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Coconino National Forest

Coconino National Forest is a vast and diverse forest located in northern Arizona. It covers over 1.8 million acres and is home to a variety of landscapes, including canyons, mountains, and forests. The forest is a popular destination for outdoor enthusiasts, offering opportunities for hiking, camping, and wildlife viewing. Additionally, Coconino National Forest is a photographer's paradise, with numerous locations that offer stunning views and unique photo opportunities. Some of the most popular photography locations in the forest include the red rock formations of Sedona, the towering cliffs of Oak Creek Canyon, and the ancient ruins of Wupatki National Monument.

Land really is the best art…
Catherdal Rock
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Andy Warhol.

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After a long time of all work and no play, we finally managed to get some time off from work and coupled with the thanksgiving day holidays had a decent enough time to plan another photo trip. This time like last year we chose the South West.

On the first day of our trip we basically drove straight to Sedona, AZ and to the Cathedral Rocks vista. We spend a lovely evening walking around the park and scouting locations for the evening shoot. As the sun started to go down we had amazing light hitting the rocks with some beautiful foreground interests all over the park.

This view particularly caught my interest with the beautiful rustic barn in the foreground with the cathedral rocks forming an interesting albeit distant background. I used my tele lens to compress the distance a bit and stitched three shots to get this image. I swear I will never get tired of the incredible red of the rocks set against the beautiful blue skies.

Thanks for visiting more pics to follow..

It is never too late to be what you might have been…
Red Rock Crossing
by Sandeep Thomas
  • George Eliot.

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Another shot of the stunningly beautiful cathedral rocks of Sedona, AZ. This was taken at the same park from where I took the previously posted shot but this is the more classical location. A local photographer who was there told me that we missed out on fall colors by a week and that the trees framing the rocks still had some color till about 3 days ago.

News like this used to depress me not so long time ago and I usually go on a tirade blaming everyone in the universe for my bad luck, but thankfully these days I just resolve to visit the place again and I am sure my wife is thankful for that change. She used to have to endure my rants. Anyways this is one of my favorite shots from the trip. Hope you all enjoy it.

Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature…
To advise is not to compel…
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Saint Augustine.

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Took this shot while we were actually driving back from crescent moon picnic area. I noticed this beautiful glow in the sky after sunset. So when we came across a scenic view area I pulled over and realized there was a beautiful panoramic view of the famed cathedral rocks area.

Since I had all my gear out anyway I tried to stitch together a panorama shot. It was a bit hard as the light was fading fast and I had to do all my setting up real fast and churn the shots out quickly. This can be a problem with D800 as it takes time to “think” sometimes and take ups a lot to time writing an image to the cf card once its buffer is full. In spite of all that the shot came out good and I was really happy how it looked on my monitor. Hope you all like it, thanks for visiting my stream.

Oak Creek - Sedona, United States - Landscape photography
Oak Creek - Sedona, United States - Landscape photography
by Giuseppe Milo

If you like my pictures please support me buying a print from my shop www.pixael.com/en/shop thanks!

You can follow me on https://www.facebook.com/giuseppemilophoto https://twitter.com/pixael_com https://instagram.com/pixael/

Red Rock Crossing
Red Rock Crossing

Red Rock Crossing near Sedona, Arizona, USA. Taken before sunset from the south bank of the river.

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Rebirth in the Bonito Lava Flow
Bonito Lava Flow

The Sunset Crater Volcano north of Flagstaff, Arizona, erupted around 1085 incinerating the soil which remained barren and devoid of life for more...

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Sacred Pools Sunrise
Sacred Pools Sunrise

Precipitation has been good this winter, resulting in some very wet conditions in many areas of Arizona. Benefits from the precipitation include...

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The hardest thing is to take less when you can get more…
Red Rock Crossing
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Kin Hubbard.

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While living in LA, we were spoiled by the abundance of stunning locations nearby. There were tons of national and state parks a short drive away and some location that could easily be national parks as well. So, when someone mentioned about a little town called Sedona near the Grand Canyon national park, it didn’t immediately climb to the top of the list. But it piqued our interest enough to be added into our next trip to the Grand Canyon’s south rim. I only did cursory research about the place, and most of it resulted in the image of cathedral rocks and the sliding rock state park which provides some stunning vistas of these beautiful rock formations. We only had an afternoon allocated for the park and had to leave immediately after sunset to get to our hotel near Grand Canyon NP.

