Photo Blog - Niebrugge Images

This is the new Southbridge area of the Scottsdale Waterfront, Arizona.

There is a reason I live over a hundred miles from the nearest stop light - I don’t have much patience for traffic!  This is one aspect I dread when it comes time to city photography.  I try to remind myself that all the people around me sitting in their little artificial automobile environments put up with traffic delays all year around, surely I can do it for one day.  That reasoning doesn’t usually help for long.  So here is my solution. (more…)

I figured I can’t photograph the Phoenix area in spring and not include spring training baseball!

Here are Seattle Mariners signing autographs before a game with San Diego.  The two teams share a facility in Peoria.  It is pretty cool seeing some of the players taking the time to sign so many autographs for the kids at the ballpark.

Desert Tortoise.

I was thrilled to finally see a wild desert tortoise last weekend.  On top of being a threaten species, these tortoise spend more then 95% below ground in burrows.  That combination makes them a rare sight.

I spotted one while mountain biking last weekend, but by the time I returned to my vehicle and grabbed my camera, I was unable to find her.  I have looked for her everyday since then - how far can a tortoise go!  I finally spotted her again yesterday while doing some more mountain biking photos.  This time I had my camera -   what a treat! 

Saguaro Lake, Tonto National Forest, Arizona.

Always seems strange to see lakes in such a dry environment.

The normal high here this time of year is 77 degrees - this week it has been pushing records highs, with temperatures in the upper 80’s.  Unfortunately it is really cooking the wildflowers.  I have been concentrating entirely on scenics with flowers - the travel, city, recreation and wildlife stuff can wait until the wildflowers are gone, which may not be long.

We have traveled all the way to Globe, and I must say the best wildflowers in the Phoenix area are in McDowell Mountain Regional Park, and out at Saguaro Lake.  Granted, there are a lot of areas left for us to explore, I’m sure there are other jewels, but you can’t go wrong with these two locations.

 I love the rich colors and textures in the landscape right now.  This photo is from McDowell.  I hope to post a photo from Saguaro Lake tomorrow.

Mountain biking on the Competitive Trails in McDowell Mountain Regional Park, near Phoenix, Arizona.

I have tried shooting from my bike while using a slow shutter speed before, with poor results.  I think having the trail lined with bright, colorful poppies really helped this attempt.  These trails are really fun!

Here are more mountain biking photos.

More McDowell wildflowers.  The bright colors in some of the hills are amazing for the desert.

Chuparosa or Hummingbird-Bush with a Saguaro Cactus, in McDowell Mountain Regional Park, near Phoenix, Arizona.

We had an exciting experience today - saw a Desert Tortoise while mountain biking!  The Desert Tortoise spends 95% of its life in a burrow, so it is really exciting to see one.  I rode back to my truck and grabbed my camera, but much to my surprise, we were unable to find it again!  How can a turtle disappear so fast - I guess that is how it beat the hare.  :)  So unfortunately, you get a picture of wildflowers today instead of a tortoise - maybe we will find him tomorrow.

Wildflowers at McDowell Mountain Regional Park, not far from Phoenix, Arizona.

Petal peepers in the Phoenix area won’t be disappointed in this years wildflowers!  We were here last year - wow, this looks like an entirely different place!  All the green plant life alone is a shocker.  There are a wide variety of flowers colorful flowers to be found, a real treat!

The bright colored flowers in the foreground are Purple Owl’s Clover.  In the mid-ground is a great patch of poppies, unfortunately they closed up before sunset.  You can see the Four Peaks off in the distance, and way off in the distance is a near full moon.

This was another time that a graduated neutral density filter came in handy!

The is from the West District of Saguaro National Park, Arizona.

The wildflowers are looking great here right now!  Lots of Brittlebush, Lupine and many other wildflowers.  I have never seen this National Park with wildflowers - what a treat!

  The West District is further along then the East District right now, but the East side looks really nice as well.  One of the best areas is between the Desert Museum and the Visitor Center.  This photo was captured near the top of one of the hills in the area.  Once I found this composition, we sat and waited about an hour and a half for last light - what a great place to sit and watch.

Saguaro National Park, Tucson, Arizona.

