Granite Mountain

Euphoria

It’s funny how personal photography can be. This is my favorite image from my leave of absence but if I had shown it to myself at the start of my leave I would have been confused, recognizing the scene but not the significance. For me it captures the joy and even euphoria I felt as my mind unwound taking Bear into the desert every day. As big as he is his shadow was too short to stretch across the massive rock face so you won’t see him, but I do. I see myself too and not just my shadow, but a self that was coming out of the shadows. I had to put him back into semi-hibernation for a while but we’ll meet again.

📷: Nikon Z fc | Nikon 16-50 DX
🗓️: January 26, 2024

On Top of the World

A couple of weeks ago as Bear and I had Balanced Rock to ourselves I was forcefully struck at how I was happier than I had been in a very long time. Not that there hadn’t been plenty of happy times in the years prior but that after several months of leave my mind had finally unwound and let me stay and revel in each little moment. Surprisingly rather than the euphoria slipping away with the realization my leave was about to come to a crashing halt, it stayed with me as we hiked back out through this stunning land.

📷: Nikon Z fc | Nikon 16-50 DX
🗓️: January 26, 2024

The Old Man and the C’s

I’m a big fan of public art, even if it’s very much with a lowercase ‘a’, even if it’s just a bit of whimsy. This photograph is me feeling playful at the end of a wonderful walk with Bear at Granite Mountain, I love how they lined the parking area for horse trailers with old horseshoes. Perhaps they’ll regret it down the road if it makes it more expensive to resurface the lot, but I like the reminder that not everything – and everyone – needs to be some flavor of beige.

📷: Nikon Z 7II | Nikon 24-200mm
🗓️: January 9, 2024

Air Evacuation

As Bear and I hiked to Balanced Rock via the easier wide path (to be kinder to his paws) we were passed by the Scottsdale Fire Department on their way to a trail rescue. On the way back we took the narrower rocky paths to stay out of their way if they needed to evacuate someone, but they must have called for air support as when we were far along this helicopter came past and hovered near the rescue site. Hope they’re OK.

📷: Nikon Z fc | Nikon 16-50mm DX
🗓️: January 14, 2024

The Living & The Dead

I was walking Bear when I was struck by this beautiful but dead saguaro and took a few shots, I prefer this composition that includes a lot of the other living and dead plants around it with Granite Mountain anchoring the background. I haven’t taken Bear on the full loop around the mountain, now that he’s getting back into shape and the weather is cool enough, I’ll give him a chance soon. The uphill part is at the start so I’ll get a quick gauge of how he’s doing and can double back if he struggles, but I suspect he’ll be just fine.

📷: Nikon Z 7II | Nikon 24-200
Date: November 1, 2023

Friends in High Places

As part of getting Bear ready for hiking again I took him for the first time to the short trail up the hill in Cavalliere Park. He loves looking out from up high so I gave him a moment to take in the view. I always try to sneak in the four mountains that helped me get my bearings when we moved here, especially Brown’s Mountain just above his nose as well as Cholla Mountain above his shoulders and Granite Mountain above his rump. Cone Mountain is blocked by vegetation but would be to his left.

The Sunset Watch, Part II

A week after watching a pair of Harris’s hawks on a large boulder at sunset, I saw them again on the boulder but this time from a different vantage point. I thought about waiting to see if they would stick around until sunset for a different take on the image, but I was in the mood to hike and decided to hoof it out to my favorite cactus. I never got there as I found this pair of kestrels on a distant saguaro and spent the end of the day with them instead. I’ve long loved photographing the encroaching sun or shadow at the start and end of the day, I forget exactly when the fascination first took hold but it was probably on a visit to the Tetons many years ago.

I haven’t been out hiking since, I’ve been taking Bear on really long walks on weekend mornings and afternoons, I need to find a better balance but it’s hard because I can’t usually walk him during the work week.

📷: Sony A6500 | Sony 100-400mm | Sony 1.4X
🗓️: November 6, 2022

Eyes in the Sky

Kestrels are one of the birds that live both in our old home in the rainy Northwest and our current home in the arid Southwest. In Washington I’d often see them hovering above a large meadow, looking for Townsend’s voles sneaking through the grasses below. One day I watched one hunting earthworms in the soggy soil like a robin in falcon’s clothing. I’ve seen them a number of times here but have yet to witness the hovering behavior, I’m guessing since they have natural perches that let them sit up high and watch for small creatures without a dense canopy of leaves or needles obscuring the view below.

Taken with the Nikon Z 24-200mm, after buying the Nikon Z fc I liked it enough to immediately buy this lens, partially for environmental portraits like this one of a female kestrel as the clouds rolled in on a December afternoon.

A Quiet Morning in December

A quiet morning in December, looking north to Granite Mountain. The large depression was created decades ago when the giant lizard who had been resting beneath the mountain finally woke, shaking off its slumber and heading west to California and the Pacific Ocean. It was seen swimming in the direction of Tokyo but I don’t know what happened to it after that, hope it had a good life.

A Quiet Beginning

Granite Mountain to the north in the soft light as New Year’s Eve dawned, even as clouds in the east and west began to catch fire. I have a fondness for the subtlety of this first shot of the day, the year ending meant my vacation soon would too, along with the daily hikes it afforded. These quiet moments never last long, the day always rushes in behind.