Sedona, Arizona.
Looking down on the town of Sedona – not very often you see it with snow!
Snowy Sedona!
Sedona, Arizona.
A large winter storm passed through the West this past weekend hitting Arizona head on. The ski areas in Northern Arizona received almost 5 feet of snow – I’m always surprised at how snowy parts of Arizona can be.
The same storm dumped 4 or 5 inches of snow on Sedona – a rare treat! So, yesterday (Monday) morning we raced up there catching the end of the snow storm. We hung around until after sunset capturing lots of images, videos and time-lapses – it really was beautiful!
It looked very different then it did during warmer visits: Sedona, Arizona photos.
Wild in Arizona Review
Wild in Arizona – a guide to photographing Arizona’s wildflowers.
Since we are heading over to Arizona later this week, I thought it was a perfect time to provide a review of this newly released book: Wild in Arizona: Photographing Arizona’s Wildflowers, A Guide to When, Where, and How
One of the authors, Colleen Miniuk-Sperrry graciously provided me with a copy. When I met up with her in Arizona next week for a beer I’ll have to share a major complaint that I might as well put out on the table right now – where was the book 10 years ago! It sure would have saved me a lot of time!
Seriously, this is an outstanding guide book full of wonderful photos, detailed maps with well written driving and hiking directions, along with a ton of information on what blooms where and when. The layout is simple but elegant and inviting – I wish more guide books shared these traits. Even though this book has a photography slant with lots of photo advice, I think anyone who spends time in Arizona, photographer or not would enjoy this book.
The book shares information on many places in which I’m not familiar, but look forward to visiting. Many of the other locations are places that I have spent lots of time chasing wildflowers over the years, so I can say the advice on road, trail and wildflower conditions is spot on. I’m not surprised, Paul Gill has been photographing Arizona for the likes of Arizona Highways for over 30 years while Colleen adds another 10 plus years of experience photographing Arizona. Both are full time photographers that know what they are talking about.
2012 Arizona Calendar
2012 Arizona Calendar.
2012 Arizona Calendar.
This is really cool – Tide-mark published a calendar with 12 of my Arizona photo along with a nice write-up about me – although the photo of me on the inside cover was a risky move that could hurt sales. 🙂 I believe these are available through out Arizona, but I see they also sell them on Amazon:
Fountain Hills Phone Book
Tonto National Forest, Arizona.
Here is another cool cover that came in the mail recently – this photo of Tonto National Forest was used on the cover for the Fountain Hills – Rio Verde – Tonto Verde phone book.
As most of you know, we just spent a couple of weeks just outside of Fountain Hills this winter. Although this area does sell well for us, I think a big reason we talk ourselves into re-visiting the region is for the amazing mountain biking at the McDowell Regional Park. If I had to pick just one place to ride – I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I would pick McDowell even over Moab, Utah. Well, along with the mountain biking, the mild winter weather helps too. 🙂
Salt River
Salt-River, Tonto National Forest, Arizona.
The Salt River is a popular tubing location during the summer. Looks fun! And, I bet much warmer then the Gulkana River in Alaska – a place my friends and I would go tubing on warm summers.
One of the drawbacks with shooting a lot of 3D video on this trip is that I haven’t had as many still photos as I normally would for my blog. So recently, I have made more of an effort to grab more stills while out shooting 3D – this is one. For 3D, I like to find scenes like this with many layers to it. Unfortunately, I won’t know what really if it “works” until I get home – I’m looking forward to processing the video from this trip.
Arizona Wildflower Update – 2011
Tonto National Forest, Arizona.
What may not show well in this small photo is the nice field of yellow ground wildflowers.
This is definitely been a very poor year for wildflowers, but a stretch of warm weather followed by some a pretty heavy rain last Monday has seemed to produce a mini bloom of wildflowers.
In the two placers I have been spending time, Tonto National Forest, and McDowell Regional Park, I’m beginning to see a few poppies, lupine and brittlebush in bloom. It isn’t the dramtic colorful hills and fields of wildflowers I have seen in past springs in this area, but at least it is a little something, something. And, I would think it could get a bit better over the next week or so.
I’ll be making my way to the west side of the state in a few days, it will be interesting to see how that area is doing after the recent rains – I’ll follow up with a report if I find anything worth reporting on!
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