sunsets Archives ~ Rambling ranger

February 9, 2024

Desert Wildflower Update: Warm Colors

How do warm colors make you feel? For me, they bring a smile to my face, excitement and happiness. I often use a warming filter on my camera because I like my colors a little warmer in most instances. This may come as no surprise to you, as I scurry south every winter to get more of the warmth! My favorite time to do photography is the late afternoon and early evening. It’s not only that I’m too lazy to get up early, I prefer the warm light!

The desert is full of warm colors. Even in the wintertime, you can find warm colors in the sunsets, the red rock, even the birds. I’ve been seeing a lot of those warm colors this past week.

Cactus wren — Even the birds have warm colors in the desert.

As for warm wildflower colors, not so much, but there are a few.

Gates Pass — Red rock is a warm color you can always find in the desert.

The warmest color in Saguaro National Park’s foliage is the yellow fruits from last year’s barrel cactus bloom.

Barrel cactus in fruit and Prickly Pears — The warmest color in Saguaro National Park this week

But there is one flower blooming in Saguaro, the delicate pink Fairy Duster.

Organ Pipe was greener. It looks to be a good bloom there in a couple of weeks. Right now Ocotillo is what’s blooming.

Here’s a closer look at those beautiful warm red flowers.

Warm Colors - Ocotillo — Ocotillo blooms

There was a carpet of green from the Sonoran into California, giving me high hopes for a good flower season in a couple of weeks. But right now the only thing blooming in that vast expanse was Brittlebush.

Brittlebush has started to bloom throughout the deserts.

I was underwhelmed and a bit disappointed when I got to Joshua Tree National Park. I had expected more.

Even the Brittlebush was sparse. There were a couple of new flowers blooming, Bladderpod and Chuparosa. These are both perennial bushes, as are Fairy Dusters, Brittlebush and Ocotillo. Annual flowers are practically non-existent still.

I did find a few Canterbury Bells in Joshua Tree, but that was it. The carpet of green I’d noticed in the Sonoran desert was missing here. By this time of year, there should have been a haze of fuzzy green, the seedlings of the annuals, covering the roadsides. I don’t know if the southern part of Joshua Tree missed the storms, or if it’s been too cold, but don’t expect a big bloom in Joshua Tree this spring. Very little is even sprouting there now.

Warm colors of Brittlebush — Perennials like Brittlebush are doing well.

A little bit of good news, though. Reports from Anza Borrego indicate that it should be a good wildflower season there. It’s already starting, especially the Sand Verbena, the sweetest-smelling flower in the desert. I’ve seen fields full of them here in the Palm Springs area, too.

Not really a warm color, but Sand Verbena is what’s blooming!

The latest reports I’ve found from Death Valley are a couple of weeks old, but state that sprouts are coming up, so I’m hopeful. I will be visiting both Anza Borrego and Death Valley next week and will have a better idea then of what this season will be like.

Panamint Sand Dunes, Death Valley National Park — Will the sand dunes be the only warm colors in Death Valley when I get there?

So it looks like the flowers may get going a little late – March will probably be the best month to see the desert bloom this year. Until then, enjoy the warm colors wherever you are, wherever you find them – in the rocks, in the sunset – but keep your eyes open, warm colors in the flowers are coming soon!

Thank you, Egidio, for bringing us this week’s Lens-Artists Photography Challenge, Warm Colors.

Saguro sunset, warm colors — Arizona Sunset

November 30, 2022

My Favorite Places

This week I’d like to share with you all some of my favorite places, ones I will miss this winter as I practice The Middle Way on Orcas Island. This week’s Lens-Artist’s Photo Challenge is Home Sweet Home. Tina Schell of Travels and Trifles asks us, ” If a foreigner were to spend a week or a month traveling your home country with you, where would you take them? What sights would you tell them to be sure to see? Where have you found some of your own favorite images? What is it you truly love about where you live, or places you’ve seen in your home country? ”

Southern Colorado — First snow in the Colorado mountains

Well, they would need at LEAST a month for all MY favorite places. Although I grew up in Colorado and now live in Alaska, I feel at home throughout the West. I’ll start with Colorado. I was raised in Colorado, and lived there for many, many years after I went out on my own. It’s probably where I’ll end up when I get too old to live deep in the wilderness in Alaska. My family is there. Colorado is always close to my heart.

