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Category: Beautiful Places Far Away

Great Basin National Park
My 31st National Park

And onward to the second national park during this short trip: Nevada’s Great Basin National Park. This park, which is also an International Dark Sky-certified park, has such a diversity of offerings… the chance to step into a glacier, an emerald-hued alpine lake, caves, tremendous conifers, towering cliffs and rock Read more…


Cascade Falls Trail
Dixie National Forest

I learned about this hike from some signage at Cedar Breaks National Monument and I was very glad I did. Not only did I have the hike to myself, but there were spectacular views every step of the way, including Zion National Park in the distance. The waterfall is fed Read more…


Cedar Breaks National Monument
In the Dark

And night came at Cedar Breaks National Monument… along with its billions of stars. I spent most of the time of my night shoot in an empty parking lot near my campsite where it was a bit darker than my campsite. That’s my rental car up there. And a gorgeous Read more…


Cedar Breaks National Monument
Waiting For Darkness

As with any of my summer trips west, the goal was star shoots. Camping ensures easy access to an International Dark Sky park’s starry skies. But first you have to fill your day with the park’s beauty as the sun beats strong. On my last visit to Cedar Breaks National Read more…


Cottage: Nighttime

It was a gorgeous night with crisp stars… but some wispy clouds persisted to enter the landscape. Still, the night shoot went better than I expected, with the most beautiful Milky Way right outside the door pretty early on. It makes a case for how a gorgeous galactic core can Read more…


Full Moon From The Porch

How wonderful to see the full moon from the porch… to easily set up the tripod after waking up in the middle of the night to catch August’s first full moon. She was a beauty! Did you get to see her?


June Dump!

The Waxing Crescent. I am enjoying photographing the waning and waxing phases as their partial illumination and stark black is so beautiful. Cookies for Mom. Ghiradelli finally makes vegan chocolate chips. They’re yummy of course… because they’re chocolate chips Soft dough… maybe because of the humidity They flattened out a Read more…


Scenes From The Unofficial Start
Port Bay, New York


Balloons Over Letchworth State Park

On my list this visit to Western New York, a early morning trip to Letchworth State Park for a hot air balloon launch. Somehow getting up at 4:30 am and setting out to the Castile entrance, an experience that was well worth the disrupted sleep: bright beautifully colored balloons floating Read more…


The Lilacs in Rochester, New York

Lilacs are “a thing” in Rochester. Celebrated since 1905, the Lilac Festival at Highland Park is a gorgeous display of over 500 varieties of the fragrant flowering bush. Though I missed the official festival, I thought I might still be able to check out the purple. . . And there Read more…


Chimney Bluffs State Park, Again

We were back at Chimney Bluff State Park to complete the Bluff Trail. It is on this trail where you can see the dramatic views of the pointy spires looking out at the blue expanse of Great Lake Ontario. A quick trip before my flight back to NYC… We’re down Read more…


Checking In On Cherry Springs State Park

It’s been several years since I visited the first place I ever shot the stars. Though that evening was clear, too many times my plans were thwarted by the mountain’s tempestuous clouds. But we would give it a shot anyway, staying in town to allow for an easy check on Read more…


Hunting For Wonder In Western New York
Star Trails at Chimney Bluffs

After the mermaid shoot I had another photographic mission in Chimney Bluffs State Park: Star trails on a clear night looking out at Lake Ontario. The stars were crisp even though there was quite a bit of light about. Before my programmed sequence, some foreground shots standing on the bench Read more…


Mermaids of Lake Ontario (2023)

I’m getting ready for a mermaid shoot at one of my new most favorite places, Chimney Bluffs State Park. We’d shoot at dusk and stay for the stars. The chosen rock… Goodbye sun, hello mermaid It was really windy and the lake was cold. The inspiration from the Brooklyn Bodega: Read more…


In The Yard: Birds & Flowers

It finally feels like Spring. The birds, the bees, the flowers and the trees. So here a quick little celebration of the season in its early onset. To more green…


Hunting For Wonder In Western New York
Highland Park Blossoms

After spending the afternoon in Rochester’s Highland Park, I told my guy it was like the equivalent of New York’s Central Park. As it turns out it was designed by the same man who designed the iconic Central Park, Frederick Law Olmsted–the founder of American landscape architecture. As I tend Read more…


Waiting For the Worm Moon

In the two full moons that have occurred since I got a new telephoto lens I wound up on my porch in my robe to see what it can do. Because full moon photography is one of the only dark sky photography that is gratifying in New York City, I Read more…


Excursion to Letchworth State Park

With some gorgeous snowfall in Rochester and another new used lens to try out, I headed to Letchworth State Park in Castile, New York. I bought a new wide angle after some photographic failing on my recent trip to Arizona. I was impressed with this new wide angle. Here are Read more…


Into the Desert Wilderness🌵 Miscellaneous

Just a photo dump of some travel bits… because I am already missing the road. The night shoot attempt. It is not Milky Way season yet, so the beautiful galactic core is not visible in this hemisphere yet. But I am very much looking forward to its arrival! On the Read more…


Into the Desert Wilderness🌵
Petrified Forest National Park

Petrified Forest National Park would offer me so much beauty on my short trip. Though I had made this assumption before arriving, I was not prepared to see the range of gorgeousness. I want to return to get out of the car more comfortably, because on this particular visit the Read more…


Into the Desert Wilderness🌵
Snow & Rainbows in the Desert

Heading north through the mountainous San Carlos and Fort Apache reservations made for a grueling day of driving. The windstorm that shook my vintage tiki bus through the night, whipping songs through it’s crevices, was part of the weather system that rocked travel across the country. Snow and frigid temperatures Read more…


Into the Desert Wilderness🌵
Shady Dell Trailer Park {Pictorial}
Bisbee, Arizona

The Shady Dell Trailer Park in Bisbee, Arizona.


Into the Desert Wilderness🌵
Old Neon Signs of Yuma, Arizona

If I stopped at every piece of roadside nostalgia then I would not get very far in my travels. So I have reserved early mornings for driving about towns to grab what I can while everyone is asleep. To follow, mostly Yuma, Arizona. This cleaners was still in operation. An Read more…


Into the Desert Wilderness🌵
On the Road

Though I needed the Kelso Dunes in the Mojave Desert for a backdrop of a special photoshoot, I only stayed briefly. But these hours were my initiation into the road, an offering to wild time… time that exists outside the constructs of tedium–impractical, untainted, and because of these, unsustainable. Its Read more…


Into the Desert Wilderness🌵
Kofa National Wildlife Refuge

Mid-winder recess always aligns with peak wanderlust, a breaking point where draining daily life in New York City grows to a frustration level that pervades and my soul needs a deep spring of wonder, nature and night. Respite. This trip I escape to the desert, a place I assumed would Read more…


Full Snow Moon

The first moon shoot with my new telephoto lens. Now I can’t wait for a crisp night with a full super moon. But for now, a micromoon, the only full moon in February: