Tag Archives: Arizona

Crepuscular Rays Over Phoenix

Posted by Dan Mitchell on

Crepuscular Rays are one of my favorite natural phenomena. These are exactly as they came out of the camera- I didn’t add anything to enhance these photos.

The ‘rays’ are actually all parallel- that they look like they radiate out from a central point is an optical illusion.

Crepuscular Rays Over Phoenix
Details:

  • Nikon D200 dSLR
  • AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED Lens
  • 34mm (51mm equivalent)
  • ISO 100
  • f/8
  • 1/250 exposure

Crepuscular Rays Over Phoenix

Details:

  • Nikon D200 dSLR
  • AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED Lens
  • 48mm (64mm equivalent)
  • ISO 100
  • f/7.1
  • 1/200 exposure

Photos taken September 10, 2011 in Phoenix, AZ. 5:16 PM.

Enjoy!

Dan, aka @PHXPhoto

Man On Fire…

Posted by Dan Mitchell on

Maybe it’s just me watching too much anime as a kid (and into adulthood), but when I got home and pulled this image out of the camera, it looked to me like a figure getting struck by lightning.

Am I the only one?  Well, if there are any sightings of Voltron, Optimus Prime, or VF-1 Valkyries around Phoenix in the next couple of days, I’ll know I was right!

Man On Fire

Taken September 9, 2011, looking Southwest over South Mountain Park, Phoenix, AZ. 10:30 PM.

Details:

  • Nikon D200 dSLR
  • AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED Lens
  • 18mm (27mm equivalent)
  • ISO 100
  • f/3.5
  • 10-second exposure

Enjoy!

Dan, aka @PHXPhoto

Fire in the Sky…

Posted by Dan Mitchell on

…or “The one where I again put myself in danger to get another amazing photo*”.

Quite a few cells rolled into Phoenix last night from the Southwest, and the lightning was hit or miss.  There were periods where it was relatively quiet, then there were short bursts of lots of activity.  The photo below shows cloud-to-cloud lightning propagating across the sky.

Fire in the Sky

(*since my family and friends read this, I have to add the disclaimer that I wasn’t really in danger- the lightning was actually quite far away)

Taken September 9, 2011, looking Southwest over South Mountain Park, Phoenix, AZ. 10:28 PM.

Details:

  • Nikon D200 dSLR
  • AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED Lens
  • 18mm (27mm equivalent)
  • ISO 100
  • f/3.5
  • 10-second exposure

Enjoy!

Dan, aka @PHXPhoto

Haboob Sunset

Posted by Dan Mitchell on

As most locals know, during the monsoon season, Phoenix is prone to dust storms, also known as haboobs.  Weather officials say haboobs only happen in Arizona, the Sahara desert and parts of the Middle East because of dry conditions and large amounts of sand.

Yesterday (August 18, 2011), Phoenix experienced the 4th largest haboob on record.  Once the storm passed, there was still a lot of dust in the air, which led to a fantastic sunset.

This photo was taken August 18, 2011 at 7:20 pm off of Pima Canyon Road in the South Mountain Park preserve- the largest municipal park in the country, according to the Trust for Public Land.

Storm_sunset

Taken August 17, 2011, South Mountain Park, Phoenix, AZ.  7:23 PM (about 11 minutes after sunset).

Details:

Nikon D200 dSLR

AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 12-24mm f/4G IF-ED Lens

12mm (18mm equivalent)

ISO 100

5 exposures (bracketed) blended into one HDR photo: f/4, shutter 1/20; f/4, shutter 1/40; f/4, shutter 1/10; f/4, shutter 1/5; and f/4.5, shutter: 1/80;

HDR generated using Photomatix, Tone Compressed (using default settings). Adjustments include the Color Temperature being dropped to bring out the blues, as well as the Color Saturation being increased to bring out the reds and increase the overall contrast.

Enjoy!

Dan, aka @PHXPhoto

Sunset over the Painted Desert

Posted by Dan Mitchell on
Arizona_sunset

Taken August 17, 2011, South Mountain Park, Phoenix, AZ.  7:23 PM (about 11 minutes after sunset).

Elevation: Approximately 1,600 Feet (450 feet above the City of Phoenix).

Details:

Nikon D200 dSLR

AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 12-24mm f/4G IF-ED Lens

12mm (18mm equivalent)

ISO 100

3-shot HDR-

f/4, shutter 1/40; f/4.5, shutter: 1/80; and f/5, shutter: 1/100 (bracketed)

HDR generated using Photomatix, Tone Compressed (using default settings). Color Temperature dropped to bring out the blue, Color Saturation increased to bring out the reds and increase the overall contrast.

Enjoy!