As soon we got near Sedona, we knew that we made a mistake, the place was just beautiful with stunning rock formations everywhere we looked. Fall had passed, but there were still some remnants of fall colors lingered on some of the more stubborn trees. We explored the small park on foot till the sunset. And as soon as the light started to warm up, we headed to our sunset spot. I picked this spot for the sunset shot due to the rather sill pool of water on the slick rock, but during sunset, the whole stream was rather calm providing a spectacular reflection of the rock formation with some nice trees on both sides completing the composition.

Cathedral Rock, Sedona
Cathedral Rock Sedona AZ
by Adelheid Smitt

One of the amazing places in the American Southwest! This is the vista from Oak Creek. Wading through the shallow water was required to capture this great view.

Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut, that held its ground…
To advise is not to compel…
by Sandeep Thomas
  • David Icke.

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Another shot of the beautiful Cathedral Rocks from Sedona, Arizona. I took this shot after we left from the Crescent Moon Picnic Area and on our drive up to Page AZ. We came across this location totally by accident, but that didn’t take away how stunning the view was. I saw the amazing afterglow of the sunset and then saw this tree perfectly framing the rocks far away. So assembled my gear fast and positioned myself right behind the tree and user a wide-angle lens and HDR to get best dynamic range possible.

This is a 15 shot stitch panorama made real fast before I lost the light. Hope you all like it.

Cathedral Rock.jpg
Catherdal Rock

Here's another shot from Sedona. This was one of our favorite places from our road trip. This red rock was all over the place and it contrasted so...

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Cathedral Sunset
Catherdal Rock

This was taken during my first shoot of Cathedral Rock from Oak Creek. As I was based in Village of Oak Creek, I accessed the area from the less...

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Sedona & Sunset
Sedona & Sunset

Photo taken on the Airport Mesa

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Nothing is farther than earth from heaven; nothing is nearer than heaven to earth...
Sedona - Cathedral Rock
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Augustus Hare.

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Here is another perspective on the beautiful Cathedral rocks at sunset. My original intention was to get a perfect still reflections of the rock formation in the river but this persistent little duck was hell bent on making as much of waves as possible in the relatively still water. I really tried to shoo him away but for some reason he was not really scared of me and decided just to hang.

Since my initial plans was not gonna happen, I switched plans and decided to include him in my shot and make him a foreground interest. I loved the way it turned out, hope y'all like it. Happy Easter.

To advise is not to compel…
To advise is not to compel…
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Anton Chekhov.

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Sedona, Arizona has often been associated with spiritual energy and other benefits of the supernatural realm, that’s a bit above my capability to understand. What attracted me to Sedona was the desert landscape and the amazing sunsets that happens routinely here. So, when we decided to make a trip to Sedona, I wanted to cover the Cathedral Rock from as many viewpoints as possible.

Most of the viewpoint is located near the crescent moon ranch but the best photo from the trip came from a roadside pullout. We were late getting to a viewpoint and en-route I saw a good view of the Cathedral Rocks and I decided to opt for the roadside pullout rather than the planned viewpoint. The decision was driven by some of the best light that I have seen in a while. The foreground was a bit busy, but I believe the subject and the light more than made up for it.

Cathedral rock - Sedona, United States - Landscape photography
Cathedral rock - Sedona, United States - Landscape photography
by Giuseppe Milo

If you like my pictures please support me buying a print from my shop www.pixael.com/en/shop thanks!

You can follow me on https://www.facebook.com/giuseppemilophoto https://twitter.com/pixael_com https://instagram.com/pixael/

Guide me to Catherdal Rock
Catherdal Rock

My last stop on our photo vacation was Sedona, AZ home of the red-rocks. We knew that Cathedral Rock was completely over-photographed as well but you...

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A Long Silence
Red Rock Crossing

I was able to take a break last week and go on a couple of sunset shoots on Oak Creek. On this second trip, I decided to cross the creek and...

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Mystical Winds
Sedona - Cathedral Rock

Late afternoon light, at one of Sedona’s most iconic scenes. I can think of many situations, where I would be excited to shoot here, but very windy...

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Red Rock Fusion
Red Rock Fusion

This Sedona icon has been photographed so many times, but not so much from this viewpoint. This shot was taken from the saddle of Cathedral Rock, a...

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Cathedral Reflection Pool
Cathedral Reflection Pool

This is another one of my favorite places to photograph Cathedral Rock. I love this lesser known spot, especially after seasonal storms fill several...

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Thanks to all Phoide contributors to Coconino National Forest!
Most notably Sandeep Thomas, Giuseppe Milo and Adelheid Smitt.