CarlRoessler

Receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from Bonaire

2011-11-16T06:01:00.001-08:00

(Please also read the next post down the page for the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame ceremonies on Grand Cayman on November 9th).

In an earlier post I described a wonderful week on the island of Bonaire in August, where I was given a humbling honor for my work in urging reef conservation forty years ago.

Those who know the story have heard that the actual award was in a piece of luggage the airline lost for the entire week. So, the actual statuette was presented at the Diving and Equipment Marketing Association trade show in Orlando in early November.

Here, Ms. Lara Chirino, Director of Tourism, is presenting the award, flanked by two young people dressed as a trademark flamingo and an iguana, animals found in profusion on Bonaire.

In the next shot, Ms. Chirino, the flamingo lady and the iguana fellow are joined by Leslie Leaney of the Historical Diving Society (second from left) and the famed marine artist Wyland (second from right).

My new friend the Flamingo Lady joins me in the picture. Note that I kept my cold hand off her bare skin for fear she would let out a squeal and get me in trouble!

My thanks to the government and the people of Bonaire for extending this unique honor.

It will always have a special place in my heart, bringing back those precious memories from 40 years ago http://www.divexprt.com/index_pics/Bonaire/BonaireAchievementAward.html

International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame induction ceremonies

2011-11-12T12:54:00.001-08:00

I have just returned from the Cayman Islands, where the weather was gorgeous. The visit was for the annual ceremonies of the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame, on whose Board I serve.

We had gathered for the induction of a distinguished roster of those who helped diving become what we know today. About two hundred people attended the banquet, a gala sponsored and underwritten
by the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism. We gathered at the Grand Old House as the Sun was disappearing, and our inductees had their rendezvous with history.

Among our honorees was Andre Laban, one of Jacques Cousteau's very first employees, as he colorfully tells us here:

Another inductee was Clement Lee, who brought famed Sipadan Island off the coast of Borneo in Malaysia to the attention of the diving world.

I had a camera problem when my friend Allan Power, long-time guardian of the S.S. President Coolidge in Vanuatu (28,000 dives!!) was speaking, So, here is one of Tom Ingram's stills to show Allan as he made his remarks. My trip to Vanuatu in the early 1970s was one of the great adventures of my early career.

Howard and Michelle Hall, the makers of 100 films, most in recent years in IMax 3D, remembered their very first visit to the Caymans:

All in all, some extraordinarily accomplished contributors to our sport were honored by the Hall and the audience. Welcome to the new Hall of Famers! There will be much information and media more posted on the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame web site soon http://www.scubahalloffame.com/

Home from Great Basin National Park...

2011-10-01T14:44:00.000-07:00

It is always great to get home from a successful adventure. The Great Basin formation inclides most of Nevada, and the national park is the jewel in the crown. In the Basin, water running off the mountains doesn't run to the ocean, but instead remains in the unique Basin ecosystem.

Sitting above the 10,000-foot level on Wheeler Peak is a delight, one I savored for four hard-working days.

Yes, a lot of jets go overhead! A main skyway from Vegas and L.A. must pass right over this landmark.

One pleasure in being home is that I can do computer processing I couldn't get to in the evenings in the motel. One picture I particularly wanted to have time to work out was the panoramas of Wheeler Peak with the Fall colors erupting on its flanks:

I got the color right at home, which I hadn't succeeded in doing in an earlier post of a quick 'motel-room' version.

The other wondrous scene that cried out for a panorama was what I thought of as the 'Color Corner,' a bend in the winding road where the Fall colors exploded over the four days:

I still haven't had time to process many of the Lehman Caves images, but I confess that it is a real challenge to shoot good images in the !#!$!%!^! dark with only small accent lights placed to illuminate the formations! Thank goodness for Photoshop...

It is satisfying when you get them to render so others can share how you experienced them. Just think of wandering in 50 degree darkness through a corridor, and then to turn a corner and see this::

And so, farewell to Great Basin!

Until the next adventure!!

Another perfect weather day...

2011-09-30T03:50:00.000-07:00

The locals say that this is very unusual, and that a change is coming soon. So, I spent the day near the summit, reveling in the spreading color. I took a hike to Teresa Lake, one of the Alpine lakes here.
The good news is that I made it at that altitude, the bad news is that in the Fall the snowmelt water has mostly dried up:

This is a place in which to deeply relax, knowing that it is like this only a few days of the year:

It will take getting home and spending time, but I know already that the Lehman Caves pictures are the antithesis and perfect counterpoint to the scenes at the sun-drenched surface. The narrow, serpentine tunnels connect chambers of astonishing complexity formed over millennia by rises and falls in water levels.

There are formations that look like popcorn, others that look like bacon strips, others like hanging drapes and even some shields that look like parachutes:

Did I mention the icicles?

Just kidding. Everything down here grew in silence and darkness for countless centuries. The stories of how Ab Lehman found the caves are doubtless embroidered in the century since he found them. No matter. It is a thrill and a privilege to see this shrine to Nature's infinite creativity.

On to more adventures!

An ultimate in contrasts

2011-09-29T05:02:00.000-07:00

I made it through a long day, and I'm off again shortly. Just to show the extremes from yesterday, here are the hillsides exploding with Fall colors which are spreading all over the flanks of the mountains.

And then, last evening, I enjoyed a tour through the amazing Lehman Caves, labyrinthine chambers and passageways decorated like this Gothic Palace:

No time to work on pictures now--I have to go out and get them!

Great Basin National Park

2011-09-27T19:29:00.000-07:00

It was a long day and it's time to sleep but Great Basin is a small but beautiful park. The main attraction that towers over the landscape is Wheeler Peak, 13,000 feet high.

I was thrilled to discover that my estimate of when the Fall colors would begin was accurate. My guardian angels did it again. All during the day the colors seemed to be changing before my eyes,

This weather is supposed to hold for several days, and the colors, now above the 10,000 foot level, should spread across the high slopes. It is gorgeous up there:

I'll be watching the colors spread and going into the Lehman Caverns tomorrow afternoon. Now, i'd better get some sleep! This day started at 3:00 A.M.!

The personalized Cavern trip will be late tomorrow, so I may not get online until Thursday...

Among the joys of being home...

2011-09-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

While I obviously love being on the road shooting pictures, it is nice to get home to a big, powerful computer which handles my panoramas. Some scenes are simply too big for a single shot, no matter how wide the lens. Instead, I shoot several vertical shots which Photoshop then stitches together.

I also have time when at home to look at the videos I never have the time or energy to watch when traveling. This is the view from Dead Horse Point:

Last year when I went to Moab the mountains had their first snow. This year I went a month earlier, and the view was sublime. This is a horseshoe bend in the road that climbs the mountain group.

.
Then there were the immense vistas one sees from atop the Island in the Sky, the plateau that makes up the northern sector of Canyonlands. This is the view eastward from Grand View: toward the Manti-LaSal mountains:

And only a couple of miles away on the West side of Grand View is the Green River overlook:

Until the next adventure!...

Bidding a fond farewell to Moab

2011-09-14T05:36:00.000-07:00

I have done a lot of traveling in Utah, and Moab seems to have the greatest concentration of different subjects to photograph.

And--that is not even to mention all the varied hardbodies one sees each day--river rafters, mountain bikers, rock climbers, hikers. Mix those with all the white-haired park visitors and it is a rich brew.

Alas, it's time to hit the road. Yesterday ended it with a another triumph of sunshine. First I went up in the mountains to take a last look out over Canyonlands:

A quick stop at Park Avenue in Arches was next, to see the tiny people in the vast scene:

Then a quick run up the road to visit Sandstone Arch, framing more tiny people:

On the way back to the motel, I had to take a quick drive out on Route 128, the route of the Colorado as it flows through the town:

Following the river to the East one revels in the long series deep canyons we also see from atop Grand View when we are in Canyonlands:

Let me leave you as I head for the highway with a calm moment from yesterday afternoon. A fitting finale to a superb week.

I'm outta here!

What a difference a day makes...

2011-09-13T07:48:00.000-07:00

The old song had it just right. I try to schedule enough days on these trips to ride out a period of iffy weather, and it paid off yesterday!
The day began with beautiful skies, so I raced out to the
Red Canyon portion of the Colorado River.There are miles of scenes like these!:

Then it was on into Canyonlands and the overlook above the Schafer Trail. This road drops an initial 1,400 feet, then goes out to the river canyon and descends another 700 feet.

As I was taking still photos, a park worker pointed out that a car was coming up the trail, adding motion to the scene.

Out on the promontory overlooking the long trail, the view was heavenly in the sunshine:

I shot nearly 600 frames this day, so I can only give a slight taste of the wonder of the day. This is a high cliff at Dead Horse State Park overlooking the pans where they dry potash (fertilizer) in the sun, much like harvesting sea salt on Bonaire:

Today's sky shows promise, but I won't know til I get out there...

Desperately Seeking Sunshine...

2011-09-12T04:16:00.000-07:00

Sunday was kind of ugly, what with the sky full of clouds and the roads full of Sunday Grannies who slowed me down as I frantically chased patches of sunshine. The big overlooks were a conspicuous casualty, look for example at the giant mud pie of a shadow as I looked South from Grand View (the tip of Island in the Sky) toward Junction Butte.

.There was a brief two-hour window where the Sun broke through in early afternoon. Arches had the best of it, since each of the interesting sites could fit into a moving patch of sunshine. I raced to Balanced Rock:

You don't want to be around when that thing falls. It will go from tourist attraction to projectile in an instant.

