Category Archive

Flowers along Highway 60 near Superior, Arizona.

I have linked here to Carol Leigh California Wildflower Hotsheet a number of times over the years and have always found the hot-sheet and her forum to be an extremely valuable resource.  Yesterday it was brought to my attention that Carol stopped maintaining the hot sheet, a decision that may become permanent.   She writes:

Right now I cannot in good conscience continue to distribute “where-to-go” wildflower information. Private property is being destroyed. Flowers are being trampled. Rude and inconsiderate behavior abounds.

I don’t know Carol, but it is clear she has a real love and passion for wildflowers.  Although I will miss her updates, I respect her decision to put the wildflowers first.  But it does raise a larger question;  how much should we share, and as photographers, are we helping to destroy  special places by publicizing them?

I have had this discussion with many photographers over the years, and have some photographer friends who keep everything close to the proverbial  (photo) vest, and others who share most anything.  I personally tend to share far more then most, and I think it is a big reason why my photo blog has become popular.  Not just locations, but techniques and most anything I know.  There are topics in which I have drawn a distinct line, the main one that comes to mind is the location of winter animal sightings for animals like lynx – because I know a trappers love of animals directly competes with my own.

But in recent years I have decided to keep some physical locations private.  This amazing spot in Valley of the Fire is one that immediately comes to mind.  I would like to say I have some noble motivation to keep the location secret to help protect it, but frankly, often motivation is largely selfish.  I like the idea of having an amazing location all to myself.  To have a spot like that crawling with people, muting the colors with their footsteps would “ruin” it a bit for me, and could ruin it for generations to come.

But there is more to my motivation.  I like to think of myself as a photographer, and tend to avoid the label businessman, but truth be told I am in business and this is our sole source of income, and frankly the fewer people who have photographs of an area I have found,  the better it is for me.  Certainly Ford would never share a discovery with Chevy, and no one would expect them to, but the same expectation isn’t always applied to photographers.  I have been surprised at the questions other photographers have asked me over the years, and disappointed in how few take the time to email a quick “thanks” in response – more often then not I end up asking myself why did I just share that information?

I know there isn’t a right or wrong answer, and my opinion will likely continue to ebb and flow over the years, but I’m interested in how much others are willing to share and why?

Bartlett Lake, Tonto National Forest near Phoenix, Arizona.

Bartlett Lake has some of the best wildflowers of any place we have visited so far this spring.

Tonto National Forest, Arizona.

This was a cloudy evening late last week – I thought chances were good for a sunset, but it didn’t happen.   I intend to explore this area some more this week – I love the rocks!

Mountains along the Apache Trail, East of Phoenix, Arizona.

Yesterday, photo blog reader Joni reiterated a prior recommendation for the Apache Trail – I figured I better heed her advice, so we drove out that way yesterday evening.  I wasn’t disappointed!  It is a beautiful area.  I’m looking forward to returning and driving a bit further, we didn’t make it too far past Tortilla Flat.  There are a few places with nice flowers, and lots of places that are very green!  I think the wildflowers should start looking nice in about a week.

Tonto National Forest, outside of Phoenix, Arizona.

Wildflowers are beginning to come along nicely around Phoenix, there are even some nice patches of poppies and lupine to be found – not the widespread fields yet, but it is looking promising!

Pink-Flower Hedgehog Cactus, McDowell Sonoran Preserve, Scottsdale, Arizona.

During my photo workshops a few weeks ago I was reminded just how rich and colorful the desert looks during a rain storm.  So yesterday morning as I heard the rain pouring down – I couldn’t wait to get out with my camera.  I had my eye on a stunning Graham’s Nipple Cactus bloom that I spotted while running the day before, but evidently they don’t open on cloudy days.  So I had to “settle” for this Hedgehog cactus.

I find it fascinating that such a sharp, potentially painful plant can produce such a beautiful bloom!

Speaking of my workshop – as much fun as I had hosting them, I think the follow up emails and photo attachments from the participants may have been even more rewarding!

Most participants don’t have websites that I’m aware of, but a couple do and I would like to share them here.

First is Samatha – on this website of Samatha’s photos she writes about the workshop, some of the things we talked about and places we visited during the second weekend – it was a fun to relive the weekend through her images.

Greg Lato posted a couple photos of our group during the first weekend on his photo blog.  And be sure to check out his photo from Anza-Borrego.  It is fun to see the different interpretations of the the same area.

I have more photo tours coming up including one where we will be up close to grizzly bears all day!

Buster Posey of the San Francisco Giants during Spring Training, Scottsdale, Arizona.

Some dear friends generously provided us with tickets to the San Francisco Giants Spring Training games – they are sure fun!  I love the relaxed, casual atmosphere where before the game the players work their way down the sidelines posing for photos and signing autographs.  We had such good seats to yesterday’s game that I decided to bring my camera and try to capture the action – that was a  blast as well!  I gotta admit, catching that moment the ball leaves the bat is much harder then it looks!

A wide throw lead to a successful stolen base in yesterday's Giants game against the Milwaukee Brewers.

McDowell Mountain Regional Park, Arizona.

We just moved to Arizona to a place just outside of Fountain Hills, which is just outside of Scottsdale, which is just outside of Phoenix – you get the idea.  🙂

As you can see, things are really green out here right now and look very promising!  With temperatures predicted into the 80’s next week, I’m hopeful that things will really start blooming very soon – it should be a great year.  As we made our way across Arizona I10, the hills throughout the state were very green, but only the edge of the roadbed is blooming right now.  The road edges always look the best.

This area has received over 6 inches of rain since the beginning of this year, and signs of the wet year are everywhere.  We are camped on the edge of the Verde River and I can’t believe how much water is flowing in it right now – substantially more then our past two visits.  Many of the normally dry riverbeds around Phoenix are flowing right now, it is fun to see the transformation.

Here are some photos of the wildflowers of McDowell Regional Park from 2008 during our last visit to this area.