​When I first visited Flagstaff, my daughter told me about a squirrel with unusually long ears.  The first time I saw one of these strange critters, I thought I was looking at a miniature rabbit. Then it scampered up a tree and I realized this was no bunny. This was the Abert’s squirrel she had been telling me about.

The Abert's squirrel (Sciurus aberti woodhouse) is named after two people. Col. John James Abert (1788–1863) was an American military officer and naturalist. He was the head of the Corps of Topographical Engineers who led the effort to explore and map the West. Samuel Washington Woodhouse (1821–1904) was a doctor and naturalist for the 1851 Sitgreaves Expedition which explored from New Mexico, across Arizona to Fort Yuma in California.

Abert’s squirrels are identified by their dark gray back with a reddish-brown patch on top, white underbelly and large bushy tail. The big tufted ears are their most distinctive feature. The ear tufts are longer in the winter and may disappear altogether in the summer. Abert's squirrels have strong rear paws and hind legs, well-adapted for living in trees, climbing and jumping from branch to branch. They are non-territorial, even social animals who often overlap ranges with other squirrels. They do not hibernate or cache their food and can be seen foraging throughout the year.
Abert's squirrels live in the mountains of Northern Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, parts of Wyoming and North Central Mexico where they thrive in the ponderosa pine forests. Flagstaff is ideal for Abert’s squirrels because the Coconino and Kaibab National Forests contain the largest contiguous ponderosa forest in the world.

Eating is a complicated, messy and year-round affair for the Abert’s squirrel. Its favorite food source is the ponderosa pine cone which begins to develop each May. The squirrel holds the cone with its front paws and rotates it, peeling away and discarding the scales to consume the tasty seeds.

As pine cones mature through the summer a single squirrel can eat the seeds from as many as 75 cones daily. When the pine cones are depleted of seeds, the Abert’s squirrel turns to the pine twigs for its primary source of food. After the needle clusters and outer bark of the twigs are removed and discarded, the nutritious inner bark is consumed. In the wintertime a single squirrel can gnaw on 45 twigs per day. The squirrel’s diet also includes the buds and shoots of the pine as well as tree sap, thought to be a “sweet treat”, and an underground fungi known as “false truffles”.

The symbiotic relationship between squirrel and pine tree is both complex and intriguing. Ponderosas provide each squirrel with the nutrition and shelter it needs; the squirrels help the trees by spreading spores from the truffles they eat. The transplanted truffles then grow around the tree roots to help maintain moisture which is beneficial to the ponderosa.

The messy eating habits of the Abert's squirrel benefits other animals too. When uneaten pine scales and outer bark are dropped, the debris piles up beneath the tree. These squirrel “trash piles” are quickly consumed by mule deer.
The Abert's squirrel builds its nest high up in the branches of a ponderosa. A typical nest is constructed from pine twigs and is similar in size to that of a large bird. Plant material is collected to line the nest which is used for sleeping and living during cold weather as well as for raising the young. In late spring or early summer, one to five pink hairless and sightless baby squirrels are born. By August, the youngsters emerge from the nest to begin foraging alongside the parents.

As I study, photograph and write about nature, I am constantly learning different ways that wildlife adapts and connects to its natural surroundings. The symbiotic relationship of the Abert’s squirrel with the ponderosa pine forest is just one example of how all life is interconnected. Nature is a delicate balance that we can appreciate and should all work to protect.

​To see more Flagstaff and Northern Arizona pictures go to my Flagstaff Gallery  Signed fine art prints from many of my photographs are available for purchase on Fine Art America.  ​For special offers and to follow my photographic journey please Join My Email List​.​

When famed Civil War soldier, explorer and geologist John Wesley Powell directed the U.S. Geological Survey, he was in northern Arizona exploring the San Francisco Volcanic Field. The year was 1885 and Powell was particularly impressed by a red-rimmed cinder cone north of Flagstaff.

He noted in his journal: “A portion of the cone is of bright reddish cinders, while the adjacent rocks are of black basalt. The contrast in the colors is so great that on viewing the mountain from a distance the red cinders seem to be on fire. From this circumstance, the cone has been named Sunset Peak ... which seems to glow with a light of its own."

