Here are twelve of my favorites from 2022. I covered a lot of ground over the year and these reflect my travels. Some are from close to home here in the Pacific Northwest; however, time was also spent in the Big Sur country of California, and, of course, our home-away-from home in the Arizona territories...
12 of 22
A lovely sunrise lighting up the Tortolita Mountains in Southeast Arizona. The challenge here is getting the data you want when you have competing exposures. The foreground is in deep shadow, the sky is somewhat dark, and the mountains a narrow strip of brilliant light. Not easily done, but enough foreground data for a lovely photo.
tortolita sunrise
The Dordogne region in southern France as been a site of human habitation for thousands of years. It is a land of limestone plateaus dissected by deep river valleys. This sunset photo is just to the west of Loubressac and along an ancient cart path lined by hand-placed limestone walls. The sun star is a bonus... the feeling of walking through the Shire...
Loubressac Sunset
The Whiskey Springs Marsh is a mountain meadow in the Southern Cascades, located several miles to the N-NW of Mt. McLaughlin, one of the great Cascades stratovolcanos. A small rise in the middle is anchored by a Ponderosa Pine and has been home to a nesting pair of Sandhill Cranes for a number of years. One of my favorite places...
Meadow Mist
When taking the photograph of the mist-filled Whiskey Springs Marsh, I was enjoying the subtle song of a small brook behind me. The marsh was completely quiet except for that melody. It's just a small rivulet, ice fringed...providing an enchanting evening song...
Cold waters
The summer of 2020 was a rough one for the north flank of Arizona's Catalina Mountains. The Bighorn Fire came to life as a result of lightning strikes in July; the Catalina Fire occurred in October. Among the burn victims were the area's mesquite trees. These two, plus the widespread post-fire creeping vines, make for a dramatic sunrise photo.
Dawn LIght
An early Spring visit to the Phoenix area resulted in a bonus: an afternoon spent out in the lower Salt River basin with the Salt River Wild Horse Herd. The capture was made with the zoom lens all the way out at 300 mm. The play of light on the horse's flank, the blue of the water...really like this one.
with the salt herd
Everything about the morning and the location screamed for a black-and-white image. It's late March on the high (about 4500'elevation where I am) sagebrush desert of the Oregon-Nevada Basin and Range. It's a stark, austere landscape with color on the mountain flanks during the day. But...at first light, contrasting black-and-white...
A sagebrush sunrise
The intense hues and razor-sharp contacts of this reddish-colored conglomerate simply jumped out at me while walking the beach. Interestingly, the photo is more about the land and the sky than the sea, which seems to pale by comparison. It seems a quirky twist on the Pacific Coast of the NW, given the photo opportunities normally provided by the ocean...
A winter beach
Lucia was never very much on Highway 1... Today there is only the quaint motor hotel (a set of cottages really...) with the million dollar view of the southern Big Sur country. This bench is well over a 1000' above the ocean, meaning that the quiet here is intense. Birdsong is here, if you'll listen, but otherwise there is a vastness surrounding you...
lucia
Midsummer found me in the White Mountains high country, literally on the AZ-NM boarder. For all of you who have experienced either the Sonoran Desert or Colorado Plateau (or both), this is yet a different country. With respect to the photography, this held challenges with respect to low light, high contrast, a small F-stop and long exposure. I'm happy with it...
boneyard valley
Fall found me walking through the Dordogne Valley in southern France (see the Dordogne photo gallery as well). Superb weather, landscape, company - and, of course, cuisine all played a part. The river cooperated as well. Its mood ranged from calm to playful, and provided fantastic photo opportunities. Here's one...
Aquitane reflections
The Sonoran has been an old friend for decades; I'm usually never long away from it. Even with the world reopening and more opportunities developing, I'll still make time to return. This one, of course, was entirely about the light, I was ok with a foreground that is (mostly) silhouette. Note my little fine-feathered friend on top of the Saguaro...