They like to call the Phoenix, Arizona area "The Valley of the Sun"
around here, and with good reason. Average rainfall is just under
8 inches a year, and temperatures in the summer can run as high as
115 degrees. Every year the news stations run our record for how
many days in a row we can have a high over 100 degrees. So winter
around here is pretty mild. Lows only reach around 35-40 at the
coldest time of year, and high temperatures even in the dead of
winter are normally in the 60's. It can be downright pleasant. So
this area is a collection of some photographs which I have taken during
this wonderful time of year. The one at the right shows my car in
some rather mild fog, except that it's the first time I can remember
seeing fog during daylight hours in a few years or so. Pretty rare
stuff out here.
Have you ever walked outside just at the earliest break of sunrise,
before the sun has actually come up over the horizon and seen a wonder
in the sky that leaves you speechless? If not, you're really missing
out on a great experience, but you probably get to sleep in more than
I do. At any rate, by some freak chance I walked outside one morning
and witnessed this incredible combination of a unique cloud formation
and the perfect lighting of a sunrise just out my front door. The
result is what you see here, not retouched for color or anything in
any way. If you saw the last photo area, you will know that I have some
experience with night photography and getting stars on film. Are the
white dots in this picture stars? I don't know! I did use a tripod
and somewhat longer than normal exposure time to get this picture, but
I don't know that the spots are actually stars.
I've always found the road to Bartlett Lake somewhat irresistible,
so on my most recent drive there, I stopped to take some nice pictures
from the roadside. This one was something of a depth-of-field
demonstration, by using a 28mm lens with the f-stop set all the way to
22 matched to the correct focus setting to get the widest possible
depth of field. What this means is that everything from just ahead
of the camera to infinity is in focus. Also, because of the landscape,
this photograph has the intensifying effect of a half-land, half-sky
arrangement with the mountains and my Civic forming in the boundary
between. It really makes a statement and stands out, even with the
relative simplicity of subject and composition. Just as a note, that's
my camcorder, sitting on a tripod in the front passenger seat. Yes,
I have a videotape of the drive to and from Bartlett Lake, and yes,
I watch it when I'm bored and wish I was somewhere more exciting.
This is about as close as I could get to the lake on this particular
day due to time and monetary constraints. They just installed a fee
station at the very end of the road this winter, and now it's something
like $4 to get into the lake. I didn't have time to see if this was
anything I could bypass, nor did I feel like waiting in the line of
cars at the end of the road so I could pay $4 just to drive on another
road. But at any rate, you can see the lake, and the natural beauty
of the desert very well from here. Next time I'll just have to arm
myself with $4 so I can head down the one other road worth driving in
that area.
Another nice photograph taken around sunrise. This one was from the far
northwest corner of Phoenix a little ways outside of the city's borders.
I'm not really entirely sure what this mountain range is called. It's kind
of funny how I manage to do that a lot of the time. I'll find some place
that's pretty nice, and take some pictures, but I really don't know exactly
what the name is. For me, the drive there and the great scenery is more
valuable than just a name.
Depending on how bright your monitor is, this one will either look pretty
nice, or you won't be at all able to tell what that is on the bottom half
of the picture. Well, it's just a stretch of highway, but in so many ways
even a stretch of highway can stand for so much more.
Well, as if I don't have enough pictures of my car already, but from my
point of view, you can never have too many good pictures. This one is a nice
rear three-quarters view of my car as it rests on the roadside of the area
seen above and below this picture. I suppose I just never get tired of
looking at things I love.
Taken with a wide-angle lens, this photograph gives the viewer a better feel
for the size and grandeur of this nice little range of mountains. One of my
favorite qualities of this picture is the steep angle of the shadows. One
can tell that the sun is rising off the left border of this scene by the way
the mountains are lit. Time of day and the lighting it brings will often
make the difference between a scene being full of texture, or just looking
flat and lifeless.
Well, for whatever reason, I've always liked to take pictures of clouds.
This is just another one of my pictures of a nice cloudy sky, but taken
out on the nice bit of road northwest of Phoenix.
Just remember; Don't look straight into the light.
And finally this brings us to the last picture of this lot. We see my Civic
here and a friend of mine riding shotgun, as we waited for the sunrise out
in this nice area. I hardly ever wake up early enough to enjoy the sunrise
with my love of sleep being what it is, so mornings like this one are really
a treat and an experience.
Page Crated: 5-4-98