There are two Saguaro National Parks, Saguaro West and Saguaro East, the East is also known as the Rincon Mountain District.  The two are not very close together, they are on opposite sides of Tucson - I will let you guess the direction :).  This photo is from the East District.  I hear the West has better wildflowers right now, I’m going to check it out tomorrow.  Gotta say, the East had way more color then I have even seen in my few visits - it was looking great. 

It will be nice to have more Saguaro National Park photos.

Borrego Palm Canyon, Anza-Borrego.

This was from a beautiful Monday morning - it was completely calm!  Nice treat after the weekend storm that ironically originated in Alaska.

We had a great month in Anza-Borrego, it was fascinating watching the transformation of the desert as the wildflowers bloomed.  We were very fortunate to visit during one of Borrego’s famous wildflower years. 

Right now we are in Tucson, Arizona for a couple of days to take care of some business, then we are spending a month outside of Phoenix, Arizona for more photography.

Brittlebush wildflowers in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.

This was from a couple of hours ago.  It may not be obvious in this small size, but that is fresh snow on the tops of the mountains!  Hard to believe, but just a few days ago, it was in the upper 80’s!

Here you can see additional photos of Anza Borrego Desert State Park.

I really like this small, colorful ground flower that is very thick in some areas of Anza-Borrego.  For this photo, I placed an extension tube on my 17-35 lens.  I set the lens at 17mm and f/22 and then laid my camera amongst the flowers and started firing away.  It was fun to see what I was getting - I would check images on the back of the camera, and try again.  The extension tube allows for very close focus.  The flowers in focus are less than an inch away.

This was from a couple of days ago.  Unfortunately, hard winds have made the last couple of days unproductive for photography, I feel bad for all the people who came out here to see the amazing bloom.

Update:  It is actually raining fairly steady Saturday evening.  Few things in life smell as good as a fresh rain in the desert!

Desert wildflowers in Coyote Canyon, Anza Borrego. 

It is pretty cool that the Desert Sand Verbena and Dune Evening Primrose grow together, they are a perfect combination.

For more:  Anza-Borrego Desert State Park photos.

About 4 miles up Coyote Canyon, Anza-Borrego State Park, California.

When the TV cameras start showing up to provide morning feeds to news shows, you know it must be a great year for wildflowers in Anza-Borrego, and very near peak.  It is both!

The fields along Henderson Canyon Road, and Coyote Canyon beginning at the north end of Digiorgio Road have to be two of the best areas.  Both these locations are in Borrego Springs and contain endless fields of wonderful colors.  It is an amazing site to see, and unlike anything you would normally see in the desert.  The photo below is from Coyote Canyon this a.m.

If I lived anywhere near this wonderful event, I would get on my horse, drive my car, or even ride the neighbor’s broken bike - whatever it took to get down here to experience this fairly rare show before it is too late.  It has been three years since it last looked like this, who knows when it may happen again.

Now for the bad news.  The weekends are very crowed in this little town, so bring your patience.  The other bummer - it looks like a big storm might be hitting this Saturday or Sunday.  During the week is the best time to visit, but it is still worth fighting the crowds and weather if you can only come on the weekends.

Southwestern Barrel Cactus.

Kinda lost in this small size is a wonderful ring of flowers on the top of this cactus.  Captured with a Canon tilt / shift lens.

Desert Sunflowers or Desert Gold, along Henderson Canyon Road, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.  This is looking up toward Coyote Canyon at sunset.

In 2005, when I heard about the amazing desert bloom, I quickly caught a flight from Alaska and lived out of a rental car for 6 weeks as I traveled around the and photographed the Desert Southwest.  The one place I was sorry to have missed seeing were the fields of Desert Sunflowers on Henderson Canyon Road - By the time I got down here in February, a rainstorm had pretty much wiped them out.

So when we arrived in Borrego 3 weeks ago, this was the first place I went.  But 3 weeks ago, there wasn’t a single flower in this field, it was all green.  It really has undergone an amazing transformation in the past couple of weeks, mostly in just the past week.

The best news; most of the plants have one, maybe two blooms, and about five buds ready to bloom, so I think it is going to get even better in the days to come!

It is interesting how the timing of the bloom varies from year to year.  In 2005, this area was wonderful during the first couple of weeks of February, this year it will be an entire month later. 

San Diego wildflowers.

This is another colorful burn area in San Diego County.  The purple flowers you can see along with the California Poppies is Parry phacelia.  Parry phacelia if a fire follower.