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

White Tailed Kites - A Family Affair

Perhaps you have seen birds fluttering in one place in the air. I have seen Northern Harriers do this as well as kestrels. But most commonly it is the white-tailed Kite. Three years ago there was a family of them in the Laguna De Santa Rosa and I had the privilege of witnessing their behaviors and capturing some of it with my camera. This first picture (above) shows a juvenile in flight and an adult on the branch. The juveniles are distinguishable by the brown markings. This Kite family had three juveniles and one adult, perhaps two adults but I only saw one at any given time. Late one evening I saw this scene with the adult holding a gopher or vole while the three juveniles gathered. I was particularly taken by the orientation of the juvenile's body on the bottom left. As it turned out I got several shots of juveniles in unusual positions. On one occasion I photographed one of the juveniles doing a somersault in mid air (topi...

The East Side of the Sierras is Beautiful

Why “Notes to My Mother”? My mother was the one person in my life who was always interested in what I was doing, what I had to say, who I was. She was never too busy to listen and take an interest. Never critical, always accepting. Even when I was wrong or misguided, there would still be a gentle interested listener present. Though she has been gone over 6 years, I still get the urge to write or call her, to share an image I am proud of or share my latest adventure to some beautiful place. I know she would love to hear about it. My mother was an artist. She painted most of her life, right up to her passing at the age of 96. When I was 4 years old we lived on the east side of the Sierra Nevada Range. She would take me out to paint with her - she with her easel, me with mine - and we would sit together creating our art. While I gave up on the medium she kept at it. Then, in the year she passed I picked up a digital camera and began my adventure into the world of landscape ph...

Aurora Borealis May 10: A Northern Lights Extravaganza

As a quick update: All of these images were taken on the night of May 10-11, 2024. on San Juan Island WA. We were taken by surprise in the middle of our vacation when it was announced there was to be an aurora display that would likely be visible from our location. What an understatement! What we witnessed was simply out of this world. We saw colors I did not know existed in the auroras, especially the light pinks and, of all things, orange (neon). There were four of us on the grounds at the Trumpeter Inn during the "show". I was the only one with a DSLSR camera so the others would see something interesting and I would point my camera in that direction and take a timed exposer. Most were in the 15 to 20 second length. At one point, Jan looked up straight overhead and saw something that was quite unusual; it looked like some kind of convergence. I pointed the camera overhead and took this picture, which I find startling....

Notes To My Mother

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