Now called Sunset Crater, the peak is a well-known landmark among the more than 600 volcanoes in the San Francisco Volcanic Field. The cone formed nearly 1,000 years ago when basalt magma rose to the surface through a primary vent in the terrain. Gas pressure produced a linear lava fountain about 850 feet high. Erupting lava fragmented into small pieces and cooled in flight, landing as black cinders. The eruption became centered on a single vent, creating the 1,000-foot-high Sunset cinder cone.

The eruption also produced the Bonito lava flow that extends 1.6 miles northwest from the crater and the earlier Kana-a lava flow that extends 6 miles northeast. The eruption covered an 810-square-mile area with a blanket of black cinders, forcing the local Sinagua people to abandon their settlements. Sunset Crater was a short-lived volcano, lasting only months to a couple of years at the most. When the eruption was over, however, it had forever changed the landscape and the people who lived in the area.

Despite its landmark status, Sunset Crater was almost mutilated in 1928. Paramount Pictures, planning to make a movie of Zane Grey’s novel “Avalanche,” wanted to detonate the north flank of the crater and film the resulting landslide. A public outcry against this proposal was led by Harold S. Colton, director of the Museum of Northern Arizona. As a result of this effort, President Herbert Hoover established Sunset Crater as a National Monument on May 26, 1930. In 1990 the area was renamed Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument.

Today the protected area includes 3,040 acres and is managed by the National Park Service.

On June 5, 2015, it was reported from satellite images that steam was rising from the crater. This fueled speculation that Sunset Crater was erupting. It was later revealed what looked like steam was actually a small lightning-ignited wildfire.

Sunset Crater is located 15 miles north of Flagstaff, along U.S. Highway 89. The visitor center (with new exhibits starting this spring) is located 2 miles east of the monument entrance. Continuing past the visitor center, a 34-mile scenic drive takes you through the surroundings of Sunset Crater, into the adjacent Wupatki National Monument, and eventually back to Highway 89.

There are multiple hiking trails around Sunset Crater. The Lava Flow Trail is a 1-mile, self-guided loop at the base of the crater. This easy trail skirts the Bonito Flow's otherworldly landscape of cinders and black lava. Further west, the Lenox Crater Trail is a 1.6-mile easy loop providing outstanding views of cinder fields and the San Francisco Peaks. The 3.4-mile roundtrip Lava's Edge trail and short A’a loop are located between the Lava Flow parking lot and the visitor center. Hiking to Sunset Crater’s summit is no longer permitted. The trail was closed in 1974 to prevent further erosion.

After 1,000 years, Sunset Crater remains the youngest volcano on the Colorado Plateau. The red crater rim and the dark lava flows are still a jagged and inhospitable terrain. In much of the surrounding area, however, plants and trees have returned, along with the animals that depend on them for food and shelter.

In my lifetime of hiking and photography, I’ve had opportunities to visit numerous volcanoes and craters. It always gives me pleasure to see life returning to a previously devastated area. I’m constantly in awe of the earth’s capacity to heal itself despite the destruction that can be inflicted upon it by either nature or humankind.

​To see more Flagstaff and Northern Arizona pictures go to my Flagstaff Gallery  Signed fine art prints from many of my photographs are available for purchase on Fine Art America.  ​For special offers and to follow my photographic journey please Join My Email List​.​

​During the partial government shutdown from Dec 22, 2018 to Jan 25, 2019 most of the US National Parks were closed or were open but not able to provide services, public safety or protection of the park resource. During the time of the shutdown, Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California was frequently in the news. Campers were driving off-road and in some cases even cut down the protected Joshua trees to make room for their vehicles and campsites. In some parks people left their trash and even human waste. It saddened me deeply to see the way some thoughtless people treated our beloved national parks. What kind of people do this? There are many reasons to keep our federal government running and protection of our national parks is just one of them. 

The latest government shutdown should teach us all a lesson. We need our federal government and the essential services that it provides.  Shutting the government down is a threat to national security and safety.

In my opinion we need legislation to prevent another government shutdown. I would propose that if Congress and the Administration cannot agree on a budget, then the government needs to be able to continue operating at current funding levels. Secondly, pay should be suspended for Congress and the Administration until they pass a budget.  We should not allow the American people and federal workers to be held hostage because politicians can't agree on a budget.