Although I’m at home throughout the West, I do have a few favorite places that I try to visit whenever I have the chance. One is the Colorado Plateau. This region covers big chunks of 4 different states: Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. I can’t narrow my favorite down to just one or two places in this area, it’s all so amazing. My advice to a foreign visitor might be to check out a few places that are not as well-known as iconic parks like Arches and Zion. Although I love them, too, they ARE getting loved to death and it might be good to try to spread that impact out a little. Lesser-known places such as Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Petrified Forest National Park contain wonders, too.

Another favorite place is Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico. This is the best place I’ve ever been for birds. It is the winter home for vast flocks of Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes. Over 340 different species of birds live there. It is an incredible place to observe wildlife.

Sandhill Cranes — Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge

I spent 8 winters working as a ranger in Death Valley National Park. It is another desert that has captured my heart. The great thing about Death Valley is that because the altitude on the valley floor is so low (the lowest elevation in North America), the nights are seldom cold, even during the deepest darkest months of winter. Makes for great camping, and the rattlesnakes sleep in the winter! It’s an incredibly diverse park, with elevations ranging from below sea level to over 11,000 feet.

I did a little playing with LightRoom on this image. It was a daytime image and the background of bare dirt desert ground was a bit meh so I darkened it until it resembled the night sky, and tried to give a nighttime feel to the dunes, too. Since Death Valley is famed as a night sky park, and since one of my favorite things to do is to walk through the sand dunes under the full moon, I wanted to capture the feel of that experience in this image.

Mesquite Sand Dunes — I love to hike the sand dunes in the moonlight.

And then there’s the bloom. If there is rain in the desert, and if it is timed right, the wildflowers will rock your world. If it seems like it might be a good year for the flowers, I try to make a circuit that starts near the Mexican border in Anza-Borrego State Park, moving through Joshua Tree and Mojave National Preserve until I end up in Death Valley.

Anza-Borrego State Park — Love those desert wildflowers!

Further west on the California coast you will find another great wildlife phenomenon, the elephant seals at Piedras Blancas near San Simeon. Although you can find a few seals there at any time of year, December through February are the best months. Thousands of seals converge on the beaches, with the big strange-looking bulls battling it out for the right to own a piece of the beach, and all the females on it. The cows are birthing and raising their babies then, too. It’s an extraordinary spot to witness wildlife drama, so close you don’t even need binoculars to see it.

Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery — Sex on the Beach

From the campground at San Simeon I can walk to the beach and see some fantastic bird action on the sea stack that looms just offshore there. It’s an awesome place to catch the sunset.

Farther north along the California coast is Mendocino County. It’s my favorite part of the California Coast. I think the scenery is even more dramatic than Big Sur, and without the crowds. It’s got big trees, too.

Greenwood Beach — The beaches in Mendo are wild and uncrowded.

Speaking of big trees, I’ve really fallen in love with the tallest trees in the world, the redwoods, over the last few years.

Sometimes I go straight up the coast into Oregon. Other times I head for the Siskiyou country near Grants Pass and Williams. The trees there are incredibly graceful and beautiful and it’s my last chance to see wildflowers as I head north.

Pacifica — Oregon has some incredible trees!

But no matter which way I go, I try to hit the coast at Bandon. It is so much fun to shoot the sea stacks there!

The Olympic Peninsula is my next favorite place. The old-growth forests redefine green and the wild beaches are phenomenal.

Olympic National Park — Ferns and feathers

And then there’s Alaska. It’s where my heart is, my community, my job, my life. My first love in Alaska was Denali National Park and I try to go there whenever I get a chance.

But home is McCarthy, in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. I truly believe it’s the most spectacular place in North America. Case in point – check out my daily commute! And the feature image was taken while I was standing on my front porch! It doesn’t get much better than this.

I hope you’ve enjoyed some of my favorite places. As Jim Morrison of the Doors said, the West is the best!

