Category Archives: Outdoors

Adventure, Family, Places to Shoot, pop-up camping, Travel

Coyote Hawk’s Big Adventure

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April 2nd is one week away. That’s when Coyote Hawk takes us on our epic journey South to Portal, AZ to visit good friends then East on Interstate 10 all the way to New Orleans, visiting friends and family along the way. From there we’ll head North to Cincinnati before jumping on Interstate 80 and heading back home, again, visiting friends and family along the way. Keep on the lookout as I will post on this blog our adventures and discoveries along the way.

Let’s begin with a camper tour:

In the above image, you see the driver’s side of the camper. The bench my feet are on as well as the one I’m sitting on provides us with a lot of storage. This is good as we’ll need to bring clothing for 85 degrees and humidity in south texas as well as potential late spring blizzards along I-80.

The counter has a two-burner stove, a sink, and a small counter space. The drawer on the left holds our utensils and the cabinet below that is for our pots, pans, and dishes. Below that are the batteries and the other cabinet doors are the water pump and fuses.

On this side is the refrigerator with stickers on it. Above that is a shallow space for personal items. To the right of that is our pantry. Below that is a double-door cabinet for ellen’s clothes and below that is a similar cabinet for our shoes. The bed pulls out over the table to make it King-Size. We have to push it back each morning to access the table.

We’ve now spent 12 nights in her. Ellen has been it her 16 nights as she took her camping while I was in Florida on a photo workshop.

We’ve had her off-grid at White Tank Mountain Park, Lake Pleasant Regional Park, and McDowell Mountain Regional Park, all in the Maricopa county park system in the Phoenix area. We fill up the 20-gallon fresh water tank, run the hot water heater that holds six gallons and get our electricity from our solar panels.

We hooked her up to shore power once, at Patagonia Lake State Park in Southern Arizona, over Christmas last year. We also experimented with city water, bypassing the 20-gallon tank. Both systems worked great. Sadly, though, we did not blow out the outdoor shower well enough and ended up with a leak in the brass faucet system. Four-Wheel Camper sent us a replacement and it was just installed.

The other item we recently fixed, with the help of our brilliant friend Rod Horn, was the after-market backup camera. Ours disappeared when we took off the tailgate. Rod machined a bracket that goes over the license plate and he was able to attach the backup camera to it.  Works like a charm.

Coyote Hawk will get her first oil change on March 30th. Other than that, we should be ready to roll on April 2nd. For this trip, we decided to leave behind bikes and paddleboards as we will be spending a lot of time with friends, family and in cities,  visiting museums. We have menus ready to go and will spend the day or two before we leave grocery shopping and packing any last-minute items. We have lists and lists of lists.

Our mail is taken care of, our neighbors are watching the place and watering our plants. We don’t have any pets. I think we’re set!

I’m not sure what this Epic Adventure Blog is going to look like exactly so be patient and let’s see how it turns out together, shall we?

Thanks for reading!

 

AHPS, Animals, Animals, Arizona Highways PhotoScapes, Nature, Outdoors, Photo Workshops, Photography, Places to Shoot, Travel, Water

Birds of South Florida with Arizona Highways PhotoScapes

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The workshop, Birds of South Florida with photographer Beth Ruggiero-York and Arizona Highways PhotoScapes, was nothing short of amazing. It ran from February 6-12, 2022, and began in Fort Meyers, Florida on the Gulf Coast. We made our way south, through Everglades National Park,  ending on the Atlantic Coast at Boynton Beach. Here are the images from that epic journey.

This is a rough itinerary of our photographic locations should you ever find yourself in South  Florida with a camera. Speaking of cameras, all images were shot with a Lumix DX-8 and most with my 100-400 mm lens.

My adventure began with trying to GET to Florida. I was supposed to leave Flagstaff on Friday, February 4th, and arrive in Florida that evening. However, recent winter storms provided me with an alternate plan. Between cancelations, delays, hotel stays, and changing airlines  I eventually left Flagstaff Friday evening and arrived in Fort Meyers Sunday around 10:00. The workshop was scheduled to begin at 3:00 that day so I had time to Uber it to the hotel, grab a quick nap, and meet our participants right on time!

The adventure continued when we left the hotel lobby on Sunday afternoon for our first shoot at Naples Pier. We were scheduled for a 30-seat minibus to take us around for the week but walked out to a full-size motor coach that was FAR too large to access some of the parking lots on the schedule. We took it to the pier for lack of a better option. However, following that first shoot we dropped our people off, had the bus driver take us back to the airport where Ron York, Beth’s husband, the other photo guide, had secured us three premium SUVs. Beth, Ron, and I became the bus drivers for the week. Whew! Crisis averted.

Naples pier was a nice way to begin the workshop and just get out and warm up the old camera. On Sundays, however, the powers that be do not allow fishing, Wait, WHAT?!? No fishing means way fewer birds. Hmmm. We wandered around the end of the pier when someone spotted a few egrets on the roof of the building. YAY! Birds! Again, crisis averted. I only took my 100-400 mm lens out on the pier. We all lined up, aimed our canons, and photographed these characters.

