Postcard from Bryce Canyon

You are looking at the only waterfall in Bryce Canyon National Park. And, believe it or not, it does not have a name. Truth be told, it isn’t really that big. And, if you really want the deep, dark secret about it, it is was formed by the hand of man.

Let me explain. The falls and its creek are located below the main portion of Bryce Canyon…you know, the one where are the tourists are (here is another secret…Bryce Canyon isn’t really a canyon!).

But back to the nameless falls. Back in the late 1800’s, this area, and all of Utah for that matter, was settled by Mormon Pioneers. They built farms and ranches below Bryce, in an around the towns of Tropic and Cannonville. Well, as you can probably guess, Utah is not blessed with an abundance of water, especially below Bryce Canyon.

So, some very clever and hard working pioneers dug a 3-4 mile long irrigation canal from the East Fork of the Sevier River (which is west of the Park) and connected it up to the canyon you see here which is called Water Canyon…and the water flowed. There just happened to be a nice drop in the canyon where a waterfall fit in very nicely.

The canal that flows into Water Canyon has the gawd-awful name of Tropic Ditch, something best left off of the tourist brochures. If you pull up a the National Park map of Bryce Canyon, you can see how the canal runs from the river to Water Canyon. Its one of the very few places where you will see the name “Tropic Ditch” in print.

To get to the falls, you leave the tourist section of the park and drop down towards Tropic on Highway 12. Soon you will reach the Mossy Cave Trail parking area. Park there and hike up Water Canyon about 1/2 mile to the falls.  

As you might guess from looking at the photo, the walk offers some spectacular views of another section of Bryce Canyon. It is an easy walk to the falls, although if you want to go all the way to Mossy Cave, it gets fairly steep (really not worth it either).

I have no idea why no one ever gave a name to the falls. Maybe we should hold a contest. How about Tropic Falls, or Water Canyon Falls? Being a simple person, my favorite is Water Falls. Now that would be unique.

Postcard from the Cascades

AUTUMN CAME

By ripping cheeks,
with cold breeze,
with twitter of sparrows,
Autumn came!
Autumn came to cover
shivering earth
with colorful leaves carpet!
Autumn floats like
sun's epitaph
Autumn echoed like
farewell song of birds
in the evening!
Autumn touches the
breath of last leaves
on the verge of falling
with warmth!
Autumn challenges the
confidence of the tree
who hides buds in the heart

Mula Veereswara Rao

(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com

Postcard from the Southwest

Here is another recently completed painting of desert Spring flowers here in the Sonoran Desert. If you are not familiar with how the Sonoran differs from other desert types, let me explain.

While most deserts are somewhat barren and covered in sand, this desert is alive with plant life. Here is where you find the famous Saguaro Cactus, those beautiful very tall cactus with arms that form in unusual shapes. They live to a ripe old age numbering in hundreds of years. The arms don’t even form until they are at least 100 years old.

But there are many other types of cactus and desert flora that thrive here. I live in the western foothills above Tucson. Our hills are green all year around with trees and flowers (and cactus). Here it is in November and some of our plants and bushes have flowers on them. 

The key to the Sonoran Desert's climate is the amount of rainfall. More rain falls on the Sonoran Desert than any other desert. When it does get rain, the desert is damp, and the air is cool. The plants and trees here thrive. 

The seasons are similar to where you live, with some differences. Spring is a time when flowers bloom if the winter and fall had enough rain. In summer and we have lots of rain, courtesy of the monsoons that form in the Gulf of Mexico. With the arrival of autumn comes cooler breezes, which lets the deserts summer heat wear away. Winter brings snow to the mountains and colder air to the desert valley.

The Sonoran Desert is mostly in Southern Arizona and Mexico, with some parts of it reaching into southeastern California. But the best part of it is in and around Tucson, especially the western section. Saguaro National Park is here and is a great place to see what the Sonoran Desert is all about.

So, kiddies, that is your lesson today about the Sonoran Desert. I hope you will come down here sometime and see it for yourself. It is worth it (except in summer).

Have a Happy Thanksgiving. I will be back next week with more photos and stories from around the world. 

(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com

Postcard from Zion

As Autumn now fades into Winter, I can’t resist showing at least one more Autumn photo, this one from Zion National Park. With its towering peaks and narrow canyons, Zion National Park is a unique place to enjoy the fall extravaganza. I’ve shown a few images here before, but not this one.

There are no towering peaks in this photo, only 4 different examples of Autumn leaves, all in one place. Maybe one shouldn’t count green, but that would be splitting hairs. 

This photo was done in the north part of Zion Canyon, up in the area known as the Narrows. I found that the greatest variety of fall colors are in this area. Don’t get me wrong…almost all of Zion Canyon features spectacular colors. But usually its mostly yellow, except in a few areas where red and orange abound and are mixed in with yellow….like the narrows.