February 26, 2022

Pacific Coast Sunsets

It’s a good year to miss winter in Alaska. The snow started early, on the last day of summer. I wasn’t lucky enough to miss that storm. It complicated my travel plans. It took me a couple of extra days to close everything up on the homestead and get out of town.

Then the snow took a brief hiatus, making way for the extreme cold. It was 40 below for weeks at a time in McCarthy, even dipping down to -60. The coldest I had ever seen was 53 below. Glad I missed the cold spell.

See what I mean about a good winter to miss? It was just getting started.

It’s been snowing back home. And snowing, and snowing….. more snow than anyone can remember ever falling in McCarthy. Buildings are buried. And it’s still February. March is usually the snowiest month. Yikes!

California sunsets — Sunset in Pacific Grove

Which makes me super grateful for where I am spending the winter, further south on the Pacific Coast. I have really been enjoying those Pacific Coast sunsets.

I spent January at a housesit in Anacortes, Washington. The weather was generally dark, drab and dreary, with snow, rain or fog practically every day. My SAD syndrome kicked in, but I kept reminding myself about what the weather was like back home and felt pretty thankful to be someplace safe and warm where I could avoid driving on those occasions when the streets were icy.

Deception Pass State Park — Sunset at Rosario Beach near Anacortes, Washington

The day before I left, I did have one nice sunset.

Then my luck changed. I had clear weather for 3 days in Olympic National Park! What a rare and wonderful occurrence! The skies continued to stay mostly clear as I traveled down the coast to my February housesit, in Pacific Grove, California.

Mostly clear, except every night as I passed through Oregon there was a thin band of fog on the western horizon in otherwise cloudless skies, effectively extinguishing any hints of color from the setting sun. I’ve included a photo from an Oregon sunset I took on another trip, so you can see the potential and understand my disappointment when things looked so hopeful each evening but didn’t pan out.

Skies have been clear almost every night here in California. There has only been one day with any precipitation at all. It was just a sprinkle, but I was able to capture some fabulous God rays between storms. Check out the feature shot and you’ll see what I mean.

I feel a little like Goldilocks and the three bears. Although I am grateful for all these beautiful sunsets, we could use some rain. Although there’s too much snow in McCarthy, the drought in the West is severe. According to dendrochronology, the science of interpreting past climate through tree rings, in some places it’s the worst drought in over 1500 years. So I pray for rain, and hope that if it comes, it also brings big waves, god rays and rainbows.

Pacific Grove, California — Praying for rain and big waves

Thanks to Anne for this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge, Water.

Kalaloch Sunset — Fishing boat off the Washington coast

January 7, 2022

My Favorite Photos of 2021

I tried to keep it down to 12, but I couldn’t. Here is a baker’s dozen of my favorite photos of 2021.

It was really hard to cut it down to just a baker’s dozen. Reviewing the images I’ve captured over the last year, I realized that what I had were favorite photographic moments, not individual photos.

Alaska alpenglow in the Chugach Mountains — Purple Mountain’s Majesty, a favorite photographic moment.

You know, when you’re really in the zone, actively practicing the Art of Seeing? You might take a whole series of shots and not be able to choose one in the series as the best. That’s how I felt about a lot of these images.

I tried to disqualify images I’d already published in this blog (mostly!) So if you read my last few blog posts, you’ll find a few more favorites I wish I could include.

Alaska alpenglow Chugach Mountains — Knik Glacier

Despite all the darkness and cold, there are some things about winter in Alaska that are really special and that I miss when I’m not there, kind of a reward for those who tough it out. One is the aurora, of course. Another is the special pink sunset/twilight glow in the sky on certain cold, clear nights. Although I got lots of great alpenglow, I didn’t see as many pink light evenings as I have in past winters. But I did get it one evening when I photographed the Knik Glacier.

I went to Homer to see a few birds this spring. The migration was a bit disappointing, but I did get some wonderful eagle shots!

This is my favorite flower shot for 2021. I didn’t shoot nearly as many flowers as in years past, since I stayed in Alaska and didn’t follow the bloom. But I saw two brand new flowers I’d never noticed before in a few ponds along the McCarthy Road, White Water Lilies and Wild Calla.

Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico — Sunrise on the Bosque

It was October. It was not yet prime time for birds at Bosque del Apache. Due to the drought, the ponds on the edge of the refuge that are usually the go-to spots for bird photographers trying to catch the spectacle of the Bosque were dry. I wasn’t expecting much. I only had one day to spare. But the Bosque is a magical place and doesn’t disappoint. Having fewer sources of water concentrated the birds that were there. I was surprised to realize that three of my favorite photos for the entire year were taken on that day.

Even though I published the sunrise photo in a prior post, I had to include it since it was probably my second-most favorite photo for the year. Also, I processed it a little differently this time and think it does a better job of capturing the feel of sunrise on the Bosque.

Vesper Sparrows — Every leaf on this tree is a bird.

As I slowly drove by, I realized that all those “dead leaves” on that tree were birds. Then they took off and I was swept up by a cloud of birds. The Bosque is bird heaven!

California Coastal National Monument — Sunset on the beach at San Simeon

This might be my favorite photo of 2021. Except it’s one of those photographic moments, one of a series… I like the vertical images I captured of this scene a lot, too! Both this image and the feature image were taken on the beach at San Simeon in California. The island the cormorants are roosting on is part of the California Coastal National Monument. It is usually just offshore except during a very low tide, like this one.

I absolutely fell in love with the manzanitas and madrones of southern Oregon in November and December. I can’t choose my very favorite madrone/manzanita photo. I have about 20 favorites. But they were my favorite thing to photograph all year. So here’s one I haven’t published.

Cathedral Hills, Oregon — Manzanita Bark

I couldn’t choose a favorite detail shot of that forest, either. I have about a dozen favorites of bark, lichens, mushrooms… But this is definitely one of those favorites.

Skyline Trail, Cathedral Hills, Oregon — What is it?

This is definitely my favorite abstract of the year, though. Can you guess what it is?

Williams, Oregon — Wishing you all a great 2022!

This final shot conveys my thoughts and hopes for 2022, that the light burns through the fog of the last couple of crazy years and brings us all many happy blessings. Welcome 2022!

Thank you to Tina Schell of Travels and Trifles for hosting this week’s Lens Artists Challenge, Favorite Photos of 2021.

February 12, 2021

From Failures to Favorites – Fun With Editing

One of my favorite ways to pass the cold dark days this winter is to spend time editing my images. I still have a lot to learn when it comes to the intricacies of photo editing software programs like LightRoom and Photoshop. As I mentioned last week, there’s so much to explore!

I have learned how to make my photos better through basic color correction, exposure, and cropping, but I haven’t really gotten to the point of transforming my images into graphic illustrations.

This is the original of the Feature image.

Color Correction

I’ve learned that opening up the shadows and darkening the highlights often makes landscape shots better, but darkening the shadows really makes the colors pop in many flower images.

I’m usually not one to alter my photos into something that wasn’t there – I just want to make it a truer representation of what I saw. But one fun trick I’ve discovered – you can turn a vivid sunset into a moonrise simply by changing the white balance from As Shot to Auto in LightRoom.

Presets can be fun to play with, too.

Correcting Exposure

One thing I’ve enjoyed trying this winter is salvaging total crap pictures that before now I would have just deleted. Photos that are ridiculously crooked or badly exposed, transformed with just a few clicks.

Here’s one that was totally washed out. I was experimenting with long exposures at dusk and this one was too long. The edit looks much better, but the highlights are still washed out. Not perfect, but a good way to salvage a memory.

This image was way too underexposed and really crooked. Should have gone in the trash bin, but I played with it and enjoyed the results.

Cropping

Not only can cropping get rid of distractions in a photo, but it can also mimic the effect of having a lens that gets you a lot closer to your subject. I can’t afford a macro lens or a long telephoto, but occasionally I can fake it –

Sometimes the standard shape of a photo is just not the best way to present that subject. Maybe it looks better long and thin, a panoramic view. Or maybe it works best as a square. This is my favorite photo edit of the week. The shot just needed to be square.

