Tag: Arizona
-
1,001 Tumamoc Nights
Although this post is scheduled to publish five days after the solar eclipse, that is still two days in the future as I write this. But keeping with the theme of astronomical events, I thought I would lead off this post with an image from the supermoon lunar eclipse—a so-called “blood moon”—of 27 September 2015.…
-
Bright Angel of Death
Despite the fact that I lived in Arizona for 29 years, I have only been to the Grand Canyon three or four times. In my defense, it is about a six-and-a-half hour drive to get there from Tucson. In many ways, the Grand Canyon is a difficult place to photograph just because it is so…
-
Desert Boulders
In May of 2020 I decided to drive ninety minutes or so north from my home in Tucson to explore a boulder field in the desert that I had seen a picture of online somewhere. My wife tagged along, and I honestly don’t remember too much else about why we went; my wife and I…
-
Whitewater Draw Landscapes
The sandhill cranes are the main—but not only—reason to visit Whitewater Draw. While the immediate area is pretty flat, there are mountains in the distance in nearly every direction. Arizona, of course, is frequently blessed with colorful skies that often can be exploited by compositions that show a lot of sky, such as the image…
-
Winter Afternoons at Whitewater Draw
About 100 miles east of my former home in Tucson, Arizona, and well south of Interstate 10 is the Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area, winter home to roughly 30,000 sandhill cranes. Interestingly, the number of sandhill cranes at the much more famous Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is only about 10,000, although the latter compensates…
-
Ruler of the Night
My first memorable encounter with an owl was on a winter dawn in the Windy Hill Open Space Preserve just off Skyline Boulevard above Portola Valley, California. It was December 31st, 1990. It was still very dark as I walked downhill down the path with my camera and my tripod. I had not made it…
-
Birdbane
Bobcats aren’t the only predators that frequented our yard in Tucson. Cooper’s hawks were common in our neighborhood, helping to keep the population of doves and other small birds from getting out of hand. While it is not clear that they were totally successful, we saw them frequently flying at high speed through the yard…