Love Rocks

During a summer geology field trip to the Colorado Plateau, my professor had his one-year wedding anniversary. His wife flew out to be with him and camped with him and the class for a few days. When we visited this arch, they posed for one of the students in the class to take a photo. I was on the backside of the arch, taking photos from a different perspective, and caught this embrace at the perfect moment. The way I processed this photo turned it more into a work of art than a photograph, but I thought that the composition was powerful enough that any detail in the rock itself was unnecessary.

Old Couple

On the first day in Grand Canyon National Park with my Regional Field Geology class, two California Condors flew right past us. Shocked, we continued to talk about geology, but hoped they would fly by again. Instead, they landed on a rock outcrop no more than 100 feet away from us and sat in the brilliant morning sun, displaying their tags. Wondering about the history of 33 and 87, I did some research after getting home and discovered they are one of only five mated pairs in Arizona. They're also two of the oldest California Condors still alive; the female, 33, is the last remaining survivor of the first release of Condors into Arizona. These two birds are clearly part of a bigger story than mine!