I have added some holiday ornaments for sale in the card shop. They are MetalPrints delivered ready to hang, with a red ribbon attached. Size is 2.75" x 2.75". Free shipping in the United States. Item will be dropped shipped from the printer. https://francescascalpi.com/shop
An example of one with a decorative holiday wreath. The same photo will be on both sides.
An example of one with a different photo for each side.
Monument Valley, a red-sand desert region on the Arizona-Utah border, is known for the towering sandstone buttes of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. It is said that the Anasazi are likely the ancestors of the Navajo Indians who have lived in Monument Valley since before Columbus landed in the Americas.
Formed during the Permian period, this patch of land once formed part of a seafloor where sediments and sandstone piled up in layers for millions of years. The three main formations that form the monuments are the Organ Rock Formation, De Chelly Formation and the Moenkopi Formation.
The Navajo name for the area is Tse Bii’ Ndzisgaii, which means ‘valley of the rocks.’ Monument Valley’s isolated rock formations are eroded remains of their Rocky Mountain ancestors, formed by sandstone deposits and geologic uplift and then shaped by wind and water. Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park is located on the Navajo Nation.
I left the Moab area and heading toward Monument Valley. As I traveled down Highway 163 in Northern Arizona the first sandstone butte appears, I was entering Tsé Biiʼ Ndzisgaii, valley of the rocks in the Navajo language. To go off road into restricted areas you needed to hire a hire a Navajo guide. I hired a Navajo guide from Phillips Photography Tours. I signed up for the Sunset Photo Tour- 3:30pm-7pm and the Night Photo Tour- 9pm-12am. on October 1st, 2019.
During the Sunset tour we visited ancient ruins, petroglyphs, and pictographs left behind by Anasazi people who lived in the area 800 plus years ago. The tour ended with a visit to Tear Drop Arch.
We stayed in the RV park near the View hotel in our Sprinter Van Tiny. We had a beautiful vista of Monument Valley.
Photographed at the Eastern Sierra Interagency Visitor Center located at the junction of US Highway 395 and State Route 136, one mile south of Lone Pine.
Woolyback, Mount Langley, Sharktooh, Mount Corcoran, Lone Pine Peak, Mt. Irvine, Candlelight Peak, Peak 3681, Mount Muir, Aiguille du Paquoir, Keeler Needle, Mount Whitney, Mt Russell, Mt. Carlton
I traveled to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in October 2019. We stayed in the campground for two days.
Humboldt Redwoods spans 53,000 acres, an area almost twice the size of San Francisco. About one third, or 17,000 acres, of the park is old-growth redwood forest—the largest expanse of ancient redwoods left on the planet. This park offers one of the best places to see redwoods by car in the entire North Coast region: the 32-mile-long Avenue of the Giants.
Photo from The Big Trees and Founders Grove.
Harris Beach State Park 2018 Brookings, Oregon
Harris Beach State Park, 2012 Brookings, Oregon 2021
In 2018 there were massive forest fires in Central Oregon. On my trip to the Oregon Coast I stayed at Harris Beach State Park in Brookings, Oregon. Ash was being carried from Central Oregon to the Oregon Coast. I went down to the beach and realized that the smokey sky was not going to give me any color in the sky. I positioned my camera at a point where the sun would set behind a volcanic sea stack hoping for a sun burst.
In 2021 there were forest fires in Central California and Northern California. We did not have ash falling at Harris Beach but it did influence the color of the sky and sun. A crowd gathered to see the orange globe in the sky set.
This year we experienced smoke from nearby forest fires from Northern California to Oregon. Along the way to the Oregon Coast I camped in a variety of National and State parks. Out of the 7 day trip we only had two nights that you could see any stars. This was the first year I would use my astro-modified Nikon Z5 camera.
A field by Cape Blanco Lighthouse on the Oregon Coast.
The lookdown (Selene vomer) is a game fish of the family Carangidae. he Mexico lookdown is native to shallow, coastal waters from the Baja California Peninsula, Mexico to northern South America. They feed in small schools but do not have coordinated hunting/foraging behavior.
Black Oystercatcher Haematopus bachmani
Among the mussel- and barnacle-covered rocks of the Pacific Coast lives this stout shorebird with a gleaming reddish bill, yellow eyes, and pink legs. Black Oystercatchers are fairly easy to find along rocky shores, jetties, and breakwaters. Look for shores that slope gently into the water or flat rocky reefs.
