Lost Dutchman State Park

Last weekend, I went on a morning photography excursion, accompanied by friend and fellow photographer, Paul Staley. Our destination was the Lost Dutchman State Park, about 40 miles east of the city. This park features Superstition Mountain, a compelling formation for photographers and hikers.

At 7:00 am, we set out on the Treasure Trail Loop (or part of it) which led us to a very scenic location for taking our pictures.

The first part of the trail was through a short stretch of desert, before ascending 525 ft. (160 metres) to a point near the trail’s peak. We took a few shots of the desert flora along the way, including this Teddy Bear Cholla. The name is misleading, this teddy bear is anything but cuddly.

As we ascended, I captured this shot of one of the park’s most notable landmarks, the Praying Hands rock formation.

Near the summit of the trail, we found some very good locations for photographing the mountain. At this point, we’re at the transition from the diversely-vegetated Sonoran bajada (alluvial slope) extending from the base of Superstition Mountain. My attention was drawn to the twin Saguaro cacti in the foreground.

This next photograph was taken looking in the opposite direction, northward toward the McDowell Mountains and the Tonto National Forest.

Superstition Mountain is an excellent photo subject. I took many shots, from many locations at different times of the morning. At the risk of over-working the subject, this is my favourite of the day, taken from the trail about 3/4 of the way up.

This final picture, once again Superstition Mountain is a composite scene and not an accurate representation of what I was seeing when I took the picture. A composite photograph is a combination of elements taken from a number of photographs, in this case two. The mountains and foreground were taken in the course of my recent visit. The sky was extracted from another photo taken at sunrise. I darkened the entire foreground, using a black gradient filter. The technique is generally referred to as compositing.

In creating this picture, I was imagining how the scene would look at sunrise on a cloudier day.

By 10:00 am, we completed our shooting and went back to the parking lot, content with our morning in a beautiful setting and looking forward to seeing the product of our efforts.