January Full Moonrise

Moonrise over Watson Lake and the Granite Dells, north of Prescott, Arizona

Another gorgeous Central Arizona Highlands evening, this time on the evening of the Full Moon.

Several miles north of Prescott along Highway 89 lies Watson Lake, a waterfowl rich reservoir formed by a dam on Granite Creek. Bordering the lake are the weird and beautiful rock formations known as the Granite Dells. To the east (upper right in this photo) lies Glassford Hill, an ancient volcano.

A warm January day (unseasonably warm, but so comfortable), calm winds. Using The Photographer's Ephemeris application, I could find out exactly when and in what compass direction (azimuth) the full moon would rise. This month it rose in the northeast at 70 degrees, which is 20 degrees north of straight East. The information allowed me to pick a spot with an enticing landscape, since tonight the moon would rise after sunset but before full dark.

Finally the moon peeked over Glassford Hill and, as the light faded, reflected off the surface of Watson Lake.

Clouds Make the Sunset

Photo: Sunset beams, Chino Valley, Arizona. [Click on image for larger version]

Sunset time. Always beautiful if there aren't too many clouds obscuring the western horizon. For the scenic photographer, though, no clouds at all makes for a relatively boring sunset. Why? Because the right kind of clouds, in the right location above the setting sun, reflect and intensify the colors. Too many  clouds, or too low on the horizon, cut off the sun's rays. At the other extreme, no clouds at all and it's merely a little yellow ball sinking out of sight. 

As this photo shows, it doesn't take many of the right kind of clouds to dramatically enhance the sunset colors. A few puffy clouds above the horizon and there you have it. The moisture in the sky made the sun's rays stream out into sunset beams, and the clouds acted as reflectors of the warm yellow colors.

Photo Location: Little Chino Valley, Yavapai County, Arizona.

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Frozen Tracks, Winter Sunrise, Pittman Valley, Arizona

[Photo: Sunrise snowscape and Sitgreaves Mountain, Arizona.
Click on image for larger version.]

Wouldn't it be wonderful to live in a winter landscape and never need a house, clothing, or money? Everything is available to the coyote and the other residents of wildlife. 

A frozen January sunrise brings blue shadows, bright snow shapes, and ethereal ground fog to a mountain meadow traversed by a few tracks during the night.
Pittman Valley, Coconino Plateau, west of Flagstaff, Arizona. At upper right is Sitgreaves Mountain.

Christmas Eve Moonrise, Arizona

Some rain today in the Prescott Valley of central Arizona. Wonderful mix of storm clouds and blue sky. 

As evening approached, the light became golden. Being several days before Full, the moon was above the mountains to the east. The sunset lit up the clouds around it.

This is an instance in which a larger, closer looking moon shot would have lost the contribution of the pink clouds against the dark blue sky.

Yavapai County, Arizona

Snowy Shrub Live Oak, Prescott National Forest

[Photo: Shrub Live Oak in snow and frost]

The morning after the first major winter storm was clear and cold. The clouds had moved on, bringing a frozen but beautiful start to the day on the Prescott National Forest in central Arizona. 

Wading through the snow, I photographed subjects distant and close. In this photo, the sun had cleared the hills to the east, to light up the branches and foliage of a shrub live oak bush. 

Prescott National Forest, Prescott, Arizona

Arizona Meadow Daisies

Daisies in a mountain meadow, Coconino County, Arizona

August, 2012: Much of the U.S. is suffering from one of the worst droughts in memory.

Meanwhile, it's been wet in northern Arizona, of all places! Our late summertime monsoon season is in full swing, and we have been getting soaked with rain showers almost every day. Our springtime was typically sunny, windy, and dry, and the wildfire danger gradually raised to the Very High rating, prompting a ban on campfires. Even charcoal in grills. We went a near-record 65 straight days without precipitation after the snow melted. 

Finally, the monsoon season began. The moisture arrived from the Pacific Ocean, the clouds started to build each morning, and rain showers began. Blessed rain. Visitors from back East were puzzled to come to Arizona to be dodging rain storms and lightning. Sometimes hail, too. 

In this photo, I was exploring a small mountain meadow near Flagstaff, where I live. The daisies were in bloom, and the rich green grass of the meadow along the fringes of a small pond made for a vibrant background.

