Across the Southwest / Adam Schallau

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.

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.

I have a few new images to share from my outing to the Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve, and the southern tip of the San Luis Valley. The weather was less than cooperative for most of the day with strong wind and some smoke from wildfires in New Mexico and Colorado.

At Great Sand Dunes, Medano Creek has begun to flow and was creating some very interesting patterns in the sand. With the wind blowing sand everywhere I elected to shoot with one lens to avoid lens changes and introducing sand into the camera body. For the two shoots presented here I used the Canon 24-70 f/2.8L which allowed me to frame compositions from wide-angle to short-telephoto. I had planned on photographing at the dunes all day and staying for sunset, but the wind continued to get stronger and I quickly grew tired of getting sand blasted.

After leaving the dunes I headed for a spot that I have photographed once before, the Lobatos Bridge over the Rio Grande River near the Colorado - New Mexico state line. I spent the afternoon hiking along the river looking for petroglyphs and enjoying bird watching. Near sunset I moved up into the San Luis Hills just west of the river and scouted a location to shoot across the hills looking back towards the Latir Range of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Mother Nature cooperated and provided me with nice clouds, some sweet pink light, and the wind subsided for a few minutes.

After sunset I packed up and started the long drive across the desert back to Taos. Along the way I had to cross back over the Lobatos Bridge just as the moon was rising over the distant mountains. With my headlights illuminating the bridge and the moon ahead I had to stop and create one more photo. This last image was shot with the 24-70mm lens, ISO 100, and the exposure was 30 seconds at f/11.

All things considered I think it was a successful day. I love to hear what you think.

…actually we’re back home again after our second trip to Texas in two weeks. This time we made a trip down to Big Bend National Park to start my project on Santa Elena Canyon that is funded through the Luminous Landscape Endowment.

The weather was excellent with highs in the low 80s, the wind was calm, and mother nature provided some nice clouds. On the morning we left Terlingua for the return trip to New Mexico we ran into storms with high-winds and very threatening skies, but as we approached the town of Alpine, Texas the storms began to clear and we were treated to this beautiful rainbow.

What a beautiful evening at White Sands National Monument in southern New Mexico. It has been over eight years since my last visit to this wonderful place and back then I had not really discovered photography yet. I hiked into the dune field a couple hours before sunset, found “my spot” and waited for the light. I had expected a brilliant sunset, but that never came to fruition. Instead I was rewarded with the soft light that created the pastels that you see in the photo above. >>>Click here to see some of my other images from White Sands National Monument<<<.

I’m excited to announce that I’m one of eight recipients of the 2007/2008 Luminous Landscape Endowment Fund!

About the endowment with text from LuminousLandscape.com:

In August 2007 The Luminous Landscape Inc., created a fund designed to provide financial assistance to photographers to help finance worthwhile photographic projects. A call for submissions was made, with a deadline of Feb 11, 2008.

This fund was financed by readers like you through purchases of our download video tutorials, and also by individual donors and corporate sponsors. In all $20,000 was raised during our initial funding period. (You can read about the program and application process here.)

More than 200 applications were received, and our panel of judges found selecting just a handful of photographers and their projects a most difficult task. The applications selected were, in each case, put forward by at least two of the judges. Continue Reading »