Life On Mars

Red Rock on Highway 313

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of visiting the Colorado Plateau of Utah, Arizona, and Colorado, it's not like any other place on Earth. Human beings are rather used to seeing life all around them: we look at the mountains not thinking about how we aren't just seeing the rock, but also the living things on the mountain and the result of those organisms being there. Make no mistake plants hold mountains together, and they can change a dull rock into an enduring testament of life: think of a tree seemingly fused together with a solid granite bolder.

But the Colorado Plateau is somewhat different. It's basically a giant photography studio. Here the scenic beauty is dominated by the landforms and the plants and animals have little if any impact. Which is what makes it so photographically appealing: red rock with green plants? How great is that? You don't even need to worry about filters (I was sitting dead red in terms of filter the entire trip) or shooting in black and white (a tremendous waste of red rock in my opinion). In fact the only thing you really need to worry about since everything is so still and lifeless is light.

Well, that and weather. My recent trip to Canyonlands National Park and Goblin Valley was marred somewhat by bad weather. August is the wettest and most unpredictable month weather wise, and in the desert the weather can change fast. Very fast. This is why I did not hike Little Wildhorse Canyon, a fantastic and photogenic slot canyon. While it was dry as a bone when I went to the trail head, the dark thunderclouds ahead just posed to great a risk of a flash flood.

In fact, massive merging thunderstorms prevented me from hiking there, albeit while giving me a hell of a show in terms of lightening. Lesson in photographic frustration: I stood at the viewpoint for 30 minutes snapping well over 200 pictures trying to get a shot of lightening. Nothing. Nothing even though I was snapping while lightening struck. Shutter speed was off, and too make matters worse, I was increasing the shutter speed when I should have been lowering it.

No technical details with these photos, because, well I just fooled around until I got the light right. That's what makes red country so inviting: it's easy to shoot, and everything is photogenic.

Colorado River

This photo I took just east of Moab. The Colorado River here is muddy with red soils, but unlike a lot of other rivers, mud does not make the Colorado uglier, in fact it makes it more beautiful. I took this to show the contrast between the shaded river and the sunlit river.

An experiment in perspective: cliffside view from the first angle. Step forward two feet and it looks like an aerial view.


Goblins at Goblin Valley. Actually, just one Goblin taken from different sides. These rocks are fascinating and I'm sure you could easier scour the valley trying to find the most photogenic one. Goblin Valley was one of the most lifeless and serene places I've ever been. It truly is Mars on Earth.


I was hiking early in the morning and turned just in time to see the light hit the Butte before it hit the rest of the valley. The result was two minutes to shoot this spectacular, once a day lighting situation.



The fun thing about red rock is that lowering the aperture and/or shutter speed essentially dictates whether the rock will appear dark red or a glowing orange, and in both cases it makes for great photos.


15 Second Exposure of a campfire. Accident that occurred when I was trying to shoot at night and I decided to have some fun.