Grand Canyon Vehicle Shuttle Trip

In October Eileen and I and our friends Kaye and Asghar Shariff shuttled hiker vehicles from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon to the South Rim.  Along the way we toured Lee's Ferry national monument and had some great meals.

When we left Phoenix it was still summer.  By the time we reached the North Rim it had turned to winter complete with snow.  Luckily there wasn't much snow sticking to the roads so we had free roaming capability.

Below are some photos from our trip.  I was shooting my Canon 60D and a Rolfix folding 120 film camera.  I will identify which camera took which photo.

First is a photo of we four travelers.  I photoshopped myself into the photo.

Left to right Larry, Kaye, Asghar, and Eileen.

Snowy weather on the way into the park.

View from the canyon side of the lodge.

At Point Imperial the next morning.

Snow covers the countryside.

After getting through morning cleanup we had a great breakfast at the Lodge dining room and went out looking for other great sights.

One of the first things we came upon was a flock of wild turkeys warming up near the road.  Funny birds.  Not as large as the supermarket ones.

All along the road were turnouts that offered spectacular views.

The next viewpoint is Angel's Window.  You can see the Colorado river through the window.

At the end of this road is Cape Royal.

We then picked up the other two vehicles and began our journey to the South Rim.  We spent the night in an older motel at Lee's Ferry.  Lee's Ferry operated from the 1800's until the early 1900's.  It was a main route for Mormon families migrating out of Utah into southern Arizona.  Lee's Ferry is now a prime put-in for anglers and rafters.
Vermillion Cliffs

 Vermillion Canyon at Lees Ferry

Rafters getting ready for their trip down the Colorado River.

The next morning we got an early start and drove 60 miles to Cameron where we had a great breakfast at the Cameron Trading Post.  Tip: If you order the Navajo Taco, the small order is large enough for any 2 reasonably hungry people.  The turn to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon is about a mile south of the Cameron Trading Post.
The Cameron Trading Post is full of curios, Navajo art and jewelry, and munchies.

The restaurant in the Cameron Trading Post features a large fireplace, bins which were used to store trade goods and a metal ceiling.


Asghar was feeling good after breakfast and a cup of coffee.

On entering the Grand Canyon National Park from the east end, the first thing you see is the Desert Watchtower.  The Watchtower was designed by noted architect Mary Jane Coulter who also built most of the structures at the Grand Canyon Village.

In this view, looking northeast from the Desert Watchtower, you can see Lee's Ferry where we began the morning's journey.

We continued our journey westward to Grand Canyon Village where we dropped off the hiker's vehicles.


Kaye and Asghar at a viewpoint.


The view from Moran Point.

At the Yavapai Ranger Station you can look down over the edge from inside a building.  Exhibits of the rock layers in the Canyon are available for touching and Rangers give talks on how the Canyon was developed and the critters that live in the Area.

At the far western end of the south rim road is a structure known as Hermit's Rest.  Its a stone building with a very large fireplace.  A cup of hot chocolate is a nice respite from the cold weather when visiting in the winter.

 Notice the man sitting next to the firepit.

The view from Hermit's Rest.

We left the Park after visiting Hermit's Rest.  We journeyed down to Williams, AZ which is the base for the Grand Canyon Railway, and had dinner at the Pine Country Cafe.  From there we motored home to Phoenix.

Mother Nature had one more surprise for us.  As we approached Flagstaff, AZ on I-40 the tops of the San Franciso Peaks were shrouded in clouds that glowed with an unnatural sunset glow.

More Barrel Racing

We had another opportunity to  photograph horses and riders at a barrel racing event.  There were more riders at this event.  The event was also a daytime event with clear skies and cool temperatures.  It took place at Horse Lovers Park in northern Phoenix. 

I was able to stand at the fence and shoot from ground level.  Because it was daylight I was able to set the shutter speed to 1/1000th of a second and let the camera choose the F/stop.  I was using my Canon EF 28-70mm f/2.8 L lens mounted on a Canon 60D. I also dialed in an ISO setting of 200.   These settings enabled me to freeze the action in the race. 

Some representative photos are posted below:

Kid Soccer

Grand kids Brayden and Sophia have been playing youth soccer.  The season has progressed through 9 games.  I have been to most of the games and taken lots of photos.  I'll show you some of the photos a bit later but here are some things I have learned about getting good photographs.

Day Games:  In one sense day games are easier to shoot.  There is a lot more light which means you can use higher shutter speeds to "freeze" motion and still use a fairly low ISO setting.  A low ISO setting means you can avoid noise in your photo that ends up looking like "grain" from high speed film.  You can use almost any lens in the day.  I like a fairly long focal length so you can keep the point of action (the ball) at a large enough size on the frame to recognize what is going on.  I have used a prime lens and the size of the action varies as the ball moves up and down the field.  

Night Games:  The park where the soccer is played in Mesa, AZ has nice lighting.  Here I do use a 85mm f/1.8 lens because of its light gathering power.  In order to come close to freezing action at night, I have had to adjust the ISO up into the noisy range.  I found that setting ISO at 3200 or 5000 will give me a shutter speed of 160th to 200th of a second.  Those shutter speeds freeze most action but sometimes feet or hands will exhibit motion blur. 

The Players:  Sophia is 5 years old.  She aggressively follows the ball and dukes it out with the other team to take possession.  Brayden  is 6 years old.  He is very athletic and enjoys running up and down the field. 

Sophia Goes For The Goal

Sophia moves the ball.

Sophia and her team mates.

Brayden.

 Brayden on goal.

Brayden after the ball.

One other thing:  Crop your photos.  Sometimes the action gets lost in the clutter of the full frame.  Crop the full frame to isolate the action. 

Barrel Racing August 2011

Last Saturday we took the grand kids to see a Barrel Racing event.  Suzanne Barnes, a friend of Eileen's was the organizer.  The event was held at the Goodyear, AZ equestrian center.  It was a warm night; the temperature was in the 90's when the event started at 7 p. m..  For those of you unfamiliar with Barrel Racing, it is a timed event where horse and rider cross a starting line, ride as hard as they can to 3- 55gal barrels,  go around each barrel as fast as they can and then race back to the starting line.  A typical time for a circuit was on the order of 18 seconds.

I was using my Canon 60D to take photographs of the event.  I was using my EF 85mm, f1.8 lens.  The arena was covered but had lighting.  I ended up shooting at iso 3200 and 6400.  I was shooting on the highest 60D cycle speed which is a little over 5 frames a second.  Images were somewhat noisy and I had some autofocus problems.

Below are some of my shots.  Enjoy.

2011 World's Cutest Grandkids

We all think that, don't we?  Our grandkids are cuter than any other grandkids.  Here are some shots to prove my point.  Luke is 10, Brayden is 6, and Sophia is 4.

2011 Summer Hummers

We have two hummingbird feeders under the patio.  A Costa's hummingbird (we call him The Sentinel)  perches on a dried bush arrangement near the feeders.  He spends most of his time chasing the other hummingbirds away.  He lives in a lemon tree when he is not on guard duty.  These photos were shot through window panes in the master-bedroom patio door.

Flowers and Things

Flowers are just so darn pretty.  That is why I take photos of them.  A telephoto lens cranked out to maximum focal length or a macro lens will give you the best opportunity to get a good shot of a flower.  Pay attention to the aperture you are using when taking the photo.  Using a small aperture will give you a large depth of field in focus.  The down side of this is that you may end up with very slow shutter speeds that are prone to giving you camera shake.  Using a tripod would be best but many times flowers are "grab" shots that you just happen upon.

Here are some of my best recent shots.

A passion flower on its vine.

A hibiscus.

 Riniculus.

 Pansies.

 Dasies.

 Roses.