We went hiking early last week at South Mountain, a local park with a zillion trails.
It’s been over 110 every day for at least a week, so even at dusk at 7, it’s still over 105.
The trails aren’t crowded.
The clouds this time of year are often amazing, and I’ve been trying to capture them at sunset when they’re still big and puffy but pink.
The Climbing Daddy, The Kid, and I went again last night. I took Sir Nikolas Cameron and stationed on one of the peaks. They continued on the trail.
Phoenix is called The Valley of the Sun. Most people know about the sun; not as many know about the valley. I took shots in a couple of different directions of some of the surrounding mountain ranges.
The Climbing Daddy can name most of them; I can name a few.
This is Four Peaks, also the name of a local brewery.
I don’t know what mountains those are (facing east), but it’s as close to the clouds that I wanted as I was going to get.
I don’t know which ones these are, either (facing south), but I love the layers.
Dusk.
The mountains on the left are all part of South Mountain, where I was. To the right, you can see a bit of the lights in Phoenix.
This one isn’t the best but I want to leave it here to measure growth. Because I really like the idea and wasn’t able to capture what I wanted.
From where I was standing, a creosote bush stood between me and Phoenix. I liked the juxtaposition of the bush and the city behind.
When I started, there was enough light to see the bush in the foreground and the lit city behind. Just as I got settings and everything ready, a slight breeze kicked up. While the breeze felt good, it prevented me from taking a sharp photo via long exposure.
I have a handful of shots with much better color and such where the bush is blurry from moving over the length of a longer-exposure shot.
So I threw my flash on and took this one with a fast enough exposure for the bush to be still. But it’s not great.
I will go back up soon and see about getting a better version of this. For now, this is what I got.
