Ohio in the Dead of Summer
Originally uploaded by jimcrotty.com.
Near Moab, Utah, on July 16, 2006.
The temperature at the time I took this shot was 103.
Back in Ohio I try not to step outside when it gets over 90, unless of course it’s for my cycling training (I rode this past Saturday in the Young’s Jersey Dairy Ride and last night on the Little Miami).
It’s this time of year in Ohio that I refer to as the “dead of summer.” Those who aren’t professional nature photographers assume that the worst time of year for outdoor photography would be the middle of winter. After years of experience photographing in all kinds of conditions in all types of climates, I can safely conclude that summer is my least favorite time of year for nature and landscape imagery in the Ohio Valley.
Everything goes flat. The light is entirely too harsh from about 9:00 AM till 8:00 PM. There’s rarely any nice contrast provided by a clear blue sky. Instead everything in the sky just goes a dull shade of white. Yuck! Not to mention the horrible thick, humid air. Double yuck!
When a nature photographer finds him or herself in the dead of summer in Ohio it’s best to go west, go north or go high - or all of the above. Places where the air is cleansed each night and there’s enough geographic changes in the landscape to offset the flat light of a direct sun. I’m also more tolerant of high temperatures when in a dry climate.
When I was out west for four days earlier this month the average daytime temperature was 100. I hiked and photographed in Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction and Fishers Towers, Dead Horse Point and the La Sal loop road near Moab, Utah.
The only time I actually felt a chill and had to actually put on a sweatshirt was when I drove over Imogene Pass (thank God for rental SUV’s) from Ouray to Telluride, Colorado, photographing wildflowers and waterfalls at 13,000 feet above sea level. There was even some snow pack. Dirty snow pack, but snow it was.
During the trip I was able to gather a wealth of new image material, more of which will be displayed on this blog and over on ohiophoto.org. Desert landscapes, canyons, mountains, wildflowers, old mining towns, incredible waterfalls and a little bit of wildlife. I have so much new material that I’m still in the process of editing and preparing these photographs for print production and web publication.
By the time I get through processing all these new images I will start to get ready for my favorite season of outdoor photography in Ohio - autumn! Already I see the signs, and I’m thinking that fall will arrive a couple of weeks early this year. Fields of big sunflowers, crickets and the gradual shortening of daylight.
That last one really caught-up with me last night while riding the bikepath between Morrow and Corwin. It was almost completely dark while I still had about five miles to go to my car. Good thing IPods come with a handy-dandy backlight.
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