Nature – Page 13 – Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 8

More scouting and exploration photos in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.

Natural Imperfections or Non-Photogenic Nature?, iPhone Photo

Nature is messy and cluttered. Photographers don’t like clutter, even if it is a part of nature. I cropped this photo to remove some of the natural clutter, mostly on the bottom left. There remains some clutter on the bottom left and what about that unkempt looking bush and roots on the pond border? Is it really necessary to clean up a natural scene, to make a more pleasing photo? It depends upon one’s vies of the world and one’s idea of photography and purpose of the photo. Sometimes one may want to show the clutter, sometimes not. Sometimes clutter can’t be avoided.

The way my eyes look in the morning.

More desert scenes to come,

Ken

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 7 – Arches – Inside and Out

More photos from scouting and exploring Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada, March of 2023.

The number of arches in this area is almost unbelievable. One could spend much time here just photographing arches from inside, outside and through. I’m reminded of the Joni Mitchell song “Both Sides Now” about clouds and how it could be adapted to describe having seen arches from many sides and still not having seen all aspects of arches.

More next,

Ken

Valley of Fire State Park and Nearby, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 6 – Monochrome Desert

This is a continuation of hiking and exploration in Valley of Fire State Park and nearby areas, Nevada. All of the photos in this post were shot with an iPhone 14 and converted to monochrome.

This “Dark Shelter” is not in Valley of fire. This is along a 4 wheel drive road outside the park.

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 5

This is a continuation of scouting and exploration in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada in March of 2023.

The geology here is fascinating. The rocks have interesting variation in texture and color.

If one looks closely, one can just barely pick out hikers on the right side slope of that big dome in the background.

To be continued,

Ken

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 4

A continuation of images made during a hike in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada in March of 2023.

There were a few arches in the canyon walls bordering this hiking trail. Small arches are plentiful in this area.

This trail ends at a drop off into a narrow chasm, which at this time of the year contained a pool of water.

Another small arch atop a rock outcrop.

Another small, but still sizable arch along the trail.

Light bouncing around inside some of the smaller arches and holes in the rocks creates interesting color, bringing out the patterns in the rock. This one looks like an eye in a rugged face.

More exploration photos next,

Ken

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – Part 2

There are many arches of various sizes all through out Valley of Fire State Park and in this area, in general, where the sandstone has been eroded away over long time intervals of exposure to wind, rain, freezing and thawing. The arches are not on the size of those found in Utah’s Arches National Park, but seemingly more numerous.

Sunlight reflects around inside the arches, creating wonderful lighting on the rock surface.

The arches in this post are found along a short hiking trail and can be spotted by looking up into the canyon walls, which can be spectacular, too.

There is an open area along this trail with many nice cholla cacti. I had to refrain from trying to photograph each one, as I’ve always found these enticing.

We stopped short of completing this hike today, since we wanted to get to an area that we had chosen for sunset photos.

We will revisit this area later,

Ken

Snow Canyon State Park, Utah, March 2023

In late March of 2023, I traveled to Snow Canyon State Park in Utah with the intention of staying here a full week. The park features, which are impressive, are essentially located along the roadway that goes through the park. However, due to the orientation of the canyon, sunrise works for golden hour photography in some portions of the park, but sunset golden hour is either very limited or non-existent. This was a disappointment, as that greatly limited my photographic possibilities here.

After checking into my campsite, I drove towards the south exit/entrance (I had entered via the north entrance) to check out the scenery in that direction and to get a cell phone signal. There is only a weak, at best, phone signal at the campground, but a good signal at and near the south entrance.

On my way back to the campsite, I stopped to check out Jenny’s Canyon, a very short slot canyon that is accessible via a short hike from the roadway.

Eastern Canyon Wall, Snow Canyon, Utah, iPhone Photo

I stopped to shoot this image of the canyon wall, that I hiked towards, which is the rock formation where Jenny’s Slot Canyon is located.

Big Mouth Rock, Snow Canyon, Utah, iPhone Photo

I noted this rock atop a portion of the canyon wall, that I dubbed “Big Mouth Rock” for obvious reason.

