The Spring Wildflowers of the Arizona Desert
A good friend of ours named Ryann had been traveling along the US 60 through Superior in the last week and made sure to point out to me all the wildflowers blooming along the highways and mountains. Plus I’d been keeping up with DesertUSA.com and all their reader wildflower reports. They mentioned how the flowers had been going nuts on Silver King Mine road just west of Superior, so I packed the wife and kid in the car Sunday afternoon and we took off. The first thing we noticed was the highway. From when you leave the Apache Junction area [...]
Saguaro Sunset in the San Tan Mountains
A shot of a tall Saguaro cactus with the sun setting behind it. I drove out to the southeast side of the San Tan Mountains on Friday afternoon, hoping to find some flowers to photography at sunset. I didn’t find much, but I did like this shot. Beautiful, stunning mountains on that side of those mountains.
Weekend storms in Arizona
We had some nice storms roll through town this past weekend and I was lucky enough to get out and shoot a bit on Sunday. Here’s a couple of my favorites from that day. This one above is a two-shot panoramic stitched together. I enhanced the contrast and colors a bit to make it more vivid and exciting. Shots of the falling rain. Murky and ominous clouds approach. A black and white…rain falling on one end, low hanging clouds on the other… Just a creepy shot at the airport. A monstrous, low hanging storm. Love this shot…it’s gotten me an [...]
Memory of the Old West
I love the train tracks south of Hunt Highway, which is only a few miles from my house. I’ve taken a few pictures there, but this latest I really wanted to try and do something different with it. It’s made to look old, obviously, but the texture on it comes from a nearby desert park. I found an old rock that had some cool colors, swirls and textures to it. It’s overlayed on this photos to really give it an old look…maybe like faded parchment? Definitely reminds me of something from an old western photos. You can buy this print right [...]
The Green Arizona Desert
My buddy Jon who was in town with his family this past weekend joined me for a hike of the San Tan Mountains just southeast of the Chandler-Gilbert area. It’s a neat little regional park that I never really paid much attention to until I started getting into photography. The views were great, but one of the main reason I went out there was to capture the greenery that is now covering much of the desert floor here in Arizona. The incredible amount of rainfall has created greenish tints to all the mountains around town and when you examine them [...]
Storms and Clouds over the Arizona Skies
Monday was eventful in terms of capturing some cool shots of storms, clouds and falling rain around the Phoenix area. I drove out to Apache Junction and snapped some shots of the incoming storm, plus a few other cloud pictures. Mmmm, I love clouds. After the rain…the sunlight streams through a hole in the clouds. Impending storm heads to the east Valley. Shot from Idaho Road and Lost Dutchman looking West.
Winter Storm Photos: Part 1
Some storm photos from the weekend. These below all were shot south of town along State Route 87. We went off the road for a bit onto a side road and ended up spotting some amazing stuff, like this old bridge below adorned with graffiti. We actually found TONS of graffiti, but that’s another post for another day.
Stormy skies
On my way home from work Wednesday, I snapped some photos of the cool cloudy, stormy skies. The first one was actually BEFORE leaving wok from a nearby parking garage, the rest were shot southwest of Ahwatukee, along Riggs Road west of I-10.
Sunset on the Four Peaks
My plan on Wednesday was to drive out and get some photos of the snow on the Four Peaks mountain range northeast of Phoenix. You can get a nice view by heading up the Beeline Highway and turning off on the appropriately named Four Peaks Road. I’ve always wanted to take a great picture of the Four Peaks covered in snow. It happens out here once a year if you’re lucky and the snow disappears quickly. On this day it was already stormy and rainy out. Jina told me it might be better to wait until Thursday for a clearer [...]
Storm Photos: Part 2
On Saturday I had planned to photograph some of the snow on the Four Peaks. I knew all week that it was likely going to snow up there and I’ve been dying to shoot this once-a-year event. The downside was that the weather had been so bad, the Beeline Highway was closed at Bush Highway and I couldn’t get as close as I wanted, plus the stormy clouds pretty much covered the top of the peaks. However…it was a stunning day out, the clouds were puffy, stormy and gorgeous. The views were super-clear and the visibility was endless. We drove [...]
Mike is a Phoenix Wedding Photographer based in Arizona and can be contacted via all the normal methods and then some.