Author: Paul Van Helden

Paul Van Helden is a professional headshot, portraits, event, nature, still life and landscape photographer, based in Tucson Arizona. Some of his published credits include The Valley Wedding Pages and Sierra Club. Paul has worked professionally for over thirty years. Biologist and nature photographer Fred Dodd Jr. first introduced him to photography in 1982. Later, Paul studied photography at Dean College and began to photograph weddings under the tutelage of Craig Roberts of Franklin, Massachusetts. After working as a freelance wedding specialist for five years, he started his own photography business in Bellingham, Massachusetts in 1995. In December of 2004, he moved to the American Southwest, a part of the country he fell in love with, when he first visited the region in 1984.

Mt Lemon ~ The Rainbow Over San Pedro

MOUNT LEMON, ARIZONA – On Thursday, last week, south Tucson recorded record rainfall totals. I happened to be taking a day trip to the of Mt Lemon at the time, bearing witness to all the action in the valley below. After the rain, came the rainbow over San Pedro.

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I am fortunate to have visited many of this country’s State and National Parks. What surprises me about Mt Lemon is how little fanfare it receives. Most tourist that come to Tucson have heard of Saguaro National Park, Catalina State Park and the legendary nearby towns of Bisbee, Tubac and Tombstone, but very few people have ever heard of Mt Lemon. That’s a travesty! (Maybe there is just too much to see here, in Arizona!)
 
I, for one, had not heard of Mt Lemon, until after I moved to Tucson in 2004 and didn’t actually visit it for the first time until several months later. Obviously, I was in no rush to see it. After all, I thought, how good could it be, if I had never heard of it before? Now, after having been there nearly a dozen times, I will tell you the ride along Catalina Highway to Mt Lemon offers some of the most diverse and impressive scenery I have ever seen in any state, including Arizona. 
Rocks Formations, Along Catalina Highway
Rocks Silhouette

^These rock formations ocurr just before the road bends to Windy Point. They were being silhouetted by a combination of sun and monsoon clouds.  A mostly backlit scene like this rarely takes place in the middle of the day.

Windy Point
Windy Point (Westward Look)
^This view from Windy Point looks west. Dark areas in the valley below are being hammered by Monsoon rain. The monsoon season does not treat all parts of southeast Arizona, equally. On this day, several inches of rain fell in South Tucson, while northwest Tucson barely recorded a trace.
Monsoon Clouds, Rock and Ridges
Monsoon Clouds, Rock and Ridges

^ The rock swirl was likely formed over years of repeated severe weather events, like the storm taking place to the south.

Rocks, Pine and Manzanita
Rocks, Pine and Manzanita

^Despite the harsh weather at Windy Point, Pine and Manzanita trees, seen here, seem to handle the harsh conditions rather well.

(untitled landscape - Mt Lemon 9-2011)
Untitled Landscape – Mt Lemon, AZ

^ There is a place in the world for color photography, but when it comes to landscapes, in my view, black and white runs supreme. (If you look closely, you can see part of Tucson skyline in the valley below, right side. )

Gray Blue Mountains
Gray Blue Mountains

^ This view looks east from Catalina Highway. Dark clouds and sporadic rainfall frame the top of the image. Landscape photographs that are largely monochromatic, like this one, work very well in color.

Monsoon Mountain Side
Monsoon Mountain Side

^ As I continued my ascent to the top of Mt Lemon, a monsoon cloud passed overhead. I pulled to the side of the road and waited for it to pass. The heavy rain lasted only a few minutes. In this scene, raindrops, coming down this forested mountain side, were backlit by sunlight.

Rainbow, Ponderosa Pine
Rainbow, Ponderosa Pine

^ As the rain slowed to trickle, I looked into my rear view mirror to see this. I wanted to see if I could capture both ends of the spectrum, so I returned to San Pedro Vista, where I stopped minutes earlier.

The Rainbow Over San Pedro (Valley)
Rainbow Over San Pedro (Valley)

^ When I arrived I was pretty excited to see the entire rainbow. I didn’t have my wide angle lens with me, so I panned three shots from one side to the other and stitched them together later, with Photoshop.

Rainbow, Rock - Mt Lemon
Rainbow Rock – Mt Lemon, Arizona
Rocks in the Sky
Rocks in the Sky

^ This is a popular spot for rock climbers and one of the many interesting geological formations, that dot and defy gravity, along Catalina Highway.

Mt Lemon Flowers 1
Thistle, Desert Thorn-Apple and Yellow Columbine.

^ I can not resist taking pictures of wildflowers. These Divine creations fascinate me! I have accumulated a huge archive of wildflower photos, over the years. I took these and the ones below, during the fading light, at various stops on top of Mt Lemon, except the Thorn-Apple shot, which was taken at a slightly lower elevation.

Mt Lemon Wildflowers 2
Arizona Rosewood, Sunflower, Common Mullein and Richardson’s Geranium

^ The flora on Mt. Lemon reminds me of New England. Several species that grow here, grow there too.

Nature and landscape photography is where my photography interest began. These early endeavors have made profound influence on the wedding and portrait photography, I would do in later years. In recent months, I have been enjoying spending a day here and there getting reacquainted with my roots. What better place to do that than right here in Tucson, Arizona, where natural beauty abounds.