I visited this location on my trip to the southwest this past June, and it is one of my new favorite places in that region. It was a spectacular place to sit and watch the storms pass by. The view is not far from the Bears Ears National Monument boundary, looking out over Natural Bridges National Monument. I can't wait to visit this region again soon. Every trip to the southwest whets my appetite for more.
Some nice lights last night, even though the clouds tried hard to obscure the views. I feel like rather than detracting from the quality of the photos, the clouds added an extra layer of interest. It was a beautiful night with fog in the valleys and owls hooting from the ridge tops.
It's shaping up to be a good year for the maple colors in northeast Minnesota. These photos were made this past weekend in Cook County, MN south of Grand Marais. Note: If you want to see the maples, you need to head INLAND from Lake Superior, to the higher elevations.
My time in the Valley of the Gods of southern Utah this past June was pretty unforgettable. My goal with each night of that trip was to see and photograph the Milky Way from a location with an interesting foreground. While there is no shortage of interesting foregrounds in southern Utah, not all interesting foregrounds work well for Milky Way photography. Valley of the Gods definitely works, though. There are lots of interesting formations to photograph with the Milky Way rising behind/above them. When I arrived at the valley before sunset, however, the sky was completely socked in with clouds. I thought that perhaps this night would be a bust for a star-filled sky. About 3:00 AM, however, the clouds did begin to part and by 3:15 I was able to make a nice photograph of the Milky Way.
A little touch of aurora out there this evening just after sunset. Not very visible to the naked eye but the camera sure picked up a lot of color. I just ran out to a local lake about a mile from my house to make this photo.
Here are my photos of the "August Super Blue Moon" that has been all the rage on social media and news outlets the past several days. While I think all full moons are special, there is definitely a certain allure knowing that a perigee moon or "super moon" (or in this case, super BLUE moon... the blue meaning that it is the second full moon to occur within the same calendar month) is 14% larger and 30% brighter than an apogee moon. For those that might not know, perigee is the point in the moon's orbit around earth that it is closest to earth, and apogee is the point in the moon's orbit that it is furthest from earth.
At any rate, like pretty much every full moon, this one was beautiful indeed. My favorite place to watch a moonrise is over water. I love the reflections that dance across the surface as the moon rises. I hope you all had a chance to get out and watch the moon rise as well.
