City Daily Photo Theme Day - Best of 2017

January 1 is the day City Daily Photo members post their best work of the year. It's theoretically supposed to be one picture, I think, but I'm greedy. These are my favorites. 
       

There is a tie for first, two photos taken a short time apart in Canyonlands National Park In Utah. The first is the baddest of the badlands. The second shows two men playing with their cameras, while only a child appreciates the awesome beauty of the scene.     

Portrait Of The Year

Our friend Olivier Perrin on the tramway between Governor's Island in the East River, New York City, on our way to midtown Manhattan.      

Leading to the Travel Photo Of The Year

Taken seconds after the last one with a 180 turn - the Queensboro Bridge from the tramway heading into midtown.      

Best Theatrical Picture

I've done a lot of theatrical photography in last year and this shot is my favorite - Chicago performer Matthew Markum doing Pollack: A Frequency Parable. Free jazz with words and abstract expressionist art.   

Best Grandchildren, Period

Audrey  and Ellie, taken in Clare, Michigan, within a few days of their second and fourth birthdays.

And last, another best picture of paradise, Playa Langosta, Tamarindo, Costa Rica. It's been here before. Thanks, Dave and Julie! 

More adventures await.

Model By Chance

It's legal in the US to photograph anyone in public spaces with the usual restrictions on commercial use. It's not like that everywhere. (Don't photograph other people's kids in the UK without permission!) So when I was presented with someone else's model overlooking the Canyonlands bottom I took what was offered. 

Gotta get out on the streets of STL again this weekend. There are a couple of things going on.

    

Would You Drive This Road?

That dirt road is the Schafer Trail. It zig-zags down from the mesa on top known as the Island In The Sky to the floor in Canyonlands National Park, a drop of nearly a mile with sheer drop-offs throughout. We did it as passengers in a heavy four wheel drive vehicle. That was scary enough.             

Thursday Arch Series

All stone this time, no metal. That's why the park has its name.

Monochrome

Black and white shots of the American west can be dramatic. Think Ansel Adams. He and I share a birthday but, um, the comparison ends there. And there is no point in considering a pattern since Kurt Cobain was born on the same date.

So, some attempts at B&W from Arches National Park. The improbable structure above is called Balancing Rock. No idea how it formed but it certainly suggests impermanence.

Do your own Rorschach test on the second pic. Some people thought of a lion, others of a Mesopotamian ruler. I think it looks like an English barrister with full wig who is about to unleash a mighty sneeze. And the third one? Maybe a microscopic illustration from a pathology textbook.     

Fiery Furnace, Or, Better You Than Me

 

There is a section of Arches National Park known as the Fiery Furnace, not because of its heat but due to the intense red color of the sandstone near sunset. As the signs indicate, you can go wander around the complex arrangement of stone fins and canyons but only with permission of the park rangers. You have to go along with them or prove you know what you are doing so they don't have to drag your sorry (and possibly deceased) butt out of there. 

The bottom picture gives some idea of what you are getting into but the link above makes the point much more clearly. I wouldn't go in there if the Seven Cities of Gold were inside offering to give me their debit cards and Trump promised to resign.   

Desert Critters

I'll be doing back-fill from the trip for a while but there's lots to show. 

We normally think of the desert being dry as James Bond's martini, but it it weren't for water all the fantastical shaping of rock would be impossible. We happened upon a little spring-fed stream that created its own ecosystem. This frog was as tiny as it was beautiful. A short distance onward brought us a more expected lizard. The two critters were near each other but a world apart, unlikely ever to meet.  

Why People Come Here

There is nowhere in the world like this and it is hard to experience it completely on your own. One highway runs through and there are a couple of streets that go to hotels, restaurants and shops. To really see it, you need to go into the dirt and sand roads of the back country, something you dare not do alone. It takes a local guide and a heavy four wheel drive vehicle.

We booked a full day trip with Phillips Photography Tours. I cannot say enough good about them and our driver-guide, Tully. Mrs. C and I saw things the bus tours could not imagine. A few Navajo live in isolated homes that had no electricity until the coming of solar panels. There are still some hogons, traditional dwellings in the shape of a dome, made of intricately interlaced juniper logs and covered with dried mud. That is where we met Cecelia, spinning local sheep's wool and making exquisite wall hangings and blankets.

I took about 1,500 shots so there is a lot of editing to do We have no early morning tour today so we will rest a little longer and eventually head towards Second Mesa, Arizona, and the Hopi Reservation.       

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Entering Monument Valley.

Driving into Monument late Thursday afternoon in less than ideal light. In and out clouds, a bit of a sprinkle but, most important of all, fire haze. There are wildfires throughout the region and, although not right around here, the ash stung our eyes.

As you can see, this is pretty empty country. Civilization awaited us at the end of today's road. Up early Friday. We've booked a full day private photography tour in the back country with a Navajo guide.

Canyonlands In Bad Light

While Tuesday was brilliantly sunny, most of yesterday was hazy and covered in wispy cloud. Not the kind of light you're looking for on a day trip to Canyonlands National Park. So, to paraphrase an old saying, when life gives you lemons, open Photoshop. Try B&W, bump up the saturation and contrast, leave it dark, sharpen like crazy.

And by the way, I was wrong when I said yesterday that there are only two national parks with arches. The second photo is Mesa Arch in Canyonlands. A commenter told me that Bryce Canyon, to the west in Utah, has some, too.         

Arches National Park

There are only two U.S. National Parks that contain arches. One is outside my office window. It has a single example. This one in Utah has about 1,500. Nowhere else in the world like it, and the geology is complex. But there are so many more spectacular vistas. This post is limited to the arches themselves (including Delicate, Double, South Window, Sand Dunes, Skyline, and possibly Whatchamacallit Arch) but there are fins, walls, pinnacles and impossibly balancing boulders everywhere. We work hard when we travel. When to edit?

Canyonlands National Park today. And top photo courtesy of my constant travel companion.      

Moab

This is not Missouri (or, Toto, Kansas). We traveled a good way yesterday and ended our journey in Moab, Utah. It sits between two spectacular national parks, Arches and Canyonlands. There is road construction in Arches, the traffic has been terrible and the forecast for Tuesday is 101 F / 38 C. We hope to be at the gate at 7 when it opens.

Dinner last night at the Moab Brewery. There are many odd things hanging from the ceiling, including beer-laden skydivers. There was time for a brief drive along a quiet part of the Colorado River afterward.    

STL DPB On The Road: Zion National Park

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We drove two and a half hours northeast of Las Vegas yesterday, cutting across the corner of Arizona and into Utah to visit Zion National Park. The Virgin River cuts a deep and spectacular gorge, giving visitors a complex lesson in geology. Although the park is surrounded by desert, its cool micro-climate and ample water create a unique oasis.