Steve Bruno Photography

WPC: Curve

Dune crest, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado by Steve Bruno

For this week’s Daily Post Challenge, I’ve found a few shots where the emphasis came from the curve in the photo. The top shot comes from Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado.

Rainbows made me think of curves, whether in the skies over southern Arizona, or frozen in sandstone at Rainbow Bridge National Monument, Utah.

Curves in the road also came to mind, and this one has plenty. It’s called the Swift Trail, and it heads up the Pinaleno Mountains of Arizona. As you can tell, there’s nothing swift about this drive, but it can be a lot of fun, and takes you into a beautiful mountain range.

Also in Arizona, you will come across many of these Saguaro cacti. Although the younger ones are a single column, the older ones develop arms that often curve gracefully.

June 21, 2016 17

Window Seat VII: Earth or Mars?

eroded mesas, Painted Desert, northern Arizona, Steve Bruno

Well, the obvious answer is Earth, but several locations I’ve flown across bear resemblances to sci-fi movie settings. These are all desert locations, so it probably helps that I fly in and out of Las Vegas. This also means we’re still at an altitude low enough to see great detail.

Mojave Desert, patterns, aerial, Arizona, Steve Bruno — Textures of the Mojave Desert

desert hills, southern Arizona, aerial, Steve Bruno — Hills in the desert of southern Arizona

Mountains near Lake Mead at sunset, aerial, Arizona, Steve Bruno — Mountains near Lake Mead at sunset

Desert ridges by stormlight outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, Steve Bruno — Desert ridges by stormlight outside of Las Vegas

Wash patterns, northwestern New Mexico, Steve Bruno — Wash patterns, northwestern New Mexico

Craters Near Flagstaff, Arizona, aerial, Steve Bruno — Craters Near Flagstaff

Desert Dunes near Death Valley, aerial, Steve Bruno — Desert and dunes near Death Valley

June 17, 2016 10

Window Seat VI: Where Water Meets Land

Atlantic Ocean, Florida, Islands, Steve Bruno

Although most of the flights I have taken in the US are entirely over land, there are times when the direct route veers over the ocean or other larger bodies of water. The contrast can make for striking compositions. It’s interesting that ocean currents seem to appear in photos from above, as in the top image, taken off the west coast of Florida. I don’t know my bearings off the mid-Atlantic so well, but I think the next shot was over the Chesapeake Bay, where patterns on the water also show up.

Rivers dissecting the land make great subjects, especially where they cut a sinuous course. This one, the Mississippi River shortly after takeoff from New Orleans, has those moments, but is more like a boating superhighway here.

Sometimes flights make it over the meeting of two water sources, such as this one from the edge of the Great Salt Lake, Utah.

June 1, 2016 4

Monochrome Madness: MM3-7

Double Arch, Arches National Park, Utah, Steve Bruno

Memorial Day is this weekend here in the US, which typically marks the start of summer travel season. Many of America’s National Parks can be exorbitantly crowded this time of year. Arches National Park (above) is no exception to the crowds, but doesn’t have the nearby accommodations to handle the masses that visit Great Smoky Mountain or Grand Canyon. The National Park Service is celebrating its 100th year in 2016, and is offering some free days to visit (in case an incentive is needed) this year. The remaining days are: August 25-28, September 24, and November 11.

This photograph is an older one of mine, taken in summer when things were a little quieter in Arches NP. This is not a conversion from color, and the original is on Kodak Pan-X 4×5 film. In the past, I made several prints from this in my home darkroom, one of which still hangs on my mom’s walls (she happened to be a few feet away when I released the shutter on this one). It’s been kind of reassuring to know I learned the printing process correctly when I see this print on my visits, as I have replaced several color prints of hers which have not stood the test of time.

This is my addition to the collection of b&w images for Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness this week. You can check out other photographers shots on her site.

May 26, 2016 2

Monochrome Madness: MM3-6

Cumulus clouds and sunsets can often combine for some of my favorite lighting in color photographs. This was a bit early for the underside of the clouds to display the changing colors, but the atmospheric conditions made the timing for this shot perfect.

This is my contribution to Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness this week. You can see more b&w images from other photographers on her website’s blog.

May 19, 2016 5

WPC: Earth

Earth. Our one and only home. Forget about going boldly where no one has gone before, this is it. Even if we were to find another suitable planet for our existence, history suggests we would strip it of its resources and fight over who gets to claim ownership.

Many civilizations have proven it’s possible to live within the means of the local environment, but our modern society has created demands which leave tremendous scars on our planet. Forest clearcutting and strip mining would be major examples of this. Copper, a material we have made essential to our way of living, does not exist in large, solid masses, so can only be extracted through the process of strip mining.