Near Balanced Rock is the Garden of Eden, a series of towers whose size was hard to portray until a nice couple with their baby walked right in front of the left-hand tower. Now, that gave a sense of scale to the formations!:

The Sun held in just long enough for the long walk to Broken Arch. That's it, far out near the end of that line of sandstone towers:

OK, OK. I take it back. Because it was Sunday, a nice group of tiny people were wandering around the arch to give it scale in the pictures:

One does get an interesting impression in national parks. Everyone seems to be from somewhere other than America. I listened to a polyglot of European, Japanese and other languages as I photographed various sites. Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and eastern Europe were especially well represented, and I had some pleasant conversations, since everyone has at least some English. My first thought was that we Americans seem to take our own wonders for granted. On the other hand, I'm reminded that I lived in San Francisco for 25 years and went to Muir Woods once. Somehow, a busy career doesn't leave time for touring in one's own country.

Speaking of careers, during the long walk back to the car I got through by cell phone to daughter Kira, who was recovering from a killer week as she tries to wrap up her latest movie. While I loudly scorn the prima donnas who parade on screen, she has given me new respect for the unsung heroes, the technicians who actually make films work.

May I have some sunshine today, please?...

The mornings have been sublime...

2011-09-11T05:14:00.000-07:00

...but, as in most of life, the situation deteriorates as the day goes on. I see by the TV weather that the entire southwest seems to have thunderstorms rolling through. Sigh. Looks like more days of 'Cloud Dodge-em.'

Still, the mid-mornings have been clear. Here are the Three Gossips and Courthouse Towers in Arches National Park:

You get the idea. Look at that clear blue sky. So, I raced up into the Manti-La Sals to get a high view of Cathedrall Valley:

The Priest and Nuns formations tower above the valley:

Back in Arches, the skyline is filled with spires of sandstone eroded into fanciful, even whimsical, shapes. These are part of the Devil's Garden, where several major arches are found:

Soon, however, the clouds came on in battalions and regiments. Every overlook I tried had big black cloud-shadows everywhere.

Moab is right at the foot of the Manti-La Sals where all that rain is falling, so I returned to the motel in a downpour.

Hoping for another clear morning!!

Into every life some rain must fall...

2011-09-10T03:51:00.000-07:00

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow had it right:
                     "...thy fate is the common fate of all,
                     Into every life some rain must fall,
   Some days must be dark and dreary."

The Manti-La Sal mountains are tall enough to make their own weather, and it was impressive. The visitors are frolicking at the Schafer Road overlook, but a few minutes later as I was driving along, I thought the raindrops were going to come right theough the windshield.
Earlier, there were a couple of hours of hazy sun, so I raced around to some of the views. This one is near the False Kiva
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_Kiva

I swore I was going to get to the False Kiva, which involves a long hiks and clambering down a vast cliff. I got this close--the alcove with the Kiva is high up on that wall to the far right.

I knew that if I went across that cliff they would bring me home in a bag, so I retreated. It is a great view on a sunny day, I'm sure:

All of this is on the Island in the Sky plateau. The Colorado River carves all the scenes on the East side of the plateau:

On the West side of the plateau, the Green River does its part:

That was the sunniest moment of the day, which I'd call divine intervention.

Much more to come, if the rains will abate. What a place!!

The God's eye view

2011-09-09T04:42:00.000-07:00

I booked a flight over Canyonlands to see the nearly-impenetrable sectors of the park which lie to the South of the Island in the Sky. The Maze and Needles are for the young and hardy who are equipped with 4-wheel drive vehicles. Looking down, you wonder how much of these expanses has ever been seen from the ground.

No, I wouldn't want to be walking out there. It's much nicer up here!

At one point in the flight, we flew over a complete double loop of the Colorado River, one of those natural wonders which make one believe that Nature indeed has a sense of humor.

It was a special treat to look down on the Island in the Sky, a vast raised plateau near whose southern tip so many dramatic panoramas are presented to the humble photographer. The Grand View overlook is at the tip of the plateau, looking across at the free-standing Junction Butte. The junction of the Green and Colorado rivers is just to the left of the butte.

More adventures today! I have a long list of targets, but may end up dodging thunderstorms, which are in today's forecast. Sigh.

Return to Moab

2011-09-08T05:39:00.000-07:00

Moab is one of my favorite places, and just a few driving hours from Vegas. I arrived in early afternoon and took a quick drive in to the Dead Horse State Park (never mind where the name originated).

The Colorado and Green Rivers have carved deeply into the sand stone on either side o the Island in the Sky portion of Canyonlands National Park, which adjoins Dead Horse.

Then I went to Mesa Arch

Mesa faces due East, and looks this in the afternoon:

Ah, but at dawn, the arch is transformed!!

Now, if the weather holds, there will be some awesome views--like this one off Grand View, at the southern tip of Island in the aky:

The Manti-La Salle mountains, in the far right background, are another target. Last year I suffered clouds, rain and snow. Really hurt the gorgeous Fall colors. Can't wait to get back over there!

Much more to come!

Home after a wonderful week...

2011-08-28T13:08:00.000-07:00

The celebration of my Lifetime Achievement Award on Bonaire was a week-long festival. It even made the local newspapers! Here I am with two lovely representatives of the government, Lillian de Geus on the left and Director of Tourism Lara Chirino in white.

What a souvenir! The event was attended by a group of travel journalists and Leslie Leaney of the Historical Diving Society: The reporters were used to the kind of non-stop pace in the heat, and managed to get in two dives most days!

The airline lost the suitcase with the real award in it, so a framed certificate to use for the ceremony was quickly created:

In addition to presentations in the evening, our days were filled with land tours and (except for me) of diving.

On the last day we enjoyed our final tour, to the salt pans and the flamingos at the South end of Bonaire
These are the immense piles of sea salt harvested from the pink-colored evaporating pans.

Of course, salt pans mean breeding flamingos, and we were lucky to approach a few

Then we drove on to the group of red slave huts from150 years ago, complete with slavemaster's home and navigation pylon

Ah, memories! In the past few posts I've tried to suggest how magnificently varied and colorful the island is, but I guess you just had to be there. Despite that, I hope you will browse down the page to see the earlier scenes.

I'll never forget the hospitality of the government of Bonaire and my return after three and a half decades to my 'home island!'

(Photo by Paul Roessler)

Dancing down memory lane...

2011-08-25T07:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my son Paul, his lady Sarah and my webmaster Patty drove Bonaire's northern road. We found the overlook to which I used to drive the Hotel Volkswagen (my camper van) after finishing the day's dives and putting the divers into the hotel. When I used to wake up in the mornings (1969-72) I would be surrounded by foraging goats, who watched attentively as I made my coffee. Here's the view:

After the drive, I went with them and Leslie Leaney of the Historical Diving Society to the cemetery. Leslie had tracked down the resting place of one of Hans Hass's divers:

The grave was untended, so Leslie cleaned it up as best he good and we took another picture:

Today he is going out to the small island of Klein Bonaire, looking for the camp site Hass used in 1939.

Between dives, there are always Iggy, Ziggy and the other professional beggars looking for handouts. The little guys are everywhere, and they love melon and watermelon!

I have to go South and see the sea-salt evaporation ponds with their flamingos, to see if they have changed at all. I suspect not. There is a quarter-million tons of salt down there in huge hills, gleaming in the sun. I may go home and dig out the photos from the old days for comparison.

More to come as the adventure continues!

"Your Award is in the lost bag"...

2011-08-23T11:51:00.000-07:00

The ceremony was wonderful, with many old friends from the old days in attendance. Our conscientious tour escort, Stephanie, has been agonizing for days because the airline lost her suitcase. Yesterday she said, "I'm sorry, but your award is in that lost suitcase--but we quickly made up a temporary substitute til the real award arrives."
I told her not to get stressed about small details, and the ceremony went just fine with this framed certificate:

Presenting the Award were two representatives of the Government of Bonaire. Ms. Lillian De Geus on the left represented the Deputy for Tourism who was laid up with an injured leg. Ms. Lara Chirino on the right is the Director of the Tourism Office.
As you can tell, I enjoyed a warmhearted evening, reminiscing about adventures with my old pal Captain Don Stewart and an enthusiastic crowd.
Phillipe Cousteau, grandson of Jacques-Yves, is on the island and we both are presenting seminars this evening--at different times.

And perhaps the lost suitcase will arrive...

After 40 years, I return to Bonaire..

2011-08-21T08:16:00.000-07:00

Updated 8/22/2011

!n 1969-72 I lived in Curacao and brought diving groups there and to pristine Bonaire. Forty years later, the government of Bonaire is honoring me with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
My son Paul and his girl friend Sarah, My webmaster Patricia Shannahan and my friend Leslie Leaney of the Historical Diving Society are here for the week of festivities. I wish my daughter Kira, who was a mere eight years old when we moved here, could be with us. She is finishing work on a major movie, and her schedule was in direct conflict. We miss her!

It is hardship duty, as you can see.

We are being hosted by Captain Don's Habitat, an impressive resort right on the water. Captain
Don Stewart was a colleague way back when, and it a pleasure and honor to be back where our adventures began. These views are from the walkway of our luxurious villa.

Stephanie Wirth of the Adams Public Relations agency of New York is our guide (they represent both Bonaire and DEMA Diving Equipment and Marketing Association), and a group of journalists who coincidentally are all avid divers has joined us.

