Dave Daniel Photography

The southwestern US has such a diversity of landscapes and scenery unlike any other place on Earth. My fall 2011 tour is taking me through this rich area of the country to capture a new set of inspirational vistas. I planned on hitting some of the top photo destinations among many National Parks (thanks tax dollars), but am finding the best shots are coming from the drives between planned locations.

Here’s an example. This image was collected on Castle Creek road, south of Aspen, Colorado. As it happened, this scene opened up in front of us right when the sun was hitting a group of aspen trees in full fall regalia. Now, the picture really doesn’t do the scene justice, but it nevertheless looks amazing at full resolution. This is just one of those pictures that couldn’t be planned for unless you lived close by and could keep an eye on daily condtions.

Another example; I was Planning a full day at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Southwest Colorado, a location that makes the Grand Canyon jealous. An overnight rain-in-to-snow event totally obscured seeing anything beyond 30 feet, totally busting any images. I was really frustrated as I expected to get some really unique landscape images. Unfortunately, the snow and fog prevented me from taking a single shot. Discouraged, we left the location and headed for out next planned location, Arches National Park in Utah. Halfway through the drive a furious snow squall starting changing the landscape around us. I managed to find a safe spot to stop and capture this:

So, next time you want to “Plan” for that perfect image, don’t forget to look for those “Un-Planned” opportunites.

The Indianapolis Canal was a spectacular destination for this unusually warm spring day. With camera in hand, I spent the afternoon watching visitors to the canal take in the views, the museums, and memorials along the canal. I was also wanting to check out the canal length for candidate locations for some upcoming portrait shots.

In case you didn’t know, what we know as the Indianapolis canal downtown was actually part of the Indiana Central Canal. It was intended to connect the Wabash And Erie canal (which is partially intact today) to the Ohio River. The Indianapolis section roughly parallels White River and extends in pieces between Broad Ripple and White River State Park.

Although it’s a wonderful destination, I continue to be upset that the city allowed private construction along the canal, such as a tacky Residence Inn hotel, office buildings and condos. In my never to be humble opinion, the entire canal should be surrounded by park space and public venues. So much for the soapbox.

This was a chamber of commerce day – unusually warm at 84 degrees, slightly breezy, and mostly sunny. I ended up shooting over 200 images ranging from canal views to some families and pets along the canal. It’s clear that I need to make up some info cards so people know where to go to see some of the pics I took of them.

I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon and will be back with some photo clients to use the canal as a backdrop for some portrait shots. I easily found a couple dozen locations that should provide excellent results.

Enjoy!

A mid-winter snowy day recently brought us to Indianapolis’ Garfield Park Conservatory for an escape from the cold and a much-needed photo shoot. The Conservatory houses over 10,000 sq. feet of plants, flowers, trees and ferns from the world’s equatorial regions.

Surprisingly, we had the building to ourselves allowing whatever time was needed to view and shoot some the wonderful orchids that are scattered around the facility.

I was traveling light with my Canon G10, but definitely want to return for an afternoon with the D200, macro lens and strobe. I continue to be impressed with the image quality available from the G10. I hope you’ll agree that the results are worthy.

See more images here or click on the image.

I’m constantly on the lookout for interesting locations for future photo shoots, and happened to come across one in East Central Illinois in the small town of Villa Grove. Villa Grove is on Illinois SR-130 about 5 miles north of US-36. The location is near the train yards and appears to be an old commercial oil/gas supply terminal. Also at the site is a large semi-circular warehouse that might have been a roundhouse, along with a number of smaller support buildings. Across the tracks is a terminal building and a complement of small main streetish buildings. The whole town is rich with potential photo targets.

What appealed to me about the site were the amazing textures and, of course, the fact that it’s falling apart. While the initial draw was as a backdrop for a model photo shoot, or as a framing for something like a motorcycle or automobile shot, I found a number of possibilities for the site as the star. I shot off about a dozen images to remember what was available for a later session when I had more time and better light. Some stark winter shots intrigue me. Now to schedule a time to go back for those killer shots.

Mid August in Indiana means photo road trips! This particular visit took us to Fall Creek Gorge, near Attica, in west-central Indiana. The area is very lush, with mosses and ferns covering the steep limestone and sandstone walls of the gorge. Think of Turkey Run State Park on a very small scale, and without the kayaks and crowds.

The gorge is owned and managed by the Nature Conservancy, and was dedicated as a State Nature Preserve in 1986. Although I am an Indiana native, I just recently became aware of the site in recent years.

It is worth the trip – not only for the photo opps, but the water feels absolutely wonderful on a 90 degree Indiana summer day. Some of the potholes make for some creek lounging; the water in a few choice locations is up to my chest. The water is very clear and refreshingly cool.