Dan, aka @PHXPhoto

Views of the Phoenix Valley From South Mountain

Posted by Dan Mitchell on

I shot these photos February 12, 2011 from Dobbins Lookout on South Mountain, which sits about 1,200 feet above the valley floor below. The South Mountain Preserve is the largest municipal park in the world, and includes a lot of hiking, mountain biking, and equestrian trails. Best of all, there are no entrance fees to the park.

The photos below show:

  • a U.S. Airways Airbus (most likely an A320) departing Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (Airport Code KPHX),
  • a view of downtown Phoenix, including Chase Field with its roof open, and
  • Camelback Mountain, approximately 15 miles northeast. Sky Harbor Airport (KPHX), including its easily identifiable Control Tower, is visible in the foreground.

South Mountain Park Preserve Information: http://phoenix.gov/recreation/rec/parks/preserves/locations/south/index.html

Thank you for stopping by!

Like what you see?  Please leave a comment below.

-Dan, a.k.a. PHX Photo

The Hoover Dam- One of the Wonders of the Modern World

Posted by Dan Mitchell on

I took a trip to Las Vegas with Lynn and her family earlier this week, and on the way back, we stopped at Hoover Dam for some quick photos.

I can spout off all sorts of facts and figures pulled from the internet:

  • The Hoover Dam is a wedge-shaped arch-gravity dam more than two football fields (660 feet) wide at the bottom, but only 45 feet at the top;
  • The Hoover Dam is taller than a 70-story building (at over 726 feet from top to bottom);
  • The Hoover Dam contains over 3.25 million cubic yards of concrete- enough to pave a two-lane highway from San Francisco to New York;
  • The Hoover Dam’s 1,200-foot span formed the artificial lake- Lake Mead- that is used as a reservoir as well as for recreation;
  • Lake Mead has a surface area of 247 square miles and a maximum depth of over 500 feet, with a total water volume of 28,500,000 acre-feet.

But until you actually see it, it can be difficult to appreciate the enormity of those numbers.

As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are 10,000 or so words worth of photos taken by yours truly.

The Downstream Face of The Hoover Dam and the U-Shaped Powerhouse taken from the new Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge.  Lake Mead is in the background.  The Powerhouse houses 17 generators with a maximum capacity of 2,080 megawatts.

Access to the Nevada Upper and Lower Penstocks.

Access to the Arizona Upper and Lower Penstocks (For my fellow ‘Transformers’ fans out there, behind this door is the All Spark as well as NBE-1, aka Megatron).

One of the two 30-foot bronze “Winged Figures of the Republic”.  Tradition is to rub the statues’ toes for luck, which explains why the toes don’t have the same weathered patina as the rest of the statue.

View of Lake Mead from the Hoover Dam.  Lake Mead’s average water level is around 1,173 feet above sea level; it is currently around 1,090 feet, 83 feet below average, evidenced by the white “bathtub ring”.

The Hover Dam Powerhouse as seen from the top of the Hoover Dam.  The new 1,900-foot-long Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge (aka the Hoover Dam Bypass) is in the background.

The Hover Dam Powerhouse and face of the Hoover Dam as seen from the top of the Hoover Dam.

Standing in Nevada, looking towards Arizona across the downstream face of the Hoover Dam.

The new 1,900-foot-long Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge (aka the Hoover Dam Bypass), viewed from the Hoover Dam.  The roadway soars 900 feet above the Colorado River.  Its concrete arch is the longest in the Western Hemisphere.

What not to do when walking across the Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge.

Thank you for stopping by!

Like what you see?  Please leave a comment below.

-Dan, a.k.a. PHX Photo

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_Dam

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Mead

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_O‘Callaghan_–_Pat_Tillman_Memorial_Bridge

Snow On Four Peaks

Posted by Dan Mitchell on

From Wikipedia:

Four Peaks (Yavapai: Wikopa[1]), at 7657 feet (2335 m) in altitude, is a prominent landmark on the eastern skyline of Phoenix, part of the Mazatzal Mountains. It is located in the Tonto National Forest 40 miles (64 km) east-northeast of Phoenix, in the 60,740-acre (245.8 km2) Four Peaks Wilderness. On rare occasions, Four Peaks offers much of the Phoenix metro area a view of snow covered peaks, and is the highest point in Maricopa County.

The name Four Peaks is a reference to the four distinct peaks of a north-south ridge forming the mountain’s summit. The northernmost peak is named Brown’s Peak and is the tallest of the four at 7,657 feet (2,334 m).[2] The remaining summits are unnamed, and from north to south are 7,642 feet (2,329 m), 7,575 feet (2,309 m) and 7,524 feet (2,293 m) in altitude.