Tag: Sedona

Lightning Across Northern Arizona — 2017

The North American Monsoon is now in full swing across the southwest and Arizona. This brings thundershowers almost every day to northern Arizona along with a chance to photograph lightning.

I have been photographing lightning for a long time with my earliest images using an old manual focus/exposure camera with film. Those were challenging because you had to guess at the exposure (although there were many fine articles online even then on camera settings). There was no way to do a quick check of the exposure to see if it was good. On the other hand, we usually shot in the evening or nighttime hours using long exposures of several seconds or more so you were usually pretty certain whether you had the shutter open at the right moment.

With digital, everything has changed. You can instantly check your image and see whether or not you captured the lightning. There are several lightning triggers on the market that will fire the shutter for you.

Here are some recent images taken in several different locations over the past few weeks.

Twilight lightning over the North Rim, Grand Canyon.
Twilight lightning over the North Rim, Grand Canyon.

These were mainly in-cloud flashes so the best option was to leave the shutter open for 10-15 seconds. The longer exposure also allows some stars to appear in the image.

Lightning near Kendrick Peak in northern Arizona.
Lightning near Kendrick Peak in northern Arizona.
Early evening thunderstorms move into Flagstaff, Arizona.
Early evening thunderstorms move into Flagstaff, Arizona.
Sunset lightning in Sedona, Arizona.
Sunset lightning in Sedona, Arizona.

 

Moon Rise and Cathedral Rock

The June full moon is known as the “Strawberry Moon” and will occur on June 9, 2017 this year. I enjoy photographing the moon the day (or two) before the full moon. With the moon rising before sunset, Cathedral Rock is still sunlit and provides a striking contrast with the moon.

Moon rise behind Cathedral Rock, Sedona, Arizona.
Moon rise behind Cathedral Rock, Sedona, Arizona.

The photograph was taken at Crescent Moon Picnic Area on the banks of Oak Creek. The full moon this month is a MiniMoon, the opposite of the so-called SuperMoon. This means that the disk of the moon is smaller than average as the moon is at apogee, or its farthest distance from the Earth. If it had been at perigee (closest distance), the disk of the moon might have been larger than the gap.

Or I could have just shot the photograph from farther away.

Mountain biking in Sedona — Fall 2016 edition

The weather has been pretty dry across northern Arizona this fall and, as a result, we have done all of our mountain biking in Flagstaff.

But the good and dry weather finally ended and we have found ourselves down in Sedona riding several times since Thanksgiving week. The rain that fell in late November resulted in the trails being in great condition. The dry and dusty trails are now perfectly damp and tacky providing great traction and grip (“gription”). Some folks call it Hero dirt.

A few photos from those days of riding…

Stair step drops on Chuckwagon Trail.
Stair step drops on Chuckwagon Trail.
An alternate line on Chuckwagon Trail.
An alternate line on Chuckwagon Trail.
Mescal Trail.
Mescal Trail.
Action sequence on Canyon of Fools Trail.
Action sequence on Canyon of Fools Trail.
Scorpion Trail.
Scorpion Trail.
Secret Slickrock Trail.
Secret Slickrock Trail.
Easy Breezy Trail.
Easy Breezy Trail.
Adobe Jack Trail.
Adobe Jack Trail.

 

A preview of the monsoon

The North American Monsoon (NAM) is slowly developing across northern Mexico but has not yet spread northward into Arizona. Nonetheless, some tropical moisture moved northward across the state and produced some showers and thunderstorms. In fact, one thunderstorm produced almost 1/2 inch of rain on the southwest side of Flagstaff (including my house!) and the temperature dropped more than 25°F resulting in pleasant conditions.

These storms produced a cool outflow boundary that pushed southward off the Mogollon Rim and into the lower elevations. These outflows can result in new thunderstorms forming over Sedona—one of my favorite places for photographing storms and lightning. And so I headed to Sedona.

The outflow boundary was apparent as a line of shallow cumulus clouds roughly aligned east to west across the area. I selected a spot on Upper Red Rock Crossing Road to shoot towards Cathedral Rock and then waited for lightning.

Evening sunlight spreads across Cathedral Rock.
Evening sunlight spreads across Cathedral Rock.

It was a long wait.

From first test photo to first lighting was a little over an hour. I’m patient but I almost gave up.Then, suddenly, a flash across the sky. Missed it—because I was zoomed in too tight. A moment later—another flash and this one I got. And that was it. No more flashes.

Lightning strikes behind Pyramid Peak.
Lightning strikes behind Pyramid Peak.

Time to move to another location and shoot twilight colors. I often find myself at the defunct Sedona Cultural Park because it has wide open vistas to the west (at least for now). I arrived as the sun was setting and everyone else was leaving. But the so-called “Blue Hour” can be the best time. If you take long exposures, you can get some really nice colors. I particularly liked this cloud because of the thin streamers of precipitation falling with twilight colors in the background.

Thin streamers of precipitation fall as the twilight fades.
Thin streamers of precipitation fall as the twilight fades.

A day later and the moisture has moved out of the area resulting in more typical hot, dry days with clear blue skies. Boring.