Los Angeles is one of the few places where the stars come out below you. Both literally and figuratively. Over the course of this trip I am realizing that the best part of being a photographer is you have to be there. A painter can put brush to canvas in a basement but photographers get to go to these locations and experience them first hand.
City of Angles from Carl Stevens on Vimeo.
Hollywood Sign from Carl Stevens on Vimeo.
I spent most of the day on the road to Phoenix yesterday, making one stop in an amazing valley. The entire valley is covered with windmills of all types. It is a wonderful sight to be able to see green power being created and behind it the reason for its creation.
My journey in the most american of directions has brought me just about as far as I can go. I spent Friday walking the beach in along the city of angles to photograph Santa Monica and Venice Piers. These are the first in my series of wave images taken on the ocean.
Last night my tour of the south west took me to the Rhythm Room in Phoenix to hear Tony Lucca and Keaton Simons. It was the first show of their tour and a great first show at that. The two of them who normally play separately showed true humility by taking the stage together and not stepping into the headliner position individually. Click here and see if this great blues show is coming to a venue near you.
I spent the day at Liberty Wildlife getting the tour and taking some photos. I have never seen large birds so close, it was great. They let me release a small bird back into the wild. There will be more wildlife photos in coming weeks for sure.
These are the images of the mountain stream I mentioned in the last post. It was a challenge to climb down to the stream with all my camera equipment but even harder to climb back up. It was more than a 45 degree incline covered with loose rocks. Landscape photography lesson #52 is big rocks on the side of a mountain are not the most steady. Thankfully the large rocks I caused to fall were falling away from me and not on top of me.
I took another drive into the mountains this week with my camera. I found a great mountain stream that fell through a series of falls that was great. They will be in my next post.
I hiked into Lost Dutchman's State Park today. The park is on the west side of the Superstition Mountains and gets it's name from an old myth about a lost gold mine know as the lost dutchman's mine. This most famous of american lost mines is said to be cursed or protected by guardians keeping the gold safe for it's former Apache Tribe owners. Maybe it's the snakes this sign warn about that is keeping the mine hidden.
My trip on Thursday to the Superstition Mountains was rained out. But on the way back to Phoenix I stopped by Lost Dutchman State Park to see this.
It's the trailing edge of the rain storm I had been in all day long. The sun was pouring through a single hole in the cloud spilling onto a cliff face. It only lasted for a minute and then it was gone.
I spent an entire day shooting time lapse photos in and around Phoenix last week. This shot was made while leaning against the 202 loop on a 45 degree angle. Proof that a tripod is good for something.
Downtown Phoenix from Carl Stevens on Vimeo.
I spent Saturday driving around with my camera finding something to take a picture of. Three locations later I found this little spot just outside phoenix.
Big Red Rocks from Carl Stevens on Vimeo.
Monument Valley Sunrise from Carl Stevens on Vimeo.
I drove through bad weather for most of the trip so I did not stop nearly as much as I would have liked. I had to skip the Grand Tetons because of overcast and they wouldn't even let me in Arches National Park. This landscape is some where between Jackson Hole and Salt Lake City. The sun was struggling to break through those clouds and bouncing of the red rock face behind me. I love the purple hue the clouds took on.
Yellowstone was amazing, so amazing in fact that my camera could not take it and stopped working. It was that or the -21 weather we had that morning. I was able to take two photos but still had a great time. The rivers that run through the park never freeze because they are both fast moving and thermally active. Because of this they steam which freezes in the air and falls very slowly to the ground. The air literally sparkles because of these microscopic ice particles. A group of us took 10 snow mobiles 30 miles into the park to old faithful. It was one of the most inspiring things I have ever seen. You have to go if you get a chance.
It was a long trip but I am finally here in Phoenix Now that I have arrived and got some work done I can start a series of posts on my trip. Bad weather forced me to skip several landmarks I wanted to photograph. You will see that first hand in this time lapse of my drive to Yellowstone.
The drive to yellowstone from Carl Stevens on Vimeo.
Those of you who get my twitter feed saw this coming. These are just a few of the images from Kyle Feerick's recording session. Some of you may have seen Kyle in an earlier blog post. You can tell he is now fully domesticated because one of the first things he said to me is "you have to try one of my wife's cookies". The cookies were pretty good.
Check out some of his music here.
This will be the last album I post for the year. Now it's on to the revisions! I really like the way Abby and Ryan's book came out. It feels like a unified design and the images look great even if I do say so myself. Leave a comment and let me know what you think.
Abby and Ryan's Book
Two more spreads from Abby and Ryan's wedding. I love the shot of the wedding party leaving church.
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