Dusk Cloud Colors, Flagstaff

Sunset time in northern Arizona. Summertime sunset time. 

I notice the pinks set against the clearing blue sky, and walk outside with my camera, searching for a composition. The Ponderosa pine trees in silhouette frame the rosy pink clouds nicely.

Forest Fern, Evening Light

Fern, evening light, Coconino National Forest, Arizona [click on photo for larger version]

Nature is my cathedral, my church. Appreciation, respect, and humility are my religion.

This is from my campsite last evening on the Coconino National Forest and the Coconino Plateau, at about 7,500 feet in northern Arizona. A fern lit up by the low afternoon sunlight slipping between the Ponderosa pine trees. 


No neighbors except the birds and whatever four legged animals were around but did not make themselves apparent. 


No visitors except two Forest Service guys making sure I was not going to violate the ban on campfires, because the springtime woods have been so typically dry. "And don't leave any food outside the vehicle. There are bears here, and they're always hungry." That much I knew, but I appreciated the reminder. 


Followed by a peaceful night of the breeze whispering in the pines and aspens, then the rising half moon and the stars. Peaceful, soothing night. In the cathedral.

Wood and Sand, Arches National Park

Juniper wood in the sand, at Arches National Park, Utah.

Frosted Wood Waves, Arches National Park

Trees retain their beauty long after they've perished. As their wood decays, they can reveal beautiful patterns. 

Here a downed tree (probably a juniper) is coated with frost and dusted with red sand.

Arches National Park, Utah

Pinnacle, Grand Canyon North Rim

Pinnacle on North Rim (click on pic for larger version)

A capstone of buff colored sandstone crests a ridge below the North Rim at Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona.

You don't have to be a geologist to appreciate what's going on here. This landscape is constantly being worn down by erosion. Rocks falling apart, soil being built up and moved downslope. Vegetation, such as the green pinyon and juniper trees gracing the red slope with their dark green accents, adapting and growing.

Photographically, the distant canyon wall in afternoon shadow makes for a splendid dark blue background.

You might also be interested in my Grand Canyon Photography blog.

Almost Ready to Launch, Lees Ferry

[Photo: River rafters and morning light, Lees Ferry, Colorado River, Arizona]

A private river rafting party finishes breakfast and whatever other last minute preparations at its camp on the banks of the Colorado River at Lees Ferry in northern Arizona. 

Historic Lees Ferry is the put-in point for all boats that are going to run Grand Canyon.

In the background are the Vermilion Cliffs, glowing orange in the morning sunlight, and reflected off the river's surface.

You might also be interested in my Grand Canyon Photography blog.

Chasing April Moonrise, Northern Arizona

Chasing April Moonrise

[Photo: Moonrise over Sunset Crater Volcano.
Click on image for larger version.]

The hunt for this month's Full Moon moonrise shots began last week on Tuesday, four days before the Full Moon on Friday. 

That's right: you have to get rolling early, or it will pass you by again for another month. Time, and the Full Moon, waits for no one.

That's especially true because there's this phenomenon known as "the weather". Even here in sunny Arizona, you just can't trust it. Especially around the Full Moon. 

[Photo: Moonrise over Sunset Crater.
Click on image for larger version.]

My favorite day of the month for shooting nature landscapes featuring the moonrise is the day before the Full Moon. Yes, one day early. Why? Because the Full Moon occurs at sunset, and by the time it clears what's on the eastern horizon (forests, hills, mountains, etc.) it's often too dark to capture anything other than the moon. 

But since the moon rises about 50 minutes later each day, by shooting the day before the Full Moon, you have almost an extra hour of daylight to work with. Two days before, almost two hours more. It doesn't matter that the moon isn't quite fully illuminated. It still looks great. 

A place like Flagstaff, Arizona is great for moonrise shots. It has untold acres of public land, enjoys a lot of clear sky days, and has such a variety of environments relatively nearby, from the San Francisco Peaks to the smaller volcanic mountains, to the Painted Desert, and the red rock canyons of Sedona. Plus, it's not a congested city like Phoenix. Here you can get outta town in a few minutes.

So this time I launched myself north, onto the Coconino National Forest via US 89. Tuesday, with the lengthening spring days affording more time to get on location before moonrise. 

[Photo: Moonrise over Wukoki Pueblo Ruin.
Click on image for larger version.]

