Sky – Page 7 – Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

Old Mill

Determined to find an old abandoned truck, that we had been told about, along a 4 wheel drive road, we continued on past Animas Forks.

We had been told that the old truck was just beside the road about a quarter of a mile past Animas Forks. Yet we drove much farther than a quarter of a mile, passing the old mill we had been told about, too.

At some point past the old, abandoned mill, we decided that we had either missed the truck or that it was much farther along the roadway than we had been told. We turned back and stopped to photograph the old mill. As I was getting my camera out, the retired photographer, who had told us about the truck, drove up and informed me that he had been mistaken about the abandoned truck being right next to the road. Instead, it was up on a hill at the end of a short spur road. He even pointed to the truck that was barely visible in the distance.

I shot a few photos of the old mill, before back tracking to the old truck.

Next abandoned truck,

Ken

Rural Decay and Miscellaneous Photos – March 2022 Travel

Small, rural towns across the U.S have experienced dramatic economic downturns as the agrarian industry evolved from one that required much manpower to one that relied more upon mechanization (machine labor).

I see much evidence of this in my road trips, occasionally taking time to photograph the abandoned businesses and homes, either in small rural towns or those scattered across rural farm and ranch lands.

The title for this photo is taken from the street number that is hanging upside down on the post to the left of the door.

In spite of the obvious economic hardship indicated by numerous abandoned homes and businesses in one small community, this old school seem to be well cared for.

Old farm machinery rusting away in this farm field, may have been some of the initial machines that started the economic downturn in this small community.

This lone tree in a vast, post harvest farm field, beneath the wide open sky caused me to pull over for a photo.

Until the next adventure and/or desperate need to photograph something overcomes me,

Ken

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 22 – Cathedral Valley Exploration

My readers have already seen many photos of some of the fantastic, massive geological features in the Cathedral Valley portion of Capitol Reef National Park. The long loop road through this area passes many such features. We did not have time to explore around all of these and certainly not time to visit each area for golden hour sunrise or sunset photography.

But we did stop and walk around at some of the more easily accessible areas near the roadway. Often, I would use my iPhone camera to capture the scenes, rather than lugging around a heavy DSLR and lens.

Desert Vortex – Sky and Earth, iPhone Photo

Desert Sentinels/Commander and Sidekick, iPhone Photo

Until next time,

Ken

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 12

Late one day we decided to shoot from one of the overlook areas near the visitors’ center. I shot from a little before golden hour until only the clouds on the distant horizon were illuminated and the color faded away. These are the best of the photos I obtained.

Late Day View from a Capitol Reef Overlook

Until next time,

Ken

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 10 – Cathedral Valley

I will continue to test my readers patience with even more photos from Capitol Reef National Park’s Cathedral Valley.

The photographs in this post are all taken around the features called “Temple of the Sun” and “Temple of the Moon”.

Monoliths, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Temple of the Sun (in right background), Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Temple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Temple of the Sun framed by smaller rocks, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Temple of the Sun, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

These photos were all taken late in the afternoon. The high ridge to the west of these features blocked much of the golden hour light, so essentially all of the foreground objects were already in shadows by the time the best golden hour light illuminated the large monoliths.

Temples of the Sun and Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Until next time,

Ken

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 9 – Cathedral Valley

Even more Cathedral Valley photographs,

This is not really a pyramid shape, but it looks that way from this point of view.

Sometime in the distant future there will be more monoliths here.

Until next time,

Ken

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 8 – Cathedral Valley

More Cathedral Valley photos,

I know these photos are similar, but those clouds that seem to be emanating from the monolithic rock, emphasizing its powerful magic had to be captured in numerous compositions (I have even more, that I will not impose upon the reader).

More later,

Ken