Heather Dalton Photography | Blog » nature

The Halligan Family

Heather — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:40:49 +0000

Eve had not had pictures taken with her husband and kids in quite a while and wanted to give prints as Christmas presents to her family. I met them at Bay Area Park about an hour before sunset one Saturday in late October to take their portraits. We first had the kids run around the playground to get some energy out, and I took some fun candids of them climbing around on the playground equipment. Then we strolled along a wooden walkway over the water and got a few posed shots. It was a gorgeous evening and we had a great time! Eve has a beautiful family, and she ended up making Christmas cards to send out as well as prints of the photos. Pictures are always a great gift!

Sunset Crater and the San Francisco Peaks

Heather — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 05:28:00 +0000

The last stop on our teacher workshop field trip before heading back to Phoenix was Sunset Crater National Monument, a cindercone volcano in northern Arizona. When we were leaving the park, we caught a gorgeous view of the sun peaking through the monsoon clouds and shining on the San Francisco Peaks. As we drove out of Flagstaff, the sky beneath the clouds turned a brilliant shade of magenta. It was a beautiful sunset, which was short-lived as we then drove through pouring rain all the way back to Phoenix.

Moonsoon at SP Crater

Heather — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 02:58:10 +0000

While on the teacher workshop field trip in northern Arizona, one of our stops was a cindercone volcano called SP Crater. When we arrived at the cone, the sky was blue with a few puffy clouds. We spent less than an hour climbing around collecting cinders and lava bombs before gathering at the bottom to discuss what we had found.

About that time, the sky started looking like the second panorama and giant cracks of thunder were booming, so we decided it was time to go. I took the nine photos in the second panorama and hopped in the minivan, and as soon as we started driving down the dirt road towards the main road, the sky opened up. It was pouring rain blowing in sideways and hailing, and we were driving in minivans (no four-wheel drive…) on a road that quickly turned to mud. I rolled down the window every so often so I could get pictures (and video!) but could only leave it down for a few seconds before I (and my camera) were soaked; those are the middle two photos. It’s not a geology field trip without some sort of adventure! The last few photos are the view of the storm after we had gotten back onto the main road. We got out just in time!

Meteor Crater!

Heather — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 17:57:43 +0000

One of the stops on the teacher workshop field trip in Arizona was Meteor Crater (or Barringer Crater). Meteor Crater was formed when a meteorite about 150 feet across made mostly of iron and nickel metal slammed into the northern Arizona desert, creating a hole about a mile wide. At 50,000 years old, it is one of the youngest impact craters on Earth, and because of its arid environment, it’s the best-preserved crater in the world. This crater helped planetary scientists figure out what craters were and how they were formed (from space rocks hitting the Earth, rather than volcanic craters). There is some neat history about the crater you can read about in the links above.

While we were there, we had some free time to wander around, so I got some fun pictures. Storms from the monsoons were building on the horizon and heading toward the crater, which made for a dramatic backdrop.

Rocks are fun

Andrea, my partner in crime (and workshop facilitation)

Storms approaching the crater

Storms over the distant San Francisco Peaks

When autostitching panoramas goes horribly, horribly wrong…

Heather — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 02:48:11 +0000

While trying to create another variation of the below panorama, I either added or neglected to put in a photo that seriously confused the autostitching program I was using, AutoPano. AutoPano generally does a great job at creating panoramas, stretching and tilting the photos, and correcting any lens distortion and color variations to make a seamless image. This time… not so much. But it’s swirly and brightly-colored, and it made me laugh, so I thought I’d share it. I’ll call it Meteor Crater Swirls, deem it an abstract photo, and let it be a happy accident

Rain in the Arizona desert

Heather — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 02:00:05 +0000

During the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter teacher workshop I helped teach at Arizona State University in August, we took a field trip to visit some craters in northern Arizona – two volcanoes and an impact crater. Meteor Crater, or Barringer Crater, is located about 35 miles east of Flagstaff. Because of the arid environment and its young age (~50,000 years old), this crater is the best preserved impact crater in the world.

August is monsoon season in Arizona, and storms were building as we approached Meteor Crater. I got a few images as we were driving, and we stopped on Meteor Crater Road for a few minutes, where I took the horizontal panorama (Meteor Crater is the rise on the left side of the road.). I love how you can see the individual storms pouring down rain on the desert with clear sky on either side.

International Observe the Moon Night!

Heather — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 03:39:44 +0000

International Observe the Moon Night (InOMN) 2011 is on Saturday, October 8! The goal of InOMN is to engage lunar science and education communities, amateur astronomers, space enthusiasts, and the general public in annual lunar observation campaigns that share the excitement of lunar science and exploration. Join an event near you, or create your own!

In preparation of LPI’s event at the George Observatory, I took our Celestron 8-inch telescope home to make sure it was in good working order. While I had it out on my patio, I connected my Canon 7D and got a few nice pictures of the first quarter moon. The field of view is small enough that it takes at least two photos, stitched together, to show the entire surface of the moon.

Close-up of the terminator (line between day and night), Mare Serenitatus (top dark area), Mare Tranquilitatus (middle dark area), and Mare Crisium (small dark area on the bottom right)

Arizona cacti

Heather — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 20:53:28 +0000

I traveled to the Phoenix area to help facilitate a teacher workshop about the Moon last month. I stayed with a couple of awesome friends of mine from grad school (hi Beck and Thijs!) for a few days before the workshop. They have a fabulous pool that we spent the hot summer nights relaxing in, and a bunch of different cacti and succulents. These are a few of my favorites.

Bat boat!

Heather — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:43:12 +0000

One of the things I really wanted to show Sam when I took her to Austin for the 4th of July was the bats. Austin has the largest urban population of Mexican free-tailed bats in the world; the boat tour guide said there were 800,000 bats this year! They live under the Congress Avenue bridge over Ladybird Lake downtown. They fly out in swarms at sunset during the warmer months to eat, and you can take a boat out on the lake to watch. Sam and I went on Capital Cruise‘s bat boat tour and were treated to the best show they had had all summer. Below are pictures of the skyline at sunset, a yellow-crowned night heron (that feeds on baby bats and thus hangs out around the bridge), and the bats! The video shows several swarms of bats flying out from under the bridge, over the treeline, and down the lake. It’s amazing to see, so if you’re ever in Austin during the summer, you should definitely go check out the bats!

Yellow-crowned night heron

Bats!

Summer in downtown Austin

Heather — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 01:29:12 +0000

When my friend Sam and I were in Austin, she wanted to go on a bat boat tour on the lake. We got there early to make sure to get a good seat and had some time to kill, so we wandered around on the hike and bike trail. It’s a nice trail right by the water with lots of plants and birds to watch. We saw a mama cardinal feeding a baby in the bushes!