I didn’t go back there this year and I understand I missed a really colorful year. But, the same can be said of last year, which is when I took this photo. I am thinking about going back next year, maybe a little earlier to capture the fall colors in the high country. We shall see. 

Postcard from the Desert

I had a hankering to do some painting recently and got out the old digital paintbrushes and came up with this little gem. Those of you who know my work in this area know that I use my own photographs, then use specialized computer software to create a painting. I use many different brushes and digital mediums to come up with a final painting.

I took the original photo out in the desert in 2010, a year when we had a wildflower extravaganza. It doesn’t happen every year, but when the rains and temps are just right, the flowers bust out all over. It’s quite a site to behold. We had some flowers last spring, but not as spectacular as 2010. In 2011, if memory serves, we had no spring wildflowers at all.

Not long after I took the original photo for this painting, I had occasion to drive from Tucson to Yuma and back…about a 4 hour drive each way. It was non-stop flowers the entire way. It really made for a spectacular drive, which is amazing as that trip is desert the entire way and can be quite boring (the key to surviving this drive normally is audio books).

I often look at original paintings of the impressionists and wonder if the painting would have made a good photograph. Mostly, the answer is no. But when they applied brush to canvas, a normally mundane scene came alive with their interpretations of light and color.

It was this idea that originally got me started creating digital paintings from my original photos. Over the years, photography has developed its own aesthetic criteria…in other words, what makes for a good photograph. And those same criteria may or may not work for paintings. Try it sometime at an art museum. Try to imagine a landscape painting as a photo. You just may discover what I mean.

Then try looking at a great artistic photo and imagine it as a painting. You may find that the scene is much better captured by the photograph. Ah, creativity! It can be quite a mental challenge.

(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com

Postcard from Salt River Canyon

Just above the canyon floor I found this old, broken down wild west jail. It made for an interesting photo, especially after I did a little doctoring in Photoshop. I made it into an old west-style photo. I did some research and could find absolutely nothing about it.

So since I don’t have much to write about, I thought I would take this space and print a cowboy poem. It has nothing to do with the photo, other than it is about an outlaw who might have spent time in a jail such as this, if he had not met a violent end. Enjoy.

Little Dick West
Jeff Richards

What made Little Dick West go bad?
He was a homeless waif.
Rolled up his blankets under the stars.
He was a hard working cowboy
when he met Bill Doolin.
Maybe that’s what made him go bad.

Maybe he was uncomfortable in his skin.
He appears porky in his photograph.
barrel chest, fat face,
pig eyes full of cross-eyed anger,
black eyebrows,
that stretched across his forehead,
thick black beard and moustache,
hairy as Sasquatch.

Maybe the ladies lowered their parasols,
the kids crawled under the boardwalk,
and the dogs snarled as he lumbered by.
Maybe he was lonely, angry at the world
or maybe simply unlucky

To run with the Doolin-Dalton Gang,
rob banks and trains until Doolin
was felled with 21 buckshot wounds
to the chest.

In 1898 Dick was currying his horse
on a ranch outside Guthrie,
when three lawmen crept up.
He dropped the curry comb,
flashed twin Colts,
but before he could fire,
he was chiseled full of holes.

Poor Little Dick West, I found out later
wasn’t fat at all.
He was as gangly as a coyote.
Already dead in the photograph,
He was ripe for burial.

 

(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com

Postcard from Hearst Castle

Here I was, in this magnificent library in Hearst Castle, surrounded by over 4,000 books…and I couldn’t find anything to read. Thank God I had my Kindle with me. Just kidding (as if you didn’t know). Somehow I can’t image William Randolph Hearst using a Kindle if he were alive today.

Regardless, Hearst build this incredible library for himself and his guests. Unlike the private Gothic study, where only few guests were allowed, this room was open to anyone. Sadly, only part of the library is pictured here. In fact, it is 80 feet long…and the ceilings…WOW!

Besides the books, many of them quite rare, the library also contained one of Hearst’s most treasured collections: 150 ancient Greek vases, all over 2,000 years old. You can see one of them on the table on the right. Most of the others line the walls above the bookshelves. Some are visible in this photo (click the photo to enlarge it). Because of the current laws regarding antiquities, it would be impossible to amass such a collection today (well, legally anyway). 

With a room such as this, one would never consider taking any physical exercise here…well a normal person anyway. However in his autobiography, Harpo Marx talks about doing somersaults in here with Marion Davies, Hearst’s long time paramour. Now, that would have been worth seeing.

Flash photography is forbidden anywhere inside the castle, so thank God my Nikon is equipped with an anti-shake lens or I would have never captured this image. But I think I prefer this natural light rather than artificial lighting. It gives the room a more natural warm feeling, perfect for a library.

I wish I wasn’t on a tour so I could spend hours in here wandering around, looking at the books and vases at my leisure. Much better than wandering around a Barnes and Noble.

(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com

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