Shutter Mike Photography

The Friends Of San Tan Mountains Regional Park are holding their 4th Annual Amateur Photography Contest.  If you are unfamiliar with San Tan Mountains Regional Park it is in the Southeastern part of the metro Phoenix area and is part of the Maricopa County parks system.  Situated on over 10,000 acres the park is an excellent representation of the Sonoran desert with diverse wildlife and vegetation.

Even without the incentive of an amateur photography contest, the San Tan Mountains Regional Park is a landscape and nature photographer’s dream.  But the Friends of San tan Mountain Regional Park who “…work to protect and preserve the Park’s archeological, historic and traditional cultural areas” have given something extra to “shoot” for with their 4th annual contest.  Here are the basics of the contest:

• Entries in one of two age group categories (youth up and including 17 years old and adults 18 and up) will be accepted through May 31st.
• There is a $5 per image entry fee with a maximum of 2 submissions per entry.
• The photos have to be taken within the park, of course.
• Photos will be on display in the visitors center and judged by the public with final judging by the board.
• A Certificate of Excellence Award will be awarded to the winners in each division and the photos will be used for fund raising purposes for the Friends of San Tan Mountain  Regional Park.

See the San Tan Park Photo Contest Rules for more details and the entry form.  Even if you aren’t up for entering a contest (which you should be) head out to the park for some great photography opportunities.  The weather is perfect for a hike and with all the rain this winter the wildflowers will certainly be worth the trip alone.

Apache Lake is a series of four lakes on the Arizona Salt River that are the result of damming the river for power generation and flood control.  So although it may not be entirely “natural,” in the sense that man had a significant role in its formation, it is still a beautiful spot in a beautiful state.

On of my favorite places to photograph nature and wildlife, birds in particular, is the Riparian Preserve in Gilbert, Arizona.  I have spent quite a few early mornings there with camera in hand.  The Preserve is supported by the Riparian Institute which has the mission to:

To promote awareness and appreciation of Arizona’s ecology and natural history, particularly desert and riparian environments, through:
–  education and recreation programs for a diversity of visitors, and
–  research and development of strategies to reserve and protect these unique environments

As with most organizations such as this fund raising to support the mission is critical.  The Riparian Institute is no different and they are holding a Feathered Friends Festival to raise both funds and awareness as well as provide a day of fun for the community.  The festival is on Saturday, March 27th and starts with bird walks at 8 am and runs through 2 pm.  Along with exhibits, activities for kids and live music they will be holding a fund raising raffle.  Which is where I come in.  One of my prints taken in the Preserve will be part of the raffle to support this great cause.  So be sure to head out to Gilbert, at Guadalupe and Greenfield on Saturday to support the Riparian Institute  and the environment it protects.

Even the ordinary and sometimes “trash” can end up being a great photo subject.  This can was tossed aside into the desert at some point and nature just worked around it as it rusted in place.

Roosevelt Dam in Arizona

Roosevelt Dam holds back the Salt River between Globe and Phoenix and was completed in 1911.  Roosevelt Lake is the reservoir that was created as a result of the dam.  With the abundance of rain Arizona has had this winter  the water levels in the lake have been high.  You can see in the lower center of the photo the water that is being released from the lake to flow back down stream.

This is a detail of an old board on the gate of a cattle holding pen that has long since been abandoned in the Arizona desert.  I shot the image in color and with a few simple Photoshop steps I was able to convert it to a black and white image.  I felt the image was more effective in black and white and the detail of the wood grain and the knot was more dramatic this way.

The hunt for wildflowers in the desert is on.  With heavier than usual rains this winter the promise of a bumper crop of desert wildflowers has been enticing for photographers.  The various wildflower spotting sites have had reports coming in from all over Arizona of sightings of everything from Mexican Poppies to Lupine and Globemallow.  I headed east of Phoenix this past weekend along the Apache trail and although there were not carpets of wildflowers covering the landscape they are starting to pop up mostly along the roadsides.  I would anticipate in another couple of weeks we are going to see some spectacular displays far beyond the medians.

I am by no means an expert on identifying wildflowers but with the help of a guide like National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers: Western Region I think I have come pretty close to getting the flowers I saw identified.  Please let me know if I have gotten any wrong.  The flower to the left is the Desert Chia (Salvia columbariae).  It almost looks like it is two flowers in one with the smaller blue flowers attached to the larger deep purple ball of spines.

Coulter’s Globemallow

Apache Lake Arizona

Apache Lake is east of Phoenix and was formed with the damming of the Salt River by the Horse Mesa Dam in 1927.  It is one of a series of 3 lakes formed by dams on the Salt River along a stretch of Highway 88 also known as the Apache Trail.  There are some prime opportunities to capture some beautiful Arizona landscape photographs along this stretch of the Apache Trail.