Best of 2012

A few days have passed since the end of 2012 and now it's time to post my favorites.  I would have gotten to it earlier but the celebration after the Clemson victory over LSU just...wouldn't....stop!

We'll start with a shot of my kids before the Clemson / Georgia Tech game.  Clemson won that game too!  



My favorite Idaho shot from the year was taken in late January on a snowmobile trip in the Targhee National Forest.  Very cold!



I took an early summer roadtrip with my son out west.  We visited Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Arches, Canyonlands, and Rocky Mountain National Parks.  He called it The Great American Roadtrip - GART.  Here's a shot taken right after sunrise at Bryce.  I love the way the backlighting on the hoodoos made them glow.



This one is a detail shot from Whitewater Falls, a 410-foot cascade in the Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina.  A 1/15th second shutter speed made the water look nice and soft.



Here's a shot from Wahoo Bay in Haiti.  Of course I had my camera with me as we enjoyed the sunset from a beachside restaurant.  



My hometown of Aledo occasionally yields a nice shot.  I like the late afternoon light and the foreground tree as a frame.



And, how about a little football?  I shot this at the Louisiana Tech vs. UT-San Antonio game.  I think it should have been interference.



And finally, a shot from downtown Fort Worth:  old and new, colors and angles!



I'm hoping 2013 will be a good photography year.  I've scheduled a trip to Washington, D.C., in March and I'm sure I'll be back in Idaho this summer.  I'm also hoping to make a trip to Zion with my son - sort of a GART II.  And of course, I'm sure there will be a trip or two back to Clemson.

Day 11 - The Long Road Home

We left Estes Park, Colorado, at 5am Mountain Time and got home to Aledo, Texas, at 8:45pm Central Time.  Almost 15 hours on the road to cover about 800 miles.  Our total trip was 3,775 miles over eleven days.

I'm not sure how much we spent on Snapple Peach Tea or powdered sugar donuts but I do know that the time with my 17-year old son was PRICELESS!

The Great American Road Trip - 2012.

Grand Canyon National Park
Bryce Canyon National Park
Zion National Park
Monument Valley Navajo National Park
Goosenecks State Park
Arches National Park
Canyonlands National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park

If you would like to see Aaron's take on our trip, click here:

Day 10 - The Finale

It's only fitting that the (beginning of the) end of our Great American Road Trip would involve a great sunset.  We leave Estes Park, Colorado, tomorrow morning on a very long trip back to Texas.  Thanks for following our story.   -James

Day 10 - Rocky Mountain National Park

It's hard to be a photographer this time of year.  Everyone knows that the best photos are taken during the golden time just before and after sunrise.  The problem is that this time of year the sun comes up at 5:35am in this part of Colorado!  If it were just me - no problem.  I would get up at 4am and be in a prime location for the perfect shot at the golden moment.  But my traveling partner can best be described as a 140 pound lump of apathy.  Enough said.

We hit the road about 7:45 this morning and wound our way up the west side of RMNP along Trail Ridge Road.  It was a "severe clear" morning with temps in the low 40's as we crossed the continental divide.  We managed to make it to the Moraine Visitors Center at 9:10am.  That was 10 minutes after the road to Bear Lake closed to private vehicles.  We were forced to ride the shuttle!  Uggggghhhhh.

The road to Bear Lake is under construction and between that and the mandatory shuttle system, we took about an hour to make the 15 minute trip.  From the Bear Lake Trailhead we hiked about two miles to Bierstadt Lake.  Here's a shot of Bear Lake.



Bierstadt Lake is named for the famous German-American painter, Albert Bierstadt, who visited the area in 1876.  Here's a shot of Bierstadt Lake from the loop trail.



We made the steep descent down to the Bierstadt Trailhead for a total of about four miles in time to wait for the shuttle to take us back to our vehicle.  About an hour later we completed the fifteen minute trip.  It was a good hike and even though the shuttle was a pain, I would recommend the experience to anyone....especially if you have your own 140 pound lump of apathy.
 
Click a photo to see it larger and then click it again to see the whole gallery.

Day 9 - Moab to RMNP

We left the red rock country of Utah and headed to the cooler heights of Colorado.  Through the Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70 and past Winter Park, we stopped in Granby and snagged a room for the night before heading into Rocky Mountain National Park.  We passed a couple of moose and some elk on the way to the top of the mountain where we could see a long, long way.  Here's a photo looking northeast beyond the park.  That plume of smoke is a wildfire somewhere west of Fort Collins.



We drove across the park to the town of Estes Park where we ate a little supper.  Many of you don't realize what a family-friendly town Estes Park is.  Everyone there enjoys mini-golf.  Check out this guy.



On the way out of town we spotted some young owls on a nest above the highway.  They're very easy to spot;  all you have to do is look for the photographers that are looking up.   :-)

Day 8 - Arches National Park

We took it easy this morning and caught up on our rest with the plan of hitting the trail during midday.  Midday.  The hottest part of the day.  Not the best time to hike in THE DESERT!  Fortunately it was only a short hike from the Devil's Garden trailhead to Landscape Arch.  Landscape is the longest arch in the park at over 300 feet.  At its narrowest point it is only six feet thick.  In 1991 a major chunk of the arch collapsed leaving what we see today.  We felt like we should walk out and see it because the rest of it could fall anytime now or within the next thousand years.

Here's a shot of Landscape Arch.



Some nice people from Australia took a shot for us after I took a shot of them with their camera.



After Landscape Arch we headed back to Moab with a quick stopover at Park Avenue.



We had a nice lunch in Moab and then wandered around in the various t-shirt shops so that Aaron could find the perfect expression of his warped sense of humor.  I spent the rest of the afternoon after that working on photographs because that's what photographers do.

About 7pm we headed back into Arches for the sunset at Double Arch.  There were a lot of people up in the arch but they all cleared out at the perfect time..... well, except for Aaron.



The sunset at Double Arch turned out quite nice.









Tomorrow we head to Colorado.  From Moab we go north to I-70 and then we point the Xterra toward the sunrise.  Our plan is to pass through Rocky Mountain National Park from west to east and wrap the day up somewhere down near I-25.  We'll keep you posted.

You know the routine.  Click a photo for an enlargement and click it again to go to the GIGANTIC gallery.  

More Day 7 - Delicate Arch

After our big 4x4 journey through Canyonlands, we grabbed some burritos for lunch and then took it easy for a few hours.  About 6pm we headed back into Arches to do the Delicate Arch hike.  Our goal was to get there during the sweet light before sunset.  Apparently about 75 other people had the same goal.



I did manage to get a few cool shots of the iconic symbol of Utah.





And on the hike back I got to see some Ute Indian Petroglyphs.  These pictures  are dated somewhere between 1650 and 1850.



It's my understanding that anything after 1850 is just plain old graffiti.  

Click on the photos to go to the enlargement and then click the enlargement to go see all the photos in the gallery.