2017-08-16 Promontory​ Road

My friend Jerry drove north from Albuquerque with a plan to rendezvous with me in Layton Utah. He told me is plan was to spend the night in Green River before pushing onto the Salt Lake. I looked at the map and saw a road I’d never travelled that put me near Green River and took me from Bicknell through Capitol Reef National Park. It was a no-brainer to decide on that route. I made but one stop in Capitol Reef to take a few pictures from Panorama Point and then used my phone to take “Flyby” pictures the rest of the way.

I reached Green River before Jerry and tried to use the time to sort out some of the pictures I’d been capturing, but I wasn’t able to complete the job before he showed up. The itinerary Jerry had planned for us for the next week eliminated any possibility of keeping the processing pace within reach of the picture taking pace. Jerry is a marvelously talented photographer with vast experience in many aspects of the field. He has a successful career as a forensic and evidence photographer. When on an excursion such as the one we’ve embarked on, his primary goal is to have fun. Getting interesting images is not a priority, but is usually a byproduct. His work on images while travelling as we do, is to insure sufficient quality is achieved.

My work flow includes the same quality control, but adds embedding data on every image with a dozen or so items of descriptive information, then processing into a database. I’ve been doing this with my images for nearly 20 years and I’m a bit obsessive about it. The upside is I can find all my images via a search function in the database. The downside is the time investment required before I can process and share these images. As I write this, I’m still nearly a week behind in presenting these episodes. Jerry is now headed back south, and while I’ll miss hanging out with him, I can now invest the time I need to share my images.

Jerry and I left Green River and drove through Price Utah on our way to stay with Jerry’s friend Joe in Layton. In Joe, I saw a kindred spirit who loves nature as much as I do. In the three days were hosted there, we visited Promontory Road, Bear River, Farmington Bay, Antelope Island, and Willard Bay.

The first images I’m sharing are from Promontory Road, west of Corinne Utah. Jerry’s good friend Joe was our tour guide, and we hunted the roads looking for raptors. We wished in vain for a Short-Eared Owl, but were happy to find American Kestrel, Northern Harrier, Red-Tailed Hawk, Swainson’s Hawk, Turkey Vulture, and a young Coyote foraging on small rodents in the grassy fields near the road.