Post Archive by Year

Colorful sandstone, Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.

The area around the White Domes is amazing.  There is yellow and nearly white sandstone along with the red, and in areas where the colors mix, there are some wonderful combinations of color and patterns.  You never know what surprises may await around the next corner, over the next rise, or even in the little nooks and crannies.  I couldn’t believe how fast time flew by as Janine and I explored this area – I look forward to going back and wandering around even further.

See more Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada pictures.

Fire Cave, Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.

I have also seen this secret spot referred to as Windstone Arch.  Whatever it is called, it is cool!

I’m always surprised at just how rich a glow is created when you have sun reflecting off red rock, onto more red rock.  I actually had to desaturate this a bit, although my camera does seem to run a bit hot with reds.   There is an endless number of areas worth exploring at Valley of Fire- numerous caves, arches, colorful sandstone, I’m surprised, but glad this area isn’t more popular.

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Desert Bighorn, Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.

I have visited and written about Valley of the Fire State Park before, but I still forget what a wonderful gem this place is – Southern Utah gets all the red rock attention, but this place is really sweet. 

I spent a fair amount of time with this guy – this was captured after sunset, I really prefer this time of day for these desert animals.  Otherwise the sun is just too harsh. 

I hope you don’t get too tired of photos from Valley of Fire, but I have a few I want to share over the next couple of days.

View from the top of the Stratosphere.

Talking about a room with a view!

A Toby Keith video sign reflecting in a rain puddle on a sidewalk along the Strip, Las Vegas, Nevada.

I rotated this image 180 degrees so that the reflection wouldn’t be upside down like it appeared to me on the sidewalk.  I then flipped in horizontally so that what little text that did show would be readable. 

A cold, rainy night was a perfect night for photography on the Las Vegas Strip.  The streets and sidewalks glowed with wet reflected light, there were all kinds of fun reflections, and there were very few people!

For this image, I focused on the distant reflected image, and not on the much close sidewalk / puddle.  I then used a wide aperture ( f /4 ) to limit my depth of field – I preferred having the sidewalk out of focus.  I needed a tripod because of the 1/10 of a second shutter speed.  I then shot over and over trying to capture something interesting on the constantly changing video screen.

Fresh snow in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation area, near Las Vegas, Nevada.

It was really tough to leave Anza-Borrego with the way the wildflowers were developing.  We are spending the last couple of weeks on this trip in Las Vegas – we have some commitments and need to pay the bills, but we are going to make some time for some fun with some Alaskan friends as well.

The sky began to light up during this sunrise, but then faded away – since I didn’t get great light, I may try converting this to black and white after I return to the office.