The view below is North toward thee site of the famous Windjammer Wreck. a favorite deep dive in the old days. I was shocked to see that an oil trans-shipment terminal now sits on the shore precisely above the fabulous wreck, and the site is closed to diving..

It's a shame in one way--I loved diving that wreck!

Looking forward to a fabulous week!! More reports and pictures when I have any time! It's a full dance card!

Glacier of Stone...

2011-06-15T13:39:00.000-07:00

Most people drive across southern Utah looking at large formations, never realizing that they are crossing the site of a gigantic collision of tectonic plates. The San Rafael Swell was raised thousands of feet when the Pacific Plate crashed into the Continental Plate.

In the countless millions of years since, the Swell has been eroded and shaped as you see in my earlier posts over the past few days.

Spotted Wolf Canyon and Black Dragon Canyon mark the spot where Highway 70 soars up onto the Swell:

As we get closer, we realize that the Swell rises sharply above the desert, and Highway 70 has to wind its way to climb those mountains.
A few days ago, I showed the view from the top of the Swell:

Now, on the last day of my visit, I roared up the highway from the Eastern entrance as that truck above did:

Spotted Wolf and Black Dragon Canyons intersect at the top of the long, sinuous climb:

After climbing the eastern face of this glacier of stone, we continue West across the immense highlands of the San Rafael Swell. Along our way, we encounter several high overlooks where we can look out across the top of this colossal raised portion of Utah:

There is more on the Swell, Goblin Valley and my other recent adventures here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Rafael_Swell

It isn't diving with great white sharks, but it is a wild experience!

Little Wild Horse Canyon-only for the slender...

2011-06-13T17:42:00.000-07:00

Little Wild Horse Canyon is a slot canyon somewhat like those in Page, Arizona and Kanab in Utah. Right off--if you are not slender, don't come here. These are REALLY narrow slots!

I protected my cameras and tripod at all costs, and staggered out with blood leaking from both arms and legs. I haven't gotten this beaten up since Havasupai! Still, it was worth every ding--I'm going to love processing hundreds of these subtly-hued pictures!

Eventually, one emerges from the slots into beautiful wide portions of the canyon: The Sun pours down and the rocky walls soar up into the sky above you.

Little Wild Horse Canyon is only five miles from Goblin Valley, so I went back to photograph a few formations, such as these giant chess men near the entrance:

This entire area is filled with large formations, some like these right by the side of the road near Hanksville.

.The long drive home is tomorrow. The pictures I've put on the blog these past few days are just a few I grabbed on first scanning through 40 gigabytes of material. Now I can sit happily in the airco during the Vegas Summer and play for hours and hours with goblins and ethereally-colored slots.

Oh, look! Aren't they just adorable?...

2011-06-12T16:51:00.000-07:00

Oh, well. I suppose not. But in their day, very effective.This is the Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, a major source of fossil exhibits for museums around the world. There are many thousands of bones here, representing 70 individuals of 11 species, including more than forty Allosaurs.

The location of where every bone was found, color-coded by species, are on this chart. That's a lot of (veeeery careful) digging! This gives new meaning to the word 'meticulous.'

The star of the show, and a creature of great personality, is an assembled Allosaur.If you can even try to imagine being in the neighborhood when forty of these were hunting you won't sleep tonight. Apparently, they hunted in packs and could swarm and overwhelm larger dinosaurs.

When I look at these, I keep being reminded of big sharks and barracuda I have met. Very large barracuda develop thick brow ridges and massive lower jaws similar to these. Clearly, Mother Nature doesn't throw away good ideas.

This place is in the middle of nowhere in southern Utah, dirt road for many miles--but it is worth experiencing if only for that primordial dread it summons from deep within us. I mean, 'aren't they just adorable?'....

Of course, if you are Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, Barosaurus or Camarasaurus, Immense, meaty plant-eaters, you were like the chum behind the shark boat. Barosaurus reached lengths of 70-80 feet--lot of tasty meat there. Diplodocus reached 90 feet, a very large sub sandwich indeed. Side of fries?

Off to Little Wild Horse Canyon tomorrow, deep in the San Rafael Swell. More adventures ahead!

Goblins and geysers...

2011-06-12T04:31:00.000-07:00

Goblin Valley is a delight. Walking amid the Goblin Army provides a new visual treat every minute. Looking down on the valley, it is very hard to pick out two school buses full of kids making their way among the formations.

Perhaps a video makes it easier to scale the scene:

Waling among the weird shapes, it is hard to accept that this is all from Nature's natural processes. First you create a vast ocean, let it deposit sand for a few hundred million years, then arrange for erosion to sculpt the various hardnesses of stone into a phantasmagoria of shapes.

Whoa! Who put a Mummy among the goblins? Are we in he Valley of the Kings? No, but the desert here is similar to Egypt's.

After a morning wandering through Goblin Valley, I had the bright idea to spend the afternoon waiting for an eruption of Crystal Geyser.. After a couple of hours a couple arrived. He was a local who had once observed the geyser going off 60 feet into the air for more than a half hour.

"But that was before the local environmentalists sabotaged it," he said."They didn't like it pouring minerals into the river, so they put a lot of stone down the shaft and dynamited it." Oh.

My perfect metaphor for green activism: The minerals still pour into the river and the tourist attraction is destroyed. "You have to judge us for our noble intentions, not by the disasters we leave behind."

And so I left this monument to morons and went off to find new adventures.
Still, it's hard not to imagine the thinking (or not thinking) that has reduced the great plume to this.

My car hates me, but...

2011-06-10T18:45:00.000-07:00

Yes, I fear another Toyota Rebellion--628 miles today, part of it offroad across the desert. Axle-breaking ruts and the kind of bone-rattling terrain we see in the SUV commercials, but the attractions were worth it.

First, I did manage to get to the Dinosaur Quarry, approximately in the middle of nowhere at all.

Why do all my favorite friends have such impressive teeth? This is an Allosaur: They have found fossil remains of more than forty at this one quarry.

From there I raced to the immense cliffs known as the San Rafael Swell. this is the view from the top of the swell down into Spotted wolf Canyon.

At the end of a very long day, I made a quick trip to the crystal geyser. Unfortunately, it had been erupting for quite a while when I got tthere, so this is only the view as it finishes. As the Terminator said, "I'll be back!"

Off to Spoooooooky Goblin Valley in the morning!

Still photos from the Grand Canyon

2011-04-29T09:09:00.000-07:00

In my previous post I put up some videos shot from the helicopter flying out from the South Rim on a gorgeous day.

I took some extra time to drive into the National Park itself, so I could stand on the edge of the canyon and look out over the vast scene. I love standing with my toes curled over a thousand-foot drop!

Yavapai Point is one of many along the South Rim which are uncrowded in the morning before the tour buses arrive. Since nobody else seems to want to join me out here on the edge of the cliff, I have the best position for taking pictures all to myself.

The view is immense, I apologize that it is impossible to do more than hint at the scale of what you see here in any photograph:

From the helicopter, everything changes. You soar out from the rim and look down on the meandering river and the steep cliffs lining the canyons: Unlike standing on the cliff, you fly over mile after mile of canyons and cliffs.

We followed the river, and some of the cliffs reminded me of Toroweep over on the North Rim, where the drop from the cliff-top to the river is 3,800 feet--straight down!

Wheeeee! As I said, this is the kind of view that brings on delusions of grandeur. Please check the post below this one for the short videos taken from the helicopter. This is a blast!!

Helicoptering over the Grand Canyon

2011-04-28T07:56:00.000-07:00

Well, the plan worked perfectly. A quick drive from Vegas over to Williams, Arizona, and then North 50 miles to the South Rim portion of Grand Canyon National Park. I climbed on a helicopter at the national park airport:

We soared out over the Kaibab National Forest and out over the rim. By the way, anyone who thinks we don't have a lot of trees--or a lot of space--in this country should take this ride.

The flight is a difficult experience to describe in words, but a video clip does it all. It is during moments like these when one envies the eagles, who do this in silence and solitude, and do it every day.

On the other hand, you have to eat rodents. Oh, well....

Flying around in a noisy, throbbing bubble over scenery like this is a privilege. Given my health history recently, I don't take this or anything else for granted. That just makes it all the richer.

I hope everyone I know can do this flight. It is profound and thrilling !

Did anyone notice the full Moon?...

2011-04-19T13:32:00.000-07:00

My early-morning walks always get me out when the full Moon is still high enough to photograph. You have to bring the luminosity down just a bit to see some detail, and of course we always see precisely the same side...

Nice place to visit, but looking at all those impact craters, you wouldn't want to live there.

Having said that, I hope it never loses its magic for me!

Please scroll down to the last couple of posts on Red Rock Canyon!

More from Red Rock Canyon

2011-04-19T12:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I posted a couple of videos taken in Red Rock Canyon. Here are some stills, to show that this park in my back yard is as spectacular as ever. First, here's the outcrop of sandstone known as Calico Rocks, where visitors can climb right to the top!

While Calico Rocks is on the East side of the park, there are colossal sandstone and granit cliffs which rise on the South side:

There are some rough dirt roads hikers can take to get closer to the cliffs, and even climb on them. For the photographer, tey are an opportunity to get a bit closer!

It's really shameful how easily we photographers are thrilled!

I think of it as my childish innocence...

Please do look at the earlier videos!

