Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas around our house was a little different this year. The holidays are much more fun with a new grand baby in the family. This year we have been blessed with two.

Welcome Zoe and Jackson -- you light up our lives.

Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2008!

Arkansas Fall

After returning home to Arkansas following our trip west we have been too busy at work to take many pictures.

Here are a few photos taken at the Richland Creek Wilderness Area and Boxley Valley Elk Reserve.

Hoodoos

Bad Hair Day

Faith took this photo of Liz in Australia -- very creative!

Canyon Rainbow

In the low light setting of the slot canyons yellow light from the sun, blue light from the sky and every color in between is reflected on the red sandstone walls.

This image was taken in the Lower Antelope Slot Canyons and is large enough to use for wallpaper on very high resolution monitors.

A Day at the Lake

Mono Lake: no other place quite like it.

The Bristlecone Pines of White Mountain

With some of these trees more than 4000 years old; the bristlecone pines on the White Mountain range in Eastern California are the oldest living things on Earth.

Few More Zion Photographs

Here are a few more Zion photographs including the traditional shot of the Virgin River and Watchman mountain peak.

Zion National Park

Zion National Park is a deep valley of red Navaho sandstone which creates very warm lighting ideal for detail photographs.

Lundy Canyon

We had originally planned on visiting Yosemite NP for two days. The first day was a total bust due to the park rangers doing a managed burn in Yosemite Valley. Of course they didn't mention that at the gate before we drove the hour and a half across the park.

On the second day snow was forecast so we opted to stay on the east side of the Tioga Pass which crosses the mountains. We made the right decision because they closed the pass in the evening which would have forced us to drive and additional 8 to 10 hours to get back to our RV.

Lundy Canyon is one of many on the East side that contain a creek draining snow melt from the mountains. The whole area is a desert but along these creeks there is lush foliage which turns to bright colors in the fall creating a striking contrast to the desert brush.

Mono Lake

Mono Lake is a salt water lake called the 'Dead Sea of the West'. It lies at the bottom of the Mono County basin where water flows in from the Sierra Nevada mountain range but never flows out. The only thing that can live in its water is brine shrimp.

Fresh water springs below the lake cause eerie shaped mineral tufas to form which were exposed when Los Angeles started diverting the water source.

Bodie Ghost Town

Faith and I spent an afternoon at the Bodie Ghost Town where the town was simply abandoned after the gold mining operation dried up.

Eastern Sierra Photography Workshop

A few of the photographs from this weekends photography workshop.

Eastern Sierra Color Preview

Tomorrow evening I begin a workshop with John Shaw photographing fall colors in the Eastern Sierra Mountains.

I took these photographs just downstream from Lake Sabrina which is about 20 miles west of Bishop, CA at about 9000 feet high. A storm is entering the area tomorrow evening forecast wind gusts of 50-60 mph so this location will lose many of these leaves.