I will be heading out to northern Arizona at the end of March and spending all of April and into the beginning of May out there. I have two backpacking trips planned for the Grand Canyon while I am out there to get some more Grand Canyon photos. The first trip will be during the second week of April over to a spot called Clear Creek, that is very near and dear to my heart. The second trip will be closer to the end of the month and I am hoping to be able to do a rim-to-rim-to-rim (a.k.a. R2R2R) at that time.

The photo here is of the Ottoman Amphitheater on the approach to Clear Creek on the Clear Creek Trail.

I just spent a couple of days down in Duxbury, Massachusetts, hoping to spot some snowy owls—and what an experience it was!

I did another backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon, to a location called The Esplanade, which is a huge sandstone plateau just below the north rim of the Grand Canyon. I had been there a few times before on previous backpacking trips and there are some rock formations down there that I was hoping would make good foregrounds for Milky Way photos. I had a couple of beautiful nights and got some nice photos.

I also did a trip to Natural Bridges National Monument in southeastern Utah, hoping to get some Milky Way shots from there. I had a beautiful night there and got some wonderful shots of the Owachomo Bridge with the Milky Way above and behind it.

I submitted one of my “Milky Way Over Cathedral Rock” photos, that I shot in Sedona, back in May, to the photo contest at the Marshfield Fair (in Massachusetts) and it won First Place in the Landscapes category.

The Grand Canyon backpacking trip to Utah Flats was not successful. The trip was plagued with problems at the start as I could not get the backcountry permit that I needed for Bright Angel Campground, which is adjacent to Phantom Ranch, and ended up having to camp too far away on the first night of the trip to make it feasible. It was just too hot during the day to do the hike up to Utah Flats and I bailed out. I did manage to get some nice shots of the Milky Way from Sedona, however.

Well, I have to say that finally getting to see a total solar eclipse really ranks up there with some of the best experiences I have ever had. There is no way to describe it and no way that a photograph or video can do it justice. It's one of those things you just have to be there for, to be in the moment. TOTALLY awesome experience. Even with glasses and filters it has been burned into my mind.

While at the Grand Canyon I will be doing a 6-day/5-night backpacking trip down into The Canyon. I will have 3 nights at a location called Utah Flats where I am hoping to get some good Milky Way shots. Hopefully, I will have a starry night for at least one of those nights. The first and last nights of the trip will be spent at different location, not sure exactly where yet, but that may also hold the possibility for additional shots. It will be much closer to the south rim though and I am not sure how much of the Milky Way will be visible above it. There should be no problem from Utah Flats and that should give me even more Milky Way than I had from that overnight trip to Plateau Point last year.

My first attempt at Milky Way photos at the Grand Canyon was a night walk along the Rim Trail at the south rim in March of 2021. The Rim Trail is 9 miles long and runs from Grand Canyon Village in the east to Hermit's Rest in the west and about half of it is a paved path and the other half is a dirt trail. There is very little elevation gain along the route which is why I consider it more of a walk than a hike, even though it's 9 miles.

A.k.a. Here comes my ride: Grand Canyon Search and Rescue.

I did a backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon last October (2023) in which one of the primary focal points (excuse the pun) was to try to get some photos of the Milky Way over the Colorado River. The trip was originally planned as a visit to the location where the Little Colorado River joins the main river but after looking at the map and the route of the trail it seemed there might also be a good location for some Milky Way shots on on night. Well, the trip didn't work out so well...

Brave new world - July 15, 2023

I finally gave up on trying to maintain my own web site for selling photos because I just don't have the time to keep up with it, and it was setup rather awkwardly anyway, with photos for sale being shown on my website, but the sales happening at a third party site, which limited what I could do. So here I now at SquareSpace, where they take care of everything for me.

I have not been out to shoot anything for a while now as other things in life have been taking priority. I have another trip out west, to northern Arizona and the Grand Canyon, coming up in October and I look forward to that. Part of that involves a five day backpacking trip along the Colorado River at the bottom of the Canyon. The sky should be very dark out during the early evenings and I am hoping for clear skies to perhaps get some shots of the Milky Way over the inner Canyon and the Colorado River.