We depend on the federal government for a wide variety of services. Those who say that "we need to make government small enough to drown in a bathtub" are just plain wrong. We need to keep the government open and serving the American people.

What is stock photography?  In every walk of life you see thousands of photographs in magazines, on web sites, billboards, product packaging, and on television. Very few of these images were created for a specific purpose or project.  Most of what you see is stock photography. Stock photos are ready-to-download files that can be used in advertising, magazines, promotional brochures, etc.  Rather than hiring photographers, most editors, publishers and web masters depend on stock photography for affordable prices and exceptional quality.  There are two ways to purchase stock photography; royalty-free and rights-managed. Royalty-free means you only have to pay once to use the file multiple times but you are not purchasing exclusive use of the file.  With rights-managed files, you have exclusive use of the file for the contracted period.

​Last year, 2018, was a record year for my stock photo sales.  I ended the year with 1059 pictures downloaded and published by various magazines, advertisers and web sites.  This is the first time that my sales have surpassed 1000 downloads in a given year.  Download number 1000 on Dec 11, 2018 was the Northern Harrier Hawk pictured above.

To see how some of my photographs have been used, please check out my Published Work page.

My stock photos are offered royalty-free through Getty Images and IstockPhoto.  Signed fine art prints from many of my photographs are also available for purchase on Fine Art America.  ​For special offers and to follow my photographic journey please Join My Email List​.​

Photographs of streams and waterfalls appear often on postcards, calendars and note cards.  Their special effects seem to express a feeling of motion.  You have probably wondered how the photographer captured that feathery texture in the water.

This technique is not difficult to accomplish.  It can be mastered by anyone who has an adaptable camera (one in which you can adjust the shutter speed and aperture) and a tripod.  A shutter release cable is helpful but optional.

The trick is to shoot at a slow shutter speed such as 1/4 second, 1/2 second, or even one full second.  This will have a slight blurring effect on the fast moving water, which will suggest motion in the finished picture.  Use of a tripod or other camera support is mandatory.  It is extremely difficult to hand-hold the camera at such a slow shutter speed without blurring the entire picture.  If a cable release is not available, the camera's built-in self timer may be used to release the shutter.  Either method will insure the camera remains immobile during the long exposure.
 
Adjust the camera's ISO number to the least sensitive setting for this type of photography.  A larger ISO may not result in a slow enough shutter speed.

I prefer to shoot waterfalls on an overcast day or in the shade on a sunny day.  Water reflects much more sunlight than rocks and trees.  In direct sunlight, the reflection on the water may cause undesirable bright spots in the picture.
 
There are many places to go for stream and waterfall pictures.  National parks, wilderness areas and even city parks are a few possibilities.  I try to concentrate on small meandering streams with trees and green moss growing on the rocks.  The greenery and rocks add perspective and help frame the composition.

​Try stream shooting next time you venture out into the woods or stroll through the park.  You may return with some calendar or postcard scenes of your own.

To see more waterfall pictures go to my Waterfall Gallery on Istockphoto.  Signed fine art prints from many of my photographs are available for purchase on Fine Art America.  ​For special offers and to follow my photographic journey please Join My Email List​.​

​Want to create a unique expression of art, one that no one else can re-create?  Try shooting a sunset picture.  A sunset, like the snowflake, is one of natures unrivaled creations.  There are no two alike!  When properly photographed and displayed, each sunset can reveal an exhilarating and incomparable work of art.
 
For equipment, you will need an adaptable camera (one in which you can adjust the shutter speed and the aperture).  Optional equipment might include a tripod and shutter release cable.  Also, a telephoto lens can be used to make the sun appear larger in the picture.

​Fortunately, sunsets are among the easiest pictures to take because exposure is not a critical factor.  I determine my exposure by using the camera to take a meter reading off the brightest part of the sky, excluding the sun.  With this reading as a starting point, I then bracket my settings (over and underexpose by one or two f-stops) to get different effects.  When using a telephoto lens, do not look directly at the sun.  It can harm your eyes.
 
Foreground objects will appear as strong silhouettes, advantageous to the creative photographer.  Trees, boats, rocks and even people can be used as a foreground to frame the picture, creating a strong composition.

​Keep on shooting, even after the sun disappears.  Some of the most subtle coloring in the sky is seen up to on-half hour after the sun has set.  Also, try shooting a sunrise.  Remember, it's just a sunset in reverse and the same rules apply.
 
