Sleeping in my own bed again!

It may be short lived, but I am back home sleeping in my own bed. We left Moab yesterday morning and drove to Grand Junction for our flight home. Somehow we avoided traffic between DFW airport and Garland and arrived back at the house about 5:00pm. In just a few days I will be off again to San Antonio for the Fiesta Arts Fair. I have a lot to do before I leave but, gosh I have so many neat images from the trip that I'm anxious to process. Maybe I can have one or two ready to take with me to San Antonio. I definitely hope to have a few of these new ones for Cottonwood and Southlake. Many of you are familiar with my images from Mexico and Italy, but it was trips like this in the early 90's that gave me a renewed interest in my photography. Camping out, hiking, and seeing some of the most interesting scenery in the world is still in my blood. I will always get a thrill from watching the changing light and weather while my camera is aimed at some glorious scene.




The top image is one that I took Sunday morning of Monument Valley. Instead of driving into the valley I decided to pick a viewpoint off to the northeast. I wanted something other than the traditional view of the mittens at sunrise. It had rained a few hours earlier and looked like it would be a pretty gray morning. Little did I know that the sun would find a hole in the clouds right at sunrise. For about three minutes it was some of the sweetest light I have ever seen. This image was made from four single images that were stitched together to make one high resolution image.
Later that morning it was time to head back to Moab for our last night of the trip. I decided to spend some time that evening scouting out locations at nearby Arches National Park. The last light of the day was spent photographing at Balanced Rock. I had photographed the scene about 10 years earlier. I didn't mind photographing it again because you never get the same conditions twice. However, this one came close. Earlier in the day while driving to Moab we stopped and hiked to a small ruin. Vague directions caused us to hike an extra mile before finding the ruin but it was worth it. It was interesting to photograph. I have heard it called House on Fire since it almost appears to have flames coming out of it.

Monday morning my scouting efforts from the previous evening paid off. I knew it had rained the day before so I looked for and located some potholes of water that would reflect the Organ and The Three Gossips. This is one of the last images I shot on the trip before heading to the airport in Grand Junction, Colorado. A nice way to end a great week.