Spring in Red Rock Canyon

2011-04-17T15:16:00.000-07:00

After a long, cold Winter, medical science now has me ready for some new adventures!

To warm up and build up my strength on our first hot Sunday, I drove out to Red Rock Canyon to watch large numbers of hikers, bikers and climbers enjoying the day.

Despite the heat, the hikers and bikers were taking on grueling distances under that Sun. You can envy the climbers, though they are too tiny to see in the video below--they are on one of the most colorful climbs in America--Calico Rocks. This formation is near the entrance to the park, one of the first stops you encounter upon entry.

Now, on to Arizona and Utah for a busy season of adventures!

Home is where the, um, heart is...

2011-04-02T10:21:00.000-07:00

Had to pause for a bit of heart maintenance. Had a catheter ablation last Monday, in which the surgeons inserted slender blowtorches and burned out some extra electrical circuits from inside my atria.
The procedure took my upper chambers' beat from 120 to 60. Much better (the understatement of the year)
. To celebrate, I drove over to Hoover Dam on a gorgeous warm day and looked out over Lake Mead:

On such a day, the view from up on the bridge is almost perfect:

What a pleasure to be out with a camera again!...

By helicopter over the Grand Canyon

2011-01-14T11:17:00.000-08:00

I almost hate to put up this post, because it will push my December great white shark trip down the page. Oh, well.
On January 13, 2010, I made the four-hour drive over to the Grand Canyon and hopped on a helicopter.

It is a fabulous ride, eight thousand feet above the Colorado River.

Even though I have been at the North Rim and at Havasupai, the view from the air reinforces the colossal size of the Canyon.

It is Winter, of course, so the crest of the canyon walls and the surrounding Kaibab National Forest are brushed with snow.

I hope to do the flight again later in the Spring, with the hot colors of a brighter Sun. Still photos only suggest what it's like up there, so let's try some videos.

That gives you the idea! That is early in the flight, circling out over the Colorado. A little later, I pointed the video camera out the pilot's window across the immensity of the canyon. Pictures and videos struggle to do more than suggest the vast size of these formations.

The special contribution of Winter is snow in the upper reaches of the canyon. The snow betrays no tracks, accenting the remoteness and the impenetrable nature of these formations.

Well over a century ago, local Indian tribes would not tell the European explorers that there were safe ways to cross the Grand Canyon. The Spanish and other stried for years and finally gave up, declaring the Grand Canyon 'worthless.' In this century, we now know better.

Okay--now scroll down the page and enjoy those sharks!!

Great White Shark in 3D video!!...

2010-12-21T05:59:00.000-08:00

This was shot with the new Fuji 3D WD camera in a RecSea housing marketed by my long-time pal Howard Rosenstein of Fantasea.com. This is exactly the effect I had hoped to capture. Unfortunately for me, the instruction manual was so bad I didn't realize that the 3D function had worked--or I'd have shot a lot more!

Japanese companies should hire Americans to write their !#!$!%!^! manuals!

Still, this captures the big shark known as Big Bro as he examines me. The 3D camera only has a 35mm lens, so it can't take the wide angle shots like my stills in the earlier posts below. The shark has to be coming straight in--which Big Bro obliged me by doing.

By the way--of course, you can't see the 3D effect unless you have a 3D TV or computer monitor. They will be replacing current sets over time. At that point, Big Bro is coming for you!.

Do you get the idea that Big Bro is intensely fixated on the Chicken in the Basket?

The chicken does...

Here's another clip. It goes without saying that I'm heading back to South Australia with the 3D rig in June now that I know it works.. Stay tuned!:

He's ba-a-a-a-a-ck, Part two

2010-12-20T15:53:00.000-08:00

Please don't miss my first post on this fabulous trip to South Australia, just below this one. Now for part two!

That is Big Bro, a big shark, searching for the bait. If you look in the water in the background, you see a messy kind of mist affecting the picture.

The shot above shows you where that comes from: It cost me lots of pictures--think of it as sharks in a snowstorm. Sigh.
However, there were some really good dives where the cages weren't being tossed around by the swells.

That's our pal Big Bro as he prowls in the open water.
We also had another sea lion entertainment. A sea lion came to the boat and repeatedly buzzed Little Bro.

The pesky sea lion henpecked poor old Little Bro unmercifully.

It all ended in a kamikaze attack.

Little Bro lost interest in the sea lion, and the sea lion drifted off. Later, Little Bro made an amazingly savage attack on a handing bait.

I surely had a lot of fun dodging the big teeth as the big bull known as Big Brother came by!!! Sometimes I pulled the camera back as here with not much time to spare.

That was another shot from Mark Enarson's polecam. His series of shots taken while standing on the rear platform are a great souvenir for me!

He's ba-a-a-a-a-ack!...

2010-12-19T04:02:00.000-08:00

After a couple of years of recovery, I finally got back to South Australia for what I believe was my 33rd great white shark expedition.

Ensconced in what Geri Tzimoulis unkindly called the Popemobile,

The Canadian photographer Mark Enarson came oin the trip with his polecam

Mark didn't even get his feet wet and shot some excellent portraits of me with my little friends:

From the cage, two sharks stood out from the seven in the bay. Big Bro was a good-sized male who spent one day making repeated passes

Note the ubiquitous Polecam in the right center below. many of Big Bro's sweeps ended with an attack on the cage

Sometimes giving us the tonsil view

Or even the dentist's-eye view

All in all, Big Bro was a Great Performer!

His pal Little Bro was, on the other hand, a snatch and grab shark, who appeared suddenly from the depths and snatched the bait in a flash

On one dive, Little Bro kept us all waiting for a half-hour, then erupted in a swift attack

More later, but that is a taste.

I'm ba-a-a-a-a-ack...

It's hard to have much more fun than this...

2010-11-09T10:41:00.000-08:00

Arthur C. Clarke once said that the product of any sufficiently advanced society is indistinguishable from--magic.

So, for a little magic, my panorama from above Hoover Dam was criss-crossed with all kinds of power lines.

What to do? With a bit of advice from Jack Drafahl, the Photoshop guru, I went to work with the latest release, Photoshop CS5. Look what its feature known as 'content-aware fill' was able to do...

Voila! Cables gone!

Looking down on a marvel...

2010-11-04T15:53:00.000-07:00

On a beautiful, sunny day in Las Vegas, I took off for the Hoover Dam, to go up on the new bypass bridge. It is everything I hoped. These are a few early shots. Lots more work to do, but here's a hint:

Looking up from the visitor's center:

And here is what it is like to sit in God's Chair!!

Nice, eh?

Variations on a theme, of course. I guess you just had to be there--still, click on these to see larger versions!

Off to do some Photoshopping!!
By the way, Here's a quick video--that loud traffic noise isn't those vehicles you see at lower left, but the busy traffic on the bridge about ten feet behind me!

Squeezing the world into a photograph...

2010-10-29T13:43:00.000-07:00

One of the satisfying parts of being home is having both the tools and the time to work on the enormous scenic vistas I saw around Moab.

I'm learning what kind of scenes work well, and which fight me all the way. This one is a natural. I'm in the middle of the Needles portion of Canyonland National Park, looking up at the Anticline and Needles Overlooks Be sure to click on it to get the larger version. The second image is the view from up on the Needles Overlook

So, we know that those monster wide shots work when you stick 27 pictures together to make one.

However--there are other scenes that tend to show distortion when you do a lot of stitching.:

Little bit of curvature there, eh? Might still be usable, but I have to be careful.

If we are working on the printed page, we may have to stuff everything into one or more still pictures. However, on the web we may be able to simply go to the video. This one is of the first big river bend leaving Moab on the 128. Here's the still:

And here is the scene on video.

Which means that different techniques have their place. However, when I can get a panorama to work, it is a thrill.

Home is where the tools are...

2010-10-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm home, I have my big computer, 16-bit color and plenty of memory to process huge panoramas. I shot a lot of them, so there is fun ahead!
This is a 27-picture panorama of The Wedge:

This one is along the Colorado River East of Moab, Utah. Look how deeply the river has carved the sandstone!

And below is a quick look at the San Rafael Swell, a gigantic barrier of stone you encounter when driving West on the I-70 out of Moab. It takes ten minutes at highway speed just to get up the hill to this point:

Stay tuned--there are a lot of Top-of-the-World scenes to come!

Home in one piece. I think.

2010-10-25T17:41:00.000-07:00

Delighted to be home, though the drive across Utah today was spectacular. The weather broke at a crucial moment, and I got some good shots I haven't processed yet.

For a treat, though, how about some flying lawnmower videos? This was the one morning when the Sun really came out, and there were lawnmowers everywhere!

That fabulous scene may have you wondering--but what the heck do you do after two or three hours when you want to land? It turns out that gusty winds really blow these things around, and landing them is an art.

The experienced pilots make it look easy, but after watching some students make several unsuccessful attempts, I have a great respect for these men.

60 Gigabytes of data to process, but I look forward to every one!

Playing Texas Dodgem with the Cloud gods...

2010-10-24T19:17:00.000-07:00

I awakened this morning to--surprise!-clouds. Looking for any break in the overcast, I went out to Gold Bar on the Potash Road. Took some videos of the flying lawnmower drivers. They were in from Salt Lake City, and left after a quick flight. They call what they do Powered Parachuting or Flying Gocarts. Whatever.
That image of the river bend at Gold Bar above is taken from the trail I hiked to Corona Arch. It is a mile and a half hike to reach the arch formation, and there is a 440 foot climb--each way. Just kidding. I think.

