Snow storm on the Beeline
Unless you get a nice hail storm during the summer months, it’s really rare to see pure white downpours from storm clouds, hence it was a ton of fun yesterday seeing snow falling all over the desert. I pulled over to the shoulder on the overpass at the Bush Highway/Beeline Highway intersection. Stood there for about 20 minutes watching this storm move from left to right as it slowly approached the Four Peaks off camera. Once it went by, we took off for the Four Peaks themselves and that’s when I got the image previous to this one. I had [...]
Fresh snow on the Four Peaks
Just under a year ago I captured a beautiful, slightly snowy sunset on this mountain range known as the Four Peaks.These mountains are at the 7,000 foot level, so they tend to get a dusting of snow once or twice a year. You just never know when it’s going to happen or how many times. In fact, after the previous one last January, there hasn’t been snow up there until today. Once it melts, it could be another year before it happens again (although I think we’ll see more in the coming weeks). All that to say…when there is snow [...]
Sunrise photowalk in downtown Phoenix
A few of my photo buddies from Flickr and Twitter braved the chilly morning weather in Phoenix and joined me on a photowalk starting at the wee dark hour of 6am. We hit some great spots, but the one of the best was arriving at these railroad tracks right when the sunrise lit up for what amounted to maybe 5 minutes of stunning color before it vanished. I used my 50mm 1.4 on this shot instead of the usual 17-35mm that tends to dominate my landscape/urbex photos. I decided the night before that I would stick mainly to the 50 [...]
An early farewell to 2010
If I had known I was going to end up posing for a self-portrait against this wall, I probably would have worn a hoody or something more ghetto looking to fit the scene better. But sometimes you just happen upon a place where you are inspired to do something and you just go with what you got. I haven’t done a SP for awhile now, but there was awesomeness in this wall and the graffiti and for some inexplicable reason, I knew I had to stand in front of it. That’s kind of how the year has gone for me [...]
The Towering Inferno
I’ve never seen The Towering Inferno, but considering it stars Paul Newman and Steve McQueen, it’s probably a good flick. It arrived in theaters sometime in 1974, a full year before I was even born. Despite not ever seeing it, I’ve heard the name multiple times and it was the film that came to my mind when I was looking at this image for Movie Title Wednesday. I’ve posted a few shots of Chase Tower since moving downtown (here and here), but I end up going back to it when the background and reflections will be different. One day I [...]
Warp Speed
A few nights ago I declared I was tired of urbex for awhile and wanted to get out and shoot some desert landscapes against the setting sun. I hadn’t been to South Mountain in awhile and didn’t remember much of it, so I dragged along my wife and daughter and we drove up to the top of Summit Road where you can see the entire city. It’s breathtaking. But for me, I didn’t want to just sit there with the hundreds of other people and take a picture that everyone else was taking. So we didn’t even stop at the [...]
Pearson Christmas Party
Last Thursday night I had the opportunity to photograph the Pearson Christmas Party that was held at The Venue, a gorgeous event location in downtown Scottsdale. Of course I had to do a quick little HDR of the interior before the guests arrived, which you can see above. I’ve done a few events before, but this was the first that required a kind of “posed shot station” where couples could walk up to where we were shooting, pose for a nice shot and be on their way. Which was a lot of fun for me, because it became an awesome [...]
Autumn in New York
Okay, it’s not New York, it’s Phoenix…but really, this is Phoenix? The first day of winter is tomorrow, but down here in the desert, fall is in full swing. I’m not entirely sure what kind of trees these are in the picture above, but along with the Chinese Elms and others, the leaves have suddenly started falling all around the downtown area and it’s just beautiful. Having lived in the outskirts of town for awhile, we don’t really see stuff like this too often. Fall leaves, sidewalks that aren’t right on the curb…it’s more like a place back east. I [...]
Holey Windows: Before and After
Yet another awesome external wall to an abandoned or barely used building in downtown Phoenix. Loved the sort of monotone colors on this wall, something I don’t always look for. I tend to like scenes like the Blue Door I posted a few days ago where there is some color that pops out at you. But this just had a very post-apocalyptic feel to it…almost a Matrix-like color to the thing. I used PhotoTools on this image as I have been doing a lot lately, and I have to say, I absolutely love the amazing flexibility and range that the [...]
Last chance before the New Year!
This last year has been amazing for me as a person and a photographer. Life changing even. A year ago I never would have thought I’d be here. I’m grateful to everyone who had me do their photos this year (newborns, kids, maternity, parties, family portraits, engagements and even a wedding), some who have purchased prints from me and those of you adding Stormchasing Arizona to your photobook library. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU. Ah…but that is all so 2010 already. I’m thinking ahead. Lots of planning, lots to do, lots of changes. My pricing for photoshoots will be [...]
Mike is a Phoenix Wedding Photographer based in Arizona and can be contacted via all the normal methods and then some.