Rain and monsoon photography in Arizona

Temperatures held in the 80s last week while humidity climbed into rain just about every day providing possibilities for monsoon photography and trying new ideas with multiple cameras.  Predictions for the week went from 30% chance—that often misses me—to 100% when sure enough, the rain came.  I’m a ceraunophilia who loves thunder and lightning.  Those negative ions provide a natural high.

Being the trail cam hasn’t caught anything more than me and cows in over a week I figured to move it.  But when I walked around looking for a safe (from cows) place nothing appealed.  So it’s still mounted on the 5th-wheel ladder pointing towards some water bowls.  Food and water should attract wildlife.  I don’t feed animals but have put out some bowls for water.  Of course with all the rain lately they don’t need my water bowls.  Except a cow broke one getting a drink.  I spotted some kind of Bunting bathing in a bowl and managed a photo through the window.

I’d been working on a video when the rain came, and came down with force along with thunder and lightning.  So I set up the tripod and put the rarely used lightning trigger on the Nikon and pointed it towards the storm through the window hoping for some monsoon photography.  Didn’t get a thing and there was definitely lightning in sight.

The wildlife I’ve seen lately has likely been too small for the trail cam.  I was filling water bowls and saw a lovely White-lined Sphinx moth furiously flitting about.  Probably took 50 photos to get two.

I stacked more rocks around the cheap plastic bowls for camouflage.  And wouldn’t you know it, a squirrel came by and pushed one of the rocks away, with intention, then sniffed it over and seemed to rub and leave its own scent, perhaps to cover mine.

Another fun day of clouds with some rumbles but few sprinkles that left with a pretty sunset that even included the moon.

Rained over night and the humidity and chances of rain continued to increase.  It felt sticky.  I walked down to the wash to check for moisture there as I had to drive across it early the next morning.  Looked good so I didn’t bother to move the truck.  Just before noon it started to sprinkle and continued with a gentle female rain for about an hour.  That light rain just soaks into the ground unlike the hard rains that saturate, float, and flow.  Mostly the clouds just teased staying over the mountains to my east and west.  Worked on blog posts and finally put the Geogypsy Journey page together.  There’s a tab under the new header shot.

I don’t like early.  But needed to get a blood draw for some routine lab work and that meant fasting for 10 hours.  So I was at the lab shortly after they opened and thankfully had an adept phlebotomist.  In 20 minutes I was out the door to morning coffee already made and waiting for me in the truck.  Then I met Joann for breakfast and she drove us to Watson Lake.

We got there before the predicted rain so took a short walk along the North Shore Trail.  The granite boulders are magnificent yet do make walking a challenge.

Many crevices offer good conditions for the beautiful Sacred Datura to grow and bloom.  It’s a hallucinogenic poisonous plant so you could get high, or die.

See the ducks?

Although swimming isn’t allowed in the lake, kayak rentals are available, or bring your own, or a paddle board.  I put together a video about Watson Lake.  We didn’t stay long as the heat, humidity, and mosquitos were brutal.

Also made a quick stop by Granite Creek.  But once again the mosquitos chased us off.  As much as I love to get out for some monsoon photography, I just can’t tolerate the mosquitos.  Joann went on her way and I spent the afternoon indoors doing chores like laundry and shopping.

Cumulus clouds billowing to the east over the Bradshaw Mountains didn’t bode well for catching full moon rise.  Yet those same clouds sure made for spectacular monsoon photography.

I set the phone in a window and took time lapse.  Another new to me photography idea.  I’m sharing the first one taken and learned to allow for more space above.

The nepholographer in me can’t stop taking pictures of clouds throughout the day.

Saw a Roadrunner and some of the neighbors came by.

Stayed cloudy for the full moon rise though it peeked through just a bit much later.

Time lapse is fun, and easy.  Just set up the shot and push start.  My phone will take ten minutes of shots spaced 30 seconds apart with a choice of speeds 4x, 8x, 16x, and 32x.  After the first try at 8x I bumped it up to 32x.  I mean who wants to watch ten minutes of cloud video?  Plus when the filming stops I used the remote to start it again, and again, and again.  Then those can be put together in Movie Maker and one hour of shots can become 1.7 minutes of time lapse monsoon photography.  And I think it looks really cool.

Because there were great clouds and lightning but no rain I sat the Nikon on tripod outside with the lightning trigger.  Luckily I also brought it in just as the rain began but never captured any of the lightning that was going on.

The rain fell for a couple of hours and the clouds continued their show so I did more time lapses from inside.

More wonderful clouds and opportunities for monsoon photography the next afternoon.

Then just before sunset with a hard rain from the north, the sun came out and I searched hard until I could see a rainbow to the east.

I tell you, at the end of the day, this pluviophile finds immense joy and peace of mind.

And then, if the mosquitos aren’t too bad, I step outside to breath deep of the petrichor.