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| Storm light, Black River, White Mountains |
Can you deal with another extended metaphor? You’re strong; bear with me.
Landscape photography is a hunt.
No, I’m not a hunter. I eat meat; I just internalized the “do no
harm” part of being a physician to the extent that I don’t think I could. I’d understand if you think me a hypocrite.
So, my friends who hunt tell me that the killing is
a rather small part of the experience.
They say that, much like what I do in the field,
there is joy in the skill development and planning. Hunters also say that the quiet stalking
requires patience and that there’s never any guarantee that you’ll come home
with a trophy. Mostly, though, they tell
me that it’s about meditative time in the wilderness.
So, last week I started exploring some areas included
in magazine “stock call lists.” I blogged about this process last summer. It's
certainly an arrangement that works more in the magazine’s favor than the photographer’s,
but I do appreciate the honor of being on the list as well as an introduction to
some parts of the state that I wouldn’t otherwise have experienced.
These trips are hunts, from time spent pouring over
Google Earth (really, you should see the number of pins I’ve placed) to
quietly waiting for the evening light to warm and mellow.
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| Train traffic near Ash Fork AZ |
Between Ash Fork and Williams, there’s a neat forest
road which snakes through the flagstone quarries and in part parallels the
railroad tracks. The trains made fun
subjects during the day, but not such great camping companions.
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| Storm from Red Mountain Fire Lookout |
My goal in the Kaibab Forest was an old stage stop,
but the road turned to axle-sucking mud before I got there, so I’ll have to try
again in drier times. Instead I hiked
the Red Mountain Fire Lookout trail and was treated to fabulous 360-degree
views and fast-moving thunderstorm cells.
Later I got some intelligence about a historical attraction in the area,
but that’s a post for another time.
From there, I headed to Prescott back roads. At one point I was in the middle of a
7-car-standoff between "I can't back my trailer" and "I'm afraid
to back up; I'm from Phoenix." We got it done. I drove two wheels up the
mountainside and pulled in my mirrors for a solution fit for Rubik’s Cube.
Yikes.
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| Red Hill Road, Blue Range AZ |
After a quick trip home for a can’t-miss surprise 35th
anniversary party, I photographeed the Blue Range at the New Mexico border. It was a beautiful spot and nice camping, but
I got distracted by the prodigious wild iris bloom and before I knew it I was
near Big Lake in the White Mountains. There
I found storm light and more iris.
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| Iris, White Mountians, AZ |
It was a good hunt.
More images are in the Northern Arizona Gallery on Skylineimages.net
Thanks for the visit and happy hunting.
