By Ted Grussing
… in an otherwise undisturbed and undulating sea of white covering thousands of square miles I found a waterfall this afternoon … a slight opening in the low level fog and clouds a break in the cover appeared and a waterfall was created. It looks like one, but the water is not quite in a dense liquid state … but it is water and it is flowing.
I had planned on flying to the confluence early afternoon and with the prospect of low level clouds in the canyons it seemed a good thing to do. Climbing out of Sedona I cleared the rim at 9,000’, cleared the clouds at a little over 10,000’ and leveled off at 14,500’, shortly thereafter and heading NW. A large portion of the plateau was covered in ground fog and low level clouds and except for a few volcanic cones sticking up through the clouds it was a white sea that seemed alive with motion. The North Rim was also above the clouds, but not by much. I continued towards Desert View and the Confluence for a while, but it didn’t look like there was going to be much so decided to do some shooting looking back towards the peaks and this beautiful little crater with the falls … other than what you see there was not a break in the clouds for at least ten miles in any direction so I had some fun with it and hope you enjoy it too.
A quick stop at Basha’s for some chili fixings and home about ten minutes before the ISO 100 group started arriving. A fun evening and as always a sharing of some great photographs. Jim is really into infrared shooting and has some very neat work with it. Pretty much a black and white type of photography, but it uses frequencies other than the visible spectrum our eyes use … very cool! (warmth shows up as white). Didn’t get the photos of the conk done before I headed up to the airport so will work on it over the weekend … rain is coming … high winds are coming … I may elect to reform myself, if I have time … naw, that isn’t going to happen either.
Have a wonderful weekend and if you are in the storm areas, be careful, but enjoy them … they are a reminder about the extreme power of nature and the dynamic nature of the planet. Our little star ship has been forming, morphing and undergoing major changes for over four billion years. It did just fine without us, is doing just fine with us and will do just fine without us when for whatever reason our species like the dinosaurs’ goes extinct. In the meantime we can spend our time enjoying the gifts that are ours to enjoy and perhaps share a few more smiles with each other while we are here. Earth has no need for our help as it travels through space … we’re just along for the ride. I love storms, enjoy earthquakes and all natural phenomena … the planet reminding us of our fragile nature and power we cannot even dream of.
Share your joy and rejoice for life is good!
Cheers
Ted
I’ll not bother to reform myself today.
Perhaps tomorrow — if it is raining,
and I must stay indoors, and meditate
on the shortcomings of life.
— Max Ehrmann
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The easiest way to reach Mr. Grussing is by email: ted@tedgrussing.com
In addition to sales of photographs already taken Ted does special shoots for patrons on request and also does air-to-air photography for those who want photographs of their airplanes in flight. All special photographic sessions are billed on an hourly basis.
Ted also does one-on-one workshops for those interested in learning the techniques he uses. By special arrangement Ted will do one-on-one aerial photography workshops which will include actual photo sessions in the air.
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