During a recent business trip to Arizona, I spent an evening at the Saguaro National Park in Tucson. It was hot in the desert and walking around in my work clothes, black pants was a little tough. Not the best planning on my part but then again most of my little excursions are spontaneous anyway and that's part of the fun. Besides - the looks I get when I show up at the visitors center in business attire and ask where the best hikes are for photographs.....simply priceless.

The thing that amazed me about the Saguaro cactus' was the size. These monsters are huge.

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www.russellhaddock.com

View my

National Park Quest Flickr Stream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14062060@N00/sets/72157607740755799/

Woke up early to capture the sunrise before heading back to Grand Junction to fly home. Spent most of the morning at The Windows area of Arches National Park and took pictures from inside the North Window as the sun rose.

This is a 3 image

HDR

after sunrise. The sun rays and cloud cover were amazing and I enjoyed the morning. True majestic beauty!

Got a little artistic in this shot. Converted to B&W but painted the natural sun colors back through.

Similar shot - a little wider but you can see the original coloring of the sunrise.

The Windows Arches - North and South. This was shot before 7am - the sun is still below the horizon behind the arches. This is actually a 7 image

HDR

- long exposures.

Turret Arch. I've seen many photographs of this arch shot through the North Window using it as the frame. I was alone in the early morning light and decided to shoot this as wide as possible (10mm) but get right in front of the arch. 8 image

HDR

before sunrise.