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!
Wandering in the Desert
June 21st, 2019
After visiting Goblin Valley Blueriverdream and I met up with another great model, NevaehLleh, and went exploring Wirepass Canyon and Buckskin Gulch.
Wirepass Canyon above. Buckskin Gulch below. Some claim that Buckskin Gulch is the deepest and longest slot canyon in the world. I’m not sure how they figured that out, but it’s deep, long, and beautiful.
The next day we paid a visit to the Toadstools in the rain:
The problem with both these locations is that they have become much to popular. In the slot canyons there was a constant stream of hikers. At one tricky spot where some climbing was required, there was a line of people waiting their turn. And the Toadstools, even in the rain, had a bunch of hikers. When I first visited these places about 15 years ago, I pretty much had them to myself. I guess I just shouldn’t have told anyone where they were. Too late now.
Even more wet desert adventures to come in future posts.
One More Time for Blueriverdream at Goblin Valley
May 20th, 2019
I don’t think there’s any chance that I’ll ever get better photos from Goblin Valley. I was really fortunate to have such a wonderful model as Blueriverdream with me when I went there this time.
Blue really made the most of this weird location.
Toward the end of our time there the clouds started to clear out and the sun appeared. As you can see in the photo below, the wonderful sensor in my Panasonic GX8’s could really handle the added contrast with no difficulty.
But I still like the tones of the photos made with cloudy light better.
That’s it for this shoot at Goblin Valley. But that’s not the end of this trip to the desert southwest. More to come in future posts.
More From an Overcast Day at Goblin Valley
May 12th, 2019
Some more photos from a great day at Goblin Valley with the wonderful, beautiful model, Blueriverdream.
Blue is a master at finding poses that integrate her figure with the environment. And, as we said in the Air Force, Goblin Valley is a target-rich environment.
The soft light was perfect for bringing out the forms and color of the formations and blending them with the form and color of Blue’s body.
I have still more from this day to share in the next post.
A Good Day at Goblin Valley
May 8th, 2019
Goblin Valley is an amazing place. I’ve been there several times and have photographed there every time I visited. But it’s a somewhat difficult place to do photos. There is usually strong sunlight and the bright highlights and dark shadows make it hard to capture the real feel of the place.
But this past October I paid another visit there along with one of my very favorite models of all time, Blueriverdream.
As you can see, the sun was not a problem on this day. We had a pretty solid overcast for a good part of the morning. Perfect light for this place. And a perfect model. It doesn’t get much better than this.
Blue was in fine form and did a fantastic job of finding many poses that worked perfectly with the wild surroundings of this place. I’ll have more to share from this day in the next few posts.
Thanks Blueriverdream!
Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day 2019
April 29th, 2019
Here are a couple pinhole photos that I shot yesterday on Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. The one above is the one I uploaded to the pinhole day site.
I shot these with my Panasonic GX8 and a Pinwide wide-angle commercially-made pinhole. Thanks to available usable high ISOs and the electronic viewfinder on my camera I was able to shoot these pinhole photos while hand holding the camera and viewing through the viewfinder.
