Wildcat Canyon

This idyllic view of Wildcat Canyon in Zion N.P. can be reached via the Northgate Peaks Trail which dead ends at the end of a long promontory. Several trail heads are available from the Kolob Terrace Road.

The Northgate Peaks Trail winds through ponderosa pine forests sprinkled with wild flowers, dry grasses and an occasional cactus.

Zion National Park

The sun sets on another scorching July day at Zion Canyon in southern Utah. Actually the weather was pleasant  at this vantage point on Kolob Terrace at 7,000 foot elevation. Down in the canyon temperatures reached 110 degrees during our stay.

Winter snowmelt and runoff from summer rains is soaked up by the sandstone and literally "weeps" from the walls, staining the red sandstone with mineral laden deposits. Here I layed down on my back to capture the towering walls.

Beach Dreams

This idyllic stretch of sand on the southern Oregon coast is called Arizona Beach. Massive headlands on the north and south end of the beach protect it from the nearly constant winds, providing the beach with a relatively balmy climate. Sisters Rocks protect the south end.

This is the north end headland of Arizona Beach. We climbed up a trail to the top while we were waiting for the sun to go down. Like much of the southern Oregon coast, we had the place mostly to oursleves.

Splash of Light

Summer arrives pretty late up here in Oregon but when it does the landscape explodes with beauty. One of the great things about photography is capturing these special moments in time and preserving them for later reflection. This beach, Horsfall, is the closest to my place nearby up in the woods and so I go there a lot. I look back at the photos I've taken there and the diversity of faces the place shows at different times is amazing to me.

Sweet curl. There are a lot of folks that surf here and there are some great breaks. Too cold for me! I'll take Hawaii for that. Next week I'll be checking out the Pistol River Wave Bash, part of the pro American Windsurfing Tour, down at Gold Beach and will send some shots your way. Check out their website. http://americanwindsurfingtour.com/

White Rhododendron

Back to the spring flower thing. This rhododendron is enormous and a great producer of blooms year to year. The mother bush.

Here is a close up of some of her babies taken in the black of night. The long exposure lends an other worldly texture to the photo.

The Big Moon

May 5, 2012, the full moon rises over Coos Bay. The moon was closer to Earth than it had been in twenty years. Scientists and others argued back and forth over whether this moon would appear bigger than others. What do you think? Maybe if could have shot it coming out of the sea, you know, right next to the horizon. Beautiful it was, if not bigger.

The moon event gave me a chance to practice "night photography", which I'm going to do a lot of this summer.

Trillium 2012

One of the treasures of the Oregon Coast is the native flowers that appear as if suddenly materialized in the forest. This Trillium is a rare flower, although abundant in the moist woods along the coast. This one lives in my atrium where several first appeared last year. Now, again, this year.

After about a month the flowers have transformed to a translucent pink and shortly afterward they are gone. The rhododendrons are now starting to pop. I'll keep you informed.

Indian Wells Art Festival

On a recent visit to Southern California to see relatives, I made a 400-mile side trip to Indian Wells to see the 10th Annual Indian Wells Art Festival. I wanted to get a feel for the “Art Fair” scene.

  Hundreds of these juried professional art events are held every year at outstanding venues throughout the United States, including more than 400 in the Western states alone. To find a show and see for yourself, check out Greg Lawler and his helpful Art Fair Source Book.

Indian Wells was bright and shiny on the gorgeous April day of my visit, an alternate-universe oasis dropped into the desert near several other, similarly lush enclaves -- Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, and of course, Palm Springs, the original desert hideaway for Hollywood’s elite.

The venue was the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, the site only three weeks earlier of a major two-week international tennis tournament, the BNP Paribas Open, which drew more than 370,000 fans. I would love to have attended that event too, but this country boy can’t be hanging out in these environs for too long.

It was great to see the art, the array of exhibitors and the crowds browsing the tree-lined aisles of the Festival. About a dozen photographers’ work was on display, reflecting a wide disparity of styles and presentations. Landscape photography was the most prevalent form, including several artists who combined painting and photography in creative ways. Many really large pieces were on display, in hopes of attracting folks with some really large walls to fill. 

I had some great conversations with the artists, and left feeling I had learned a lot and met some top professionals. My favorite: Michael Gordon, a Long Beach, Calif., fine-art landscape photographer.  

Port Orford Headlands

Port Orford Head is the southern point of a huge sweeping arc of coastline bounded on the north by Cape Blanco. Looking south, the dome of Humbug Mountain emerges in the distance, as a new arc of Oregon coastline captures the imagination. Trails afford easy access to the entire headland, offering spectacular views in every direction. This photo was taken on February 2, 2012, on an idyllic winter day. Often its quite cold on these winter ventures but this day the temperature stayed in the mid-fifties till after sunset. It was quite unusual. Oh, you want to see the sunset?

The winter sky brings these shades of orange I don't think we see other times of year. The angle of the sun in relation to the earth, I think, creates some unique visual effects. The further north you go of course you experience the aurora borealis or northern lights caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere (thermosphere).

Logs to China

Logs are loaded on to the deck of the Sun Ruby out of Hong Kong. Up and down the West Coast, log exports to China are booming. Over the first six-months of 2011, the Port of Coos Bay shipped 56,000 MBF on around twelve vessels. It’s the most active year since 1996. 

My photo, "Logs to China," is making the rounds with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It is part of a photo story I did several months ago about massive exports of raw logs from forests in the Pacific Northwest, and the impact these huge shipments are having on local businesses, labor and the forest itself, whether privately or publicly held. 

I first posted the photo last year on the agency's State of the Environment website, and it was soon chosen as "picture of the day." Now, the EPA may reproduce it for a traveling exhibit. The power of storytelling in pictures is unbridled.

I'm working now on some "industrial photography" projects, to continue to highlight issues raised by the intersection of industry and the environment.  

Big Spray, Sunset Bay

Winter Surf is often impressive on the Oregon Coast. This day, I was perched on a narrow point on the south side of Sunset Bay, accessed by crawling through some bushes on a small animal trail. The coastal trails are extensive along the coast here, connecting a string of three state parks and the beautiful gardens at Shore Acres.

I met the guy on the point later on the trail and he showed me the spot through the bushes to get there. It was a grand view and my position, the wind whipping by, the waves exploding, lent a sense of adventure to my photo quest.
Sunset Bay State Park
2/18/12
See more photos at: http://jackkelly.smugmug.com

Golden Rocks

Wow! Sometimes when you go home from the shoot and you start to look at what you've got, you are just bowled over. The light on the rocks; I really like that, the quiet little mash of foam on the rock, the light, the grass. Believe me, I can't take credit for any of it. It's nature's creation and  I was lucky enough to catch the moment in time.

South from Cape Blanco, Oregon

One of Oregon's best kept secrets is the sometimes idyllic winter weather on the coast. This winter has been unusally dry, affording many photographic opportunities. This sweeping crescent of chocolate brown sand extends from Cape Blanco to Port Orford Heads in the distance, flanked by Humbug Mountain and the Siskiyou range in the far distance. Do you see even one person on this gorgeous streatch of beach? See more at: http://jackkelly.smugmug.com

1/12/12
Cape Blanco, Oregon

Sunset Bay Watercolor
The post sunset light blends ocean with sand with a water color like sheen. The end of another gorgeous sunlit summer day.

July 26, 2011
Sunset Bay State Park
http://www.oregonstateparks.org/conditions/sunsetbay