Thimble Peak – In the Fading Light

As a photographer, I am constantly observing the interplay of light and shadows on things, everywhere I go. It does not matter, if I am preparing for a wedding, an on-location portrait or just taking a constitutional, I do it all the time. Sometimes, I do not even realize I am doing it. The artist part of me never stops working.

Being on Mt Lemon, viewing the interplay of light and shadows on distant mountains and nearby ridges, is especially captivating to me. I will situate myself just before sunset and stay to see them disappear, ridge by ridge, like ghost into the night, when neither eyes nor camera can discern their shapes no more.

I recorded the images below last month, from Sky Island Highway, Tucson.

Thimble Peak - In the Fading Light
Thimble Peak – In the Fading Light
Jagged Mountains
Jagged Mountains
Bubble Ridge
Bubble Ridge
Over the Hump
Over the Hump
Purple Horizon
Purple Horizon
Ocotillo Ridge
Ocotillo Ridge

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.