This is a continuation of iPhone photos shot in and around Alabama Hills, California in March 2024.
More later,
Ken
March 2024 iPhone Photos – Part 3
Tag: iPhone Photos
March 2024 iPhone Photos – Part 2
More iPhone and scouting photos from my March 2024 travels.
To be continued,
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, 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 3
We returned to an area in Valley of Fire State park to finish a hike we has abandoned a day or so previously.
There were many petroglyphs on the rock faces along the narrow valley that we hiked through.
I only carried my iPhone on this hike, which was not sufficient for adequately capturing petroglyphs higher up on some of the valley walls.
The image above indicates that some petroglyphs have been lost due to erosion of the rock face.
To be continued,
Ken
Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 15 – Hoosier National Forest
While examining a digital satellite map image of the forested area near my operational base in Indiana, I noted one area designated as a wilderness, so I decided to drive into that area and check it out.
All of the photos in this post are via my iPhone.
I pulled off of the forest road through the Hoosier National Forest on my way to check out the Charles C. Deam Wilderness area at a camping/picnic area to look around. There were restroom facilities, shelters, picnic areas and a few visitors. I noted a hiking trail that went into the forest from here, but I did not take time to check it out. There were a few colorful trees in near peak fall color, so I made a few iPhone images, with the one above the best.
I continued down the forest roadway, spotting a number of “No Parking” signs along the way.
This roadway is narrow, so parking along it would impede traffic and probably would create a danger, since visibility over hills and around curves is limited and one could easily crash into a parked vehicle that appears suddenly in the narrow roadway. The $80 fine seems steep, but maybe necessary to discourage parking here.
I found a parking lot just off of this roadway at an old fire lookout tower that is no longer in use, but open for visitors to climb.
Apparently, there were farmlands in this area at one time, but those have been taken over by the forest, after this area was designated a wilderness area.
I chose to climb the 133 steps to the top to get an overview of this area. As I started up the first flight of stairs, I had second thoughts about my choice as the stairs wobbled with each step. After a brief hesitation, I continued the climb.
Near the top of the tower, I noted that someone else had the same reaction as I did to the wobbly stairs.
I shot a few iPhone photos from the observation floor of the tower. Being above treetop level, I had a good overview of the vast forest around the tower.
After enjoying the view, it was time to descend the “sketchy” stairs and get my feet back on firm ground.
I saw a trailhead marker near the tower, so I walked over to check it out. I was not prepared to hike in this wilderness today, but I decided to come back another day for more exploration.
There was an old road beginning at the end of the tower parking lot that was blocked off with a steel gate. I walked over to take a look down the roadway and found this sign about an old cemetery that was apparently here prior to the wilderness designation. There was no indication of how far it was to the cemetery, but I decided to walk the roadway, hoping to find something interesting.
I found remnants of old structures that were mentioned in the information sign at the tower and continued to walk the roadway for awhile. I never found any indication of how far it was to the cemetery and I eventually turned back, since I did not see any noteworthy reason to continue.
This final image, looking into the wilderness woodland, was taken somewhere along the route.
Until next time,
Ken
Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 3
This is continuation of the iPhone photography in Indiana antique stores during the early days of our two week fall stay in Indiana.
Older photographic equipment always gets my attention. I’m glad I do not have to use those items.
Some of those pictured in this poster, seem to be misclassified as Rock and Roll musicians. After noting one such collage of these bad criminals, I began to see these more often in this area.
Bad guy entertainers may be unpopular here, but alcoholic beverage items are prominently celebrated.
And Bing Crosby is ok.
I started this post with pottery items, so maybe I should end it with pottery.
More later,
Ken
Grand Canyon, North Rim, July 2021, Part 4
After our first morning shoot at a North Rim overlook, we drove to other view points and hiked short trails to scout for other sunrise and/or sunset photo locations.
Remnants of a Native American granary is just a short distance from the trailhead for the Cliff Spring Trail.
There were very healthy plants thriving on nutrients obtained from the rocks or minimal soil in crevices in a cliff face.
There is a short, easy trail to an overview at Roosevelt Point. The 4 photos above were taken from what may have been the end of the most commonly hiked and easiest portion of this trail. There is a steep step down at one point and a second less steep step down beyond that on the final portion of the trail. It is not actually clear whether the trail beyond the first big step down is part of the official trail or if hikers have extended the trail. I hesitated at the first step down, not sure whether it was wise or allowed to proceed.
After deciding I could make the step down and get back up safely my son and I proceeded along the path. In the photo just above, my son is seen pondering the next step down and trying to decide, if an official trail extends past this point. We noted trees that had been cut beyond this point, suggesting trail blazing, so we proceeded.
