Arizona Treks

Arizona is a magical place.  In a few hours you can be somewhere that has a totally different climate.  We are having a series of storms this week.  I watch the weather closely when we get these just in case the snow decides to visit the desert.  At Arizona Snowbowl in the last 24 hours they have received up to 12" of snow.  Here in the desert it is rainy off and on but this morning, in the low 50's.  

I love shooting snow but find it to be difficult to do right in closeups.  Last Friday at Oak Creek I was using a warming filter (KR-6) and it seemed to cut through the UV pretty well.  Later I added a circular polarizer as well and found it to be a little better in most cases.  But preserving the wonderful crystalline nature of the snow is not an easy thing to do.

About a year ago, MAry and I went to Zion and Bryce after christmas.  They had record snowfall in the bottom of Zion that year and we had a really good time shooting the snow and ice.  There was one place where the light on the snow made intriguing patterns and I shot it with digital and film.

This is nice, a digital shot.  the film photos of this were not as nice.  Because the lens I uses on the 4X5 was a much shorter lens I was unable to get the same composition and didn't care for the film version.

But his film photo is one I am pleased with.  It was taken with the 250mm Imagon lens.  I have since learned the Imagon is great for portraits but not so much for nature.  I live the sharpness of a really good lens.

 I hope to make it back up to the snow country this week, even if for a short trip because.  The Wupatki ruins may finally have snow on them but it will melt quickly so no dawdling.

Finally, one more snow scene, Silent City at Bryce Canyon.

This was taken on New Years morning 2009 at sunrise.