This Ruddy Turnstone was wandering the pier. I hadn’t noticed he had lost a foot until I downloaded the image.

More Ruddy Turnstones squawking out below the railings along the pier.

The first official day Beth had us up early and driving out to Cape Coral to photograph the neighborhood Burrowing Owls. They had set up shop between the fences to a set of baseball fields and a street. The houses on that street face the owls. So there we were, lined up and waiting for the little guys to wake up and come out and say hi. 

They blend in remarkably well. The owls throw themselves a festival every year. Apparently, they have been living here for quite a few years.

I found this Loggerhead Shrike hanging out on a post.

After leaving the Burrowing Owl neighborhood we headed to Sanibel island stopping at Pond Apple Park, a set of ponds that attract birds, on the way to Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge. We parked in the Matzaluna Italian Restaurant parking lot. The trail entrance is out by the road. The park is about 40 acres and is a place to definitely spend some time.

This Wood Stork was showing off her new pedicure.

If you can look past the birds there are some pretty cool plants in Florida as well.

The White Ibis. As common in Florida as pigeons.

Next, we went to the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge which is part of the largest undeveloped mangrove ecosystem in the United States.  It is world-famous for spectacular migratory bird populations.

The refuge was created to safeguard and enhance the pristine wildlife habitat of Sanibel Island, protect endangered and threatened species, and provide feeding, nesting, and roosting areas for migratory birds. Today, the refuge provides important habitat to over 245 species of birds.

We took the four-mile Wildlife Drive, stopping along the way to photograph birds. These were all shot with my long lens.

Florida Pigeion (White Ibis)

Roseate Spoonbill, a crowd favorite.

A fishing Tri-Colored Heron.

Monday was one of our longes days because next, we head south to Everglades City for lunch at a food truck and a photography boat tour out among the mangroves.

Everglades City is at the mouth of the Barron River, on Chokoloskee Bay. The Bay is approximately ten miles long and 2 miles wide. It is separated from the Gulf of Mexico by the northern end of the Ten Thousand Islands.

This was our lunch spot. See the green umbrellas behind the building? We ate at those tables. At this point, I believe we were either in or at least at the edge of Everglades National Park.

We then divided into three groups, loaded three different boats, and headed out in three different directions so as to not be in each other’s way for pictures.

A couple of baby mangroves taking root.

Our captain showed us an Osprey nest, a Bald Eagle nest, a shell island built by Native People over hundreds of years, and a spit of land that housed these White Pelicans. They were chillin’ on the beach until we floated a little too close. They then got into formation, except for the one guy, and tried to march but had nowhere to go. We motored back away from them and everyone mellowed out.

We toured an area full of islands like this. We had a regular prop boat, not an airboat like they use in the thick of the Everglades. All three boats met up at sundown at one particular island where many birds go to roost for the evening. It was quite a sight.

Tuesday morning we started off at Big Cypress Boardwalk. This was in Everglades National Park. Boardwalks are a common way to have trails in the park due to the massive amounts of water. I was also glad to be above any potential reptile run-ins. This was a short walk through a very dense, watery jungle that ended at a more open pond.

The pond had a few smaller birds (as seen above) as well as several Heron and a Wood Stork.

AND! An alligator.

Woody Woodpecker made an appearance on our way back to the vehicles. We heard him for most of the trek in so when he finally made himself seen everyone was quite excited.

Our final stop of the day before heading to our new hotel in Homestead, FL was an area of the park called Shark Valley.

Shark Valley is a geological depression at the head of the Shark River Slough located along the Tamiami Trail (US 41).  Shark Valley empties into Shark River in the Ten Thousand Islands of Monroe County. The Valley characteristically includes sawgrass prairie that floods during the rainy season, hence the name “river of grass”—Pa-Hay-Okee, from the Mikasuki language—for such marshes in the Everglades. We will walk the Pa-Hay-Okee trail tomorrow .

Wildlife seen in Shark Valley includes alligators, ibis, wood storks, roseate spoonbills, raccoons, white-tailed deer, and various amphibians. Here’s some of what I saw:

This guy landed on the railing right near us. He looked like he was on a serious mission. The trail we were on was paved and followed a ten-foot-wide “canal” on one side that continued into a deep jungle on the other side of the canal. The opposite side of the path was dense jungle. The sun was out and this was by far the warmest and most humid day we would encounter. coming from the cold winter at 7,000 feet in Flagstaff? I loved it.

These little guys attracted a crowd. They were literally at our feet in the weeds. Just across the way was mama. She never seemed too concerned, luckily.

 

A goofy-looking Anhinga.

Two different types of turtles, one on the stick and one just below it in the water.

This Anhinga was swimming underwater like a snake. He’d come up for air and usually had a little fish in its bill. It was such a great place to shoot because you could follow his path on the footpath. The canal was narrow enough that the animals were never too far away.

I walked with just a sling and my 100-400 mm lens which made it easy and maneuverable.