The end of the trail at Roosevelt point is in the photo above. There is a gap in the narrow rock ledge (the one with the rock perched near the end) that one has to carefully step over to get to the end of this ledge.
The photo above gives a better indication of the sharp drop off on either side of the narrow ledge at the end of the trail.
The photo above is made from as far along the narrow ledge as I dared go and it is probably not safe for anyone to go any further.
The last image in this post is made from an overlook at the highest view point on the North Rim.
The next post will be for our sunset photo shoot on our second day here.
Until then,
Ken
Thirty Mile Campground, Rio Grande National Forest, July 2020
An interim stopover on my journey from Ridgeway, Colorado to the southeastern corner of Colorado in July, 2020 was Thirty Mile Campground. It is a long, slow drive on rough county/forest service roads to the campground. This campground has sites that one can reserve and others that are on a first come first serve basis. There were only a few sites available, when I made my reservations prior to my trip to Colorado. I wanted to be sure that I had a place to stay at least one night, so reserving a site assured that I would not have to search for a free site in the forest. I thought I might be able to get one of the free sites, if I decided to stay a second night; but the campsites were all full or reserved on the day that I arrived and there were no reserve sites available for a second night. I would have to wait until the second day to find any available free sites, if I wanted to stay a second night.
Thirty Mile is a nice campground and my site was just inside the campground along the Rio Grande, where it was pleasant to hear the rushing water in the river. After checking into my campsite, I took a walk along the river to check out possible locations for photography late in the day and/or early in the morning.
The river is pretty, but there seemed to be limited possibilities for photographic variations along the river. This is a popular place for anglers and many of the people in the campground were there to fish for trout in the Rio Grande.
I watched a doe grazing on the opposite side of the river, shooting a number of photos and videos with my phone. The doe did not seem to care that I was watching it. One of the unedited videos can be seen here.
After my walk along the river, I drove along the road past the campground to check out the scenery along the Rio Grande Reservoir, which is a very long reservoir. The road beside the reservoir is mostly a narrow one lane road with periodic pullouts, where vehicles can pass each other. It was a rainy, overcast day, which created some photographic opportunities.
I drove almost to the very end of the reservoir before turning back. Near the end, the water shallowed, revealing the trace of the river going into the reservoir. In the upper end of the reservoir there was colorful vegetation and I got lucky when a break in the clouds allowed sunlight to highlight some of that vegetation.
During my drive back towards the campground, I stopped to shoot with my iPhone at a few locations.
There were a few scattered wildflowers and large colorful boulders, some covered with lichen, in various shapes between the roadway and the reservoir.
The next post will have DSLR photos taken along the river and along the reservoir.
Stay well and safe,
Ken
Miscellaneous Travel Scenes, Colorado, July 2020
One of my regrets, during my travels, is not taking enough time to stop and photograph interesting things along my route from point A to point B. My reasons for this neglect are primarily related to a time schedule and that the light conditions are usually not optimal for landscape photography. This no doubt results in passing up opportunities that I may never get again to photograph some scenes.
Yet sometimes I do force myself to stop and try to get photographs of scenes that catch my eye in passing, in spite of conditions being poor for getting really impactful photographs. This post is dedicated to such images.
I traveled along US 50 between Montrose and Gunnison, Colorado on my way to Thirty Mile Campground in the Rio Grande National Forest in July, 2020. It was a mostly overcast morning and the clouds and ground fog were compelling enough for me to stop to try to get a few images along this route. Most of the resulting photographs were not what I strove to get, but a few I liked. Making one panoramic image with my iPhone, I noted an interesting effect. Fast moving vehicles, combined with my panning of the camera, resulted in a compression of the vehicles. Looking closely at the photo below, one will note that the lead vehicle’s front end and back end are the only portions in the image, with the center completely missing.
I have driven past the Blue Mesa Reservoir and Curecanti National Recreation Area numerous times and I have never before taken time to get even one photograph in this area. On this trip, I almost passed by again without stopping. The photo below makes me glad that I took time to stop.
From US 50 I headed south along CO 149, which is a scenic drive along the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River between Gunnison and Lake City. There were a number of convenient pull outs just a little north of Lake City with scenic views of the river. I initially passed each one, looking for an ideal spot to stop, finally turning around to stop at several of those pull outs. Unfortunately, it was difficult to get clear shots of the river without much clutter in the shots at most of the stops and the light conditions were harsh; but knowing I might never pass here when the light was optimum, I made a few iPhone images, anyway.
At one pull out there was a really large tree root running across the ground. I photographed that root from a number of view points, but none worked out well. However, I did find one feature on the root that made a nice close up image.
At another stop there was a good view of the river framed by weathered and lichen covered rocks along the river bank. This location might be a good place for a sunset shot, if I ever have an opportunity to be here as such a time.
That’s it for now,
Ken