The collection is currently being displayed at RBC Investments in Tucson, AZ.  Viewing appointments can be scheduled through Sean.

Currently the collection can be viewed at RBC Investments in Tucson, AZ.

Currently the collection can be viewed at RBC Investments in Tucson, AZ.

Below are several awesome links about this incredible new show.

http://www.weather.com/tv/tvshows/peter-lik

This clip is a segment from Red Rock Canyon.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4APe4X07-Ro

There is also a great Facebook app that relates to the show and allows people to upload photos for a chance to win a grand prize.
http://www.facebook.com/TWCFromtheEdge?sk=app_142913599108159

Each week people are encouraged to submit their photos for a chance to win a grand prize. This week’s photo challenge:

This week Peter explores the Red Rock Canyons, and we want to see YOUR canyon photos. You could share a picture of rock formations, arid
landscapes, Red Rock Canyon State Park or anything else that reminds you of the American Southwest.

Once you upload your photo, be sure to tell your friends to check out the contest and vote for their favorite photo! Peter will choose a weekly winner
and all weekly winners will be eligible for the Grand Prize (See details below).

Enter for a chance to win an all expenses paid trip for you and a friend to
Las Vegas that includes:

Tour of one of Peter’s famed galleries
Grand Canyon helicopter tour
Grand Canyon picnic experience
Transportation and hotel accommodations
$500 spending money

Enjoy! Sean

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

The landscape is quite varied all throughout the hike starting with cotton woods along a wide riverbed.  It’s rained quite a bit in the last month so there is a lot of water running.  The saguaros and cholla’s stand out next.  They are truly perfect specimens.  There are also many “melting rocks” and huge boulders that look other-worldly ~ somewhat similar to those you see in Texas Canyon close to Dragoon, AZ.

It is incredibly quiet along the well groomed path and we often see red birds, deer and a few large hawks along our journey.   We rarely see any humans on foot our entire hike but we have encountered a few hard-core mountain bikers here mostly at the beginning of the trek.

A super incredible find for us in the Old Pueblo!

Rebecca

This is an HDR shot of 3 images.  Clouds were cool but moving fast which is tough with HDR.  This one worked out but usually if you are shooting HDR you don’t want to do it on a windy day!

This was shot with Black and White in mind.  Light was harsh as it was later in the morning but I loved the texture in the rock and the contrast of the Saguaro, rocks and Ocotillo.

]]> http://blog.seanstuchen.com/hiking-in-tucson-az/feed/ 0 http://blog.seanstuchen.com/touring-page-az-day-2/ http://blog.seanstuchen.com/touring-page-az-day-2/#comments Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:29:40 +0000 admin http://blog.seanstuchen.com/?p=67 We had such a great day yesterday!  The evening was pretty adventurous.  As I mention in our Day one post, we wanted to try to find a place called Stud Horse point to photograph.  After countless attempts we had no luck.  We even took a BLM road to nowhere in search of this mysterious place.  Along this road we saw some incredible rock formations that were out of this world.  We traveled about 20 minutes on this back road as it was getting dark.  The storm clouds were really coming in quick.  I decided if I was going to get any sort of shot of these rocks I had to do it quickly as I was loosing light and it was going to pour rain any moment.  I jumped out of the car set up and took a few long exposures.  The colors were magnificant with the storm rolling in.  However just after a few shots it literally started to hail.

Today we decided to drive out to Lone Rock at Lake Powell.  This is close to the Utah border.  It is a very beautiful spot and again a great place for Clyde to run and play in the water.  I didn’t really have anything specific in mind to shoot today so we were just kind of going with the flow.  Below are a few shots of this area on Lake Powell.

This is Lone Rock.  I used a polarizer to reduce the glare from the water.  Very beautiful spot (a first light shot would be great here).

This is Clyde in action running through the water!

Mr. Clyde posing after some running and digging in the sand!

We decided before heading back to Tucson that we would take a trip out to Antelope Canyon.  I have seen so many photos of this beautiful place that I wanted to experience first hand.  We chose to go to Upper Antelope Canyon which requires a tour.  I tried to schmooze our way out of the tour and see if we could go on our own but “no way” was the answer.  Well as luck had it, when we were ready to load up in the jeeps they were all full.  I have learned over the years that sometimes when things don’t seem to be going smoothly, I let go as there is most likely something better the universe has in store of us.  Soooo…one of the guides comes up to us standing in the parking lot wondering what we do next and says, I guess I will just take the two of you on a private tour.  So there you have it…we got to go on our own.  There were still many people there, but we got to go at our own pace and not feel too rushed.  Below are some of the shots of Upper Antelope Canyon.  It is pretty dark in the caves so I shot all of these at a long exposure.  As a side note, many photos of Antelope Canyon often show beams of light coming through.  We learned that this only happens in the late spring through the early fall months when the sun is at a specific angle to the canyon.  So in November we were not able to capture this.  I am certain our next trip there will be in the Spring or Summer.  We will also hit lower Antelope.  I am also determined to find the mystereous Stud Horse point I was never able to find.

Entrance to Upper Antelope Canyon (D3, 24mm, f11, 3 exp blended)

Upper Antelope Canyon BW (D3, 35mm, F11, .7 sec)

Upper Antelope Canyon (D3, 24mm, f11, 3 exposures blended)

Until next time…..

About two miles from our RV Park there was a large area of Sand Dunes.  These dunes went on for miles.  I decided to get a cup of Java and head over.  I hiked in toward the very large dune and set up for some shots.  Shooting a new area for the first time is always a bit difficult.  Trying to figure out the direction of the light, what composition I liked best, etc.  But being that I had a full week there I just decided to shoot away and play.  Below are a few cool shots from that first morning test shooting.

After our introduction to the workshop we headed out to shoot.  Jack who has been going to DV for many years told us that an area called Bad Water  was they best he had EVER seen it.  This is a valley between the mountains that is basically a huge salt flat.  When it rains water collects and begins to pool up in the salt forming tile like structures in various geometric formations.  Shooting this at Sunset and Sunrise is spectacular.  As the sun hits the mountain range the reflection of the mountain on the water and salt begins to create a magical explosion of color, texture and form.  This was my favorite place to shoot.  I could have shot here for days.  Unfortunately by the end of the week most of the water had dried up.  Jack still tells me our group captured amazing photos of this place that others will be lucky to every experience again.

This is my buddy Dave from Seattle.  He is a great photog.  His specialty is wildlife!

Below is a shot of the snow capped mountains lite up in early am by the sun reflecting in the water and salt formations

The three shots below were taken to display together (I think they work).  They are macro shots of the water and salt.

It really looked amazing.  It was like liquid metal in some areas.  May create a triptik of these as fine art.

The two shots below were an area we called “The Rivelets”.  This is one of the spots that you only know about because you are with a guy like Jack.

We basically pulled off the road and Jack explained that these thin water outlets going out to the salt will light up in bright red when the Sun is rising and lighting

up the mountain range.  Some of the photogs on the trip got amazing photos.  Mine were ok. Just didn’t find the “best” rivelet to shoot.

Below are shots of the sand dunes.  What a beautiful area.  The first few days there was very little wind and allowed from some great shots.  We finally hiked back several miles

from a side road to get to some pristine areas.

I think this is my favorite shot.  We stayed on day after the workshop to keep shooting some of the ares.  Unfortunately the wind really picked up and it became stormy.

We were scouting the sand dunes to see if the wind would slow enough to shoot in there.  While we were waiting we watched this spectacular array of clouds form

while the sand blew across landscape.  Going to blow this one up BIG!

The two photos below are of Zabriski Point.  A beautiful spot with a spectacle of colors in the rocks.  This was on our way out of town and still very windy.

Almost got blown off the ridge I was standing on a few times.  Was very hard to keep the camera still to get a clear photo.

After Death Valley we headed to Joshua Tree National Park.  Spent a few nights there.  Below are a few photos from our stay.

This shot was taken early morning as the sun came over the ridge.

These hedge hog flowers are so incredible.  At sunset they take on a intense “glow in the dark” color.

Mariposa Lilly–odd to find three together like this.  Challenge was getting them all in focus!

I found this Mariposa Lilly on a cloudy day.  Many had opened but this one decided to stay tightly wound up.  I shot this flower for a long time at many angles.

I think these are called ‘crane flies’.  They have been all over the place this year in Tucson.  Don’t remember them in previous years.

Realized they hang out on this grass in the park and like to pose for the camera!

These are flowers from an aloe stalk.  Look kinda like bananas!

So this is one of my favorite “Artsy” shots.  This is a fairy duster taken with my Macro lens.  Key was I focused on the tips and very low f stop to have shallow depth of field.

Blooming Ocotillo in the morning sun.

