Joshua Tree at sunset, Joshua Tree National Park, California.

I think the unique, graphical shapes of these trees just cries out to be used as a silhouette.  Having a colorful sky was a bonus!

Coyote, Joshua Tree National Park, California.

It was a treat watching this coyote as he passed by my location on a nice evening earlier this week.  Being outdoors in a place like Joshua Tree is always a treat, but having the opportunity to observe wildlife in it’s natural environment, substantially enhances the experience.

Right after the coyote pasted by this spot, a chipmunk ran out from under the rock you see above the coyote’s head – I suppose the chipmunk didn’t enjoying the coyote’s presence as much as I did.

The Palm Springs area in the Coachella Valley, California.

I was excited to share some more sunset images from Joshua Tree National Park, that was until last night’s sunset – without a doubt, one of the most spectacular sunsets I have ever seen in the desert!  I photographed like mad in every direction, the light was absolutely fantastic.  This is pretty much straight out of the camera with a 3 stop graduated neutral density filter.

Now I must confess, I tend to be an easy going person who doesn’t handle confrontation well.  Truthfully, I usually do what I can to avoid confrontation, probably to a fault.

I say that to help set the stage for what happened next.  As I photographed from this amazing location, a women with a small child pulled up in her large, black SUV and began changing her child’s  diaper.  Somehow I knew what was going to happen next.  I watched her walk across the parking lot with her child and diaper – by the way, the LCD screen on the back of the camera makes a great rear view mirror, I use it all the time.  Anyway, she appears to look for a trash can, and then tosses the diaper over the decorative wall that surrounded the parking area!

I think she may have known I saw her because she stalled for a long time before returning to her vehicle, at which time I asked if she intended to leave that diaper behind.  She said, “what diaper?”, I said “the one you dropped over the wall”.  She claimed to not know what I was talking about.  I then as nicely as possible told her that I couldn’t believe anyone could do such a thing in such a beautiful place, that I found it very disappointing.  She looked at me but didn’t respond, so I turned back to the sunset, all the while watching her in my “rear view mirror”.

Well, she put her child in the vehicle, walked across the parking lot, climbed over the wall and picked up the trash and put it in her vehicle.  I thanked her, and told her I really appreciated it – and sure felt a lot better about speaking up.

Joshua trees at sunset at the appropriately named Joshua Tree National Park, California.

Since we have been up since 3:30, I’m going to keep this short because I need a nap.  We had a great time there – saw my first bobcat this morning!

Panoramic photo of the Las Vegas Strip, Nevada.

I’m on an endless search for new and different vantage points for photographing the Las Vegas Strip, in the hope of improving on our Las Vegas photos.

I’m sorry to say that a few days of high winds and some business activity keep me from visiting Valley of the Fire, so to make up for it, tonight we are grabbing the tent and heading into Joshua Tree National Park – should be nice timing with the nearly full moon, warm weather and all.  Should be a big change from Las Vegas!

Janet Airlines Terminal, Las Vegas, Nevada.

This may not be the greatest photo, but judging from a search on the internet, it seems to be a relatively rare photo.  This is an aerial view of the secret government airlines (run by EG & G) that shuttles workers in unmarked planes to places like the Nevada Test Site better known as Area 51.  The planes are white with a red strip down each side, with very small, almost unreadable N numbers.

Now that we have moved from Las Vegas to the Palm Springs area today, I feel safe in sharing this here.  What?  I think I already hear black helicopters moving in – better go! 

Laser show, Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada.

We found this vantage point last year after making our way through a 3 story mall on the south end of Fremont Street.  This year we returned, and found the mall dark and vacant, still physically open.  Now I gotta admit, there are a lot of people walking around downtown Las Vegas who I would rather not run into in a dark alley, or a dark mall for that matter, especially while carrying two expensive cameras and tripods (one was for shooting time-lapses).

We got set up and photographed the light show while nervously watching over our shoulders the whole time.  Once the show wrapped up, I quickly folded up the tripods and we bolted for the exit with a feeling of relief, when suddenly 3 young guys came around the corner walking right towards us,  saying something about cameras.  These guys looked like trouble and there was no one else around.  I gotta admit my heart began to race a bit as a put my hand in my jacket and readied the bear spray.  I smiled and nodded hi, acting as relaxed as possible, and they did the same.  Janine and I slipped into the elevator and watched the doors slowly close, breathing a huge sigh of relief as it began to lower us to the relative safety of the crowded street – one with plenty of police presence!

This a a combination of two images exposed 3 stops apart.

Vdara Hotel, City Center, Las Vegas, Nevada.

The grand opening for the Vdara Hotel and Spa and its 1,495 suites is December 1, 2009.  This is one of a number of properties scheduled to open in City Center this upcoming December.  I have about worn out my running shoes trying to find vantage points to photograph these properties while they are still under construction – I have tried just about every freeway overpass, parking garage and road within a mile or two in each direction!

I may have spoke (wrote) to soon on the assignment work yesterday.  The scope of the work doubled, while the budget shrunk, and so we are now going to pass.  Besides a lot of walking and scouting, I am getting a lot of key-wording and captioning done!

City Center, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Last winter when we were here in Las Vegas, a newspaper article reported that a good portion of the multi-billion dollar City Center project would be open by this October.  Well, it is far from open.  It is tough to photograph such a project and keep cranes, dump trucks and all the other commotion out of the scene – a telephoto lens comes in handy.

I actually picked up a few days of photography assignment work while we are here in Las Vegas (not for City Center).  As a travel photographer, it is always nice to pick up some assignment work while on the road!

