance as much as I would like. Several of my other shots show them better so maybe I should cut my losses.

I am flattered. This file is too small to blow up and print, it would look pretty bad. If you have a way to receive large files I can send you one that can be printed. I routinely print these shots at 16x24 inches and with the right shots I can blow them up more than that. We can discuss details in messaging if you want.

Thanks. I am glad you enjoy them.I use a pair of 22" monitors also. The images look great on a screen, but they were sized in Photoshop as 1024 pixels on the long side and using the save for web setting are only 72 pixels per inch.My original images are 4256 x 2832 pixels at 360 pixels per inch which would print as 11.82 x 7.87 inches. In order to print at 16 x 24 inches, I have to enlarge to 8640 x 5749 pixels.

A different angle and better atmospheric effects, I think.

We stopped to look at some dinosaur tracks east of Tuba City and while we were there a Navajo gentleman who guided us around to all the tracks asked if we would like to see some petroglyphs. He took us to very neat sandstone bluff where there were dozens of large boulders covered with symbols.Some of the rocks had been defaced by vandals in the past. Now there is a cyclone fence around the area with only one entrance that is monitored by surveillance cameras. Our guide told us the security system had been paid for with a grant from Smithsonian and National Geographic.We also saw a number of exposed portions of dinosaur bones.