As we approach the formation we see a Halo Arch in that big hole, and the huge Corona Arch over to the right:

The Halo Arch is a horizontal opening to the sky:

Then you walk through the Corona Arch to shoot the Sun side. Note how tiny the people look.:

Then I saw what looked like blue sky out route 128 to the East. So, I took off to take some pictures of the colossal canyons cut by the relentless Colorado. This is near Big Bend::

This shot above is from just a mile further East from Big Bend. A couple of miles past that there is a turn where we see the enormous Butte known as The Castle near Castle Valley. That is it, directly behind the river.

If you look back through the last few posts, you see that despite the weather's effect, Moab is one of the most scenic places in the country.

Since the weather looks bad tomorrow as well, I'm expecting to drive home. Another adventure!

Sigh. Take what the mountain gives you...

2010-10-23T19:04:00.000-07:00

The weather was pretty horrible yesterday, but this morning there were beginning to be patches of blue sky.

I headed for one out the Potash Road--and look what I found! Flying lawnmowers!

did you catch the TWO in the air behind the one taking off? It wasn't a bad spot for flying:

As it got clearer, I went to the Eastern leg of the Colorado on Rt. 128. How do you make a Grand canyon? With a BIG river It was raining again, of course. I left the shadow thrown by the umbrella in the shot, just for fun....

When I got my courage up, I drove up into the Manti-LaSals.

Oh--did I mention the snow? Up here it was all snow and slush--and nobody to rescue you if you got stuck. Still, it gives you a remarkable view.

Brrrrrr! And me in shorts!

All worth it, though. the sky cleared just enough to see the summit:

Oh--did I mention the bear cub playing in the road? It scrambled away when it saw me come around a corner, and scampered up an embankment into the trees.
There is a high overlook above the valley where I took all those yellow birches and aspens in the rain yesterday. That is the road down there. The deep grove to the right is the birches, and the yellow trees in the center are the ones dropping all their leaves on the road. What a view! Even the snow on the summit peeks through!

All in all, a wonderful day. The Cloud God kept throwing big wet ones my way, but I dodged and weaved as best I could.

Singin' in the Rain...

2010-10-22T15:21:00.000-07:00

This is the kind of day that requires invoking my idol Winston Churchill: Never give in....Never give in...Never give in...

I can't remember the last time I had to shoot pictures from under an umbrella. The subject matter has to be pretty interesting.

This is a magic week, despite the rain. the aspens and birches are in full Fall change. These are East of Moab near the Dewey Bridge. Notice in several of these pictures that some leaves are still green, while others have begun their color change cycle.
This next image is from the same spot, but turning to look across the river:

Since the leaves as shwn here are early in their cycle, I'm going to pull a Churchill and stay here 'til the Sun comes out. After all, how many times do you see this?

Of course, this is a game the trees don't win. In the end, those lovely leaves will lie everywhere:

And don't think there aren't other colors!

The trees are changing everywhere, not just in the Manti-LaSal mountains. This is the small town of Castle Valley. Makes one understand why the Mormons ended their westward trek in Utah. Even the low clouds and rain can't diminish the beauty of this valley.

So--like Churchill, I shall persevere here in Moab until the Sun lights all of this scenery.

It was a tough game, Mom, but we lost...

2010-10-21T17:54:00.000-07:00

Think of me as General George Custer. I'm standing here with the bodies of my guardian angels all around, and the hostiles are closing in.

There was brief sunshine this morning

However--it was a delusion and a snare. The blue sky began to fill in with white: I quickly drove over to Potash to drive the deep valley before the clouds got there.

What I really wanted was to drive the Manti-La Sal Mountain drive, whose peaks rise 12,000 feet above the desert ten miles South of Moab.
Unfortunately, I met the Rain God up there. I would have killed for sunshine, as you will see:

The birch trees were in full color, as some began dropping their leaves.

Despite the heavy cloud cover, there was color everywhere.

Sun! Sun! My kingdom for a Sun!...

The forecast is for two days of rain! I may never see this scene with a clear sky!

General Custer, signing off...

Propitiating the rain gods...

2010-10-20T19:02:00.000-07:00

So far, the guardian Angels are ahead, 2-0. I'm not bragging, I know better,

Geri Murphy called to tell me it was pouring in Vegas this evening. Please--keep it there; they can have my share.

I was up on top of these immense overlooks this morning:

The views were so wide that it will take a half-dozen pictures stitched together to express it. This is just a small segment from the point known as the Anticline Overlook until I get home and do my panoramas:

Here's another small sample from the point known as the Needles Overlook. In the far distance is The Island in the sky portion of Canyonlands National Park--I shot some satisfying images from those cliffs two years ago.

The Fall foliage is still a riot of color wherever there is water nearby:

Another amazing feature of this entire part of Utah is arches made of sandstone chipped and cracked by freezing and thawing water.Arches National Park is just north of town.

So--when you are near Moab, arches seem to be everywhere!
This is Wilson's arch:

And on the way back to town, I saw a little side road and followed it to the Hole in the glass:

Forecast for tomorrow is--rain. Sigh...

Day 1 in Moab, Utah...

2010-10-19T20:31:00.000-07:00

The weather forecast when I left home was ugly, and when I came up into the mountains of Utah it was into thick clouds. Uh-oh.
Fortunately, by the time I hit the road to leads to the wedge, also known as Utah's Grand Canyon, the Sun came out.
It isn't as big or colorful as the Grand Canyon, but it is huge in its own right. The panoramas and videos I'll process when I get home may do it justice.

A bonus is the Fall foliage. the yellow in the first picture above isn't shrubs,--far down in those deep valleys there are large aspen trees in gorgeous yellow. With the buttes behind them at sunset as in this second picture, it is gorgeous.

Below is the Colorado River carving Red Canyon along Route 128; that road runs along the river for 25 fabulously scenic miles:

Any road you travel has immense, towering red sandstone formations, some topped with castles or towers.

This is the Fisher towers as the Sun is going down. I took a lot of shots of free-standing towers here that are magnificently scenic.

All in all, a helluva first day when I was expecting a disaster.

Forecast for tomorrow is rain. Guardian angels, get to work!!

Shooting Championships Day 3--Sometimes Cowboys Cry...

2010-10-11T14:05:00.000-07:00

The third day of the USPSA shooting championsips allowed me to watch a solid squad take on a state in which knocking down a steel Pepper Popper started a pair of targets swinging.

By the way, you can watch full-screen by clicking the little symbol below the lower right-hand corner of the video image.

This is still a sport that is much more fun to do than to watch...

Another day at the United States Practical Shooting Association Championships

2010-10-10T16:22:00.000-07:00

My family and friends know that I am a 77-year-old who never grew up and still itches to go out and do this kind of shooting.

The first course is a quick little exercise that tests your ability to make a plan and carry it out under pressure.

The second stage we'll watch has a bit longer distances and a couple of steel targets toward the end which can ruin your entire day if you take them too quickly.Note that this shooter definitely slows down to hit those two steel plates.

Finally, here's a little sprint course in which you can go down either side of the barricade. This shooter did it in the way most did. A smooth run.
See how easy all this is?

Fast-shooting Fun from the USPSA National Championships

2010-10-09T15:19:00.000-07:00

Last month the United States Practical Shooting Association Multi-gun national Championships were held here in Las Vegas (See down the page for the earlier post).. This month the various classes of the pistol nationals are being held here. I love it.
Since I avidly shot in competition for nearly 25 years, it is fun to see how the current crop of shooters is performing. I took a quick look at a course as it was being scored: The only part of the target you should hit is the tan portion. Hitting any white or black part results in penalties!! The legal part of some of those targets looks awfully small!.

Here's a shooter tackling that course. A solid run, not taking many chances. Score maximum points, have a good time, don't incur any penalties.

There was also some fast but well-controlled shooting being done by the ladies. Make no mistake, they are fierce competitors and those who take the top places are superb shooters!!

What you have to do is analyze the course, make a plan on every move you must execute to win it--and then do precisely what you planned without you, your gun or your ammo malfunctioning. This particular competition has eighteen separate events (known as stages), and the winners must carry out their plans without errors consistently over four hot, dusty days!

Here, a shooter shows some fast execution!

That course was intricate and intense, but short. This next one is a more complex stage that has to be shot on the run, through windows and around corners, following a carefully-planned strategy: Note the shooter running to particular places so as to make the fewest number of starts and stops.

By the way, the ringing cell phone is mine, as some politician's fund-raiser pesters me on the weekend! The shooter has to carry out the course no matter what distractions arise.

Turning a lemon into lemonade...

2010-09-16T13:00:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we take a trip where things don't, um, work out as planned. Such was my 37-hour foray from Las Vegas to California's Yosemite National Park--and back.
The weather was glorious, and driving into Yosemite Valley is richly scenic. Above, flowers carpet the floor of the valley, and the walls glisten in the Sun. The El Capitan formation is in the distance on the right.


The Merced River flows through the valley

This spectacular promontory is directly above the road from which the prior two images were taken. And yet, I had to drive 32 miles to gett from that road down there to the overlook up here.

This video is of the major peaks that surround Yosemite Valley. You can't see them from distance, but there are climbers standing atop Half Dome in this video. More of a hike than I can handle, that!

Here is a still shot of that scene. There are two 500-foot waterfallsjust to the right of dead center in the image, but they are completely dwarfed by the peaks.