Exiting the highway onto the road into Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, we viewed the colorful cinder cone hulk itself from the open expanses of Bonito Park. The moon had been up for two hours already. I drove on, looking for a suitable foreground before the sun went down.

North of Sunset Crater, I drove down out of the Ponderosa pine forest zone and onto the southwestern reaches of the Painted Desert. On Wupatki National Monument, we stopped to check out the Wukoki Pueblo ruin. Built atop a big chunk of red sandstone, it was three stories high and housed two or three families. With a sweeping view all around, it's a fascinating piece of prehistory.

[Photo: Moonrise at dusk, Wukoki Pueblo Ruin.
Click on image for larger version.]

This is a good example of using something tall in the foreground when the moon's this high in the sky before Full Moon.

On Wednesday I was glad that I got some shots the evening before, because the eastern horizon was clouded out. The weather thing.

So I was banking on Thursday, the day before Full Moon, to be there for me. As the afternoon wore on it wasn't looking very promising. Lots of blue sky, but lots of clouds in the east, too. 

At 5:00 PM it was decision time: go for it, or go home. The eastern skyline was mostly cloudy, but there was a significant patch of it that was clear. Maybe, just maybe...

[Photo: Sunset at Doney Mountain.
Click on image for larger version.]

I drove north to Sunset Crater again. The view from Bonito Park was nice except that the sun wasn't shining on the volcano, due to clouds around the San Francisco Peaks to the west. Another decision point: hang out here, or try for something more dramatic further north. I felt like going for it.

Another 30 miles north, I pulled off the highway onto the north end of Wupatki National Monument. This time I headed for the Lomaki pueblo ruins, which are small but quite photogenic. My planning, using the excellent The Photographer's Ephemeris, gave me a good idea of where the moon would rise, and when. But when I got to the parking lot and trailhead for the ruins, I could see that I was shut out by the clouds. The open part of the horizon was further south from this vantage.

[Photo: Sunset light on trail up Doney Mountain.
Click on image for larger version.]

So I drove south, hoping for a suitable angle and location for the moonrise. I was the only vehicle on the road through this desolate, beautiful landscape. The low angle of the sun was lighting up the blond dead winter grasses, blowing in the strong springtime wind.

The Loop Road through Wupatki and Sunset Crater briefly wanders onto the Coconino National Forest. There, the Forest Service has a little parking lot with a short, easy trail up Doney Mountain, which is actually three volcanic cinder cones. You get to hike up the smaller two. 

But more importantly on this crucial April evening, it looked like it might just be a suitable location to photograph the moonrise. So I hit the trail. 

[Photo: Moonrise from Doney Mountain.
Click on image for larger version.]

What a great spot. Wild land all around, a clear view. No powerlines, or people. The wind was so fierce that it seemed to almost knock me over, but it was a small price to pay.

I made a few shots from the summit of the smallest cinder cone. No moon in sight. Where would it appear, relative to the cloud bank on the horizon? Would the clouds block moonrise totally, until it was too dark for a good moonrise shot?

Meanwhile, I was enjoying the scenery, and eyeing the trail up the taller cinder cone. Wondering what sunset shots might await me there. I started up its trail.

[Photo: Moonrise from Doney Mountain.
Click on image for larger version.]

But I didn't get far. There was the moon, seemingly out of nowhere. Stop, set up tripod, shoot. Make a variety of compositions from close up to wide angle, with the sunset coloring the clouds.

Finally the sun was down, it was getting dark. I walked the trail back down to my truck. The ever brilliant, ever rising moon "followed me home" on the drive back to Flagstaff.

Friday, the night of the Full Moon, was clouded out. See why I start three or four days early?

You might also be interested in my Grand Canyon Photography blog.

  

Chasing Moonrise, Wupatki National Monument, Arizona

[Photo: Snow cloud and pueblo ruins, Wupatki National Monument, Arizona.
Click on image for larger version.]

A couple of days ago, it was once again time for Full Moon moonrise landscape shots. Which are best made the day before the full moon, when it rises while there is still adequate light on the landscape.

This time, the weather was dicey, meaning many clouds on the eastern horizon. That's make or break, of course. In Flagstaff we'd been having light snow showers off and on all day. So I had dim hopes for an early evening shoot of the moonrise.

