Mike.D.Green's photostream  

I'm not quite sure why, but this is one of my favourite images from my entire US trip. Perhaps it's because it's so simple overall, yet complex in its detail - I'm not sure. Somehow, it encapsulates everything about the mood of the landscape - as I saw it at least - on this circuit of the US desert states. It was captured in Zion, but could easily have been made in any of the canyons we visited, including the excellent Canyon de Chelly, which is the subject of my final US desert post.

Locations for photography: Canyon de Chelly, Arizona

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I thought I'd post something entirely different from the previous, cottonwood shot. This is also from Zion but a little bit more geometric and [almost] entirely lacking in vegetation.

I'll be interested to hear how big an area of rock people think this is! (Answer within the discussion below and in my blog linked here.)

Locations for photography: Zion National Park, Utah

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I grew to really like cottonwood trees whilst I was in Zion National Park (and other places). These ones, in the centre of the main valley, catch the sunlight very well throughout the day and seemed to be creating a type of amphitheatre in their midst.

As with most of these shots, they look a good bit better in the larger size! The blog article linked below has a few more images of Zion and my thoughts on the place.

Locations for photography: Zion National Park, Utah

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I came across this rather nice collection of leaves, frozen in amber coloured water near the mouth of the Hidden Canyon in Zion National Park.I like the haze and three-dimensionality of the ice and the lower layers of dead vegetation,and the shadowed colours were also rather nice.

After concentrating on this recessed ice for a while, I ambled into the Hidden Canyon for a few hundred metres, before deciding that it looked like an ideal kitty-zone and retreating back to more populous areas, hence, at least in part, the blog item linked below.

Musings on: not being eaten whilst photographing landscapes

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This was taken near the volcanic caldera image I uploaded recently. I wanted to capture something which showed what much of the terrain in the valley is like and this relatively dense and repetitious area of scrubby grass seemed to do the job.

ADDENDUM: after a couple of the comments below (thanks for the pointers!) I should point out that, this being a more than slightly dry area (!), the grasses become evenly spaced as they're the survivors from the competition for the trivial amounts of water available. Also, this is another one which works best viewed large.

Locations for photography: Death Valley National Park, California

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