During my five-week photographic hunt for magic light and new photographic horizons in the desert Southwest I was striving to capture the monsoon thunderstorm display and the arc of the Milky Way over the nighttime Colorado Plateau. It is pretty much trying to shoot the impossible but it is precisely these challenges that make this dream so intoxicating!

Being back from my photo tour on the Colorado Plateau, I am completely overwhelmed by the incredible amount of breathtaking scenery I was fortunate enough to experience. Chasing the thunderstorms of the monsoon, I stood at the sheer cliffs of the Grand Canyon’s North Rim, surrounded by lightning during the vivid color-spectacle of sunrise and sunset while low-level clouds and the intense rain showers swept through the canyon! In the Bisti Wilderness in New Mexico I experienced a thunderstorm, which shortly before its passage kicked up an impressive sandstorm, in which I disappeared for two hours. In the middle of the night I hiked to beautiful Emerald Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park to photograph the overwhelming starry sky reflected in the lake. And I met so many great people, including many photographers with whom I teamed up spontaneously, musicians who enjoyed their time in the woods, painters who captured the landscapes, and hikers who explored the beauty of these landscapes and learned how to photograph them. All these encounters have deeply enriched my travel experience and I am very grateful having been able to share some of my most intense moments with them.

Here are some first impressions of my tour and I am looking forward to sharing new photographs with you soon.

Colorado Plateau Tour
Colorado Plateau Tour

My new images cover Rocky Mountain National Park, Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Little Wild Horse Canyon, San Rafael Swell, Capitol Reef National Park, Bryce National Park, Grand Canyon North Rim National Park, Colemine Canyon, Monument Valley, Gooseneck State Park, Natural Bridges National Monument, Bisti Wilderness, Ah Shi Sle Pah Wilderness, Black Canyon National Park and Dinosaur National Monument.

Colorado Plateau Tour
Colorado Plateau Tour
Colorado Plateau Tour
Colorado Plateau Tour

Moreover, enjoy a live music gig with an enchanted, randomly gathered audience that I recorded at the campfire out in the woods of Bryce Canyon National Park with talented musician and entertainer Dennis McLelland from Montana. The guy to the very left is me.

Dennis Mc Lelland playing