Across the Southwest / Adam Schallau

Late last month I was exploring along the San Juan River near the town of Mexican Hat, Utah. It was nearly 100 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, and the wind was blowing. To be honest, I was prepared to write the day off when I spotted a bit of color among the drab brush. What I found was a single cactus in bloom with a brilliant flower perched atop it’s spiny base. With my wife holding a diffuser to soften the light, I was able to create the image you see here.

Details: Canon EOS 5D, 70-200mm f/4L IS @ 200mm.

This was one of my last images from my recent trip to Grand Canyon National Park. I came across this agave while hiking back up to the rim from my morning shoot.

Details: Canon 5D, 24-70mm f/2.8L at 48mm.

I’d like to invite you to attend the Taos Land Trust’s 14th Annual Art & Adventures Auction on Saturday, June 14, 2008 at the Kachina Lodge Convention Center in Taos, New Mexico. There will be a silent auction, live auction preview that runs from 2:30 - 5:30PM with the live auction from 6:30 - 8:30PM.

I have donated a framed print of my photo titled ‘Pre-dawn, Monument Valley, and a 1-hour private photography or Photoshop lesson to the Land Trust for the auction.

For more information about the auction and the Taos Land Trust, please visit their website at www.taoslandtrust.org.

Here are a few images from an afternoon spent photographing the mules and cowboys at the Grand Canyon upon their return from another successful trip down (and back up) the Bright Angel Trail. All images were captured with a Canon 5D and the wonderful 70-200mm f/4L IS lens.

After completing our orbit around the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers we headed north towards Nankoweap Butte and Marble Canyon. By this point in the flight my hands were beginning to get very cold and numb. We were flying at an altitude of 9,500 feet and I had the window open for nearly the entire flight to avoid photographing through the plexiglas. I wish I had brought some light-weight gloves along on the flight. Continue Reading »

If you are looking for a unique experience and a different view of the Grand Canyon, you may want to consider a scenic helicopter flight. Flights depart the South Rim heliport and make either a quick trip across the canyon, or circumnavigate it in a counter-clockwise direction.

My wife and I chose the latter. After liftoff from Grand Canyon Airport you head east 500 feet over one of the world’s largest Ponderosa Pine forests as you make your way to Desert View and the eastern canyon. For the first few minutes of the flight, the canyon is barely visible off to the left as the pilot follows the FAA approved corridor for helicopter operations. Just before Desert View the helicopter turns north and within seconds the world drops out from underneath us as we begin our experience over the Grand Canyon. Continue Reading »

It has been 8-years since my last visit to the Grand Canyon and on my first day there Mother Nature treated us to a wonderful rainbow. Unfortunately the storm was a sign of things to come. During our 5-days, 4-nights (camping) we experienced everything from sunshine to snow, with more bad weather than good. The storm system that parked itself over the Four Corners provided excellent conditions for dramatic photography of Grand Canyon and I can’t wait to share more images with you.

A fast moving late May storm brought low clouds and snow showers to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. As the storm cleared I was treated to this Brocken spectre and glory that lasted for only a few seconds. A Brocken spectre is an optical phenomenon where the sun casts a long shadow into the mist and fog below, and a glory is the rainbow halo that appears around the head of the person’s shadow and is caused by light refracting of water droplets in the atmosphere.

If you happen to pickup a copy of the June 2008 issue of New Mexico Magazine you will discover a few of my images in the articles “Taking the High Road” by Katie Arnold, and “Keeping Current” by Steve Shoup. I’d also like to mention that I was impressed with the magazine’s art team and their ability to faithfully reproduce the colors in my images.

The photo of chile ristras hanging from a turquoise beam was shot last summer in Chimayo near the santuario. The other photo of cat tails and red willow was shot this past March along the banks of the Rio Grande River in the Orilla Verde Recreation Area near the village of Pilar, New Mexico. There is a third photo in the magazine shot this past July from the rim of the Rio Grande River Gorge west of Taos.

Ever since I got my first ’serious’ tripod, a Bogen 3001, I have been wrapping my tripod legs with foam pipe insulation and black duct tape to add a little padding for when I’m carrying it over my shoulder. I’ve recently made the switch to a Gitzo GT3540LS Series 3 Systematic 6X carbon fiber tripod (wow, that’s a mouthful) and the first thing I did after drooling over it was add the foam, giving it a nice ‘Mad Max’ look. I also make one other addition to my tripods that I’d like to share here on Across the Southwest.

I commonly use a remote release in my photography so I don’t have to actually touch the camera to fire the shutter, which provides me with a more stable shooting platform. Even though I live in the desert-southwest I often find myself shooting with the tripod in the water, whether it be a mountain lake, or the Rio Grande River. Several times now I have discovered my remote release dangling an inch or two above the water, and it’s gone swimming once. What I needed was a place to stick my release where it couldn’t go swimming (again) while I’m composing my shot.

My solution was to adhere a piece of 1/2″ Velcro around one of my tripod legs with a small piece of Velcro on the back side of the release. Now I’ve got a place to stick the remote release that will keep it out of the water, and out of the way when composing a shot.

If you find this tip useful or have one of your own that you would like to share, I’d love to hear about it.