Last nights sunset over Caesars Palace. The fountains of the Bellagio dance in the foreground, Las Vegas, Nevada.

We have now moved to Las Vegas.  I need to update some of my coverage, and hope to spend some time in Valley of Fire State Park!

Tower Arch, Arches National Park, near Moab, Utah.

This is a quick and dirty blend of two jpeg images, one for the sunset sky, and one for the rest.  Once I’m home, I’ll re-work this, probably using most, if not all five raw files, but this gets me at least 90% of the way to the final image.

I gotta say, this was one of the tougher hikes home in the dark.  A half an inch of rain had obliterated most the footprints on this lightly traveled trail, and it seemed like the cairns were just out of headlight range – the lack of a moon didn’t help.  But, being able to spend a wonderful evening at this beautiful arch, with out another person within miles made it completely worth it for us!

Partition Arch, Arches National Park, Utah.

A self portrait of me in Partition Arch.  This is the smaller of two openings at the location of Partition Arch, so maybe this one has a different name.  It is a great location – from the opening you can look down on the trail and viewing area for Landscape Arch.

Mountain biking on the Slickrock Trail, Moab, Utah.

Since we rode the awesome Slickrock Bike Trail yesterday, I thought this would be a good time to post this photo.  It was sure a blast – and we were much faster then last year, that always feels good.

I didn’t bring my camera on the ride, as it is too heavy.  This photo was from two Fridays ago, we did this the night before the 24 Hours of Moab Bike Race.  You see I don’t do much shooting with multiple, off camera flashes and wanted to practice a bit before the actual race.

Most of my flash use is for a minor bit of fill light.  For this, mounting the flash on the camera works fine, as the light is usually just there for a bit of catch-lit in the eyes of an animal, and to brighten the subject a bit – the light really isn’t noticeable to the viewer.  When the flash provides a larger amount of the light source, I think it is important to get the flash off the camera and off to the side, and even behind the subject.

So I practiced multiple setups right up until near total darkness – I wanted some night shots.  I felt like I had everything dialed in, and wouldn’t you know it, on the day of the race my wireless transmitter worked for 3 tests shots and then died.  Nothing seemed to fix it, not even new batteries.

Well clouds saved the day for my daytime shooting as they helped defuse the light and soften the shadows, I didn’t really need flash.  For my night shots, I ended up setting up the camera on a tripod and opening the shutter for about 10 seconds, and manually popping the flash from off to one side to light the bikers.  After a couple adjustments to my distance and the flash power, this totally manual technique actually worked pretty well.  So much for being prepared.

Sunrise, Monument Basin, Canyonlands National Park, near Moab, Utah.

This fascinating location is found along the White Rim Trail.

The Green River from the White Rim Trail, Canyonlands National Park, Utah.

How is this for an amazing campsite? !   There are two camp sites in this area, unfortunately, we had the site next to it which wasn’t as close to the river, but still very nice.   So, as these people slept in, I quietly used their tents for my photo.

This was definitely one of the nicest campsites on the trail.  On-line, I had trouble finding much information on the different campsites – so we checked them out on this trip and will do a write up on the best camp sites along the White Rim Trail when I have more time, probably once I get back to Alaska.

Star trails above our tent along the White Rim Trail, Canyonland National Park, Utah.

We just got in from 3 really fun, and productive days along the White Rim Trail,  so I thought I would do a quick post.  The star tails are the result of a 25 minute long exposure – I lit our tent with my flash light, and then stumbled out of the scene in nearly total darkness.

I really enjoyed sitting there and watching the stars and seeing shooting stars.  It has been awhile since I have spent a night under the stars – I do most of my camping and backpacking during the Alaska summer, a time stars don’t show well, if at all.

Janine stands in the lower arch of Double O Arch, Arches National Park, Utah.

I realized I have posted a number of photos from Arches National Park, but none of them included an actual arch.  So here is two for one photo.  Visiting Double O arch requires about a 5 mile round trip hike through some wonderful country known as Devils Garden.  With must see detours to Navajo and Partition Arches, the hike ends up being about 6 miles.

Yesterday we picked up a rental jeep and are heading out for three days on the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands National Park.  We found out last year that the limited number of camping sites along this amazing road fill way in advance, so we made back-country campsite reservations last Spring.  We have been looking forward to this trip for a long time – everyone raves about this area, I should have an update here Monday night or Tuesday morning.

Courthouse Wash, Arches National Park, Utah.

Hey, there are even a few fall colors in Arches!  This was at sunrise yesterday morning.

A train leaving Moab, Utah.

Last year when we pulled into Moab I saw these tracks along this beautiful hillside and thought that would be a perfect setting for a train photo.  But, I only saw one or two trains during the couple weeks we were here, and was never in a position to get a photo.  This year I noticed a train leaves Moab about the same time everyday, making this photo much easier to obtain.  Evidently, the train is hauling uranium tailings from along the Colorado River to a more permanent site.  It is a Department of Energy project – not sure why our government is taking on this job and not the original mining companies – they probably took the money and ran.

We had a great sunset last night, but I just couldn’t seem to find the right position or  composition, so I came away with nothing.  I feel like a let one get away – great sunsets don’t happen that often around here.

Rafting on the Colorado River, near Moab, Utah.

This looks fun!  While growing up in Alaska, I did a ton of rafting – I miss that.  We just found out that you can rent kayaks and rafts in Moab for not much money, at least compared to what rentals cost in Alaska.  I don’t know if we will have time, but it is tempting!