Rim Country

Another title for this blog post could be 'back to cool'.  Shooting with weather in the 70s is always nice.  Being with good friends adds to the 'cool factor'.  Getting a photograph of an osprey with a fish, secure in its talons . . . well now that is really cool!

The fish is being carried parallel to the osprey's body.  I assume it is carried that way to minimize wind resistance.

This trip had us looking up, looking down and looking across.  We arrived about midday and the light was terrible.  But overcast skies can be great for flowers.  And here are a lot of wildflowers up on the Rim.

We stopped at two lakes.  Bear Canyon Lake is a 12 mile dirt road off of the Rim Road.  I love it because it is quiet, peaceful, almost no people and the trees come right down to the water.  The sky was overcast.  The lack of a beach makes setting up a good composition a bit more challenging.  We stopped at Woods Canyon Lake next and by then the sky had become filled with late monsoon clouds.  Beach, people and boats make for more interesting compositions.

Bear Canyon Lake

Bear Canyon Lake

Woods Canyon Lake

Woods Canyon Lake

There are three nice viewpoints along the Rim Road.  During the week there is usually plenty of parking spaces.  You can actually hike along a very nice trail between the three points.  We arrived in late afternoon and managed to get in just a few minutes of gold between the clouds.

That is Tom on the ledge.