McDowell Sonoran Preserve – Page 13

The Ascetic Aesthetic

High on a snow-covered mountain I came across this secluded retreat, only the wooden door hinting at the dwelling behind, carved into the sheer cliff face. I wondered who would answer if I approached and knocked. Perhaps a desert ascetic meditating in the highest places. Perhaps a mystic who removed themselves from the world to better understand it, waiting to answer all my questions. Perhaps this is where all the rattlesnakes go to wait out the winter.

I decided not to knock.

📷: Nikon Z fc | Nikon 105mm macro
🗓️: December 12, 2023

Not Latourell Falls

I was thinking of Latourell Falls in Oregon when I took this picture, there’s a rock face beside the waterfall completely coated in yellow lichen. The gray wood stood in for the high cliff face, and while the lichen here is but sparse compared to its Oregon counterpart, it is a little more moist beside a waterfall than on a dead tree in the desert.

📷: Nikon Z 7II | Nikon 105mm macro
🗓️: November 29, 2023

The Bad Lands

This dying prickly pear pad reminded me of an overhead view of a desert full not of saguaros but carnivorous ocotillos. The real Sonoran Desert wouldn’t be much fun to cross without adequate supplies, but it could be worse.

📷: Nikon Z 7II | Nikon 105mm macro
🗓️: November 16, 2023

Little Big Bangs

As I stared down the borehole of one of my favorite pieces of art, it felt more like I was photographing The Big Bang rather than the aftermath of a bunch of small ones. The hole was only 4 or 5 feet off the ground and the old saguaro’s skin hardened around it. I’d photograph these more but sadly I have not yet gotten my wish to be 50 feet tall and/or to have wings, but fingers crossed for 2024!

📷: Nikon Z 7II | Nikon 105mm macro
🗓️: December 3, 2023

Green Valleys

I have this romantic notion of photographing every saguaro I can see from the trails, however there are a lot more of them than there are of me so until that changes I’ll have to settle for my favorites. I’ve had my eye on this saguaro for a while, in this little area the skin has hardened around the areoles but deep in the pleats the skin remains supple. While the Valley of the Sun isn’t known for being green, Portland certainly was, and for me the hardened skin looming over the soft flesh is an homage to the lush Willamette Valley nestled beneath the Cascades, the few areoles with spikes sticking out standing in for the occasionally irritable volcanoes.

The Night Owls

Two night owls, one on each side of the camera. One of us has excellent vision, one of us doesn’t get dizzy when standing on a high ledge, both think mushrooms and green beans are disgusting. My favorite image from a set right as a mountain started to block the setting sun.

📷: Sony A6700 | Sony 100-400mm | Sony 1.4X
🗓️: November 21, 2023

Pup in Boots

A few days ago I took Bear on a short hike in dog shoes to see how he’d do, it took him a couple of tenths of a mile to find his stride but then it was full steam ahead. Whenever we hike this trail he stops for a while to watch the metallic animal sculptures placed in the desert, the mountain lion in particular confuses him as the shape suggests danger when his nose is clearly telling him there is none.

📷: Sony A6700 | Sony-Zeiss 24mm f/1.8
🗓️: November 25, 2023

Lovers in a Dangerous Time

A pair of mourning doves on a crucifixion thorn, one of the most common desert birds and unlike the white-winged dove, year-round residents.

Symbiosis

Sperm whales often sleep vertically with their heads below the surface but here they poke their heads above the desert floor, providing antelope squirrels protection from their many predators while relying on them as lookouts for orcas or peg-legged hikers with a look of mania about them.

📷: Sony A6700 | Sony 100-400mm | Sony 1.4X
🗓️: November 21, 2023

Surprise Test

Though I see them frequently in the neighborhood I rarely see roadrunners in the local preserve and have never photographed one there. So of course as I took a quick hike to test out a camera so newly arrived I hadn’t yet set it up to my liking, the first animal I see is a roadrunner posing on a boulder. So lovely to see, as their name implies while they can fly they prefer to walk, and can really scoot when they want to.

📷: Sony A6700 | Sony 100-400mm | Sony 1.4X
🗓️: November 21, 2023