Gary's Blog

2009-01-14T21:03:00.001-08:00

2008, Last Half Events

2008-12-21T08:35:00.001-08:00

Grand Canyon and Lake Powell so dominate my photographic life that it sometimes seems that this year's blog is merely a copy of last year's blog. But there were some late 2008 events worth noting:

The summer evolved a little differently when I became a Diamond River Adventures trail guide helping people make their way down the Bright Angel Trail to join a Diamond river trip and "exchanging" those people for others who had just stepped off an upper half river trip, accompanying them up to the rim. It was plenty hot in June, July and August on four of these trips, but it was fun and I met many great people. No photography, however--that will have to wait until next year's "exchange" hikes for Diamond.

We had a fantastic fall on Lake Powell and in the Marble Canyon area with Grand Circle Field School and the Friends of Arizona Highways. The weather was so extraordinary on the final GCFS / Elderhostel Lake Powell trip that those of us who have been frequent visitors to the lake were still shocked by the fresh photographic opportunities given us. (We had with us on this trip one participant that has gone on over 25 Lake Powell Elderhostel programs, and another who has gone on about 10. These people, like myself, cannot understand how only one Lake Powell experience is sufficient for most visitors, not when there's so many side canyons to visit, not when the lake keeps jumping up or down in elevation, and not when the vagaries of the weather cast every butte and bay in a different light with almost every passing day. What sane person would settle for a single visit to Grand Canyon? It's the same for Lake Powell.)

Okay, here's the REALLY NEW news, two items:

In late July Grand Canyon Association released my new book Grand Canyon, Views Beyond the Beauty. It's a visual guide to "what's in the canyon" as seen from the canyon's major viewpoints. There's very little running text, just paragraph-length topic presentations and a few short essays on the canyon's geology, photographing the canyon, the inner canyon environment and the history of the South Rim's development. It's only $14.95, paperback, widely available. I'm pleased to say that the book has been so popular that it's already gone into a second printing, quite an agreeable outcome after investing several years of work in the book's creation.

Also (some of you may want to make sure you are sitting down for this) I just bought my first digital camera, a Nikon D700. This was accomplished only after several years of difficult therapy. It's likely that more will be required. My question is, now what do I do? (One thing I will NOT do is give up the 4x5.)

Have a great holiday season and a wonderful 2009.

Spring Trips on the Water

2008-05-24T11:04:00.001-07:00

As usual, water dominated many of my photography trips and Grand Circle Field School / Elderhostel classes this spring. Jim Page and I guided two Elderhostel programs headquartered at Marble Canyon Lodge in February, one focused on photography, the other focused on hiking.

The Marble Canyon hiking week featured the 41,000 CF/S high flow from Glen Canyon Dam. A few weeks later I saw the results of the controlled flood--substantial beach improvements--during a photography river trip through Grand Canyon. Spring winds made a couple of days of the trip uncomfortable at times, cold and wet while we were on the river, but they rarely interfered with our photography pursuits. In complete compensation for the cold winds, the brittlebush bloom was spectacular and the canyon was as magnificent as ever.

There were four Lake Powell houseboat trips, one with a group of hiking friends during the cold days of February, and three with Grand Circle Field School and Elderhostel in late April and the first half of May. Jim Page again acted as co-leader of these trips. Two of the three GCFS trips featured sit-on-top kayaking forays and one concentrated on hiking into the backcountry around the lake.

This spring's GCFS / Elderhostel Lake Powell programs also welcomed as instructors Mike Masek, Mike Anderson, Fred Blackburn and Frank Romaglia. The fall trips may also include a photography workshop week.

Lake Powell is rising at six to ten inches per day as the Rocky Mountains fill the Green and Colorado Rivers with snowmelt. This is when many favorite Lake Powell beaches and slot canyons disappear beneath the rising waters and higher-elevation locations once again become shoreline. This transformation, especially dramatic on higher-than-average spring inflows (like this spring), is responsible for creating a "new" lake. It's what makes possible an entirely fresh set of Lake Powell images.

Glen Canyon Dam is currently releasing about 13,000 CF/S while inflows into Lake Powell are approaching 50,000 CF/S. The difference explains how this immense lake (266 square miles when full) could rise nearly a foot per day.

I wish I could be out there on the water every day for the next two months as Lake Powell rises towards a high of somewhere between 3635 and 3640 feet predicted by the Bureau of Reclamation. The big landscape views don't change much from day-to-day but the shoreline mutations--beaches where there were once cliffs, islands where there was hilly terrain only a few weeks earlier, wide bays were there were twisting narrows--are often dramatic. I'll be on the lake the last few days of May then turn the place over to the crazy summer boaters.

Great hiking and photography to you!

Winter Hike

2008-01-24T06:56:00.001-08:00

Two friends from the South Rim and I day-hiked down the Bright Angel Trail to Three-Mile Resthouse and back to the rim a few days ago. Beautiful day, packed snow covering almost all of the trail (we used crampons), very few other hikers. Absolutely magnificent and fun, too.

Also, I recently learned a new word: Abdicate. It means giving up on the idea that you'll ever again possess a flat stomach.

