Full Moon Grand Canyon

A couple of friends and I decided we would like to have some pictures of the full moon setting over the Grand Canyon. We found a full moon date that was workable for all of us, scheduled our flights, booked our rooms and rented a car and met up at the airport in Phoenix. We stayed in Tusayan making it easy to get to the canyon before fist light. Most of the year, there are places to the west of the village that you cannot drive your car, requiring transport by the park bus system. But in winter months those roads are open to passenger cars making getting around a breeze.

Shooting a setting moon requires good timing. If you are there too early the canyon will be too dark. If you are late the moon will have disappeared below the horizon. On this day our timing was good, but notice the band of clouds just below the moon. Within minutes it obscured the moon. Good photography involves being at the right place at the right time and a bit of luck .

Shooting the moon does not take all morning leaving plenty of time to visit other locations in the park, and on this day we were ready to leave this spot and get back into the car as it was 18 degrees and a little wind was picking up.

If you walk the south canyon rim you will find an endless supply of compositions.

Since it was winter I was hoping for a good storm, though I didn't want it to interfere with capturing the moon. Fortunately, one afternoon we we sitting at lunch, looked out the window and it was snowing. And it kept snowing! We were ecstatic. Hoping for a canyon full of snow we rushed to the canyon edge. The clouds were dramatic but as it turns out, with a small snow event it doesn't find it way very far down into the canyon.

I have never seen the canyon full of snow but love to see it. Maybe a on a future visit.

With the help of Photo Pills we were able to find a location to get an image of the full moon rising over Desert View Watchtower. The two best locations were Navajo Point and Lipan Point. Getting the shot presented a couple of problems. For one, as the moon was rising it was still pretty light and the moon did not stand out as I would have wished. Probably a day or two later would have been better. Also we were limited in our shooting position as we were as far out into the canyon as we could go.

Finishing up with some gorgeous God Rays was a wonderful way to complete the day. Can't wait to return

Family Life Of Red Foxes

The family life of a red fox is a joy to observe. The kits are very much like puppies, jumping on and chasing each other almost the entire day. Of particular interest is how the Vixens teach the kits to eventually become self sufficient around their food supply. There are two vixen in this family unit, the mother and grandmother, and I can not tell them apart. The kits you see here are still suckling from their mother. But by this time in their young lives she is well on the way introducing them to game. In the beginning she will stash the game, encouraging the kits to forage for it. The next step in the process you can see here, where she brings game directly to the kits. Here she is dropping a rabbit for them. At this stage in the teaching she has killed the rabbit. The next stage will be for her to bring them live game. The little black one grabs the rabbit and makes a run for it getting away from his siblings. A...

Red Foxes

I had never experienced anything quite like photographing red foxes. I was with them nearly all day, for three days in a row. I was so taken by them, especially the way they related to each other. Above is the dog fox, the adult male of the group, with one of his offsrping, a female kit fox. In this family group there were two vixen, one was the grandmother, the other the mother of three kits. The adult females attended the den all day with one or the other going off to hunt, returning with food for the kits. Missing most of the day was the dog fox and when he would return the kits all gravitated to him. All of the kits seemed to adore the dog fox but the moments between him and his daughter were especially touching. What a gorgeous, photogenic animal he is. When I returned a year later he was still there and there was a whole new brood of kits. I am hoping to return again this year having missed last year due to a bout ...

Art Display At The Center For Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa

The Center for Spiritual Living Santa Rosa, has a wonderful program that encourages artist members to display their work. The work is hung in the Social Hall and typically has about twenty pieces hanging for two months at a time. On March 1rst I will be hanging several images taken in Iceland, along with some wildlife images, including foxes, coyotes, eagles and kites. I will also have some paintings by my mother and two of my own. I am pretty excited about this showing. One of the pictures I will have in the show is of Godafoss, a beautiful waterfall in Iceland. When I first saw pictures of this waterfall I knew I wanted to go to Iceland to take pictures of it. This composition required gettin into some very cold water.

Notes To My Mother

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