PFTA: Half Dome

Going through my archives tonight, I asked myself-where was I in late March, and early April a decade ago?  In doing so, it hit me like a ton of bricks that it has been 10 years since I was a tour guide for a company in Las Vegas, NV.  This trip to Yosemite National Park was actually my very first solo tour with this company (it will remain nameless), and my first time visiting Yosemite National Park.  It was a five day whirlwind tour of Grand Canyon South Rim, Monument Valley, Zion, Bryce, Death Valley, Yosemite and ending in San Francisco.    It was still early spring, so the only way into Yosemite was the north entrance.  It was a beautiful drive.  During this tour of Yosemite, I was able to do some photography and took this image of Half Dome.

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Enjoy

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More beauty today

Let’s look at something beautiful and happy while cooped up indoors. Luckily we’re still in operation here in Zion, but many restrictions are now in place. Cars can now drive into the canyon, but the weather scared many away today. They just missed out on waterfalls and snow capped mountains. I took these after work today.

A Long Night: Traveling to Paris

What’s more fun than taking a 9 hour flight from New York to Paris? Taking a flight that’s delayed two hours (sitting on the plane) for a major storm that stopped all flights until it passed. Once the storm passed, we taxied out to the runway, and after sitting there for a half hour, the captain announced we’re waiting to clearance to take off and that we were number 20 in queue. Then the plane drove around JFK for about a half hour before takeoff to get to the right runway. Finally we took off two hours after we were scheduled to leave New York.

The plane had this cool feature of a tail camera that was shared with passengers during the flight.

My watch showed 2:00am, but the local time was 10:00, so I opened the window shade (couldn’t sleep anyway) and saw this:

About two hours later we landed in Paris.

It’s really hard to fathom how green everything is, coming from a desert that has multiple shades of brown and red. Here it’s multiple shades of green.

We drove straight to Normandy to our B&B on a farm. It’s absolutely gorgeous here! Woke up to hearing church bells and birds singing, and this view from the window.

Last night for dinner we drove to the next village for pizza, and found this nearby:

It’s now a church, but it was a castle at one time. It deserves further exploring.

Enjoy!

Kelly

Zion Waterfalls

I went to Zion today to take care of some business, and it was raining like crazy! After I got everything done, i drove up to the Temple of Sinawava to check out the waterfalls. I saw waterfalls where I haven’t seen them for a very long time, and others that I’ve not seen before. At one point, the water was just pouring over the side of the cliffs. Enjoy!

Employee Falls

Refrigerator Canyon (Angel’s Landing on right)

Above Weeping Rock

From Hidden Canyon I have not seen this waterfall at the Temple of Sinewava like this in a very long time.

Happy Spring

First, I must profusely apologize for not posting for a while. Work somehow got in the way and became my life, and I’m trying to remedy that so I can get out with a camera again. (It’s been too long!). 

Anyway, it’s supposed to be Spring, but I woke up to this:

Enjoy!

Kelly

Winter is (Finally) Here!

After several weeks of 70+ degree temperatures, it was starting to look like Spring had arrived (in February??). The fruit trees are all in bloom, and the cottonwoods are starting to bud out, but it’s too early for that because there’s always a frost in March.

Today that all changed! It was raining most of the night, but it started snowing this morning!

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Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Macro Photography

I’m participating in the online adventure travel magazine Wild Weekly Photo Challenge

for bloggers. This week’s Challenge is: Macro Photography!

It was very difficult to pick which photo to use, so I broke it down to three:

This is a close up of Stinging Nettle that is very pretty to look at, but not to touch.
This is the endangered Las Vegas Poppy that I found in the desert just east of Las Vegas, NV.
And last but not least:
One of my favorites, a Monarch Butterfly drinking the nectar from some flowers.

Springing Forward

Spring is one of my favorite times of the year, I guess it’s because of the newness of life, like spring flowers, fruit trees blooming and such (watch out for allergies).

It’s also warmer outside, at least here in Vegas where it was up to 80 this past week, but since cooled off. This means more opportunities for getting out to shoot some photographs. Yes, my day job work is picking up so I haven’t been able to get out like I want to, but I’ll just have to schedule it in.

I have updated the portrait page on my website, which still needs a lot of updating, and I just haven’t been able to get there for a while.

Below is one of my favorite flowers from the desert, Golden Columbine. You normally wouldn’t associate this flower with the desert, but it flourishes by springs and streams. This photo is available in print and frame from www.kellyguymon.com either as a print unmatted 8×10 for $40 or framed and matted in different sizes from 8×10 to 38×36; price varies on size.

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