Isn't it exciting when company is coming? Always the thoughts about what people will think of your area. Thoughts about what to show them and consternation about if they will feel the same way about the same things, as you do. Decisions on when to do things and how? How best to showoff your own backyard?
I go though the same thought process when I do a workshop or private client trip in my area. It's much like rolling out the old welcome wagon! My advantage is that the area I have to offer is one that many people visit all on their own. It's a destination vacation paradise that also doubles as one of the great photographic locations as well. The area I speak of is the Verde Valley and it's showcase city of Sedona. With it's breathtaking rock sculptures, it's canyons and creeks, it's one of the best places in all of Arizona. It's also unique photographically because there is a modern city built right into all this, to contend with.
And so it was that we began this day with a passing winter storm. It rained most of the night but just like your day at Disneyland, when it's your day, you go! I knew the weather situation would make the day interesting if not exciting.
I like to begin with an overview of a location. This usually means getting to a place where most of the landscape that will be presented is represented. Up on the roof if you will, or certainly on the balcony. Our day was begun high over the city of Sedona. I've always liked the vista with the "hand of man" that says "Sedona" The lights of a shopping mall gave a fire feel and I've always believed that light is light, and it matters not, where it comes from.
The passing winter storm gave us much to work with. A sunrise was a remote possibility but you have to admire all of us that practice the f-8 and be there discipline. The only thing I really know about photography for sure is "if you don't go, you get no images"! So we went and we opened shutters and when the day was over, we came back happy!
This year has brought a welcomed break from our seven year drought. It's just been plain wet! The creeks have at times become more like rivers and we experienced scenes not that often seen here.
A sycamore tree that has most likely been growing in the middle of Oak Creek for years looked suddenly in danger of going downstream. The drama of this was cause for us to undertake a short hike in the rain but seemed well worth the effort. I've never taken an image I liked that showed water moving downstream or away from me so a position below the tree was necessary. The angle above the creek and a short telephoto enhanced the feeling.
Wet landscape has always been an attraction for me. Saturated colors and defused light combine to make what I like to call "natures soft box" It's like a salad bowl of colors and textures that seem to "flavor" most everything in the surroundings. From above, the bare trees of winter took on a watercolor feel and the compression of a long lens brought them closer together.
The lack of contrast made compositions that would have been difficult under most mid day circumstances, very easy to see and make. A tree that would have been front lit required no exposure thought and the sky was only a couple of stops over the red rock in the foreground.
The first road in the area was a cattle trail. Today it is one of the most scenic and heavily traveled in the area. Since weather keep most away, we were left to ourselves to negotiate this muddy, bumpy and rain soaked "trail". We were rewarded with breaking light. A week earlier there was snow here.
Side creeks that are dry most of the year were flowing to creeks that more resembled rivers. The use of the Singh-Ray Vari-density filter allowed me to use a very slow shutter speed to create the whirlpool effect at the bottom of the composition.
In life it's some days the candy bar and some days the wrapper! On this day when I had company, nature provided the candy bar in my own backyard.
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