A great sunset picture doesn't even need to include the sun.  Turn around and see what the sun is lighting behind you.  Mountains and trees take on a special glow when illuminated by the setting sun.
 
Whether it's a trip to the ocean or a hike in the mountains, you can return with a unique work of art if you take the time to view and photograph the disappearing sun, the subjects it illuminates and its delicate expression of color.

To see more sunset pictures go to my Sunset Gallery on Istockphoto.  Signed fine art prints from many of my photographs are available for purchase on Fine Art America.  ​For special offers and to follow my photographic journey please Join My Email List​.​

Washington State has many wonderful features but is best known for its really big coniferous trees. Many of the largest, oldest and tallest of the conifers can be found here.  Almost all of them remain dark green throughout the year giving Washington its nickname "The Evergreen State".  But there’s a very unusual conifer tucked away in the high alpine basins of the Cascade Range. Each October when fall comes to the high country, this unusual conifer’s needles change from green to glowing gold before they drop from the tree.

The Alpine Larch tree is a deciduous conifer.  Like other deciduous trees that drop their leaves every fall, the Larch drops its needles. The Alpine Larch grows in sparse pockets near treeline at 6000 to 7000 feet above sea level.  The short, soft needles begin changing colors in late September and usually turn gold around early October. The window of opportunity to see fall colored larches is short and unpredictable.  Autumn storms can strip the trees of their needles overnight or dump snow on the trails, making access difficult.

There are few good places in the state to find the Alpine Larch and getting to them is not easy.  Most places require hiking into remote back-country.  Headlight Basin, in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness northeast of Cle Elum, has one of the largest concentrations of larches in the state.

Ingalls Pass, above the basin, has stunning views of the larches and also the rugged south face of Mount Stuart, Washington’s tallest non-volcanic peak.  Ingalls Pass and nearby Lake Ingalls are very popular hiking destinations throughout the summer.  In the fall this area becomes a magnet for hikers wishing to view the magnificent colored larches.  Headlight Basin also has a resident population of mountain goats which are very fun to watch and photograph.

To see more pictures from this area go to my Alpine Lakes Wilderness Gallery on Istockphoto.  Signed fine art prints from many of my photographs are available for purchase on Fine Art America.  For special offers and to follow my photographic journey please Join My Email List​.​

The Palouse is a rich agricultural area encompassing much of southeastern Washington State and parts of Idaho.  It is characterized by low rolling hills mostly devoid of trees.  Although many crops including barley, lentils and chick peas are produced in the area, much of the winter wheat production in the United States comes from the Palouse.  Wheat grown in the rich silty loess soil yields up to 100 bushels an acre, twice the national average.  And much of this production is done without benefit of irrigation.  Winter wheat is planted in the fall.  It germinates after planting and then remains dormant through the winter.  Growth resumes in the spring after the snow melts.  Harvesting is usually done in the summer or early fall after the wheat turns a rich gold color.

Photographers are drawn to the Palouse for its wide open landscapes and ever changing colors.  In the spring it is a visual mosaic of green.  By late summer the green changes to "amber waves of grain" before and during the harvest.  In the winter, deep snow carpets the landscape with a brilliant white.  The area is mostly rural and sparsely populated, punctuated by quaint historic towns like Colfax, Walla Walla, Palouse and Pomeroy.

For an overview of the Palouse, the best place to visit is Steptoe Butte.  This quartzite "island" at 3612 feet above sea level is one of the highest points in the area and provides a 360 degree ever-changing view of the Palouse Hills.  Steptoe Butte is a Washington state park about 12 miles north of Colfax.  There is a narrow paved but rough road leading to a parking area at the summit.  A Washington State Discover Pass is required to park in the lot.  Expect to see other sightseers and photographers except when the road closes during the winter snows.

Other great possibilities for photography include driving the backroads around Colfax, Palouse and Pullman.  The mostly gravel roads are in amazingly good shape and take you through endless fields of rolling hills with very few farmhouses.  You won't see very many other cars either.  Just don't get lost.  I found my way from Colfax to Palouse using the backroads and eventually turned on my GPS to get to Pullman.  Even these remote backroads are on my GPS map.

