Heather Dalton Photography | Blog » outdoors http://heatherdalton.com/blog Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:19:34 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 The Halligan Family http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1558 http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1558#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:40:49 +0000 Heather http://heatherdalton.com/blog/?p=1558 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 [...]]]> 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!

]]> http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1558/feed 0 Ballunar Festival 2011 http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1547 http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1547#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2012 03:24:32 +0000 Heather http://heatherdalton.com/blog/?p=1547 Every year, NASA Johnson Space Center hosts a hot air balloon festival. The balloons launch from another location and land in a giant field on the JSC campus shortly after sunrise. They have contests for the pilots to throw things from their balloons trying to hit specific spots on the ground, and booths to visit. [...]]]> Every year, NASA Johnson Space Center hosts a hot air balloon festival. The balloons launch from another location and land in a giant field on the JSC campus shortly after sunrise. They have contests for the pilots to throw things from their balloons trying to hit specific spots on the ground, and booths to visit. I like watching the balloons floating through the sky in the wind. We had a clear blue sky that day, and the colorful balloons looked gorgeous set in front of it.  The JSC grounds are very lush and green with many trees and a few ponds, which made the walk to and from the parking lot quite pleasant. :)

]]> http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1547/feed 3 Sunset Crater and the San Francisco Peaks http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1526 http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1526#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 05:28:00 +0000 Heather http://heatherdalton.com/blog/?p=1526 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 [...]]]> 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.

]]> http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1526/feed 0 Moonsoon at SP Crater http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1513 http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1513#comments Thu, 29 Dec 2011 02:58:10 +0000 Heather http://heatherdalton.com/blog/?p=1513 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 [...]]]> 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!

]]> http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1513/feed 1 Meteor Crater! http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1502 http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1502#comments Sat, 29 Oct 2011 17:57:43 +0000 Heather http://heatherdalton.com/blog/?p=1502 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 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

]]> http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1502/feed 2 Arizona cacti http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1467 http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1467#comments Sun, 18 Sep 2011 20:53:28 +0000 Heather http://heatherdalton.com/blog/?p=1467 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, [...]]]> 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.

]]> http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1467/feed 1 Bat boat! http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1450 http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1450#comments Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:43:12 +0000 Heather http://heatherdalton.com/blog/?p=1450 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 [...]]]> 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!

]]> http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1450/feed 1 Summer in downtown Austin http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1439 http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1439#comments Mon, 05 Sep 2011 01:29:12 +0000 Heather http://heatherdalton.com/blog/?p=1439 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 [...]]]> 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!

]]> http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1439/feed 0 Sam at the Capitol http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1431 http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1431#comments Tue, 23 Aug 2011 00:30:33 +0000 Heather http://heatherdalton.com/blog/?p=1431 The State Capitol Building in Austin is an impressive building made of pink granite from the Texas Hill Country.  I took Sam there to wander around at sunset one of the nights we were in town for the 4th of July.

[...]]]> The State Capitol Building in Austin is an impressive building made of pink granite from the Texas Hill Country.  I took Sam there to wander around at sunset one of the nights we were in town for the 4th of July.

]]> http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1431/feed 2 The Oasis http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1418 http://heatherdalton.com/blog/archives/1418#comments Mon, 22 Aug 2011 01:49:01 +0000 Heather http://heatherdalton.com/blog/?p=1418 A friend of mine, Sam, was in Houston from Canada for work right before the 4th of July. I took her with me when I headed to Austin for the holiday weekend. One of our stops was The Oasis, a restaurant built into the side of the limestone cliffs overlooking Lake Travis.  Sam, Sara, and [...]]]> A friend of mine, Sam, was in Houston from Canada for work right before the 4th of July. I took her with me when I headed to Austin for the holiday weekend. One of our stops was The Oasis, a restaurant built into the side of the limestone cliffs overlooking Lake Travis.  Sam, Sara, and I had dinner and watched the sun set over the lake. It was beautiful but blazing hot!

Sara!

Sam and me!

You can see the dark side of the Moon in this one :)

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