The gorge is a difficult place to find. It’s in the middle of nowhere, on a gravel road, with a huge parking area for a half dozen cars. Don’t ask the locals – they probably don’t know where it’s at. But always willing to help, I’ve got directions for you:

Assuming you can find Attica, from the corner if S.R 28 and U.S. 41 travel west on U.S. 41 4.6 miles to Potholes Road (Kramer electric substation is across the road). It’s a gravel road and easy to miss. Go north roughly 1.5 miles to a small parking lot on the left side of the road. If you cross over the twin bridges over Fall Creek and Big Pine Creek, you have gone to far. From Daniel Central, it’s a short 100 miles to the Gorge.

Park your car, tailgate a nice lunch, leave your trash behind, walk the short trail to the gorge and prepare to get wet and enjoy yourself. I hope you enjoy these shots – I will have a full gallery posted soon.

Desperately needing to get out of the house, and even more desperately needing to exercise the camera (and myself), we trekked off to Indianapolis’ Holiday Park to shoot the famed Ruins. For those that don’t know, Holiday Park is a 94-acre park located on the north side of Indianapolis. The park has something for almost everyone, including botanical gardens, hiking trails, native wildlife, the White River, a nature center and, as mentioned earlier, the Ruins.

Holiday Park Ruins in Winter

The Ruins is a sculpture by Elmer Taflinger, based on the facade of the St. Paul Building, which was located on Broadway in New York City. The facade was originally designed by Karl Bitter, a prominent architect of his time, and featured Indiana limestone carved into the “the Races of Man.” The limestone found its way back to Indiana as part of a contest to preserve the carvings. About 50 years later, the Ruins are even more beautiful, although the surrounding area needs some attention from the City.

The gallery from the shoot is available here . All images were shot with a Nikon D200, using a Nikkor 18-200 lens, all on a tripod. Exposure information for each image is provided in the gallery. I’m planning on returning in the spring to shoot identical views. Enjoy!

Page Arizona – February 16, 2008

It’s has taken me over a year to get through all the images during the Arizona shoot, and I’m still working through them! Here’s the next set, shot in the Page, Arizona area while I was there to shoot the beautiful Coyote Buttes, White Pockets, and the amazing Antelope Canyon. This series of shots were taken before and after the canyon shoot session. This area is the same as shot in the Coconino Plateau images.

The weather certainly cooperated for the day, yielding over 800 images to choose from. Here’s a brief set of Page area views, up and down the Colorado River. This area is about 60 miles upstream from the Grand Canyon. From these shots, it’s easy to see how the canyon may have looked millennia ago.

On a personal note, these images were shot on February 16th. Two days later, while back in Phoenix, I suffered a major heart attack which put me in the hospital for a week. I firmly believe I was being watched over, as having a heart attack in the remote areas I shot that weekend would have been fatal. I’m a lucky man!

Coconino Plateau – January 27, 2008

These shots were taken on January 27th, 2008, at the start of my drvie from Page, Arizona back to Phoenix on the Navajo Reservation. The day was scheduled for a day of shooting in the slot canyons, but the weather was not cooperating. The bad weather provided the opportunity to get some interesting shots, as you can see.

The heavy rains did point out one thing – Arizona’s DOT has no idea on how to build highways that shed water. There were more accidents than we would have on a 10″ snow day in Indiana. Go figure.

White Pockets – January 26, 2008

Over eight months after the trek across the high desert in Arizona, I managed to get the photo set processed for White Pockets. These were shot on the same day as the Coyote Buttes.   I hope you enjoy

After a 24 mile off-road trip to the rarely-visited White Pockets, I shot the following images back on January 26th, starting around noon-time and finishing off with a sunset shot of the castle.  White Pockets is located in northern Arizona, near Page, on the Paria Plateau.

GPS Coordinates:

36°57.328 N
111°53.734 W

South Coyote Buttes – January 26, 2008

A recent business trip to Phoenix afforded me the opportunity for a photo shoot at south-coyote-buttes in Arizona’s Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. The Buttes are located about five hours north of Phoenix, near Page, Arizona, adjacent to the Utah border near Lake Powell.

South Coyote Buttes is very remote, and requires a permit from the Bureau of Land Management to control the delicate environment. I had commissioned Charly from Overland Canyon Tours to act as a guide to take me to the site. He did all the leg work to get the permit, make a great thermos of coffee, and setup an excellent high desert tailgate lunch complete with table and chairs. I think he was somewhat amused with my photo style, which ranged from wide-angle vistas to a closeup of a convoluted desert shrub. His 4×4 Suburban was essential to manage what amounted to no more than a sugar sand fire trail through the desert. It took us a solid 2 hours to go from the hotel to the sunrise shoot location, with most of the time on dirt and sand trails. I would recommend Charly to anyone wanting to visit the area – tell him I sent you.

We were absolutely remote of any sight or sound of civilization. The only sounds heard were the remote Coyote songs, and an occasional falcon piercing the cobalt sky. Oh, the sky! Ranging from midnight blue to vivid turquoise, the sky was amazing. On the drive out at night, I could not believe the number of stars that could be seen without the familiar light polution. The images simply do no justice to the scale and beauty of the area.

I hope you enjoy the pictures! During the same day, we went deeper into the plateau to visit White Pockets, a very different type of geological formation. Images for White Pockets will be posted later.