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Superstition Mountain is located east of Phoenix and Apache Junction. It was once volcanic but now this sleeping giant is a popular recreational area for bikers, ATV'rs, and horseback riders too. It's rugged and sheer sided peaks are well over 5000 feet and can be seen for miles. I camped at the Lost Dutchman State Park, which is conveniently located behind from where I took this photo. I left my campsite early; giving myself plenty time to find the perfect composition. It wasn't easy to get here; I climbed over boulders, around bushes and dodge the prickly cacti too (ouch!) and it seemed to never end (lol). As the mountain grew larger, I stopped to take a series of focus stacked shots until I eventually parked myself here. I stayed until it was dark and watched as the light changed, and took photos as it did. There is a trail at the bottom of the mountain that runs from left to right, and then into the shaded canyon on the right. Those that are agile climb to the top of the mountain on the far right. I did hiked into the canyon a few years back but I wasn't prepared to go that far on a hot day. Arizona is known for it's amazing sunsets which casts some amazing colors on the desert floor (just like this photo). I headed back after I got some blue hour shots but boy, was it dark and walking back in darkness wasn't fun! Oh well, I made a new memory and I chuckle at the new (more) scratches on my legs (which seems to go hand in hand to get the shots I want, lol).
How lucky to be there when the moon appeared! Once I stopped to take a photo, so to did many others :-)
Imagine if you will, my surprise when I saw this lake in the middle of the desert for the first time. It seemed so odd to see a lake in the middle of the desert, surrounded by saguaros and cacti but it was so very beautiful and quite captivating. I visited this exact spot last year and actually captured fantastic shot (see “Pleasantly Arizona”). This time however my goal was to capture lake view at sunset. I arrived about an hour before the sunset hour so that I’d have time to find a composition but that proved to be more difficult than I had expected. Gosh, saguaros can sometimes be hard to photograph because they line up with one another, making them look like a massive oversized tree. Oh, and then there’s the “fuzzy bushes” (as I call them) that seem to be everywhere; destroying the scene by blocking the valued components of my composition or even blocking everything! Eventually though, I came across this composition. The foreground elements in this photograph are very important to the overall composition of this photo. The dead tree and two saguaro skeletons lying on the ground lead your eyes from the bottom (entry point) of this photograph to the saguaro trees. From there your eyes are drawn up to the distant mountains, then over to the sun kissed clouds and then finally down the dark ridge on the right, which then leads you back to center. This “line” of view (if you will) is called the “Golden Ratio”, a circular compositional tool used by many photographers and artists. This photograph is a HDR image, meaning I took multiple images of the same scene using different exposure values, and then combined them into a single image. As a result I captured the full range of tonal values (darks and lights) within the scene. Lake pleasant is a dammed lake within the municipal boundaries of Peoria. Not far from Phoenix, It serves as a major recreation hub for boaters, hikers, camping and ATVer’s too. With more than 23,000 acres of water and beautiful, Lake Pleasant Regional Park is one of the most scenic recreation areas in the region. This man made lake (dam) is fed by both the Agua Fria River the Colorado river via an aqueduct. Note: This photograph looks great as a “split”, which can be viewed here on my website under “Sampled - Framed & Hung”.