Fall Trips, October & November 2007

2007-11-20T10:30:00.000-08:00

My photography and geology fall trips with Grand Circle Field School, Yavapai College, Friends of Arizona Highways and Hidden Canyon Kayaks have just come to an end. Zowie! I don't think I've ever seen such a staggeringly beautiful October and November, warm and calm but, of course, without precipitation.

Most of these trips were on Lake Powell using either houseboats or kayaks or both. The visits have once again reminded me of just how sensationally beautiful and interesting this crazy lake is--photographically, geologically and socially. And just when it is at its best, in late fall--calm, quiet and not scorching hot--everybody abandons the place, leaving the campsites unoccupied, the views unspoiled and the atmosphere unsullied by the noise of armies of jet skis and cigarette boats. I wish to say to everyone who went home at the end of the high season "thank you, thank you all!"

Lake Powell, even with its many considerable vices, is still an entrancing arena of human meddling. And, at least from the point of view of a simple photographer, not all of it's all that bad.

Now its time to try to catch up on various chores of editing, mounting and captioning images from the past few months.

2007-09-29T07:37:00.000-07:00

The Friends of Arizona Highways Grand Canyon river trip photo workshop ended on September 24. For ten glorious days we traveled with Arizona Raft Adventures as our outfitter. As always, it was a magnificent experience with a dozen great participants, four terrific guides, (mostly) great weather, and unusual luck at getting the campsites we desired. It's a difficult choice but I think I enjoy these photography-based river trips more than any other river trips--maybe even private river trips--because the entire group is fully focused on squeezing the most out of every moment. Little time is wasted dawdling around camp. And the Grand Canyon, along the river in mid-September, is just incredibly photogenic. Thanks to everyone, the Friends of Arizona Highways, AZRA, the participants, Grand Canyon National Park, and the canyon itself, for making such a wonderful experience possible.

Summer of 2006 to September, 2007

2007-09-02T12:04:00.000-07:00

Well, obviously, I haven't been much as a blogger in the past year. So, to catch up a little, here's some of what's happened:

Last October was notable in that I broke my left fibula in an inexplicable fall while hiking along the edge of Lake Powell. I was trying to get back to a houseboat before darkness set in. Moving too fast, I suppose. (The images made at sunset, only a few minutes before the stumble, almost made the accident worthwhile. Almost, almost, anyway.) Fortunately the fracture was clean and simple, and I was back at full speed by February.

Spring was busy with photo trips, Elderhostel classes, Grand Circle Field School trips and backpacking trips with friends in Grand Canyon and in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Summer zipped by while I spent most of my time in my home office writing--working on articles, a book project, writing captions for 4x5 and 35mm transparencies. One result of spending so much time in front of the computer: the addition of a few pounds of blubber.

To shed the pounds, among other things, I'm about to begin three months of trips: Grand Canyon river trip, many Lake Powell trips with Grand Circle Field School, Hidden Canyon Kayaks, the Friends of Arizona Highways. Nothing terribly exciting. I just continue to work on images of my two favorite terrains, Glen Canyon and Grand Canyon.

My self-published book, Page, Arizona, Hub of the Visual Universe, released a little over a year ago, has gone into a second printing. (It's available on this website.) With luck my book published by Grand Canyon Association, tentatively titled Grand Canyon Views Beyond the Beauty: A Guide to What's Down There, will come out in late spring or early summer.

Summer

2006-07-14T07:23:00.000-07:00

Summers here along the Colorado River in northern Arizona are in some ways depressing. The spring flowers are gone, the sun is high in the sky and the light is poor, wildfires in Arizona and surrounding states sometimes flood the sky with smoke. And its darned hot. Photography, for me, often takes a back seat to office work.

The good news is this: When the monsoon rains come, everything gets better. The fires die out, the sky is filled with dramatic clouds, the light can become dramatic, and the temperatures drop and I leave the computer to go back to work in the field.

Gary Ladd

July 14, 2006

Lasting Light: 125 Years of Grand Canyon Photography

2006-07-13T17:41:00.000-07:00

Who: You are invited!
What: Photography exhibit entitled, Lasting Light: 125 Years of Grand Canyon Photography
When: June 18-Oct. 15, 2006
Where: Kolb Studio on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park

If you're planning to visit Grand Canyon National Park any time between now and October 15th, you won't want to miss this gorgeous exhibit at historic Kolb Studio. The juried exhibit features work from many of the most prominent Southwest landscape photographers in the region and showcases the varied and outrageous landforms of the Colorado Plateau.

Note: A glorious coffee-table book (Lasting Light: 125 Years of Grand Canyon Photography, by Stephen Trimble), featuring all the images in the exhibit, is being sold in the Kolb Studio bookstore and via Grand Canyon Association's Web site. Price: $40; GCA Member Price: $34.

Gary Ladd :: An Exhibition

2006-07-13T17:23:00.000-07:00

Who: You are invited!
What: To an exhibition showcasing 30 years of work. Photos of Canyonlands and Grand Canyon.
When: September 1, 2006 at 6:00 p.m.
Where: Uptown Billiards, Flagstaff, AZ
Questions: Call (928) 380-0909 or Email: Will@viktoraphoto.com

Wine and snacks served.

Hope to see you there!