Of course, The waterfalls are among the attractions in Yosemite. Some are fed by rivers and flow all year 'round, Other large falls are essentially ice melt that disappears over the Summer. Since I was there in September, the falls were mostly slow, as in Bridal Veil Falls below, or dry.

So, even a short visit in the off season can provide stunning visuals. Yes, there are a lot of people, and I prefer parks with few. However, we photographers do what we can with what is offered. Yosemite offers some heady scenery!

Let's take a break from sharks and parks!...

2010-09-11T15:09:00.000-07:00

Let's go SHOOTING! By a happy chance, the United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) is having its national championship match in Las Vegas this weekend. I shot in USPSA competitions for well over twenty years, and competing does become part of you. I was practically ready to grab a gun and join the squad I was watching.

A number of my old shooting buddies from San Francisco and Las Vegas are competing in this squad, so I came out to watch them and shoot a few videos.

This first event is a pistol-only stage. There are three windows, and in the video above, you see just what the shooter sees. Three windows, eight shots per window

BY THE WAY, BE SURE TO CLICK THE FULL-SCREEN SYMBOL TO THE LOWER RIGHT OF THE IMAGE TO SEE EVERYTHING LARGER (BUT NOT SHARP)...

Mike Voight is an old friend who is now the President of the USPSA. A steady and experienced gunner, he shows you how he attacks the pistol stage. Remember, when we are shooting this fast, we are always very near the point where the wheels come off our wagon. The trick is to avoid losing control. Make a plan and execute it.

He said, confidently.

Now it's time for Mike's girlfriend Maggie, to shoot the course. This is a woman one must not trifle with...

When it all comes together properly, you shoot a very smoooooth run, and turns out to be fast. If on the other hand you start by trying to go fast, you can be sure something disastrous will occur. There is no margin for error.

There are few more rewarding efforts than a perfectly excuted run in these competitions gives you. No wonder I had so much fun at it all those years!

Sometimes the wheels threaten to come off...

2010-09-11T14:39:00.000-07:00

Even the best shooters, when operating at top speed, can have the smallest flaw undo a good run, This course begins with pistol targets, then has targets that must be taken with the shotgun. Here, the shooter had a fine pistol run, then switched to shotgun. After his first set of shells, he went to reload his shotgun from a tube on his belt full of fresh shotshells--and it momentarily jammed.

By the way, when they shoot the far knockdown targets, two clay pigeons are tossed into the air. That's why you see them shooting upward.

Here's Maggie, getting an almost flawless run. Great execution, and a smooth transition from pistol to shotgun!

Chris Tilley, a young Australian, realizes partway through that he has missed a shot and has to go back and pick it up--quickly!!

Sorry--I stuck Chris' clip in twice. Sigh. This next run below is very solid. Well planned and well executed. That's the way it should go!

. Good time, too!

How about some sharks?...

2010-08-21T15:42:00.000-07:00

I was putting some great white footage on my Facebook page and realized that the clips would make a change of pace from the many parks I've photographed lately. In these short sequences, my buddy Andrew Fox was shooting over my shoulder with his video camera.

That clip above is how we get those nice facial portraits of the sharks. Just open the door and offer them your body. Their ccuriosity will bring them clise, and your strobe lights them up. Easy.

Sometimes, offering them your body has unexpected results. Curly here, a curious shark, followed me practically right in through the cage door. That wouldn't be smart, because with no reverse gear, Curly would go berserk trying to escape. So, I helped her miss the opening.

The Glory of parks in Central Utah

2010-08-02T05:52:00.001-07:00

I'm delighted to have the results of my latest travels now available for viewing on YouTube

My latest foray, in June of 2010, began in Escalante, Utah and proceeded to Boulder on Scenic Byway 12, then on to Torrey and Capitol Reef National Park.

The first video is "Escalante 1-Hell's Backbone and Lower Calf Creek Falls" http://www.youtube.com/divexprt#p/u/9/Cy3LXLX7Utg

The historic, and frankly amazing expedition of the 1879 Mormon wagon train is found in "Escalante 2-Thye Hole in the Rock Trail" http://www.youtube.com/divexprt#p/u/8/8y5Vl1cRpVY

The magnificently scenic drive from Escalante to Boulder and on to the Burr Trail is found in "Escalante 3-The Most Beautiful Drive in America" http://www.youtube.com/divexprt#p/u/7/d0UIVUx2L3c

From Boulder I drove to Torrey and entered the colorful, vast and challenging "Capitol Reef National Park in Utah" http://www.youtube.com/divexprt#p/u/6/tNmRKcSaSeI

Before I forget, please don't muss my May 2010 trip to Canyon de Chelly http://www.youtube.com/divexprt#p/u/12/xD1b25DHeLE and Sedona in Arizona http://www.youtube.com/divexprt#p/u/10/RACjuaD8rII

Think I'll go take a nap...

The history of spires in Kodachrome Basin

2010-07-05T08:04:00.000-07:00

As I did my research on Kodachrome Basin, I wondered how these beautiful spires were created. It turns out that Kodachrome Basin was once deep underground in thousands of feet of sandstone laid down in an ancient ocean.

A volcanic hot spot beneath the site forced geysers of steam up through cracks and fissures, similar to those in Yellowstone.

When the hot spoot cooled or moved, the fissures filled with hard minerals. Then, over countless eons, the soft sandstone around them eroded away. We are left with modern works of Nature's patient art--a grand gift to the lowly photographer!

Look at the size of Chimney Rock! (above). Even the Grand Parade (below) has its own decorative spire.

Can you tell I'm enjoying myself going though thousands of images?...

Panoramas and videos...

2010-06-28T14:26:00.001-07:00

This panorama is one I've been looking forward to assembling. It is made up of 27 shots in 8 HDRs. The first time I tried to assemble it, my big computer complained that it didn't have enough RAM. (It has 4 Gigabytes of Ram).

The open space of Upper Cathedral Valley is immense, and I hope this gives some idea of what it is like to stand there and look around. Remember to click on the image to see the larger version.

Below is a quick video of driving along the Hogback Road, which runs between Escalante and Boulder in Utah. This road passes Calf Creek (site of the famous waterfall) and then runs for thirty miles before reaching Boulder.

There is a 1,000-foot dropoff on either side of this road, so it is great fun to drive it with a video camera out the window.

The Toyota Mutiny ends...

2010-06-27T15:19:00.001-07:00

The Toyota Mutiny ended with a whimper. The cheap floozie. She developed a complete attitude transplant--all I had to do was drive her to Vegas and run her through the deluxe car wash with wax. Hmmph.

This glass structure above is what happens when gypsum flies down from the sky. There is also a huge sinkhole in the Upper Valley where a large deposit of gypsum broke down into a superfine white powder and blew away. The hole is 200 feet deep! More about the magic of gypsum in a later post.

There are also round black boulders everywhere, blown for miles when Boulder Mountain erupted fifty million years ago.

No wonder there is a lot of mining here (wherever the !#!$!%! government doesn't ban it). The mountains are layers upon layers of minerals for miles around!
Nature also has some sense of humor in her designs. This one below sure has some resemblance to a ship cutting through the sea...

Yesterday, I visited Upper Cathedral Valley with its astonishing wealth of formations.

At the end of the day I left the park via the Lower Cathedral Valley. These two monoliths, the Temple of the Sun and the Temple of the Moon, dominate a broad valley--and the glass mountain site is only a quarter-mile away.

They do make a pair! Below, the image in the foreground is the Temple of the Moon, and the Temple of the Sun is in the background. Still, as long as the Sun is out, it's hard not to take a good picture!

I just got home with 65 gigabytes of stills and videos. That will take a while to digest, but should produce some interesting panoramas. And--what was I going to do through the hot Vegas Summer, anyway?

The Toyota Mutiny...

2010-06-26T18:21:00.001-07:00

Oh, all right--the rain last evening was good for something.

As for the Toyota, I could have sworn she screamed as I turned toward the river ford; she knew what that meant. Hours of punishment on that road. I'll give a medal l to somebody at Toyota if I can find the right person.

In any event, the sun was brilliant when we got to the massive monoliths in northern cathedral Valley. These structures stand several hundred feet in height, and nearly rival those of Monument Valley.

You can drive close to them--but then you have to back up because they overwhelm most lenses.

Cathedral valley itself is vast, and surrounded on all sides by sandstone formations.

Below, two couples were climbing to that crevice as I was shooting the scene. You can see by the size of their car that these walls lining Cathedral Valley are colossal--as is everything about Capitol Reef!

More thrills and spills tomorrow--if the Toyota puts up with it all...

Mother always said there'd be days like this...

2010-06-25T17:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a sensational day--a deep blue sky for the drive from Escalante and a perfect afternoon for an initial foray into the park. I should have known that Mother Nature was luring me in.

Filled with confidence after that afternoon, I decided to undertake the arduous 70-mile circuit up to Cathedral Valley. That was my main target when I set up the trip.

So, the Toyota and I took off for the river ford--oh, did I forget to tell you that you have to cross the river to get to the North? Must have slipped my mind.

All went well for a couple of hours. The light was brilliant at the South Cathedral Valley overlook.

Alas, then the clouds roared in, the rains came, and I drove fifty miles of rutted, bouncy, rocky, treacherously twisting roads and took nary a picture. Well, when I got back to my starting point a bit of late afternoon sun bathed the hills above the park entrance--just to mock me. Grrrrr. Note the sky in the image below compared to the one above, taken this morning.

