Alpine Imaging Blog

I am pleased to announce that 20 of my images are on display at Vora Financial again this year. If you are looking for last minute gifts, or happen to be in the neighborhood, stop by 14 E Birch Monday - Friday 9-5 to check them out.

It always amazes me that even against insurmountable odds life finds a way to live. Located atop of Dance Hall Rock down the Hole in the Rock Road in Escalante National Monument, this area supports about a half dozen trees like this. The great photographer Guy Tal made this locale famous in his book Intimate Portraits of the Colorado Plateau . I made this image on an overcast day in early spring. Many of the dirt roads were still closed and impassable this time of year, and indeed some of the higher elevations still had a foot or more of snow. Dance Hall Rock is an interesting formation that makes a natural amphitheater.  The rock got its name from the 19th century Mormon Settlers that used it to hold square dances.  You can sit there and just imagine the sound of fiddles, guitars and banjos echoing throughout the canyon.  Petticoats spinning, and girls giggling at young men courting their hearts out.  Just as the Mormon settlers did, this tree e...

Lady in a Tub The last leg of our Escalante loop found us in the Valley of the Gods, just outside of Mexican Hat, Utah.  It's a great place to get the feel of Monument Valley, without the crowds.  It's a sixteen mile loop that winds through red sand stone monoliths.  You can take a self guided tour and drive the loop in about an hour, or stay in one of the few campsites overnight. Since we were coming from the Burr Trail up north we had to progress down the perilous switchbacks called the Moqui Dugway. Just at the bottom of the hill is the road to Valley of the Gods.  Of course the sign only faces the opposite direction so we soon discovered that we past the turn off.  We realized after consulting the GPS and map that we had to turn around. We were running out of time,  the sun was going down,  already making the most beautiful glow on the rocks. It wasn't long until we found a great campsite at the edge of a mesa.  I took the...

Sometimes a new feature comes along that really makes your work easier. This is the case with the latest update to Lightroom. Adobe just released a new version of Lightroom 6 or Lightroom CC 2015, depending on your subscription model. Along with adding the ability to access your graphics processor to speed the Develop module, the other features are what got me excited. They added a new HDR and Panoramic features, among others. I just had to try them out with images from my last trip to Escalante. The first image below was made by light painting the foreground rocks with a large Mag Lite. I like the incandescent warm color that this flashlight emits. I used my Nikon D800e on a high iso to capture the static stars at 20mm f2.8 iso1000 for 30 seconds. I also used a cooler colored headlamp behind the arch to illuminate the underside, to better accentuate the hole. Another image was made for the startrails. In this case my settings were 20mm f2.8 iso100 for 30 minute...

My first introduction to Alstrom Point was from a photograph I had seen at an art fair in Flagstaff. The artist had a gorgeous triptych of Gunsight Butte at dusk printed on large clear coated aluminum panels. It left such an impression on me that I decided I had to go there and create my own version. After doing some research I realized that the trip wasn't just a short hike from a parking lot off the road, like the infamous Horseshoe Bend. It was a full blown adventure, much like Toroweap or Point Sublime in the Grand Canyon. Such adventures require some research and careful planning for both weather and road conditions. Travel too early in the season and you run the risk of road closures due to mud & snow, too late in the season and it's well, hot. Hot and no access to the water. I decided to take the trip in mid-March during Spring Break, so it could coincide with my girlfriend Kristi's time off from teaching school. It was also the inaugural offici...