To the Reader: As long as I can remember, I've been interested in photography. I started out with a $2.98 box camera and as a teenager, I even had a darkroom of my own. But even though I have always owned a camera and have taken a number of photos during my lifetime, my skills remained rather basic and my output low for many years. That changed about ten years ago for a couple of reasons: 1) the advent of digital photography, and 2) I moved to Arizona.
Digital Photography I never fully mastered the techniques of “wet photography.” The temperature of each solution had to be just right, and the length of time each negative or print spent in the solution had to be exact - and this was just for black-and-white photography. If you're dealing with color, forget it! Other drawbacks to film photography were the costs of film and the lag time between taking a photo and seeing a print or slide. Typically, I would take a few pictures, and then the film would sit in the camera for days or weeks until the roll was used up. It was then off to the lab for development, and a few days or a few weeks after I had taken a photo, I would see the results. By then I had long forgotten the camera settings and other technical details, so I would learn nothing from my mistakes. That all changed with the development (no pun intended) of digital photography. I bought my first digital camera in May of 2000 and have never bought another roll of film. I have found that: •
I can take a number of shots of the same scene, with slightly different perspectives or composition or even exposure settings, and then select for use the one that I like the best. The unused photos, whether deleted or allowed to reside on a hard disk, cost little or nothing.
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Because I can view the photos immediately on the camera's display (small though it may be), I can immediately see whether a shot has failed because of exposure problems or composition. If so, I can try it again.
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Again, because of the immediate feedback, I can learn more readily from my mistakes.
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I can manipulate the photos on my computer with a degree of control never possible with film: boosting contrast a little here, brightening a little there, adding a little saturation or sharpness.
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Finally, I can actually file photos in an orderly fashion so that I can find the photo I want when I want it. It surely beats shoeboxes full of slides, negatives, and prints.
Arizona I moved to Arizona in 1969, and except for a couple of short stints in the Los Angeles area, have lived here ever since. Arizona has a remarkable combination of mountains, deserts, and forests. The photos in this book represent a small samplling of the scenery that Arizona has to offer – you'll see the Sonoran Desert, Sedona, Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell, the Apache Trail, the Grand Canyon. But I have yet to do anything with Monument Valley, the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest, Canyon de Chelly, or any of a hundred other equally beautiful spots. So I have miles to go before I sleep. You'll note that most of the photos are landscapes. You won't see many buildings or people in my photos. But those that you do see will be distinctly Arizona. Dan Campbell June 2010
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An early spring thunderstorm in the
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Superstitions (March 13, 2004)
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An Arizona Sunset
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(April 7, 2004)
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Wildflowers at Lake
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Pleasant (March 22, 2005)
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Canyon Lake
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(March 29, 2005)
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Apache Lake in the late
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afternoon (March 29, 2005)
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A bee, its wings a blur, buzzes a
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New Mexican Thistle (April 3, 2005)
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Spring wildflowers at
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Bartlett Lake (April 5, 2005)
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One of Arizona's infamous dust storms approaches our home (July 18, 2009)
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Visibility is near zero during a dust storm (July 17, 2009)
But the aftermath can be eerily beautiful (July 18, 2009) 17
A winter scene at Woodland
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Lake, Pinetop-Lakeside (December 20, 2008)
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A Native American dancer performs at an event in Phoenix (December 11, 2004)
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The combination of Native American dress and aviator sunglasses is striking (December 11, 2004)
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Mission San Xavier del Bac, “White Dove of the Desert” (February 8, 2010)
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Mission San Xavier del Bac (February 8, 2010)
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A slightly different view of the
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Mission (February 8, 2010)
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Moon over the Red
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Rocks, Sedona (January 12, 2006)
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Sedona Sunset
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(January 12, 2006)
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Ayers Lake at Boyce Thompson Arboretum near Superior (March 13, 2005)
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Glen Canyon and Lake Powell The Glen Canyon dam is the second-largest dam on the Colorado River. Construction of the dam began in 1956, and in 1963 began blocking the flow of the river, forming Lake Powell, which straddles the borders of Arizona and Utah. As you can tell from the photos that follow, what really distinguishes the Lake Powell area is the geology. The shape and color of the rock formations are incredible.
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Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River near Page, Arizona (June 26, 2009)
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Looking down the Colorado from just below Glen Canyon Dam (June 26, 2009)
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The beautiful and fascinating combination of rock
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and water at Lake Powell (June 26, 2009)
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Unusual rock formations, as seen from Antelope
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Canyon on Lake Powell (June 26, 2009)
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A finger of Lake Powell, with the Navajo Generating Station and
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and a huge butte looming in the background (June 26, 2009)
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“The Corkscrew� in Antelope Slot Canyon, just before a thunderstorm (June 26, 2009)
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Every turn in Antelope Canyon reveals something you've never seen before (June 26, 2009)
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The Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon defies description. One of the wonders of the world, it hosts visitors from all over the world. The photos that follow, for the most part, speak for themselves and require no captions.
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A gnarled old pinon pine clings to the Canyon's edge (May 18, 2010)
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Copyright 2010 by Dan Campbell All Rights Reserved