Morning sun forms a small starburst through tall cottonwoods in green, gold, and orange fall foliage along the Blue River in Silverthorne, Colorado, with a rocky riverbank and an empty bench in the foreground.

First Light of Fall on the Blue River

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I traded our backyard deck in Texas for Silverthorne, Colorado, this week, and the mountains wasted no time making the trip worthwhile. When I opened the blinds on the morning of September 22, the light was almost surreal. The fall … Read More

A weathered wooden footbridge with slanted rails rises from a reddish dirt path into a dense canopy of juniper and oak, rendered with a soft, painterly, amber-toned effect. Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve, Austin, Texas.

Bridges on Two Wheels

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #413: Bridges Those who read my posts regularly know how much I enjoy riding my bicycles. Whether on the gravel bike or the mountain bike, the breeze on my face and the scenery around me give me … Read More

Black-and-white collage of two São Paulo scenes: the cable-stayed Ponte Estaiada under dramatic clouds above, and the mirrored glass grid of an Avenida Paulista office tower reflecting neighboring buildings below.

Sampa in Shades of Gray

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São Paulo is home to close to 12 million people — 11.45 million in the 2022 census, and the city keeps growing. Most visitors describe it with words like huge, busy, and gray. I decided to lean into that last … Read More

Wide concrete emergency spillway of Canyon Dam under a clear blue sky, with the turquoise water of Canyon Lake and wooded Hill Country ridges beyond, framed by live oak and juniper branches.

A Canyon Born In Three Days

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Lens-Artists Challenge #412: Places Shaped by Water What are the odds of hiking through a canyon that is younger than you are? I don’t know how often that chance comes along, but in the Texas Hill Country it does. Canyon … Read More

Black steam locomotive No. 488 with red passenger cars parked at a rail depot under a blue sky with scattered clouds.

Weaving Through History

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Today, I want to reminisce about our 2010 vacation in New Mexico. We’ve always enjoyed the state’s historical sites and cultural traditions — enough that four years later, in 2014, we came back to Taos to get married. But I … Read More

Thick white morning fog erases the horizon over a still lake, blending water and sky into one pale field. Small dark waterbirds rest scattered across the glassy surface, tall reeds rise at the lower right, and the faint silhouette of a boat hovers in the mist right where the horizon would otherwise be.

Vanishing Horizon

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“The sea was indistinguishable from the sky,except that the sea was slightly creased as if a cloth had wrinkles in it.” — Virginia Woolf, The Waves For more like this, enjoy these related stories: Lake Bastrop South Shore, Landscapes, Monochrome, … Read More

A three-panel collage from Big Bend Ranch State Park: a wide view of a sunlit rock outcrop under a streaked sky, a monochrome ocotillo against wind-blown clouds, and a close-up of a blooming Spanish Dagger.

One Photo, Two Edits

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Lens-Artists Challenge #410: One Photo Edited Looking Back at Lens-Artists Challenge #154 — One Photo Two Ways Sometimes, when I’m composing an image, I can’t be completely sure which way to go. Sometimes it’s whether the scene will be more … Read More

A canoeist in a wide-brimmed hat paddles through Santa Elena Canyon on the Rio Grande, with towering tan and orange limestone cliffs rising on either side and two more canoes visible ahead on the calm green water.

One Row at a Time

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After a couple of failed attempts — one year the Rio Grande ran too low to float a canoe, another year it moved too fast to be safe — we finally made it into Santa Elena Canyon by canoe in … Read More

Bald cypress trees along the Frio River at Garner State Park, Texas, their reddish trunks lit by golden light and reflected in still green water.

Best Ever: Nineteen Years Behind the Lens

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Lens-Artists Challenge #409: Best Ever Images This week, our guest host for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge is Steve Hyde, of Steve Hyde Photography Blog. Celebrating World Photography Day on August 19th, Steve thought this would be a perfect opportunity for … Read More

Golden-hour view over a bend in the Rio Grande near Santa Elena Canyon, with desert scrub, sandbars, and the Chisos Mountains glowing on the horizon.

Paradise Lost: A Canyon Under Siege

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Anyone who has ever been to Big Bend National Park has probably hiked into Santa Elena Canyon — it’s one of the park’s signature trails, and the view is unforgettable. This shot was taken at golden hour, looking out over … Read More

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