Welcome to post #84 on the Earth Images Blog.

Every continent on earth has natural arches.  The desert southwest of the U.S. is near the top in both sheer numbers and beauty when it comes to land arches.  Wind and water have a wonderful effect on the sandstone in this area.  Like any subject there are many photographic treatments that can be used.  The top three arches were all made in Arches N.P. in Utah.  There are more natural arches here than anywhere on earth.  The final is named Wilson’s Arch and is along a Utah state highway and may be the most seen arch anywhere.

Foggy sunrise, Wisconsin, and sunset Badlands N.P. South Dakota

From The Badlands (below) to Arizona and the southwest, texture is the secret to rock & earth images.  The most common (me too) way to show texture is through the use of extreme side lighting.  The light will skim the surface of the rock or dirt, hitting the high points and causing shadows to fall alongside those points.  This will translate into texture in your photo.  When I used to shoot film I would carry a roll of Kodachrome 200 in my bag alongside my normal Velvia 50.  The faster Kodachrome was a pretty film but very grainy.  That grain would translate into texture in the finished picture.  Below a large cloud blocked my side lighting just as I was about to make this picture.  When I got home I sharpened the rock area of the photo in Photoshop even though it did not need it.  The resulting effect was to create some noise which simulated the grain of K 200.  The more things change the more they say the same.

Many of my favorite wild mammals inhabit the American west.  Among the larger critters the Pronghorn is my favorite.   On one occasion I stopped along a remote road in eastern Wyoming to view what I estimated as three or four thousand Pronghorns.  The photo of this old warrior was made many years ago in either western South Dakota or far northern Colorado.  I have also seen and photographed this species in North Dakota, New Mexico, Texas and northeast Arizona.

In the eastern U.S. there is the Eastern Ground Hog, and in the west there are three species of Marmot.  All are Woodchucks and very similar except that you can rarely find more than one Groundhog.  There are entire colonies or cities of marmots.  I do not know how many different pictures of these two Yellow-bellied Marmots playing that I have shown, but I would think it is over 100.  They are near the top of Trail Ridge Rd. in Rocky Mt. N.P. in Colorado.

The easiest place in the world to grab pictures of the Golden-mantled Ground squirrel is at a pull off in Colorado just before you drop into the valley that holds the town of Estes Park. I first observed these guys at this location in 1973 and I made the photo below in 2007.  Of course as you can see the tourists always seem to manage to have some peanuts or popcorn so even the point and shooters can get a photo.

Two more photos of one of my favorite subjects, moving water.  The top was made  in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and the other is a small section of a river rapids in Wyoming’s Yellowstone N.P. 

I thank you once again for visiting the never-ending story.  As I keep writing blogs it is beginning to seem as though I closed my website a bit prematurely.  Still all in all it will work ot for the best.