My first exploration was with my buddy Dave to Catalina State park.  Dave is an excellent photographer with a great eye for light and composition.  We had been checking out the wild flower watch site, (http://www.desertusa.com) and noted that there were some posts about the Sutherland Trail starting to bloom at Catalina State Park.  So we headed out early in the am to see what we could find.

Upon arriving to Catalina, we headed out on the Sutherland Trail.  It was about 5:45am and we saw one other person out there who was also a photographer.  He was kind enough to guide us to where the wild flower bloom was very dense.  One great thing about early morning shooting is the lighting is incredibly soft.  However, with these flowers they were still closed this early in the morning.  As we began to shoot, we quickly became aware that the flowers were starting to unfold right in front of our eyes.  Magic! Time lapse photography would be really cool for these flowers….just wish I had the equipment and knew how to do it.  Our only other challenge was the wind!  When shooting flowers, especially up close, wind is usually your enemy (unless of course you are going for a artsy blurred look).  To help combat the wind, I brought out a “Light Dome”…… a soft box that is all white.  We could set it over a section of flowers we were working and block most of the wind.  It can also be used to create some really beautiful soft white light.  All of the shots of flowers were shot on a tripod, with a cable release and in the “mirror up” mode.  This is to eliminate vibration and get the sharpest photo possible.  Again the wind was the biggest challenge.

So here you go…….  These shots are from a few different early morning and late evening outings to Catalina Park.  I am still researching what many of these flowers are.   I intend to use a few of these to create greeting cards and fine art prints.  If you are interested in purchasing any, just shoot me an email and we can work out the details.  Eventually they will be posted on my “images website” as well.  Until next time……

This is an example of early am shot just after sunrise.  Most flowers (Poppies) are still closed.  This beauty was spotted by my buddy Dave who noticed the back lighting from the sun on this closed flower.

This shot is of some moss in the flowing water at Catalina park.  Taken later in the morning.  I noticed the shadows of floating objects were making some very cool “art” in the water.

One of my challenges was to try to frame some of these flowers in the context of the Desert.  Was able to place the Saguaro in this one.

As I was walking back from a few hours of early morning shots, I saw an elderly woman looking at a specific Saguaro.  So I stopped and noticed she was watching this beautiful Red Cardinal.  Of course, as murphy’s law would have it this was the only day I left my zoom lens home to pack less weight.  Oh well.  This was actually taken with my 105 mm Macro lens.

This is an example of something I was not looking for.  I was walking back from shooting the moss in the water and noticed this tree with a strange fruit on it.  As I began to study it closer I noticed all of these squiggly connector type vines.  I tried to shoot some of the specific patterns of these amazing vines (they are very small by the way) but the wind was too active.  So I decided to frame some of the leaves and the shadows the little vines were making.

One of the little vines from above.

The wind was a real challenge on this one and couldn’t get it all in focus….but wow what a beautiful flower.

So these little disc like things were one of my favorites.  They are a very unassuming plant.  The little discs are about the size of a pencil eraser.  As you can imagine the wind really pushed these around but I was able to work in the light dome a bit and get some cool shots.

The world of macro.  This was a tiny flower I spotted along the path.  I really liked how the grass was laying over the top.

This was later in the morning and the wind was really picking up so I decided to play with it and shoot some of this wild grass.

I am not sure of the scientific name of these but the other photographer we met out at the park called them “buttercups”.  These are tiny white, delicate flowers.  They don’t open until later in the morning.

This is the same type of flower as above “buttercup”.  However is still had a protective sheath over it.

Here are the discs again.  These were shot in the light dome.  Looks like studio lighting!  The colors when the sun hit these was incredible.  However, unless you are about 2-4 inches away you would never know this color display existed.

Poppies and Lupine in the soft early morning light.

This was taken as sunset.  Shooting into the sun can cause lots of flare which is usually not desired.  However in this picture I liked what I saw (the Lupine had a mystical glow) so I snapped the photo.

Rebecca and Clyde came with me on the Sunset shooting day.  I was buried in flowers shooting macro and Rebecca called out to me to snap photos of Mr. Clyde sitting in natures flower garden.

On the sunset shoot day, Rebecca, Clyde and I were headed back after the sun went down.  This was our last water crossing.

Ok, not flowers here.  This was from our hike on baby Jesus trail which cuts through Catalina Park.  There are some amazing rock formations.

These are another amazing plant.  Once again very unassuming until the sun hits them just right.  Then they pop with a pink glow.

Early am shot of poppies in bloom progression.

This was a lone poppy nestled up to a large rock.