It’s late summer up here on the Coconino Plateau in northern Arizona. In pastures, meadows, and along roadsides the sunflowers are in bloom, adding splashes of bright yellow and vivid green to the landscape.

I eased in close to one of these plants to, once again, appreciate its beauty and detail for a little while. In this photo, the two sunflower heads in bloom are facing at right angles to each other. One is facing south, the other west. Meanwhile, off to the right are a couple more tightly packed flower heads about to expand to claim their own fleeting glory. It looks like they’re going to have the east and southeast angles covered.

A mostly cloudy cumulus sky summer day on the Coconino Plateau of northern Arizona ended with most of the clouds having evaporated by sunset time. To the east, several large clouds remained on the horizon. They seemed to mirror the shape of the forested hill in front of them as the last rays of the sun remained on the top of one of them, while the others quickly deepened to dark blue and violet.

Photo Location: Pittman Valley, near Williams, Arizona.

To wrap up an evening of photographing cumulus clouds and scenery in brilliant clear northern Arizona air, I turned to the southwest after sunset and saw the waxing cresent new moon against the clear blue sky. The icing on the cake.

Location: Coconino County near Williams, Arizona.

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Lens: Canon 100-400mm IS at 400mm plus 2X Extender. Image processed and cropped using Adobe Lightroom 2.

– See more of my photography at www.naturalmoment.com –

This morning I was out photographing the scenery as the fog shrouded the nearby forests and mountains here on the Kaibab National Forest, near Williams, Arizona. As the sun rose above heavy cloud cover hiding the San Francisco Peaks to the east, it lit up the tops of the fog in this view of Sitgreaves Mountain to the north.

A stock watering pond (presently unused except by elk and antelope) here on the ranch is spring fed throughout the summer. I was photographing the peak of the bloom of the tickseed wildflowers here in early morning sunlight when I stopped by the pond and saw its still surface reflecting the deep blue sky, with the yellow and maroon tickseed blossoms crowding its banks. Layers of yellow, green, and blue.

Late July and early August is time for the Tickseed (Coreopsis tinctoria) wildflower to bloom here on the western end of the Coconino Plateau near Williams, Arizona. Although they are not native to this area and are thus an invasive plant, nevertheless they are here, they would be hard to get rid of, and so for the time being I’m appreciating their beauty. I love how their flower petals are like bright yellow crepe paper, and their centers are dark maroon.

This photo of the blossoms in early morning sunlight and dew was made after I’d been stalking some bull elk. My four-legged subjects had finally melted back into the forest, and I was free to pursue other subjects. Like this one. In fact, I didn’t even have to take a step. I had been crouching behind a small hill so that the elk would be unlikely to see me, and around me were fields of Tickseed blossoms. I had only to switch lenses so I could go from pulling elk in from far off, to close and wide. How convenient.

It’s late summer up here in Elk country on the Kaibab National Forest in northern Arizona. We’ve noticed a separate herd of at least a dozen bull (male) elk that like to do their own thing off from the main herd of about 100 cows (females), calves (first year young elk) and smaller bulls.

Recently we went out before sunset to try to get into position to see the main herd as best we could. Instead, we quickly found ourselves caught off guard by the separate herd of bull elk, much closer to us than the main herd. Uh-oh! Time to quickly change tactics. Forget the big herd, we wanted to see if we could get some decent shot of the nearby big bulls.

There were at least a dozen of them, probably more. We could never be sure, because they were milling about a lot, and the same low hills that gave us our cover to sneak toward them also prevented us from seeing them all at once. We’d wished we’d ventured out a half hour earlier so as to be in much better position. But we would have to see what we could do regardless.

We walked slowly, watching for individual elk to look at us. When they did, we froze in our tracks. Finally we stood behind a small ponderosa pine tree within good range, daring to go no closer. Even so, with so many bulls wandering about, many times seeming to look right at us, I was able to reposition my camera on the tripod and move it about much more than I thought I would have been able to. They actually seemed oblivious to us. The wind was calm, so our scent was not being carried toward them, which is all the difference as long as you don’t make sudden movements.

What a splendid combination: Big bull elk out well before sunset, oblivious to us humans hiding behind a pine tree, marveling at their behavior as they frolicked and went to a pond for water. This image is one of several captured as we shared the excitement of essentially spying on them in their relaxed behavior.

Summertime weather is in full force here on the Coconino Plateau in northern Arizona. Cool nights, warm sunny days, and sufficient moisture from the Pacific Ocean means that cumulus clouds can rapidly start building by mid morning. From nothing but clear blue sky, enormous white clouds can appear in minutes as the bright Arizona sun goes to work on the moisture in the air.

In this photo, I was attracted to the thunderhead clouds positioned over Sitgreaves Mountain. In the foreground is a large pasture with buttery Tickseed wildflowers in bloom. Sitgrreaves Mountain is on the Kaibab National Forest.

Out back in the north pasture is a lone twin-trunked Ponderosa pine tree. An easy walk from the house at sunset, it’s a natural for providing a silhouetted accent to sunset photos.

Last night was a glorious evening here on the ranch. The monsoon season is upon us, meaning clear sunny mornings with cumulus clouds rapidly building in late morning, then scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening.

In this photo, storm clouds are dropping rain on Sitgreaves Mountain, which is the long lumpy mountain at left. Meanwhile, the setting sun has a thunderhead lit up near the distant San Francisco Peaks at right. With such a view, I was even more fortunate to have the pond at my feet, and the breeze calm, so the water could play mirror to the dramatic sky.