Utah - Feb 2012 - Day 6

Before the trip began, the weather was supposed to be clear and sunny each day.  So, we were planning to do some astro photography.  Now, here we were on Day 6 and we had seen no clear nights. Undeterred we still hoped for the one clear night.  We had read on the internet that one of the darkest skies in the US was in Natural Bridges; a Bortel Class 2 sky. 

On this day, it was snowy and the weather called for an all day snow.  Not to be deterred, we decided to drive through a blinding snow storm, for about 2 hours, to see Natural Bridges.  From this reconnaissance, we would determine if we would drive 2 hours and 20 minutes on Friday night to shoot the Milky Way.  At this time we still were not sure what time the Milky Way would rise.

As we neared Natural Bridges, remarkably, the sky was opening up.  However, once we arrived there was a full squall in progress.  About an inch of snow came down in a short space of time.  Cheri looked around the visitor center.  We decided to take a ride around the 9 mile loop even though it was snowing.

We struck off, and as we arrived at the first look out point, the skies started to clear!!  Cheri hopped out of the car and started shooting.  As we would continue around the loop the skies cleared to full blue!  There were three arches in the park and we intended to see them all.

Cheri hiked down to Owachomo Bridge and shot this HDR image.

On the way out of the park, John shot the Bear's Ears.

As we neared the Visitor Center, we decided to stop in one more time and look at their Dark Sky information.  This is when we met Gordon, the resident astronomer at Natural Bridges.  He was a great guy who willingly shared his passion for astronomy with us.  They had a "night sky" wheel on sale for $10.95.  This handy little device shows when the Milky Way and the constellations rise each day and night.  Armed with this and information about moon rise and set, we were able to plot a course for shooting the Milky Way, BUT only if the skies cooperated!!

We started the trek back as the skies closed in again!  How lucky were we to have blue sky?!  In Monticello we stopped for a pizza and chatted with the proprietor.  She suggested we stop into the lower part of Canyonlands to see Newspaper Rock on the way back.  So we did!  The light along the way was perfect and the deer were all around!

 Newspaper Rock was a place filled with Petroglyphs (see above).  They think it has been here for around 2000 years!!

Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Cheri and John

October 18, 2011 Yangtze

We slept mostly through the night.  At around 4 am there was some shuddering that felt like John was riding his bike in his dreams.  Cheri poked him.  The motion kept on...cheri poked him again.  John said, " it's the boat "!  So Cheri hopped out of bed and looked out the window...indeed we were still cruising.

The music began at 7 am...a gentle wake up call.  We thought , oh boy let's get showers, breakfast and get up on the top deck to shoot the landscape.  Wrong...we had cruised during the night so were arriving at port after breakfast.  Bummer!  It was pretty foggy, but looked like the sun might poke out.  So we retreated to the 4th floor deck and began to work on pictures, read the paper and contemplate a massage!

So as always we made the best of things and relaxed and sorted images!!  Bonus!

Unfortunately, Lunch was mostly American food.  After lunch we were off to the Snow Jade Caves.  They say they are the most amazing caves in China.  For sure they we're pretty spectacular!  John brought his 100-400 mm lens and 580ex flash;  what a great combo for taking stalagmite shots!

The scenery was beautiful on the way to and from the caves. The hills are huge and long. The kids walk them everyday to and from school.  How they do it, I will never know!

We got back to the ship in time to clean up before the Caption's reception.