To see more Palouse Region pictures go to my Palouse Gallery on Istockphoto.  Signed fine art prints from many of my photographs are available for purchase on Fine Art America.  For special offers and to follow my photographic journey please Join My Email List​.​

Oregon has one of the most beautiful and unspoiled stretches of coastline in the United States.  Oregon's Pacific Coast extends 363 miles from the Columbia River to the California border.  The 1967 Oregon Beach Bill declared that the people of Oregon own all land within sixteen vertical feet of the average low tide.  This law guarantees that the public has free and uninterrupted use of the beaches along the entire Oregon coastline. 

Three of my favorite places on the Oregon Coast are Cannon Beach, Heceta Head and Yaquina Head.

Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach may be the most iconic and often photographed feature on the Oregon Coast.  The basalt monolith stands 237 feet above the beach and its tide pools are home to  a wide variety of sea life.  The rock is also a nesting and gathering site for puffins, terns and many other seabirds.

Heceta Head Lighthouse is perched 150 feet above the Pacific Ocean on a rugged and heavily wooded headland just north of the town of Florence.  It is one of the most visited lighthouses in the United States drawing thousands of visitors each year.  Although you can get very close to the lighthouse and keepers cottage, the best views are from a pullout on Highway 101 less than a mile south of the lighthouse.

Yaquina Head is on a mile long penninsula north of the town of Newport.  The scenic area has been designated as a National Outstanding Natural Area and is managed by the US Bureau of Land Management. Standing 93 feet tall at the westernmost point of the basalt headland, the Yaquina Head Lighthouse has been guiding ships along the Oregon Coast since the light was first lit on August 20, 1873.

The offshore rocks and islands are a refuge for harbor seals and a spring-summer nesting place for thousands of seabirds. Gray whales can be spotted during their annual migration between Mexico and Alaska.

Cobble Beach below the lighthouse is scattered with millions of large and small cobble-like rocks. When the tide is low the ocean floor reveals pools of colorful animals including sea stars, sea urchins, and giant anemones. 

Check out Best Beaches in Oregon​ to find out more about the Oregon Coast.

To see more Oregon Coast pictures go to my Oregon Coast Gallery on Istockphoto.  Signed fine art prints from many of my photographs are available for purchase on Fine Art America.  For special offers and to follow my photographic journey please Join My Email List​.​

The Columbia Gorge is an area of incomparable scenic beauty that forms the border between Oregon and Washington State.  The area cuts through the mountainous Cascade Range and boasts vast forests to the west, arid shrub-steppe to the east and the mighty Columbia River throughout.  The gorge is well known for its many waterfalls on both sides of the river.

The most famous of the waterfalls is Multnomah Falls, located along the historic Columbia River Highway in Oregon between the towns of Corbett and Dodson.

I had wanted to take a picture of Multnomah Falls for a long time.  Finally the time came to take a trip in the Columbia Gorge.  When I left Eastern Oregon it was warm and sunny.  As I drove west on the old Columbia River Highway it started raining.  By the time I reached Multnomah Falls, which is on the wetter side of the Cascade Range, it was raining very hard.

I had serious doubts about getting a decent picture but went ahead and set up my tripod and camera anyway.  Typically, when I shoot waterfall pictures, I use a time exposure of 1/4 second or longer.  This gives a feathery texture to the water and suggests motion in the waterfall.  For this picture I used a very wide angle lens (10mm) so I would take in both the upper and lower falls as well as the bushes in the foreground.  As I was shooting, I was getting thoroughly wet and so was my equipment.  In reviewing the shots on my camera's screen, I noticed big water droplets in the picture.  I removed the protective filter from my lens and put my hand over the top to keep out the rain.  I snapped another series of pictures, packed up my equipment and sought shelter.  Out of the 40-50 pictures I took that day, the picture above was the only one that had the effect I was looking for and didn't have any visible water droplets.  I was very fortunate that the people were standing on the bridge to give scale and perspective to my picture.  I was also lucky that my equipment didn't get drenched beyond repair.

To see more pictures from the Columbia Gorge go to my Columbia Gorge Gallery on Istockphoto.  Signed fine art prints from many of my photographs are available for purchase on Fine Art America.  ​For special offers and to follow my photographic journey please Join My Email List​.​​