Thank you, Tina, of Travels and Trifles for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, From Forgettable to Favorite.

January 1, 2020

My Favorite Unpublished Photos of 2019

Happy New Year! Patti of Pilotfish has presented us with a delightful yet difficult challenge this week -Favorite Photos of 2019. How do you choose? It isn’t easy.

I got distracted a lot as I browsed through thousands of photos, with an image catching my eye and sending me into a memory. Focus, Di, focus! Don’t go down that rabbit hole! Is it really one of your 10 best of the year?

In the end, I couldn’t do it. I could narrow it down to 40 or so, but 10? Impossible!

So I took a page from NatGeo’s book. I COULD narrow it down to my favorite 10 unpublished photos of the year, ones that for one reason or another had not made it onto a blog post.

I’ll do this directionally. I’ll start in the northwest and make my way down towards the southeast.

Matanuska Valley, Alaska

I had an early morning doctor’s appointment. However, it was a 7-hour drive from my home in remote rural Alaska to the doctor’s office. So I left after work, drove part way, slept in the back of my truck, and continued on my way just before the crack of dawn. My reward was a beautiful sunrise over the Matanuska River, one of the most spectacular sunrises I’ve ever seen. My photos don’t do it justice, but here’s my best shot at it.

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

We have some really big mountains in the Wrangells. In fact, Wrangell-St. Elias has more mountains over 14,500 feet than anywhere else in North America. Furthermore, unlike Colorado’s 14-ers, Alaska’s mountains start from a lot closer to sea level! They are REALLY big mountains. I like this image because you get an impression of just how big they really are.

Stone Mountain Provincial Park, British Columbia

My favorite day when I drive the Al-Can Highway is the day I drive through Stone Mountain and Muncho Lake Provincial Parks. They are both home to the somewhat rare and beautiful Stone Sheep, and if I’m lucky I might see one. This year I was able to shoot this environmental portrait of a ram doing what Stone Sheep do best, climbing cliffs.

Electra Road near Jackson, CA

Although I’m usually raving about the wildflowers in the desert, by the time April rolls around you’ll find fantastic wildflowers in the Sierra foothills, too. That’s where I captured this image of a swallowtail butterfly sipping nectar from a flower.

My favorite unpublished photo of 2019 — The Mighty Ocean

Point Pinos, California

I think this is my new favorite photo of 2019. I don’t know why I never noticed it before. I was trying to capture the power and fury of a winter storm on the Pacific coast. Big waves. I can watch them all day.

Piedras Blancas, California

One of my favorite photographic experiences of 2019 was watching the elephant seals at Piedras Blancas. It was a true wildlife drama, with hundreds of seals birthing, mating and fighting just yards away from their human voyeurs. As I watched, the seals struck me as some of the most ill-tempered animals I’d ever seen, always fighting and arguing – all of them, not just the bulls. Mating, in most cases, seemed exceptionally harsh and brutal. This couple was the exception. They seemed, dare I say it, actually content and peaceful with each other! I tried to capture that feeling.

Joshua Tree National Park

If you follow my blog at all, you know that no roundup of my favorite photos of 2019 would be complete without at least one closeup of a desert wildflower. I love getting up all close and personal with cactus blossoms. They’re exquisite. I found this one in Joshua Tree National Park.

Anza Borrego State Park, California

Because my little Toyota truck is only 2 wheel drive, sometimes my dispersed camping options are somewhat limited. I find myself returning to one particular campsite in Anza Borrego again and again. But even though flowers are going crazy in the rest of the park, there are usually very few or no flowers in my favorite canyon. This year was different. This year, my camping canyon was one of the park’s wildflower hotspots. I took this photo from the hill behind my camp.

Tucson, Arizona

There’s a reason Arizona is famous for its sunsets. Just sayin’.

Well, I had a hard time picking my favorite. And I find it hard to be objective. Each image is colored by the experience that accompanied it.

How about you? Which one is your favorite? Let me know in the comments.

Tag: sunsets

Desert Wildflower Update: Warm Colors

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My Favorite Places

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Pacific Coast Sunsets

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My Favorite Photos of 2021

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