For this week’s challenge, I could have chosen one of many images which I feel portray the special qualities and beauty of this planet. I kept coming back to this one, however. Earth has this magical quality of rejuvenation, and after we have vanished, will reclaim itself.

This is my hands-down favorite image ever taken from an airplane. On an early morning flight into Salt Lake City, we passed the Kennecott open pit mine. After copper is exposed, the oxidation process turns it into a complexity of colors. This should have been a blight on the land, but all I can see is beauty in this shot.

Need a frame of reference? Along the line extending to the upper right corner, you will see four dots. Each of those is a truck capable of moving hundreds of tons of dirt, and having tires that are taller than a semi-trailer.

May 12, 2016 11

Monochrome Madness: MM3-5

Sometimes flat, overcast skies make for perfect lighting. Or, in this case, backdrop. Bright white clouds contrasting with a blue sky would have been a distraction here. Instead, I was able to showcase the patterns of the branches and leaves.

This photo is included in Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness this week. You can check out other blogger’s work on her site.

May 11, 2016 6

WPC: Abstract

The Daily Post Challenge for Abstract might just be my favorite one yet. I used to consider it the greatest compliment when someone would look at one of my images and say “That’s a photograph? That doesn’t look real!” Nowadays that usually means someone didn’t know when to say no to Photoshop.

The top photo is one I call Sandstone Wall Watercolor. This is straight off the film, no effects added. It was taken in a canyon where water was working its erosional magic, and the sunlight was just out of frame and bouncing light all around.

I have a few more favorites in the gallery below. Some are obvious as to what they are, some not so much. Details are in the captions in the gallery.

Reflections in West Clear Creek, Arizona

Wash patterns, Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

Sandstone detail, Red Rock Canyon, Nevada

Bristlecone Pine root detail, Mount Charleston, Nevada

April 24, 2016 9

Monochrome Madness: MM3-1

If there is one plant that distinguishes the Mojave Desert from other deserts, it would have to be the iconic Joshua Tree. In many locales, they often appear dehydrated and scraggly, and very much unphotogenic. The healthier ones tend to appear in large forests as though there is strength in numbers. Oddly enough, California’s Joshua Tree National Park is not the best place to find these. Select pockets in Arizona and Nevada have the best ones I’ve come across, and it can be even more memorable if you are lucky enough to catch these plants in bloom.

This one was near the town of Searchlight, Nevada, and the sky was perfect this day for my backdrop to several large healthy Joshua Trees. Leanne Cole has included this photo with the work of others in this week’s Monochrome Madness. Check out her WordPress blog for MM, or her blog on her website for more photos.

April 13, 2016 5

WPC: Landscape

This week’s challenge of Landscape should have been a no-brainer, with the only dilemma being which one? A glance through my blog will reveal many shots of the nearby desert, but there are a couple places in the US that I love to photograph which are miles away from here. The state of South Dakota, in particular the Black Hills and Badlands National Park, would be near the top of that list.

A few years back, my work was in a gallery where the owner was interested in testing out new images. Unfortunately, this was in a town with many golf courses nearby, and after a couple weeks, he took this one down because people kept commenting, “What a great place that would be to put a golf course”. Hopefully, the blogging community will appreciate this one more than the golfers!

April 1, 2016 19

WPC: Half-Light

The Daily Post Challenge of Half-Light seemed like an easy one to find an image for. The time between sunset and darkness (and darkness to sunrise) offers some of the best opportunity for great photographs. But a poem, verse, song lyric to go along with that photograph?

Fortunately I had the album “Machine Head” by the group Deep Purple as one of my favorite albums growing up. The band’s most well-known song is on that album, but one song which always stuck with me probably never got any airplay. I’m sure I had the cassette tape/CD playing on some trips to mountainous regions, and it still makes me think of places like this. ^

The song is called “Pictures of Home” and the lyrics go like this:

March 25, 2016 10

WPC: Dance

Ancient Lava Flow,Hawaii Volcanoes National Park,Hawaii,Steve Bruno

For this week’s challenge of Dance, I almost took the easy route with photos of people dancing, but then remembered the operative word is challenge. You’ll probably enjoy these a bit more, anyway. I know I do.

For anyone who has ever witnessed a slow lava flow, you know there is a pulse that surges, as the cool air solidifies the flow, while the warm undercurrent wants to keep moving. The final cooled result (above) reflects that pulse, and was taken in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Flowing, tumbling water can also have a rhythmic feel to it. The sunlight was being filtered through the forest, and accentuated most of the current in this shot of Oak Creek, near Sedona, Arizona.

Clouds can portray a feeling of choreography, even in a still capture. My favorite example is this thunderstorm at sunset near Cloudcroft, New Mexico.

Finally, rock art symbols almost always have a sense of dance and celebration, indicating how important this was in ancient culture. This panel of rock art is in the Grand Canyon.

March 25, 2016 17

Steve Bruno Photo

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