… closing the week in the air with an added appreciation for what we call “Blue Holes!” A blue hole is a break in otherwise overcast skies that lets the sun pour through the hole and illuminate the earth’s surface providing beautiful shots for photographers and more than that, it provides a means for pilots to go up through the blue hole and come out on top of the cloud layers into a crystal blue sky.
One fine October day, there was peak color in the stands of aspen on the San Francisco Peaks, plus a snow storm the night before the morning of these shots. As so often happens, the cloud cover was very low over the plateau rim in the Sedona area and our red rocks were bathed in wispy clouds and they drooped well below the rim … I wanted to go up to the peaks and get some shots of the beauty I knew would be up there, so I called a friend who lives up there and was told that there were blue holes in the cloud cover, so I took off, found a few blue holes over the Verde Valley and went up through them and got on top of the clouds at 17,000′ and headed north … sure enough there were blue holes in the cloud cover so I dropped down through them and spent more than two hours photographing the peaks, Kendrick and more … when I finished the clouds were still blocking passage below them at the rim so it was back up on top and then back south. Much more blue sky in Flagstaff than when I flew up there.
The shot above was taken from SE of the SF Peaks looking to the NW. The V valley on the left side of the image runs up to the ridge line and provides the separation between Doyle on the right and Freemont in clouds on the left. above and slightly right of Doyle and across the inner basin is from left to right Aubineau and then Rees Peak. This shot was taken shortly after I dropped down through the clouds and not much open sky.
The shot below was taken later in the flight and from a location just off the right side of the top photo looking up into the Inner Basin. From the left you have Doyle, Fremont Peak, Agassiz Peak, Humphreys Peak in clouds along with Aubineau and Rees. Lockett Meadow is in the lower right portion of the image, and you can see a couple of pine trees in the meadow area. It is a spectacular view! The individually named peaks are all part of what used to be San Francisco Mountain which towered above the peaks today … it was thought to be between 15,000′ and 16,000′ before the eruption 400,000 years ago which took it down and is now 12,637′.
Have a beautiful day and choose joy! Nice to be back in Sedona after a quick driving trip to Carlsbad, California to see friends at the GIA and bring a treasured friend home that was on display there for the past 21 years. I still love the beauty that is California, but so nice to be home in Arizona and all that is here … I will never complain about the traffic on 179 during spring break again!
Smiles,
Ted
If the noise of the city offend you,
go afield when you may, with the birds and
the wild, free life that troubles not;
The growing grain and the placid sky
have a kind of voice; and though you are
alone, the boundlessness of the universe
is with you.
Go afield and dream and forget;
and you will see that you are changed when
you return and the lights of the city
gleam in the twilight.
excerpt from the noise of the city by 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.
More about Ted Grussing …