Glen Canyon NRA, Monument Valley and Natural Bridges NM

Today we started off visiting Glen Canyon National Recreation Area which is on Lake Powell. This is a gorgeous area to visit and I had no clue about it (I am sure there are many more that I have no clue about.) the reason for stopping here was Doctor Who as part of Series 6 was filmed there. I have so many pictures to convert to b/w as I didn't shoot a lot of film there. The striations in the rocks were fantastic to look at and this is a region that had a lot of geologic activity so the striations are at many different angles giving a lot of lines for your eyes to follow. Loved it!

We went to the Lone Rock area of the park. There was a cute fee collector with an accent and voice that I could lose myself listening to. Even my son liked it and told me I could date her, hahaha (laughing at his comment not at dating her) while it was a short visit I know I will go back there again to camp and get more shots. Just need to get access to a boat for a day and night. Would be ideal to have the money to rent a house boat for a couple days to explore around the lake and to get some great shots!

We also went over to Monument Valley due to Doctor Who. This is another gorgeous place, but depending on the state of the road you may want a vehicle with a higher clearance than my Sentra. We bottomed on rocks twice and decided it just wasn't worth it between that and the fact that you cannot take any pictures for commercial use or public exhibition without acquiring a permit before you arrive. At least in our National Parks if you are shooting landscapes and not paid to be there you do not need a permit. I've seen some worse than here. There is a place in Grand Rapids that not only do you need to pay big bucks for a permit, you need to pay $300 or 10% of sales, whichever is greater. I just didn't think it was worth my time right now.

We then drove to Natural Bridges National Monument. We did get there near sunset, which I thought would be great. However between the tall rocks surrounding the valley and the clouds, there wasn't much to get a shot of. The angles were all wrong. No problem, I wanted to do a star trail more as they're rarer to see. Damn clouds wouldn't behave so no shots. Plus the campground was full and the nearest place was 40 miles away.

Today will be better, today is Canyonlands NP and we will arrive soon (or we may have left already depending on if I have a signal to send this)

Pig Dig at Badlands National Park

In the early 90's a photographer discovered a bone in the ground and he did the right thing, he left it and reported it to the proper people. This discovery turned into a 15 year excavation where they collected 10,000+ specimens.

During my Artist in Residency position I was asked if I would be willing to take a of the Pig Dig site to be used on a new wayside sign. It ends up that the picture will be used on two 4'x6 signs, one at Fossil Trail and one on the Pig Dig trail that they are building in 2013 I was very happy and excited to get this shot for the park. Below is the full image I created, though it will be cropped down to the needed proportions.

The original image is 27" x 62" and I took 105 shots to create this picture. It took many hours to get it stitched together properly due to the fast moving clouds.

I looks forward to going back to the park and seeing the signs installed with my picture on them.