What a difference 24 hours makes. We went from the sunniest day to the rainiest day in that amount of time. Wednesday morning found us at Pa-Hay-Okee Trail. A boardwalk through the everglades. Though it was beautiful, this was not my favorite place to shoot but only because I really don’t consider myself to be a landscape photographer. So I focussed on other things.

Sunrise was beautiful.

The most difficult thing to get used to in Florida is the flatness. There are no landmarks to help keep your sense of direction intact and on really cloudy days you don’t even know where the sun is.

The boardwalks were super cool. Even if I wasn’t super inspired to shoot I was really glad just to be there and enjoy the magic that is the Everglades.

Following this trail, we headed back to town for breakfast. It was really wet so as a way to see something cool but not necessarily stand in the rain with our camera gear we went to the Robert is Here Fruit Stand and Farm.

Robert Is Here is a family-owned and operated fruit stand in Homestead, Florida. They specialize in rare & exotic fruits and vegetables, mostly grown right there on the farm.  The location started off as a literal side of the road Fruit Stand and has grown into a complete tourist destination equipped with an animal farm, play area, and picnic tables. It was a pretty cool way to spend an hour and let the rain dry up if only a little.

You could also purchase chocolate or gummy alligators.

Read the sign to the left of the coconut carvings to see what they actually are.

They also had quite the collection of old tractors.

From there we were off to  Anhinga Trail

There weren’t as many birds here as in other locations. We chalked that up to the rain.

This Purple Gallinule has some BIG feet! He uses them to run across the tops of the lilypads. In sunlight, he is VERY iridescent. But seriously, those FEET!

Hanging out in the rain.

From here we headed to Flamingo, FL. This was one of my favorite places to shoot. There was so much going on here. Between the raindrops, we saw a crocodile (not an alligator ), a nesting osprey, and manatees. We also grabbed lunch here at another food truck. Restaurants in the Everglades are hard to come by.

There was a marina here in Flamingo. Also, an old pier.

The manatees were drinking drips coming off the floating dock.

Our final stop of the day was Mahogany Hammock Trail, another boardwalk. A Hammock is hard to explain but I’ll try.

A hardwood hammock is a dense stand of broad-leafed trees that grow on a natural rise of only a few inches in elevation. Hammocks can be found nestled in most all other Everglades ecosystems. In the deeper sloughs and marshes, the seasonal flow of water helps give these hammocks a distinct aerial teardrop shape. 

On Thursday morning we drove from Homestead to Boynton Beach, FL. Our afternoon shoot was at the  Wakodahatchee Wetlands. The Wetlands are constructed on 50 acres of wastewater utility property.  Wakodahatchee features a three-quarter mile boardwalk that crosses between open water pond areas and islands with shrubs and snags to foster nesting and roosting. This site is part of the South section of the Great Florida Birding Trail. Over 178 bird species have been identified there, along with turtles, alligators, rabbits, fish, frogs, and raccoons.
Each day, the Southern Region Water Reclamation Facility pumps approximately two million gallons of highly treated wastewater into the Wakodahatchee Wetlands, which in turn acts as a percolation pond, returning billions of gallons of freshwater back into the water table.

We photographed this area for about three hours each Thursday evening and Friday morning. It was so great to experience the difference between evening bird activity and morning bird activity. Watching

Apparently the week before, these guys were falling out of trees it was so cold.

There was a LOT of nesting and courtship activity.

Baby Great Blue Herons!! They are definitely ugly cute. They were the only babies I saw. The rest were in preparation.

We ended the workshop at Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. What a beautiful place. I can’t wait to go back with my bike and bike some of the trails. They also have a canoe trail I’d love to explore.

There is a trail behind the visitor center, a boardwalk trail, that goes through a deep, dark cypress grove.

Once we left there we headed out to the end of the road and found this:

This dock saw plenty of action. Just to the left of it is the Great Blue Heron. Somewhere below is the alligator waiting for the fisherman to catch something he can steal. And in the distance flew flocks of birds heading across the setting sun to their roosting place.

I chatted with a lady who had been out kayaking. She and her friend took the wrong channel and ended up out where they should not have been. The channel closed up and when she got out to move her boat along she realized she was a foot or two from an alligator. Yikes! Glad they made it back safely!

Wow, that was a long post. It was a spectacular trip. Keep p in mind that these pictures are only the tip of the iceberg. I came home with over 4,000 images. I have since edited them down to just over 1,000 but still, these only tell part of the story.

I highly recommend this workshop and I think it will be offered again in 2023 so look for it on the Arizona Highways PhotoScapes website.

I hope you enjoyed my trip to Florida, thanks for looking.

Happy Shooting!

 

 

 

AHPS, Animals, Animals, Arizona Highways PhotoScapes, Nature, Photo Workshops, Places to Shoot, Shooting Close to Home

Shoot at the Zoo with AZ Highways PhotoScapes

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On March 5th this year I joined photographer Amy Horn and Arizona Highways PhotoScapes for a day of shooting at the Wildlife World Zoo in Litchfield, a town just west of Phoenix. It’s a spectacular way to wander around a relatively small zoo and practice your photographic skills. I brought with me only one camera body and lens. I shot with my Lumix DX-8 and Olympus 100-400 mm zoom lens, which equates to a 200-800. At times this was a little too much lens but 98% of the time it was perfect.