But as the afternoon wore on, more sun and blue sky appeared around the clouds. Since the full moon only comes once a month, you have to try. You might get lucky.

[Photo: pueblo ruins and sunset snow curtain, Wupatki National Monument, Arizona.
Click on image for larger version.]

So I headed north of Flagstaff on US Highway 89. Up to the summit, then right onto the road to Sunset Crater National Monument. Before you enter the Monument, there is a very nice turnoff at Bonito Park on the National Forest land. It has an excellent view of Sunset Crater volcano.

Having recently made some sweet moonrise shots from this location, I was less than excited to make some similar ones. So with seemingly plenty of daylight left, I drove back out to 89 and headed north over the back side of the summit, down onto the high volcanic plains. Wide open spaces, down out of the Ponderosa pine forests.

I was headed for the north entrance to Wupatki National Monument, about 25 miles north of Flagstaff. As I drove, I noted with satisfaction some big cloud banks hovering near the northeast horizon. Streamers of snow hung below them, probably never reaching the ground, and thus not shutting off the eastern horizon to the moonrise. If the moonrise was obstructed by clouds, the others could well get lit up nicely by the sunset rays.

It's good for a nature photographer to have a Plan B. If not a Plan C.

Inside the northern road into Wupatki, it was two miles to the parking area where the trail led into the scattered, small, but very photogenic, pueblo ruins at Lomaki. I parked the truck, wolfed down some more of the Subway sandwich I'd stopped to get along the way, then was off on the short and easy trail.

[Photo: Moonrise, sunset colors, and pueblo ruins, Wupatki National Monument, Arizona.
Click on image for larger version.]

The sky was changing quickly, and I walked fast. I didn't have much time. (Did I ever, in situations like this?).

Skipping the first ruins for the vantage point at the second ruins, I made a few quick exposures. Then I hoofed it over to the larger ruins. Really crunch time. The setting sun was only on the uppermost wall of the ruin. The snowy cloud bank was huge and wide, way more than I could capture in a single exposure.

So I shot a wide angle series of overlapping photos, to be merged later in Photoshop.

The moon? Oh yeah, that is what I came here for. Peering off toward the lower right edge of the massive cloud, I thought I saw it. Was that the typical faint white-blue disk of the moon just creeping above the horizon, or was I fooling myself? It was, and so I wasn't.

[Photo: Snow shower curtain and pueblo ruins, Wupatki National Monument, Arizona.
Click on image for larger version.]

Hoping that it would rise up into another gap in a few minutes, I waited. And waited. And...finally made a few more shots of the darkening cloud bank above the ruins and the Antelope Plains.

It turned out to be a very nice series. No killer moonrise shots. Only a fleeting glimpse. But some amazing golden hour landscape shots. Time and effort well spent.

On the drive back south, the moon rose above the clouds. Its bright silvery patterned disk followed me the rest of the way home.

You might also be interested in my Grand Canyon Photography blog.

Planning Moonrise Shoots with The Photographer's Emphemeris

[Photo: Moonrise above the pines.
Click on image for larger version.]

Ok, so let's say that you know the Full Moon is coming in a few days and you want to be ready, to have a good location planned for the moonrise in the early evening (or moonset in the morning).

Unless you're using a brightly lit cityscape as the landscape, the best evenings to get great moonrise shots are the night before the full moon, or sometimes even two nights before.

Why? Because on the night of the actual full moon it usually comes up too late to have enough natural light from sunset-time to illuminate the scenery. And, again, for nature landscapes if you wait until the full moon you will merely have a bright round disk in the black sky and nothing else.

The moon rises approximately 40 minutes later each day. Thus it rises about 40 minutes earlier each day, too. So your moonrise scenes the night before (or two nights before) the full moon will have a naturally lit landscape with the moon so close to full that it's hard to tell it's still a day or two shy of full.

But where in the eastern sky will the moon rise this time? It varies by month, through the seasons. It doesn't always rise straight due east. Far from it.

Fortunately there is a free computer app on the Web called The Photographer's Ephemeris (TPE) that takes the guesswork out of it. Go to http://photoephemeris.com/ and install it on your machine. (There is even a smart phone app available for a small fee, for you wild and crazy on the go types).

