Arizona | Russ Bishop Photography | Nature Photo Blog

July 14, 2011November 6, 2015

Frozen in Time

Log sections on Blue Mesa, Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

It’s hard to imagine that the vast desert that surrounds you as you whisk along Interstate 40 in Arizona was once a primordial swamp. During the Late Triassic period, about 225 million years ago, this area was a lush forest that was home to many large amphibians and early dinosaurs. The colorful Chinle Formation, which gives the Painted Desert its warm hues, also contains the sediments that have preserved the fossil trees, plants and animals of this ancient time.

At the center of this lunar landscape lies Petrified Forest National Park, which was set aside in 1962 to preserve the unique remains of this otherworldly place. In addition to its colorful badlands and fossil remains, the park also contains more than 600 archaeological sites, including petroglyphs and pit houses from some of its earliest pueblo inhabitants.

July 16, 2010October 18, 2016

Lightning Strikes Twice

Contrary to popular belief lightning can strike the same place twice as shown in this timed exposure in the Ajo Mountains of Arizona. Although there are devices available for capturing lightning images, I find that composing a shot and then making a timed exposure of one to three minutes in sync with the rhythm of the strikes works just as well.

This image was made with a 300mm lens at a distance of about ten miles. While heading back from a day of shooting at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, I noticed the storm in the distance just after sunset and was surprised by the consistency of the strikes on the ridge. Shooting lightning can be dangerous (a tripod makes a good lightning rod!), but the conditions were perfect on this evening with clear skies above me and the long lens bringing the drama safely into view. The challenging part was actually framing the image in complete darkness using only the light from the strikes to compose. After opening the shutter, I watched and waited as mother nature created her elaborate light painting.

May 18, 2010November 6, 2015

Desert Sentinel

The saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) is an icon of the American southwest. These lone sentinels thrive in the harsh environment of the Sonoran Desert, which can exceed 120 degrees in the summer, but is also one of the wettest deserts in North America. Encompassing parts of Arizona, California and northern Mexico, this region averages 3 to 16 inches of rain a year and has two rainy seasons, one in the summer and another in the winter, which sustains a wide range of flora in addition to the saguaro.

Mature saguaros can reach up to 50 ft in height. They bloom for the first time when they are 50 – 75 years old and may live to 150 – 200 years (and weigh up to 10 tons). Ironically, the saguaro is so synonymous with the southwest that their likeness has been used in commercials and western films in places like Texas and New Mexico where they have never lived in the wild.