One of the skills we learned was how to shoot through a fence and make that fencing disappear. If not entirely, then at least mostly. The following images are my attempts to create such magic.

The fence in this image is so blurred it almost appears as part of the background.

This lioness was watching the day go by behind a chainlink fence.

All the animals were quite active on that day. We’re assuming due to a cool front moving through the state.

“Pumba, you ARE a pig”. The warthogs were also behind a fence. Again, the fence is so blurred it’s barely noticeable.

The following set of pictures, by contrast, were of animals NOT behind any sort of fence. Wait, let me clarify, they were behind enclosures, but I could photograph them without shooting through a fence of any kind.

This crane image was captured on the safari tram through Africa. I was able to use Lightroom to grab the background, take down the exposure to make it appear as shade, and highlight her (his?) beauty.

This little guy was on a monkey island across some water. He was going to town on a piece of tree. His little old man expressions were super cute.

Again from the Safari Tram ride, we saw this gazelle.

Zombie Flamingo Appocolypse?

Heading into Dragon World we passed the slow-moving tortoises to see some, well, dragons.

You can see the fence that this ostrich was behind. He (she?) was pretty close. Apparently, the ostrich is not the sharpest tool in the shed. They do, however, provide for some great facial expressions.

Moving on to the duck pond where there was a LOT of activity.

Egyptian Geese.

A pair of wood ducks with her in full mating regalia. I caught them just before they, well, YOU know, they tried making baby ducks. I hope they were successful.

A beautiful  Red-Crested Pochard looking for a mate.

A very colorful Mandarin Duck strutting his stuff.

There were even a couple of majestic black swans.

…and a turtle.

We were treated to a private animal showing where we could shoot first and ask questions later.

This character, a red-legged seriema, took this fake snake in its mouth, stood up as tall as he could go, and slammed the snake to the ground. So there.

We were presented with a Kookaburra bird and were able to practice the camera settings for flight.

Macaws close up are always nifty.

We then moved on to other animals. Turns out we were helping the next couple of mammals out with their “sessions”. Which apparently, means getting them ready to come out in public and not be terrified.

This little guy was a character. He’d come out, then run back. He did this quite a bit. Then one of the handlers figured out how to bring him out farther. He’s trained to do circles around their feet for a treat. So, she’d take a step as the little guy was rounding the back of her foot, and slowly, he made it out beyond the stage.

This one always makes me nervous. But he (she?) performed wonderfully. He came out in front of the stage and was quite well behaved, keeping all parts of himself…TO himself.

Following the show, we wandered off to Australia for a walk-about. We encountered a mama kangaroo whose little one had just crawled back inside the pouch. A couple of the participants had more patience than I did and waited for the baby to come back out. I can’t wait to see THOSE images!

It was cool watching them jump and use their tales for balance. They are VERY strong animals.

All-in-all it was a great day of photography and instruction. The temperatures were perfect if not a little cool at times but that meant the animals were active, which makes it more fun when you have a camera. I encourage you to join PhotoScapes next year for this workshop or if you need inspiration just get out to your local zoo and see what you can find.

Happy Shooting!

Adventure, pop-up camping, Travel

Introducing…Coyote Hawk

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We finally did it! My wife, Ellen, and I took the plunge back in March and ordered a truck and camper. We ordered a Ford F150, 5L Coyote engine, 4×4, extended cab on the same day we ordered a Four Wheel Camper Hawk front dinette model. The new rig has hot water, a furnace, a king-size bed, solar, a fridge, and what seems to be plenty of room for our kitchen and clothing needs. In the cab, we store items not necessarily needed in the camper like binoculars, bike bags, a tire pump, paddleboards, a slackline, guitar, etc. We’ll have a swing-away bike rack on the back.  The truck can hold 2,300 pounds in the bed and the Hawk only weighs 1,300 pounds coming out of the dealer with our add-ons.

We drove to Rancho Cucamonga in southern California on November 29th, spent the night, and got her installed the next day. We drove home immediately afterward and went to sleep. All of this, coming off the heels of a six-day round trip drive to Cinncinati, then thanksgiving with family, then a day of rest before hauling off to California…we were exhausted.

We both had Wednesday off and spent the day getting her ready for our first overnight. In the driveway. With heat. Did I mention it has a furnace? Seriously, a game-changer. As is the ability to get out of the elements and stand up! Or sit at the little table.

Driving with the ability to reduce our profile was important to us. As well as having a small, compact rig that is relatively easy to maneuver in parking lots, gas stations and on forest service roads. Here she is, basking in the palms of Barstow on the way home,  in travel mode.

Our only goal on Wednesday was to get her ready to sleep, then wake up in the morning and be able to have tea and coffee. Ellen filled the two ten-gallon propane tanks, we made the bed and made sure the heat and stove worked, and slept in the driveway. Here’s an interior image of me sitting with the dinette area turned into a couch. The bed slides out over the table to become a king. We plugged into shore power, turned on the heat, went to sleep, and woke up in the morning after a night of neighborhood catfights. Not quite as soothing as coyotes howling in the distance.