Then open that puppy up and type in the location you want to check out. TPE then shows the moonrise/moonset and sunrise/sunset for each day that week. You can jump ahead to any date on the calendar. (The light blue line is where the moon will rise; the dark blue the angle at which it will set). Along with the azimuth (angle in degrees on a compass, if you want to get that accurate).

Also onscreen (see below) is a Google Map for your location, with colored lines depicting the direction of moonrise/moonset, etc.

But you don't have to be a surveyor to make great use of this tool, and easily. Here is a real world example from earlier this month.

Let's say that you have a local volcano that you would love to have the moon rise over, so you can zoom in on both and thrill your fans on Google+. (What, you don't live near a volcano? Really? There are many old volcanoes here near Flagstaff, Arizona. So if you want one to photograph, move here.)

Anyway, one of my favorite local volcanoes is on the Coconino National Forest about 12 miles north of town, and there is a big mountain meadow named Bonito Park that has a clear view of this 1,000 foot tall volcano named Sunset Crater almost smack dab to the east. Where the moon will rise, somewhere. Perfect.

I started with my TPE map set on downtown Flagstaff, to get an idea of the direction in which the moon would rise. Way north of East at this time of the year. Meaning way north of Sunset Crater, like I figured having seen it much the same last month.

To verify, I zoomed in on the map and moved the red "pin" to where I knew the turnout on the entrance road along Bonito Park is. Yep, looks like the moon will rise well to the north of the stately young (only about 950 years old) volcano.

As you can see from my highly technical in-the-field photo illustration, the moon did rise as predicted, affording no closeup of our beautiful lunar satellite rising over the big cinder cone. Only a wide angle shot, though it was fine enough, considering.

Note that even at dusk like this, you can capture the Earth's shadow on the eastern horizon if you have a clear enough view, and detail in the foreground, etc. If I had waited until the following evening all I would have had was the bright moon in a black sky.

Skipping ahead month by month on TPE's calendar, I see the moon's angle traveling steadily southward, toward due East. In April it looks like it will rise right over the behemoth. Guess where I'll be the night before Full Moon in April. And the night before that, for good measure.

So why don't I merely Photoshop the moon in, over the volcano? That's no fun to me. By studying what's going on, where the moon and sun will be through the seasons, is a large part of the satisfaction.

But that's just me. You do what you want.

You might also be interested in my Grand Canyon Photography blog.

Photographing Fall Foliage Close Up

[Photo: Gambel Oak fall foliage colors, Arizona]

Gambel Oak Leaf, Coconino National Forest, Arizona

To make an outstanding photo of tree leaves, especially in the fall, you don't need a really expensive camera and lens, or special filters or techniques. All you really need is your eyes, your brain, and your feet. 

Granted, this photograph was made with a fairly expensive DSLR camera, but all it did was to give me more control. I would have gone about this shot the same with with a point-and-shoot camera. 

This photo is engaging primarily because of its rainbow like range of colors. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue. But it also gives the feeling of depth,  of being there, even though you're looking at it on a flat screen. 

Why? Contrast. The leaf is in focus, while the background is blurry. Feeling of depth. The colors in the background contrast with the colors in the leaf. Also, I walked around until the sun lit up the leaf from behind. But in a position that it was not only backlit, but had the dark green of the conifer trees and the deep blue of the clear Arizona sky as the background.

I was close enough to the leaf, and the pine trees were far enough away, for them to be blurry no matter what lens aperture was used. All I needed was a lens aperture deep enough to have the entire leaf in focus. Or nearly all of it. 

You might also be interested in my Grand Canyon Photography blog.

See more of my photography at www.naturalmoment.com. 

San Francisco Peaks Early Snow Panorama

[Photo: San Francisco Peaks panorama, Flagstaff, Arizona. Click on picture for larger version.]

Early October in northern Arizona. It's fall, and high elevation, so anything can happen, weather wise.

The weather had been Indian Summer perfect, if a bit warm during the day. No problem for us fall colors afictionados, because the nights had been chilly without a hard freeze. Plus plenty of sunshine during the day; after all, this is Arizona. Aspen trees are good with that as they feel their way toward winter. Leaves remain on, chlorophyll (the green stuff) going away to reveal the yellow stuff.

Then an early winter storm arrived. The snow in the high elevations was beautiful, as always. But it was weeks early, probably killing the aspen colors. They will probably just drop and call it a winter. We will see.

You might also be interested in my Grand Canyon Photography blog.