Of course, after that unintended 'scouting mission' I know where all the Cathedral Valley formations are now, so I can just do the whole thing again tomorrow or Sunday.

Of course, when I turn the car toward the river, she is going to look at me with those big, soulful headlights and roll over dead.

Major expedition today...

2010-06-25T06:04:00.001-07:00

Each day is more spectacular. Yesterday I drove from boulder down the Burr Trail. Every mineral color you ever wanted to see.

Then I reached the seven-mile long wonder known as Long Canyon. As you see below, you drive this winding canyon amid walls of brilliant sandstone.

Until you reach the southern exit and look out across more endless miles of beauty.

The I took the drive up into the high mountains (well, 10,000 feet) and reached the entrance of Capitol Reef. Shot a lot of material, but I'll get to it--perhaps tonuight if I'm not too wrung out from the 60-mile 4-wheel drive up to Lower Cathedral Valley. I pray the car (which ages before my eyes each day) holds up. wouldn't want to get stranded out there.

the Disgraced John Edwards used to say there were two Americas. I have discovered the second one--no Fox News, no CNBC and I have sit here in the lobby to get Internet access. Suffer, suffer...

There are two posts today...

2010-06-23T18:37:00.000-07:00

There were so many attractions today that I had to break the blog into two posts. these early pictures are from the punishing but beautiful drive from Escalante to the famed Hole in the Rock--which I'll show in the second post below this one. The road gets worse the closer we get to the Hole in the wall. And worse.And, as we get within a few miles of the Hole in the Rock, beyond worse. All along the road, we have to the West a massive escarpment, which obviously guided the trail the Mormon wagon train followed.

Along the way, we stopped at the Devil's Garden, a huge collection of strangely-shaped sandstone monoliths, arranged as a giant child would play with blocks. Nature shows a weird sense of humor here!

Then we arrived at Dance Hall Rock--this place is huge, a monster amphitheater in which the wagon train Mormons had their Saturday night festivities. Mormons had a lot of children. I'll move on.
Throughout the punishing drive even for his 4-wheel drive,, my guide Sean showed me places where the wheels of the 1879 wagon train to the Hole in the Rock left their marks. He was also expert at finding Indian arrowheads and other small traces of Indian habitation. The picture below is of 130-year-old wagon ruts!

It was a punishing but fabulous day. Please scroll down to the next post to see the Hole in the rock itself--an astonishing story of human spirit that would not be beaten.

The Hole in the Rock...

2010-06-23T17:52:00.001-07:00

This is my second post of the day--there was simply so much to be covered in the day!

This location, The Hole in the Rock, was the reason for my 60-mile trip across the desert today.

Thank goodness we had a big 4-wheel drive vehicle. Sure, I could have come here on a boat on Lake Powell--but the way I did it, I feel I much better understand the Mormon achievement.
My Guide, Sean, is very knowledgable guide whose stories helped me understand this achievement. Getting 83 huge wagons down this slot in 1879 strikes me as in the league with Ernest Shackleton's 'Endurance' saga in Antarctica in 1911.

To top it off, that water you see wasn't there in 1879. This water level rose behind the Glen Canyon Dam, built after the Second World War. Those wagons had to go down 600 more feet to the level of the original Colorado River!

Again--how in the world did 225 Mormons, half of them children, get 83 big wagons down that slot?

Escalante is everything it claims to be...

2010-06-22T15:54:00.000-07:00

It is an amazing place, and I have only started. this morning I took a 25-mile drive on a washboard road through the Dixie National forest. Anybody tells you America doesn't have a lot of trees, they're lying. My car is now 20 years old and hates washboard roads,

The target was Hell's backbone, site of this bridge and some colossal views. Worth every rattle and dislodged filling it took to reach it.

Came back down the nost Beautiful Road, which has countless overlooks like this one which is the site of the Escalante river trailhead. No, I'm not going to hike it, I still can't feel my legs from yesterday.

Speaking of yesterday's unspeakable hike, this picture is too small, but the trail runs along the bottom of that red wall across the way. I don't see any bodies on the trail. It creates them.

But, as always. the target is worth it. This is a shot of the falls from the left, and before all the families who were there jumped in. they told me it was icy cold. Everybody knows I don't dive in cold water.

Tomorrow is a big one, a 4-wheel drive to the famed Hole in the Rock Trail, where in 1879 Mormon settlers took 80 wagons down a 1200-foot sheer precipice to get down to Lake Mead. I've read what they did, but still can hardly believe it.

May be a late day. If so, I may not get a blog out for a day or two. I'm off to Capitol Reef National Park Thursday, by way of driving the Burr Trail, which plows about 30 miles of passable road South out of Boulder.

And, of course, on the way to Boulder I drive Hogback, the little road with the thousand-foot dropoffs on both sides.

No rest for those who always want to do too much!...

Nothing could be as dramatic as yesterday. Oh, wait...

2010-06-21T17:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my Kodachrome Basin adventure ended with a climb up to Angel's Palace overlook, which as you see is crisscrossed with trails--I, of course, had to go to the highest. No remarks.

Then, this morning I stopped at Tropic Ditch, outside of Bryce Canyon, for a spot of morning hoodoos in the early sunlight.

This is along what they call here the Most Beautiful Drive in America. I'm down by the highway looking up toward High Point, the Red formation top left.

This is the view from up on High Point. I drove to my left from here. came into the picture in that row of trees on the right, and drove on down toward Escalante. I'm in a motel there for three nights.

And why come to Escalante? Among other attractions, this is the Lower Calf Creek Falls. It is a five mile killer hike, but the falls are beautiful when you get there!

What a day!

2010-06-21T04:34:00.000-07:00

If anyone tells you to drive down Cottonwood Canyon Road to see the Grosvenor Arch, your answer is, "Great! We'll take YOUR car!" My 2008 Toyota Highlander is now fifteen years old.

Oh, all right. it is a pretty drive, even with the ruts and potholes, just because of the flowers.

The Grosvenor Arch is named for Gilbert Grosvenor, long time head of National Geographic, after is was discovered on a 1949 NatGeo expedition that also discovered Kodachrome Basin.

Meanwhile, the mosquitoes in Arizona told the mosquitoes here that I taste like chicken. There was an air Force here waiting for me, and I now have bites on every exposed inch of my glorious body--even my bites from the pond in Sedona have bites!

The bites will heal in a week or so, but the pictures will endure.

In the afternoon, I walked all over Kodachrome Basin State Park, but that will have wait for another post. This picture is of the Grand Parade formations, the signature attraction of the park.

And now, it's time to hit the trail to Escalante and my foray onto Mormon history...

Panoramas of Canyon de Chelly

2010-06-09T10:20:00.001-07:00

While my webmaster Patty struggles with a mountain of new material, I am enjoying the power of fitting enormous tracts of desert into single photographs. This first one is the colossal view from the Mummy Cave overlook.

And yet, the original image is so huge it retains the detail of the centuries-old ruin under the ledge. I just love this software!

This next one is the amazing vista one experiences from the Antelope House overlook. If you look very carefully to the lower right, there are three trucks and a gaggle of visitors crossing the bridge to walk by the ruin.

It is an astonishing retention of detail--which of course comes from using 18 shots stitched together to make the large image.

These will soon be in a gallery in the Desert Photography section of my web site--with a lot of other fascinating views!

Hoover Dam

2010-06-03T14:11:00.000-07:00

When I go to Arizona from Vegas, I pass over Hoover Dam--but usually at dawn or late afternoon, never when the light is quite right.

So, today I took a drive over there to catch the mid-morning light on the Lake Mead side-- and then the sunlight just after Noon, when it pours down the immense face.

The new bridge to bypass the dam is now linked and shows up in some of the shots from below the dam This entire dam area is quite a tourist attraction; there seem to be thousands of people there every day, not just on weekends.

The still photo above and the video below is from the upstream, or Lake Mead, side of the Dam and shows the inlet towers.

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Wrapping it up with a 4-mile hike...

2010-05-27T14:22:00.000-07:00

The Secret Mountain area is famed for its steep canyons. Boynton and Fay Canyons are two that are accessible--if you like a four-mile hike. I can't feel my legs.

Unfortunately, Sedona has the best government money can buy, so a huge development was built in the mouth of Boynton. The trail goes around it, and you get a good look at a lot of houses in Nuevo Navajo architecture, built by people with plenty of money and guilt who want you to know they are so green they'll live in a giant house inspired by a hogan. Don't say I didn't warn you.

After a mile or so you get past the houses. Then, to get pictures, you have to climb above the treetops. No problem; as I say, I can't feel my legs anyway.

The canyon walls rise on both sides, slowly closing in as I near the end of the canyon.

I climbed well up the wall to get this shot of the canyon's end.

It's easier with the helicopter. When I get home, I have a nice video clip I need to edit showing what it's like to fly through the canyons.

Oh, and did I forget to mention...?

2010-05-26T13:33:00.001-07:00

,,,that today was the day for my Red Baron impression? It was a great day for flying around Sedona, so I did a helicopter tour of the entire perimeter of the huge valley.

I shot thirty clips of video, which I'll edit when I have time at home. Video catches the experience better than stills, but these will do for now.

We flew near some ancient Indian dwellings, several hundred years old, preserved in the shadows of that dark ledge in the center. The Indians chose safe, defensible sites like that one; they could see any threat approaching from their high vantage point.

