Eclipse

No. I really couldn't get enough of the Grand Canyon.  Five days after arriving home with my dirty river gear (minus the disintegrated ancient rain pants and 'retired' river hat), I hit the road again.

I'd been thinking about the May 20 annular eclipse for months.  At first I thought about camping out at Horseshoe Bend, near Page AZ.  I was concerned about the crowd there and about the attractiveness of the foreground.  I'd considered scrapping the whole enterprise when I discovered that Chuck, one of my new river friends, had plans to camp out at Lipan Point (near Desert View in Grand Canyon National Park) Sunday.  Excited about the prospect of company and of the GC as foreground, I signed on.

You'd never know that Chuck and I had been friends for all of two weeks.  He generously offered the shade, power, and fridge of his camper for the nine or so hours we spend at Lipan.  No roughing it for us.

It became clear early on that this was going to be a star party.  Serious astronomers showed up as early as the photographers to set up their equipment (heavier than mine!) and to share telescopes and knowledge.  We learned about Baily's Beads (irregularities in the eclipse profile due to mountains on the moon), solar filters, Venus, and all manner of delightful star-gazer stuff.  When the eclipse began, there were joyous shouts of "first contact!"

Eventually there were 40 or so folks enjoying the show.  It was perfect.  Fun, but not claustrophobic.

I settled on dedicating one camera to creating a wide-angle composite view which included the canyon (below) and using the other camera for 600 mm individual views of the eclipse (seen in the composite above).

Below The Rim

First Camp, North Canyon.  The sand is blasting our faces on this small beach on the Colorado River. There are no complaints from any of the fourteen of us, though.  We just remembered that we were in the Grand Canyon.

This was the fifth trip down the river for me.  I keep going back because each trip is profound and life-changing.  The Grand Canyon is magical.  My last trip was about a dozen years ago, between my film and digital photography phases.  This time to my great joy, I had camera gear and skills which allow me to share this breathtaking place.

I also met some fabulous folks, photographers and boatmen (for the women prefer to be designated this way, too), and got my mind clear in a way that no other place can.

Thanks for the opportunity to share this place in images.  There are more in the web gallery.

After all my harping...

...about being prepared and other aspects of  "Boy Scout Camping," I blew it.  It was 20 degrees colder than I expected at White Pocket, a remote and magical area in the northernmost part of Arizona.  I had frozen water bottles and ice inside my vehicle windows and had left my down sleeping bag behind.  I was grateful for the firewood my husband loaded for me before I left and for other emergency kit - type stuff that saved my bacon.

Other than that, I have nothing to complain about.   There were four of us, all photographers, and all hopelessly in love with this unparalleled landscape.  From moon set/sunrise to the soft colors of dusk, there's a lot to like about White Pocket.

Maybe next time I'll take my own advice.

The White Pocket gallery can be found here.

Astronomical Phenomena

Last weekend, in addition to the usual excellent reasons to visit Monument Valley, there was another.  For just a few days each spring and fall, the shadow of the West Mitten falls on the East Mitten.  There's a particular thrill to watching the shadow creep across the valley and up the side of this iconic monolith.

It used to be that, for a photographer to be in the right place/right time for moon & sun events, she had to pull together data from a number of sources, or learn from her mistakes.

Now, there's is an app.

The Photographer's Ephemeris removes the trial and error in anticipating moon and sun position, allowing us to be at least very close to the right place at the right time.  Here's a screenshot of TPE showing the alignment of the setting sun and the two monuments.  The darker orange is the sunset trajectory.

Of course, there are other spectacular iconic subjects around the Valley as well...

Here's the gallery from the weekend.

Open Arms Home for Children

Please check out my guest post on the "My Itchy Travel Feet" blog about Open Arms Home for Children.  The text has been rather heavily edited, but you'll get the idea.

Storm!

For those who don't live in Arizona, I should explain a bit.  We love our sunshine, but we also know that rain & snow are a gift.  We don't get much of it.

Last weekend, after a few weeks of unseasonably warm weather, we heard about a big storm coming in. My husband was tied up, but the dog and I were uncommitted, so we hit the road, circling up through Prescott, photographing Watson Lake and running joyously thought the snow barking.

 
We were headed for Yarnell, and I judged that the gentler route through Skull Valley and Peeples Valley might be a bit easier driving and more photogenic.  The moving storm gave me an outstanding brooding sky over snow-covered ranches.

There was more inspiration the next morning as the sky cleared; one last chance at the ephemeral March snow.

Check out the Winter Gallery on the Website if you are so inclined.

Why.

A reasonable person might ask, when so many of us have cameras (if only in our phones), what's the point of bothering to really study photography? 

You're just pushing a button, right?  Well, that's the subject of another post. 

There's the 'follow your passion' argument.  Trite sayings like this generally contain some truth.  We  may well get us some hints about our purpose based on the feeling, or knowing perhaps, that we're doing what we're supposed to be doing.  Not to mention that life is much better when we're having fun.

Its also tremendously rewarding to create a work of beauty.  Photographs are frozen moments.  They can also be moments of ugliness to be sure, but a beautiful image is hard to beat.  I imagine that quanta of splendor make the world incrementally better.

The real point for me, though, is to create emotion.  That thought crystallized for me on the last day of RYLA, a leadership camp for teens.  I'm the event photographer.  One of our traditions is to have a multimedia presentation on that final day, and this year I paid more attention to the student's reactions than to the images themselves.  They are not so much responding to the technical expertise (not that the images weren't terrific, of course) but rather to the way they made them feel.  There were cheers, applause, and the occasional 'awww.' they turned to each other and connected.

A good image conveys emotion.

Another example; the month of March in the desert is flamboyant.  Breathtaking.  Ephemeral, and therefore poetic and metaphoric.  If I look at a field of poppies, or closely at a single flower and gasp with joy, I hope you will, too.

If my image makes you feel something or captures your attention in a double-take, then I've accomplished something worthwhile.  We've connected.  And I'm grateful for that.

More Spring Images are on skylineimages.net.