I have several photographs accompanying the article. I’d like to thank Chris, Jesse, Michele and Liliana at Vivác Winery in Dixon, New Mexico, for their time and hospitality. Here are the pictures that accompany the article.

Click an image to enlarge

If you are interested in ordering a print of this image, please give me a call or contact me using the contact button at the top of this page.

What a difference two years makes.

I’ve driven Mokee Dugway on Highway 261 countless times and I remember always seeing a few stickers on the sign at the top of the switcbacks, but I wasn’t prepared for what i found this past May on my drive to the top. As you can see in the above photo, the sign is nearly completely covered with stickers from passing tourists. I wonder how long it will be before the Utah Department of Transportation replaces the sign and the process starts all over.

Panoramic Dawn ~ Monument Valley

It’s time to start posting some new images again. Today I offer a panoramic of dawn over Monument Valley. I had actually captured this same scene 4 years ago with my old 6 megapixel Canon Rebel and cropped it down to create a panoramic crop. I loved that image but it was impossible to make a large print since I was only working with 3 megapixels after the crop.

For the past 4 years I’ve been wanting to recapture this scene, but this time with a better camera and with multiple images stitched together. I’ve tried many times but ran into many problems including clear skies, and high wind. Clear skies aren’t such a bad thing, other than they are quite boring for most landscape photography, but the wind would keep me from getting a sharp photo and would make it difficult to stitch together multiple images.

This past May I made another attempt. I was pleasantly surprised to awake to pleasant temperatures, soft clouds, and a calm breeze. I setup my camera and tripod in the dark (4:30am to be exact) and waited for first light. I knew from past attempts that I didn’t want any direct light on the landscape because the red rock in the foreground cliffs is very brilliant when the sunlight strikes it, distracting from the rest of the scene. I managed to capture the three exposures I needed just before the light started to illuminate the cliffs.

After stitching the three images together, the resulting image is 28.3 megapixels. At full resolution you can clearly see the West Mitten, Three Sisters, the “Hub”, and even Agathla Peak which is over 30 miles away (as the raven flies) near the town of Kayenta, Arizona.

This image is available in a limited edition of 50 prints. Please contact me for pricing and availability.

I’m now displaying my fine art photo galleries separate from my stock database with a new look to that part of the website. The end result is that all of my images can now be efficiently found through a keyword search, and many of my best fine art images can be viewed in one place.

I will continue to add images to both the fine art pages and the stock database as I create new work.

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

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

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.