Then we flew up and down several of the immense canyons on the northwestern side of town. Fay, Boynton and other canyons are favorite venues for the hikers.

Wherever we flew, the scenery was awesome in scale and breathtaking in its rich color.

Oh--and I mustn't forget sunset last evening, when I photographed Cathedral Rocks from a little place where the water catches the reflection. For scale, my guardian angels thoughtfully provided a photographer and his model in the center of the picture--who blessedly stood still in most of my HDR sets. Nice props to show how big the scene really is...

All things come to him who waits...

2010-05-25T14:37:00.000-07:00

Even good weather! The airport is on top of a mountain between Route 179 (seen here as it passes the Chapel--it's on the right side of the nearest mountain-- and Bell Rock) and Route 89 behind me to the North. This took a hike of a mile or so around the side of the airport mountain with the planes landing over me, but it is a heckuva view and worth every agonized step!

Cathedral Rock (below) has o be the most photographed piece of stone in the valley. You see it from everywhere, and it is nicely photogenic. This is the morning side, seen from Back of Beyond.

Then there is the graceful Bell rock, seen below in the distance from the Chapel. It's the little cone in the distance..

But, of course, when you are standing on its flanks, it doesn't look as small!! There are great views from up here--I'm going to try it again at sunset if the parking lot isn't too full!

Refuge at last in Sedona...

2010-05-24T16:30:00.000-07:00

I heard as I drove over here from Chinle on I-40 between Winslow and Flagstaff that this section of the major superhighway across Arizona was closed yesterday due to the dangerous winds. Good thing I wasn't coming over here--I wouldn't have made it.

Needless to say, it was better this morning. I arrived mid-morning and went up on the overlook by the airport (above) looking over the part of town where I'm staying and the surrounding hills. Nice. After yesterday, comforting.

Then, back to the spectacular Chapel, this time with a tack-sharp lens. Oh, joy!

The chapel reminded me that I heard Glenn Beck say this morning that once God is dead, people with troubles turn to the only remaining god--government, which is only too happy to have them as wards of the state. Funny--that idea doesn't seem to be working out too well in Europe.

Nouriel Roubini said yesterday that if one thing goes wrong, Europe's economy will go down in a heap. I think I'll stop listening to the news and take pictures. These two are from up on the platform on either side of the chapel. The first is toward Bell rock in the distance and the second toward cathedral Rocks.

They said it couldn't get worse--but it did...

2010-05-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

Ah, lovely Canyon de Chelly! As I write this, the wind is ripping the leaves and bark off the trees outside my hotel window and blowing them to China.

Fortunately, I got to photograph Tsegi Point near the park entrance this morning (the image above) before the winds reached hurricane force.

Then, as things became dire around 10:00 A.M. , I raced over to Antelope House (named for a painting of an antelope on the wall). It is obvious why the Anasazi tucked their homes under the cliffs--this place has brutal heat in Summer, bone-cracking cold in Winter, and these dust typhoons in Spring. In this first shot, you can see the dust beginning to rise into the formerly-blue sky)

A couple of truckloads of tourists were visiting Antelope House, so I included them for scale. Everybody in the hotel looks windblown and bedraggled--probably from riding in those trucks. You can drive your own car up here on the rim roads, but to drive in the canyons and visit the ruins, the Navajos have the only permits.

I'm outta here early tomorrow for Sedona. Think of it as panic-stricken flight...

A dust storm with 55 mph winds...

2010-05-22T16:22:00.000-07:00

It's a good thing I worked so hard yesterday and this morning, because by 2:00 P.M. today the sky was filled with blown sand, the sky turned dust-colored, and the scenic sites began to fade out in a haze of blowing sand. It got worse with each hour, and I had to retreat to the hotel. If one turned into the wind as I did for these, one got a mouth full of sand and eyes that needed a cleaning. Arrrgh. Supposed to be windy tomorrow as well. Sigh.

You can see by the video hy there are only scrubby bushes here--tall trees wouldn't last long up here atop the mesa where the wind howls.

Working before the big dust storm hit

2010-05-22T15:52:00.000-07:00

The picture above is of the massive Navajo Fortress formation, a defensible piece of high ground that didn't work against the Spaniards. Where I am standing is called Massacre Cave, where the spaniards found much of a village and killed them.

The Mummy house is fascinating. Seen here from the overlook and then by telephoto. it is reputed to have been occupied for a thousand years--about twice the time Europeans have been settled in America. Can't help wondering who will be on the overlook taking pictures of the Los Angeles ruin.

One of the most famous sites is the White House ruin, seen first from the overlook and then closer by means of a telephoto lens. You can walk down to this one. I didn't--it's a three hour hike, all uphill...

Meteor Crater and Canyon de Chelly

2010-05-21T19:01:00.000-07:00

The long day began at 2:45 A.M. and hasn't ended yet. On the way over here to Canyon de Chelly, I stopped at Meteor Crater, near Winslow, Arizona. Meteor Crater is the result of a 300,000 ton meteor colliding with Earth at 20,000 miles per hour. It's a wonderful story, and I'll have much more when I get home and do a gallery on it.

In both places, I was nearly blown over high cliffs by 40 mph winds. Unbelievably difficult to take pictures in both places.

As a matter of fact. in Canyon de Chelly. first my tripod and then I almost took the Big Swan dive off a 700-foot cliff.

At Canyon de Chelly, I spend some time with the Godzilla of stone formations. The tallest is 800 feet tall, and the spider Woman lives on top of the left-hand column; she even keeps a cupcake of bones (that's that white pouf up there) up there with her.

Time to get some desperately needed food and sleep.

Yes, I'll crop that vignetting out of the corners--I'm just too tired now.

Sedona on video, alas...

2010-04-13T12:54:00.000-07:00

Home again after but half a day in Sedona. The lens disaster (described in my earlier post) was, thank goodness, limited only to that lens.

The taste of Sedona I did manage (see Cathedral Rock via telephoto above and videos below) have me so eager that I'm already booked for another adventure May 21-29.

The Chapel of the Holy Cross is a gem in a spectacular setting. I look forward to being there for a morning view from its balcony--you can see for miles!

The disaster at Sedona...

2010-04-12T19:09:00.000-07:00

Some good things come to an end, and others never get started.

A couple of weeks ago, my main wide-angle lens fell on the ground while I was using the big telephoto lens to shoot skydivers. Today, I shot a lot of images all over Sedona--and they are all out of focus because the focus on that lens that fell is jammed. Can't even force it to infinity, the setting I use to shoot all these landscapes.

The conditions were perfect, too. !#!$!%!^!&! I've canceled and will go home tomorrow, get another lens and come back May 24.

I'm trying to be philosophical. I've had so much good luck on these trips, I can't complain--and who would listen, anyway? I can come back next month knowing all I do now after running to all the sites today.

Driving home in the morning. Sigh...

Sky diving in Mesquite, Nevada on April 3, 2010

2010-04-05T07:26:00.001-07:00

It wasn't the greatest day for photography, with a high, bright, cloudy haze. Still, the eager jumpers came out by the planeload. There were seasoned jumpers and beginners, as you'll see below.

In the first shot, four jumpers exit the plane at 13,500 feet. Two have their drogue chutes already deplayed

In one of those grand moments, a brand-new student lands after his first jump. Just look at that grin!

The senior instructor, Jim Fonnesbeck, takes his new bride Jean up for a jump. What a smooth landing! Perfect technique!

In these shots, the plane is at 13,500 feet in that hazy sky (which doesn't give us nice, crisp definition in our photos). Rather than the focussed sunlight we get on a clear day, the light is bouncing in from all directions.

On signal, the jumpers emerge from the plane, their drogue shoots deploy and their main chutes open. In the first shot, the jumper is just passing the tail of the plane. In the second, a single jumper dives headfirst into the sky.

Our pal Vitaliy loves to do wheelies as he comes down. He also likes to nearly land on the poor photographer! As you can see, he came pretty close!

Here are a planeload of jumpers coming down like brightly-colored snowflakes. Snowflakes don't bounce, of course, butI'll still go with that metaphor...

Mesquite, Nevada, March 20, 2010

2010-03-21T07:33:00.000-07:00

Today was difficult because the wind made the jumpers land silhouetted against the bright sky, and with the Sun on their backs. Frustrating for photogtaphers, who want to catch those facial expressions!. We did get a few who managed to turn into the sunlight on landing.

New students make their jumps with experienced instructors. You can tell by these that both enjoy the experience very much!

More than forty simultaneous skydivers!

2009-11-15T06:07:00.000-08:00

Here at the Mesquite airport, 90 miles North of Las Vegas, more than forty skydivers climb into three sizeable aircraft, headed for a jump altitude of 12,500 feet and an attempt to set a state record.

And there they go!
12,500 feet above where I'm watching, three aircraft disgorge more their cargo of more than forty skydivers as quickly as they can all leap out of the aircraft.
A mass of skydivers fills the sky, and we have to wonder how they manage to avoid each other!

In the middle of all the skydiving, a pair of World War II carrier-based bombers land, refuel and take off for another event at Nellis Air Force Base. What a thrill to see them!

The skydiving resumes. Planeload after planeload of divers take off, most jumping solo but a number jumping tandem with students and their instructors.With so many jumps, the opportunity to take shots of individual skydivers are plentiful.
The experienced skydivers show their skills, displaying exquisite control while skimming in for graceful landings like a Corps de Ballet.

Here is how they look as an entire planeload approaches their landing!