In The Swim Of Things
August 31st, 2019
Today I just thought I’d share a few snaps of BlueRiverDream taking a swim in Lake Powell. That’s all.
Just a beautiful lady swimming in a beautiful lake.
What more could you ask for anyway?
For those who care about such things, these were all shot with a Panasonic GX8 using the Panasonic 100-300 zoom lens. All were shot at 100mm, except the last one, below, which was shot at 300mm. Remember, this is Micro 4/3 format, so the 35mm full-frame equivalent would be 200mm to 600mm, double the focal length.
That’s all for now.
Around the Lake with Sarah
August 27th, 2019
I’ve posted quite a few photos of Blueriverdream and Nevaehlleh, but I don’t want you to forget about Sarah 219. While I was working with the other two models, Sarah was off shooting with Dave Swanson. Later we traded models and I had a great time working with this fantastic model for a while.
Sarah is a lovely woman and a very talented and experienced model. I think you can see that.
We wandered around all these rock formations that had been exposed by the lake being so low.
And this ridge in the shot below is now under 50 feet of water. I guess this shot won’t get copied, at least not for a while.
More Lake Powell Wanderings
August 17th, 2019
Some more Lake Powell photos taken while wandering around the shore that is now completely submerged thanks to the water level rising more than 50 feet since we were there.
Blueriverdream and Nevaehlleh continued to do their usual fantastic job of modeling as we wandered around finding interesting rock formations and backgrounds.
Here’s a good example of what some call “dot in the landscape” nudes.
And we’ll end this post with a closer look at the partially hidden Nevaehlleh.
Blogs of Note
August 11th, 2019
Lake Powell Caves
August 10th, 2019
Continuing with our first day of shooting at Lake Powell, Blueriverdream and Nevaehlleh wandered into some of the openings in the rock formations for a few photos.
Recent news reports from out at the lake say that the lake level has risen more than 50 feet since we were there because of the snow melt and heavy rains this year. So all these places where we photographed are pretty much under water now. Rock that has been submerged is more gray than the red rock that has stayed above the water line.
There are lots more photos from Lake Powell to come.
Boating on Lake Powell
August 1st, 2019
Lake Powell
After our earlier desert adventures we were ready to head out onto Lake Powell in a houseboat. That’s when things started to go south.
We showed up early to get the paperwork done and be able to get out on the lake as soon as possible. We were supposed to be able to get the boat at 10 a.m.
We got on the boat and waited for the instructor to come and give us the training we needed to know how to operate the boat. We had lots of food in coolers for the time on the water. The refrigerator on the boat was not working, we assumed because the power was off.
It got to be noon and still no instructor. I went back to the office where they told me they were short handed and we would just have to be patient.
That’s the Navajo Power Plant in the distance.
Those two rocks are known as the Gunsight.
At 2 pm I again went looking for help. I found a guy on the dock who said he could do our check-out. This guy could have doubled for “The Dude” from “The Great Lebowski.” He was obviously in a state of altered consciousness.
The one-hour of instruction took him only about 15 minutes. Most of it consisted of a joke he kept repeating about the laxative effects of drinking the lake water.
Finally we were on our way. We quickly discovered that the boat was nearly impossible to steer. There was a large “steering wheel.” If you turned it one way and waited a few minutes the boat would slowly start to turn in that direction. Turn it back the other way, wait several minutes, and it would begin to move in that direction. There was no real way to determine when you had it set to go straight ahead.
The water in the lake was extremely low because of the many years of drought. This summer it has come up more than 50 feet from where it was when we were there. Everything we photographed is now under water.
The first thing we had to do was pass through a very narrow passageway that looked like it had been dug out of the rock. It was only about two boats wide. We made it through and were heading to a second narrow passage when BAM! the boat came to a sudden stop which sent me sprawling on the deck (I wasn’t driving).
We found we were stuck on top of a submerged rock. We couldn’t get off. Another boat tossed a line to us and tried to pull us off to no avail. It was now near the time that the marina closed for the day, so there was no way to get help until the next day. So we spent the night stuck on that rock. Not a big problem. The boat was comfortable enough and everything was working, so I cooked a nice dinner and we went to sleep.
In the morning I called the marina on the radio. They knew about our situation and sent out a boat with a couple 200 horsepower outboards. He quickly pulled us off the rock.
We found that the bottom unit of one of the houseboat’s two outboards was gone as a result of its encounter with the rock, but we still had one working motor.
We were all pretty upset and discouraged and we discussed just turning in the boat and leaving. But we decided to stay since the boat was paid for and we had a bunch of food to eat.
The skies were pretty wonderful.
Instead of going back through the narrow channel and exploring the lake, we just stayed in the large bay near the marina. There was plenty of room to be away from other boaters and lots of nice red rock scenery to photograph. I think we got some good photos.
Thanks to Blueriverdream and Nevaehlleh for these photos. More to come.
Lake Powell sunset
NevaehLleh On The Rocks
July 24th, 2019
More photos from our rainy day shoot at South Coyote Buttes. This time it’s all NevaehLleh.
It didn’t rain constantly while we were shooting, but the clouds stuck around and kept the light very nice for pretty much the whole day.
After this fun and productive day we went back to our rented house in Kanab to rest up for the beginning of our Lake Powell houseboat adventure. Photos coming here soon. Of course, as you can see, NevaehLleh had spent most of this day just lying around on rocks. 🙂
More From South Coyote Buttes
July 18th, 2019
More photos from the rainy day at South Coyote Buttes.
Models Blueriverdream and Nevaehlleh are featured in this post, along with the incredible landscape of the red rock desert in the rain.
Still more to come from this day.
South Coyote Buttes
July 8th, 2019
On the next day of our desert trip we headed to South Coyote Buttes. The morning before I had gone to the ranger station to get a permit. Each day they give out 12 permits for South Coyote Buttes and 12 for North Coyote Buttes. North Coyote Buttes is easier to get to, not requiring a 4WD vehicle. It is also the location of the famed Wave. There were 200 people there wanting permits for North Coyote Buttes. They held a drawing and 12 people went away happy. There were 14 people who wanted the 12 permits for South Coyote Buttes. I was one of the lucky ones and we got the permits we needed for the next day.
On this day our whole crew had arrived. Blueriverdream, Nevaehlleh, Sarah 219, and fellow photographer and friend Dave Swanson.
Getting to South Coyote Buttes turned out to be a bit more of a challenge than usual. It was raining. Not terribly hard, but steadily. And it had rained through the night. This can be bad news in the red rock desert, also sometimes called the slick rock desert. There are signs on the roads saying, “Road Impassible When Wet.” But we had our passes and we had to give it a try. The rain stopped, but when we headed down the road to access the area from the north we came to a stream that was swollen enough that it was pretty clear that if we went into it we would not get out. Time for plan B. There is another way in, actually the same road, but starting from the south. The only problem with that is that the drive on paved roads around to the south entrance is about 100 miles. Off we went.
The road from the south turned out to be in pretty good shape. In one place there was water covering the road, but I waded through it to make sure it wouldn’t swallow us. Not a problem. The rain had stopped and we had a bumpy drive up the 4WD road to this fantastic location full of amazing rock formations.
More to come from this day of shooting.
Independence Day
July 1st, 2019
Just a few fun photos with the amazing Ayn Kaethchen to mark the July 4 holiday.
Hooray for the red, white and blue!