We then turned on our hotpot that was plugged into the outlet (only on shore power) and heated our water.

The interior, popped up, has plenty of headroom. So far our tallest friends fit!

So there, you’ve now been introduced to Coyote Hawk. We hope to see you on the road and if not, at least you can follow her adventures, and OURS, in this blog.

Cheers! Happy Trails! and Happy Shooting! No, not guns…cameras!! Lol.

Animals, Animals, Collections, Gear, Nature, Outdoors, Shooting at Home, Spring

New Birding Lens

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I recently purchased a new lens for my Lumix GX-8 micro 4/3 camera body. It’s an Olympus 100-400 mm zoom which translates to a 200-800 mm given the crop sensor on my camera. It. Is. Amazing.

The images are sharp, it’s not too heavy to lug around for 2-3 hours and it hangs nicely on my sling so my hands don’t cramp holding it while not in use.

Here are some recent images from my first outing with it. These were all shot at a local wetland near where I live south of Flagstaff, AZ.

I can now officially consider myself a Bird Nerd! It is SO MUCH FUN collecting images then going home and identifying them with the app Seek. I pull up the app and point my phone camera at the image on my computer and it does a great job of identifying the birds. It works with animals, plants, and insects as well.

I wasn’t sure what this little guy was so I posted it on FaceBook and asked the birding community to identify. They were quick! It’s a vesper sparrow.

Catching them in flight is challenging. I set the camera at 400-800 ISO, in full sunlight which gives me a shutter speed between 2,000 and 6,000.

Perched birds are easier but you still have to be quick. They don’t always hang out for a photo! This is a red-winged blackbird.

Coming in for a landing!!

I’ve seen as many as four ospreys hunting the ponds of these wetlands.

This looks like a shorebird to me. It’s a killdeer. On another day I caught one with a worm in its mouth!

They are so dramatic when they sing!

The first goslings of the season!

This one was tough to capture. It didn’t hang out for long so I had to be quick. Luckily, with the length of the lens, I don’t have to get too close and the birds tend to not skitter away quite as quickly as when I tried to capture images of them with my 28-300 mm lens.

Turns out it’s also a reptile lens!

Set your camera to burst mode, hold down the shutter, and expect to trash a LOT of images. In my first two-hour outing I think I took over 800 images. I tossed probably 700 of them.

Every time I’ve been to the wetlands I see a new bird or capture a bird in a different way. Also, as I get better, I find myself giving permission to toss previous images of the same bird. Don’t forget, pixels are free. Load up those memory cards and only keep the exceptional ones. The first ones may not be exceptional but with practice, they will come!

Happy Shooting!

Adventure, AHPS, Arizona Highways PhotoScapes, Outdoors, People, Photo Workshops, Photography, Places to Shoot, Travel, Water

Surfing, Central Coast, California

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I was on an Arizona Highways PhotoScapes Women’s Retreat in mid-April and had an amazing time shooting along the Central Coast of California. We were based out of Morro Bay.

There were so many great photo opportunities that I decided to break down the trip into sections. The first one is one of my favorite things to photograph…surfing. What a difficult sport. Like anything, it takes such dedication to be any good at it.

Let’s begin with something I’ve never seen before…remote control SURFING!!

His board was probably a foot long and the controller was standing in the surf, just off the pier, having him surf the smaller waves. I must say, he was pretty good!

Now, on to the dedication part. The temps were in the high 40’s each morning. These guys were decked in full, hooded wetsuits WITH booties. No thank you. Too cold for this lover of oceans.

Even in Cayucos, near the pier, in the afternoon temps of mid-60’s, full wetsuits, booties and hoods were the norm.

We ended up in Cayucos, north of Morro Bay, for our afternoon/sunset shooting location. Photographing surfers from the pier was great fun. I shot all of these images with my Lumix GX-8 and 14-150 mm (28-300 mm with a crop sensor) setu-up.

High shutter speed is a must. Photographing the wipe-outs was just as fun as a good run!

There was a lone stand up paddle board surfer.

It seemed to me that catching waves was easier for him as he was already up on the board and used his paddle to drop in.

Once there he just had to balance and not let go of his paddle.

Paddleing out seemed to have its challenges though. He had the paddle to occupy one hand and a board to occupy the other as he crashed through the waves to get out for another set. It all looked very exhausting.

Most of the surfers were on longboards and these two guys were all about walking out to the end of their boards and “Hanging Ten”.

There were a couple of young guys out on their short boards working the waves.

These two joined the mix late in the afternoon. They seriously looked like synchronized swimmers heading out on their boards with pointed toes at the ends of legs that were moving up and down in a rhythmic kicking motion timed to their arm strokes. The boys became less focussed once these two showed up. 😉

At the end of a session, walking out of the surf on a lonely beach shows the potential solitude of surfing.

This was new to me. Covering a board before loading it up after a morning in the water.