Sky Slash, Jenny’s Canyon, Snow Canyon, Utah, iPhone Photo

Sunlight filtering down into narrow canyons can create some remarkable color contrast on the canyon walls. The image above is shot looking upwards towards the sky from within the short slot canyon.

Sky Slash 2, Jenny’s Canyon, Snow Canyon, Utah, iPhone Photo

Canyon Wall Details, Jenny’s Canyon, Snow Canyon, Utah, iPhone Photo

Usually, I find something of interest to photograph in route to my destination, but I found nothing of special interest during my first two days of the drive. Maybe I wasn’t looking intently enough and too preoccupied with getting to my stops. Although, I did see this group of deer near the entrance to my first overnight stop.

There is always at least one in a group photo that is not looking at the camera. iPhone Photo.

I’ve picked out a general location for sunrise photos tomorrow. The results are next up.

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2022, Part 2

In Brown County State Park I walked along a creek capturing fall color alongside the creek bed.

Having an interest in geology, I had to include some of the rock layers exposed along the creek bed.

There were only a few shallow puddles of water in the creek, so walking in and along the creek bed did not require getting my feet wet.

More fall in Indiana later,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2022, Part 1

My wife and I began a tradition of spending a couple of weeks in Indiana in the fall a few years ago. There are multiple reasons why we established this tradition. 1. My wife has relatives in the area, having lived in Indianapolis during her early childhood. 2. A relative allows us to stay in their weekend cabin that is very near Brown County State Park, which is a very popular place in the fall. 3. We both enjoy seeing fall color in the hardwood forests in this part of the U.S. 4. I get to photograph the fall color and write about it in this blog.

Timing our visit to see the best of the fall color is always hit or miss. Sometimes we are too early, sometimes too late and sometimes we see the peak fall color.

Photographing in the same location at the same time of the year is a challenge and I often worry about my photographic images being too repetitive. After all, how many ways can one photograph trees, forests, barns and fall scenes? Lots, actually, but how many are unique? Trying to get unique and interesting images is a challenge. I can only hope that the scenery varies sufficiently, year by year that my images will not be too boring.

Driving the backroads of Indiana is a good way to appreciate the fall color and other rural fall country scenes.

The barn in this image sits far back from a roadway on private property. I shot it with a telephoto lens from the edge of the roadway, hand holding the camera. I shot from different perspectives trying to get shots with the least amount of that pile of debris in front of it in the image. However, this image may be the best overall, even with that unsightly mess in front of the barn.

I was a little late for the actual sunrise at this location in Brown County Park, so I walked down a slope into the briars, weeds, grasses and brushy growth, thinking a shot from within all that foreground clutter might at least be different than that of the early photographers that were wrapping up their sunrise shoot from the top of the slope and there was no way to avoid getting that messy foreground in a shot from anywhere here.

I had to spend a considerable amount of time picking the stick tights from my clothing after this mornings’ shoot.

Until next time,

Ken

Road Trips 2022, Miscellaneous Photos

This post is a catch all for a number of photos taken during a couple of road trips in 2022.

One might need to look closely to see the string of green Mardi Gras beads in this tree in old downtown Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

Standing on a Mississippi Gulf Coast beach, I observed clouds creating abstract forms.

These cypress trees in Lake Chicot, Arkansas show how much the water level is below normal due to drought in the U.S. mid-continent area. Lake Chicot is a horseshoe lake formed by an abandoned channel of the nearby Mississippi River, which was at an historic low level, at the time this image was made.

The link in the photo above, actually takes one to another, slightly different composition, than this one.

Until next time,

Ken

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Category: Nature

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 8

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Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 7 – Arches – Inside and Out

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Valley of Fire State Park and Nearby, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 6 – Monochrome Desert

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Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 5

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Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 4

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Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – Part 2

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Snow Canyon State Park, Utah, March 2023

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Indiana, Fall 2022, Part 2

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Indiana, Fall 2022, Part 1

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Road Trips 2022, Miscellaneous Photos

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