Notes To My Mother

About four days into a family vacation in Costa Rica, I grabbed my camera, jumped in the car and headed out alone.  I was told the dirt road ended at the river and that some good photography might be found at the end of it, especially birds, and someone mentioned something about a frog farm. I set off and drove to the end of the road finding a house set back a ways at the very end of the road and on the opposite side I wanted to explore.  I began searching the trees for birds. There was a Macaw high up in the canopy and I was trying to get a clear view of it when a man came over from the house. He spoke no English and I spoke so Spanish. But he knew what I was there for – good images – and he had just the subject. In his hand he held a little Green Costa Rican Tree Frog. As he approached the little frog leapt out of his hand landing on my face just above my cheek and quickly snuggled into my eye socket. I spontaneously handed the camera to the man and he graciou...

It had been a year since my first visit to Upper Antelope Canyon. That visit was too brief and too many other folks in the canyon at the same time. This time I was determined to linger a bit. I planned a trip that would include my birthday and made my way this time to Lower Antelope Canyon. The earliest I could get into the canyon was 8 a.m. as that is when it opened.  I was there and ready well before 8. I was the first visitor of the day and the guide took me to the far, lower end of the canyon to enter. I descended to the canyon floor. Alone. Completely alone. . . in Antelope Canyon. . . on my birthday. . . and I could stay all day! Lower Antelope Canyon, like Upper Antelope, is a slot canyon.  Slot canyons are narrow at the top and wider at the bottom, having been carved out by periodic flood waters. These are places that need to be visited more than once because it takes some experience to begin seeing the canyon the way your camera will see it. What looks unr...

Over the years, sunrise has become my favorite time of the day.  I remember back to the first time that I really, REALLY, experienced a sunrise. It was some years ago just outside the little town of Escalante in Southern Utah. I had the good fortune to be able to witness these sunrises every morning across the street from the house where we were staying. Awakening in the pre-dawn hours, quietly making a cup of coffee (some might argue with the “quietly” part), I would slip out the front door and cross the street to the edge of the open expanse that lay beyond.  Placing my coffee cup on a fencepost, my camera on the tripod, I would stand in darkness waiting for the first light to makes its appearance. Glowing In Brilliant Saturated Colors It is the evolution from the darkness when there is very little you can see, to the beginning of twilight as forms begin to emerge and birds begin their songs, followed by the gradual imperceptible transition of the light, right up to...

There is about a three-quarters full moon with no clouds. Stars are bright. Jan, my wife, is asleep in the motel. I’m standing next to my car, finishing a cup of hotel coffee, in the parking lot of Horseshoe Bend, just down the road from Page, Arizona. I’m the only one here and I love it! I can see pretty good by the light of the moon so I decide to leave my flashlight behind.  Camera gear in my backpack, tripod in hand I start up the sandy slope toward Horseshoe Bend. I scouted it the day before as far as the top of this first hill, so I have an idea of what is ahead. But I have never been down the other side to the Colorado River’s edge. Horseshoe bend is just that, a big horseshoe like bend in the Colorado River, very picturesque and popular with tourists. I love being in these kinds of places when there is no one else around. I’ll have it that way for sure this morning. I take my time, careful not to fall in any holes along the way. Actually it is a pretty g...

There is a place in Canyon Lands, Utah that is one of my all time favorites. Like so many places I’ve been I first learned of it through images published in photography magazines and on line. When I first saw a picture of it I knew it was a place I just had to visit. I began searching for its location and how to get there. Much to my surprise there were no maps showing the route into it. I did discover it is located high up on a canyon wall in an isolated area of Canyon Lands National Park in Utah. And I learned that it is a Class II Archeological Site, still being excavated and studied. This location is called False Kiva, and it dates back to the 1200’s.  It was believed until recently to belong to the Anastasi Indians. More recently the thinking is the site belonged to the Pueblo Indians, likewise of the same period of time. The Park authority does not permit the printing of maps showing its location because of its archeological status. So finding it is quite and adventure in i...