Back in Cayucos, the sun setting and a lone surfer calling it a day.

I decided to put these end of the day, sunset images into black and white. I really like how they turned out.

Check out the Arizona Highways PhotoScapes site for information on our upcoming Women’s Retreats and co-ed workshops. It’s shaping up to be a busy workshop year! AHPS.org 

Happy Shooting!

Adventure, Animals, Animals, Nature, Outdoors, Photography, Places to Shoot, Seasons, Travel, Water, Winter

Patagonia Lake State Park, a discovery

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We decided to spend New Year’s Eve camping. We thought we’d usher out the crazy year of 2020 and welcome 2021 in the great outdoors. It was cold where we live and we figured anything south of Flagstaff, Arizona would be warm. Think again.

You are about to join me on a classic scouting trip to Patagonia Lake State Park in southern Arizona. It was an amazing trip and we learned a LOT. We also learned to check the elevation of locations, especially for winter temperatures.

The park is a five-hour drive from our home in Flagstaff, Arizona. We made it even longer by “swinging by” Fountain Hills to visit a dear friend on the way down. When we finally arrived about an hour before sunset, here, to our horror,  is what we found.

This is the sign that greeted us as we entered the park. We missed the rangers so we figured we’d locate our camp site and get our tags the next morning.

We sleep in a rooftop tent. Our bikes hang off the back and still provide us with plenty of room to access our kitchen when the hatch-back is open. We were in spot #104, LITERALLY the worst spot in the whole park. We learned that there is a reason it was the last one available. As we backed in we thought for sure we were doing something wrong as there were tents for site 105 directly behind us. OUR ramada is actually in front of spot #103! WHAT!?!

Luckily we had two parking spots so we could drop the ladder that gets us into our home. The ramada you see with the tall tent? That’s us. The tall tent was our Christmas present to ourselves. We use it as a changing room. It couldn’t have been purchased at a more perfect time.

Another view of our camp.

This is our fire pit, RIGHT next to #103 (who was a very nice family by the way). #103 had a little more space as their fire pit was just outside their tent which gave them some room. On the upside? We had a spectacular sunset and the “tent only” camps were right on the lake.

This body of water is only two and a half miles long and 250 surface acres. A bit of a pond compared to what we’re used to at Lake Powell where we spend our summers canoe camping and paddleboarding.

The next morning was cold, like 24 degrees farenheight cold.  Since we don’t have a heater in the tent, we got up, made coffee and tea, and went exploring.

The large arch of a bridge is the most prominent man-made feature of this park (outside of the lake itself). It spans the inlet to the little marina that has a store, boat launch, and dock full of boats to rent from a canoe to a powerboat.

The arch is as dramatic as it seems. Both ends are quite steep and at the top, you get a pretty nice view of the lake.

Following the bridge adventure, we began to take back our comments of “We’re NEVER coming here again!” of last night and began to see the beauty of the surrounding area. We headed back to the parking lot, reloaded our tea and coffee mugs, and headed off in another direction.

We found the other boat ramp (again, quite small compared to Lake Powell).

We found camp #38, accessible by water and by car. On the downside you would have to lug all your gear down these steps. On the upside, when you get to the bottom, you have the site to yourself. The sign faces the water to alert incoming boats that it is in fact a campground and not a day-use site.

Here’s a funny story. We were in the RoofNest last night and Ellen realized she hadn’t taken out her disposable contacts. She decided to just drop them out of the tent and she’d pick them up off the pavement in the morning. Having forgotten all about them we returned after our morning coffee/tea exploration to change out of our winter layers and low and behold! What’s this on the side of the car?? CONTACTS!!

Our next order of business was to get on our bikes and explore the park. Turns out it’s really not a mountain biking park. Lots of trails but not for bikes. Our goal was to ride up to the ranger station to get our tag and explore the RV section for possible future sites. As we left the ranger station I turned to look at the skulls and jumped as the snake caught my attention. I didn’t have time to reason that snakes aren’t out in these cold temperatures.

The other thing we did was ask about moving sites. One of the ones we liked and had passed on the way would be available the next day. One more day in the ghetto! Then…MOVING DAY!!

After dropping off our tag we were off to explore. We encountered some folks that looked like they were heading off for a lengthy hike so we inquired where they might be going. “Oh, there’s a lovely birding trail at the end of the RV section, you should check it out!” they said. And check it out we did!

On our way to the trailhead we happened across this roadrunner lurking about the RV’s. We stopped to watch him (or her) and apparently we ruffled its feathers! I’d never seen such a thing in a roadrunner. Fellow birders said it’s common and that roadrunners like to hang out with people and demand food. Who knew?

The entrance to the birding trail has a lovely spot with bird feeders that attract all kinds of feathered friends. It was nice to just sit and watch through binoculars and a longish lens (28-300) and try to capture their antics.

In the winter Patagonia Lake State Park is mainly a birding and fishing destination. The ranger said the campground is full year-round but with very different guests. In the summer you get the “escape the heat” crowd with motorboats and lots of swimming at the designated beach. Winter is full but much quieter with folks and their binoculars and fishing rods.

