We went to Little America’s Festival of Lights for the first time last night and Wowie Wow….Breathtaking!
It is, hands down, the best display we have ever seen. Last night was the official lighting so there were
many other activities going on making it a really fun event.
A little snow made the evening extra special. Then we had to drive back down to Sedona via twisty 89A…scary!
We drove to Flagstaff on Thursday with hopes of color but found very little. We did find
beautiful yellow and red trees at our hotel though, so we made plans to shoot them in the morning.
With temps at 28 degrees, we opted to enjoy a sumptuous breakfast and share our photos instead 🙂
We did take a couple of minutes to get a few shots of the trees.
Little America Maple Tree (we highly recommend this hotel!)
We then headed to Sedona with no idea that the West Fork Trail would be ripe with color!
Had we known, we would have left much earlier because as you know if you’ve ever hiked
the trail, the light is best between 9 and 11am. We didn’t arrive until noon and had to wait
a short time because the parking lot was full. We took time to eat a picnic lunch and then
headed out about 12:30 and enjoyed shooting even though the maples were in shade.
Apple Trees hadn’t turned yet but there was plenty of this red ground cover and soft grasses.
Ferns were especially thick. Mostly yellow.
Shade is a perfect opportunity for shaking your camera !
Oak Creek shot with very slow shutterspeed.
Red Maple and Ferns shot with Orton Effect in mind.
We drove home via Hwy 180 with hopes of seeing Aspens turning color on the North side
of the San Francisco Peaks. We lucked out with a few Aspen groves by the side of the road.
On Hwy 180 going toward Flagstaff between the 8046 and 8000 elevation. signs.
Of course I had to shake my camera too 🙂
A 5 image panorama of the lava fields at Sunset Crater in Flagstaff taken on July 4th of this year.
Processed with Photoshop’s Photomerge and enhanced with Topaz filters for extra contrast.
Manual exposures with Canon 5DMK2, Canon 24-105mm at 24mm, ISO 200, f/16, 1/180th sec