After a brief stop at the bird feeders, we headed off for our “hike”. Turned out to be more of a walk and much shorter than was indicated by some of our new friends.

The trail descended to a gate that led us directly to the edge of the lake. It was very mucky and full of reeds, cattails, and a few ducks.

Our trail was blocked by these two calves. Mama was close by so we gently approached the siblings and continued on our way.

We heard running water and discovered Sonoita Creek which is the drainage that is dammed up to create Patagonia Lake.

In this image, you can see flood debris probably deposited during the monsoon season.

There were random benches along the trail.

The pathway cut through forests of cottonwood and mesquite. However, in one section was a stand of these trees.

Here’s the funny thing about these signs. There is a Lower Loop and an Upper Loop. They are the same loop. One goes to the right, the other to the left. And there is no elevation change to delineate it as upper or lower. Weird.

Cockleburs. These were found on the local cows. Poor things. These guys are no fun for dogs to pick up either.

On our way back we ran into this guy. Holy COW!! or STEER!! or BULL!! He was so big I had to photograph him straight on to show his girth! I thought she was pregnant then realized she was a he.

What would a Vicki Shoot be without some patterns?

It was on this trip that we decided to become birders. We downloaded the Audubon App and began attempting to identify birds. We started with the easy ones.

In some areas the foliage was close to the path and in othere it openedd up. We saw several photographers with 600 mm + lenses and many birders with binoculars at the ready.

The Mesquite tunnel.

Some of the mucky water early in the trail.

We made it back to the bird feeders and sat for a while to see who showed up. I did my best with my 28-300 mm lens but vowed to look into a good birding lens.

Random bow hunters passing us and heading out onto the trail. They said they were hunting deer and javelina.

We also vowed to bring our inflatable paddleboards with us next time.

Party at the table top feeder!!

Given how busy our camp was we didn’t spend much time there. Following our bird walk we stopped by the car, grabbed a quick lunch and headed off again to explore the marina.

As I stated earlier the marina is small.

This sign is at the boat ramp.

More views of the lovely bridge.

This is the path running alongside the marina.

We followed this little ramp only to come upon an area the racoons have deemed their toilet.

The reeds are pretty.

We ran into our #103 neighbor in his rigged out fishing kayak. It seems he grew up coming here from Tucson and is now bringing his wife and own children to his beloved park.

Boat tours? Cool.

There are a LOT of day-use areas. I’m sure in the summer they are used more. Unfortunately, with Covid, day-use is being heavily restricted.

Such a pretty lake. I’m trying to imagine it in the spring or summer when the trees and grasses are green.

MOVING DAY!! This is the site we ended up with. We loved it. However, at 4,000 ft in elevation, the nights and mornings were REALLY cold so, even though the site was spectacualr, we called it a day early, packed up on Sunday instead of Monday and headed home.

But before we did that we went for another walk.

 Same picture, color vs black and white. Do you have a preference?

This is why I need a longer lens! Great bird, blurry shot!!

This fellow greeted us down at teh swimming beach. They seemed pretty tame and especting food.

               

On our way home we went back a different way. The new route took us through the town of Patagonia and on through Sonoita. This building reminded me of the old train station in San Geronimo, Californina located at the Presbytarian church on Sir Francis Drake Blvd.

We grabbed lunch at a local eatery, ate outside on a picnic table and headed back to Flagstaff.

It was a great trip that taught us a lot about the area. We fully intend to return. Next time I hope to have a longer lens to capture the bird life.

Happy shooting!

AHPS, Arizona Highways PhotoScapes, Outdoors, Photo Workshops, Places to Shoot, Travel, Urban Art, Urbanscape, Water

San Diego Women’s Retreat

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San Diego Women’s Retreat, September 2019…THIS was my jam. Workshops don’t get much better than this. One of my favorite photographers (and friends) Amy Horn led a group of 12 women around San Diego for four days. Our hotel was within walking distance to Seaport Village. It was a splendid mixture of the ocean, people, and urban life. I. Loved. It.

Our first destination Thursday morning was Cabrillo National Park. I had never even heard of this national park. It was beautiful. We spent the morning photographing the lighthouse grounds, the national cemetery, and the tidepools.

That afternoon we headed over to Ocean Beach to shoot around the pier. What a lively, quirky little beach town this was. It provided us with endless subjects. Half the time we put our camera’s down and just watched the characters all around us.

Some of our participants went way out on the pier to photograph surfers for the first time. They LOVED it!

A short walk inland met with quirky beach art.

Friday morning found us out at Shelter Island, a short drive from our hotel.

We began at Spanish Landing photographing the early morning skyline and dingys.

From there we headed off to Old Town which had a very fake, Disneyland kind of feel to it.

I got some images I liked from it anyway.

It was very touristy and busy.

From there we headed over to Balboa Park.

We decided that next time we need to spend more time at Balboa Park and not Old Town.

What a great combination of buildings and plants.

Photographing the California sea lions and this guy fishing without getting swept out to sea was one of the highlights of the trip for me.

Walking by the Navy vessels on our way to dinner one night I captured this guy fishing at the base of an aircraft carrier.

Patterns in nature…

A more than life-sized statue kissing his girl after returning home from WWII.

On Sunday, after photographing the sea lions at Spanish Landing, we headed over to Chicano Park. Chicano Park is the geographic and emotional heart of Barrio Logan, located in Logan Heights, San Diego’s oldest Mexican-American neighborhood. The park is home to the largest concentration of Chicano murals in the world with more than 80 paintings on seven acres dotted with sculpture, gardens, picnic tables, and playgrounds. We had limited time to photograph the area due to needing to end the workshop and get to the airport. I could have spent the DAY here…

Finding a random California Poppy among all of this cement was pretty cool

The San Diego Women’s Retreat ranks as one of my all-time favorite workshops. The locations were great and the participants were amazing. Let’s do it again Ladies!!

Thanks for the memories…Happy Shooting!

Arizona Highways PhotoScapes, Flowers, Historic Buildings, Nature, Outdoors, Photo Workshops, Photography, Places to Shoot, Summer, Travel, Uncategorized

Black and White Photography, Flagstaff

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Black and White imagery can be stunning and powerful. In August of 2019 Joel Wolfson, a local Flagstaff photographer, was the instructor on an Arizona Highways PhotoScapes workshop on black and white photography held in Flagstaff. Flagstaff is one of the greatest places to be in the state of Arizona in August. I live here and I love working with Joel so I agreed to volunteer for the workshop. Like night photography, shooting in black and white is not my jam. I tend to turn color photos into black and white as an afterthought.

It was a three-day weekend workshop that began on a Friday with a long classroom session before shooting in the afternoon. It ended on Sunday by 3:30. It included two morning shoots, three afternoon shoots and lots of time in the classroom for critiques and lessons. There is a LOT to learn about black and white photography.

We learned about the zone system created by Ansel Adams and Fred Archer around 1940. The technique is based on late 19th century sensitometry studies. The Zone System provides photographers with a systematic method of precisely defining the relationship between the way they visualize the photographic subject and the final results. Although it originated with black-and-white sheet film, the Zone System is also applicable to roll film, both black-and-white and color, negative and reversal, and to digital photography. Joel taught the process of making this work. It’s going to take some practice.

We photographed in the mountains around Flagstaff…

as well as in town at the Pioneer Musium on Highway 180 and a little downtown.

If you are looking to up your game in the black and white genre this is the workshop for you. I had fun meeting some great participants and photographing in my hometown. It’s funny how little we do that.

Happy Shooting!

AHPS, Arizona Highways PhotoScapes, Cultural, Historic Buildings, Nature, Outdoors, Photo Workshops, Places to Shoot, Summer, Travel, Weather

Chasing Monsoons with Arizona Highways PhotoScapes

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It was a good idea. As long as I can remember, and I’ve lived in Arizona since 1971, the monsoon season has arrived right on schedule. It generally begins when we get a consistent dew point in the 50’s and runs from about mid-July through August, give or take a couple of weeks. As the afternoons heat up the thunderheads begin to build and they can pop up anywhere. It’s not like a storm you can track from California. When I first attended Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff I could set my watch to the daily afternoon showers and thunderstorms. But with climate change, last year’s monsoon season was dubbed a non-soon. Much like 2020.

It was scheduled as a four-day workshop. The idea was that we’d convene at 9:00 in the classroom, learn about weather patterns, how to read weather apps and radar, learn where to go for the storms that just pop up in the hot Arizona afternoons, and be ready to load the vans and head in any direction from Phoenix, located in the center of the state. Thursday wound up being a tough day with a classroom full of excited photographers and nowhere to go.

It was decided that the next day we’d head in the direction of a historically rich corridor of monsoon activity, interstate 10 between Phoenix and Tucson.

We had class from 9-12, lunch from 12-1, then we headed to Tucson. With no storms forming, we photographed the Mission San Xavier del Bac. It’s always a good choice for people with cameras.

It’s crazy to think of the lives, people and stories that have wandered these grounds over the centuries.

To think of the folks who have sat in these pews and prayed.

A storm cell popped up around Benson, south of Tucson. By the time we got there, this was all there was. It had mostly dissipated as quickly as it had formed. We shot until sunset then grabbed some food and headed back to Phoenix. We got back to the classroom at 11:30.

Saturday was a similar situation. We headed south of Phoenix but this time only went as far as Florence. No storms popped up on the radar…ANYWHERE, so we photographed the desert. Again we were out until 11:00.

Sunday we spent half the day in the classroom doing photo critiques with what we DID shoot and dismissed.

Again, the idea was a good one, too bad the weather didn’t cooperate. Highways has since taken this workshop off the schedule, for obvious reasons. Maybe someday, when weather patterns settle down, we can get back to it. I still learned a lot about weather and photographing storms. They can be dangerous for you and your gear so keep a safe distance from lightning and have rain gear for you AND your camera always ready.

Stay safe out there and Happy Shooting!