Face of Stone

Home of Palo Verde Studios

[shoomlah]

My t-shirt design for @mysterium this year!

Voltaic was my favorite Age as a kid playing Myst III: Exile (in that it was full of southwestern rock formations, I am nothing if not predictable) so this was super fun to revisit :D

[shoomlah]

Been sitting on this one for a while: Fifty-Nine Parks just announced my fourth poster in their series, Horseshoe Bend at Glen Canyon! Who am I to ever say no to drawing some sheer cliffs of Navajo Sandstone, honestly. Definitely one of my top five sedimentary rock formations.🧡

Seven color screen print, 18x24”, available now in their shop! I’ll comment with a link so this doesn’t get buried by the tumblr search gods

[kohdiphoto]

The fifth and final part to my best of 2021 series, showing early fall through winter in the Phoenix Mountains and up north around the San Francisco Peaks. With demanding schedules, an emergency car replacement, and a last-minute move around the holidays, this year has not been an easy one. Each month has been a challenge to navigate, and even now at the start of 2022 I am still catching my breath. Still, it has also been a year of many beautiful things to see, including no small share of patient saguaros, and I’m looking forward to what new opportunities will arise in this new year. A little more stability, I think, is what I hope for the most. I don’t think I’m alone in that.

Towering Climb - 11.7.21

Mountain Autumn - 10.11.21

Sun in Shade - 10.10.21

Desert Valley - 10.27.21

Desert Secrets - 12.18.21

Fingers of Sun - 12.18.21

Shaded Meridian - 12.12.21

Copper Heights - 10.27.21

Sunset Angles - 12.4.21

Banded Light - 9.18.21

Now, for the special news I teased in the first part to the series - beginning this year, I am going to be putting away the digital camera and focusing my photography through the medium of film, utilizing the medium format camera which tags along on every hiking trip. It is a beautiful tool, and I’ll go more in-depth in a followup post, but despite carrying it with me for several years now I always find myself reaching for the digital camera out of habit. Unfortunately, the old Nikon is beginning to fail in some frustrating ways, and a modern upgrade is completely out of my reach. So, I am returning to where I started in photography, though perhaps with a few more tricks up my sleeve than I had a decade ago. I’m very excited to share both new work as I develop it, and some of the many rolls I have taken with this camera since 2019. Film truly is where my heart is, and while posts may be a little slower, I’m finally ready to make the leap. Let me know what you think, and watch out for that extra post detailing my analog kit in coming days!

[kohdiphoto]

Part four of my best of 2021 photoset, this time showcasing late summer through the Phoenix Mountains, Spur Cross Ranch, and the unexpected beauty of Montezuma Well in central Arizona. This set caught some of my favorite traditional landscapes of the year, especially Pinnacle, which has been my desktop background since I took it. The title image, however, is probably my favorite out of the whole year, capturing such an essence of what I love about the southwest in just one viewpoint. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do, and do keep an eye out for the series finale tomorrow!

Room with a View - 9.4.21

Shaded Valley - 8.12.21

Metate Vista -8.22.21

Far and Away - 8.22.21

Desert Composure - 8.12.21

Pinnacle - 9.18.21

What Was, Remembers - 9.10.21

Charismatic - 8.12.21

Rising Dusk - 9.18.21

Quiet Perch - 9.4.21

[kohdiphoto]

Part 3 of my best of 2021 series, this showing mid-summer from the Phoenix Mountains as well as some scenery from our trip up into the Four Corners around Durango, Colorado. Along the way we visited Chaco Canyon, a beautiful rainy overlook at Molas Pass, and finally a vista of the San Francisco Peaks welcoming us home. Summer can be challenging for photography in the desert southwest owing to the extreme temperatures, but we have such a huge variety of natural environments within reach that relief is often only a couple hours away. Stay tuned for part 4 tomorrow!

Uplifted Prayers - 5.17.21

What the Land Gives - 7.15.21

Protective Perch - 6.1.21

Precision in Collapse - 6.28.21

Doors of Time - 6.28.21

Interior Hall - 6.28.21

Viewfinder - 6.28.21

Mixed Seasons - 6.29.21

Green Afternoon - 6.29.21

Mountain of the West - 7.1.21

[kohdiphoto]

Part two of five for my best of 2021 series, showing some of the beauty even a meager springtime can bring. One of last year’s biggest surprises was the great ironwood bloom in April, outdoing any such displays I have seen in the past. The bees were glad for it after a dry winter, and so was I. Stick around for more tomorrow!

Sweet Coincidence - 4.27.21

Conjunction - 4.2.21

Dust to Dust - 4.17.21

Canyon Guardian - 4.5.21

Sonoran Finery - 4.2.21

Dreamy Draw - 4.8.21

Points of Light - 3.26.21

Persistent Spring - 4.17.21

Shimmering Heights - 5.14.21

Evening Elsewhere - 3.26.21

[kohdiphoto]

Hey, look at that! It’s time for another year-end review showcasing my best work from all of 2021. It feels like I just did this for 2020, but somehow a whole year happened, and I have the photos to prove it. I’ll be posting them each day this week until Friday, so your favorites from past months may make an appearance!

Thanks to everyone who stuck with me this year, and welcome to everyone who has recently found me! This blog is now up to over 3200 followers, and this is my 1001st post, which is incredible. I’ll have some big news at the end of the week that I’m excited to share with you all, so stick around!

Stone and Sun - 2.26.21

Iron and Blush - 3.19.21

Shade Enough - 3.19.21

Evening Audience - 3.26.21

Lifted Torch - 1.16.21

Whisper of Life - 2.14.21

Cliffside Company - 3.19.21

From Small Places - 2.18.21

Secret Heart - 3.19.21

Opalescent - 2.14.21

[kohdiphoto]

Great and small things in the Phoenix Mountains this past weekend, both taking advantage of the sparse rains and gentle sun to grow in their own ways.

I may have more photos before the end of the year, but until then, merry Christmas and best winter wishes to you!

[xemylixa]

Made the fam in Hero Forge!

[kohdiphoto]

A collection of photos from three recent hikes in the Phoenix Mountains, just about the only times I’ve been able to get out in the past couple months. All three followed the same trail through the north-central basin of the park which is one of the easiest access points since Dreamy Draw was closed long-term earlier this year. Early winter has been quite dry, leading to a desert of austere greens, yellows, and oranges contrasting with the deep blue mountain shadows. While planning these hikes around the short hours of decent light in the day has been difficult, truly any light is good light when you know your subject well. With everything going on in life I’ll take any light (and any time) I can get.

[kohdiphoto]

Winter hills in the Phoenix Mountains, though you would not know it by sight. But the days grow less intense and the sun sets sooner, and although the warmth of summer tries to persist it is sliding back further with each cool night. Perhaps soon we will have a true winter rain, even as it has done before on Thanksgiving day.

[kohdiphoto]

High altitudes in the Phoenix Mountains, where the rocks crack and tumble from the stress of rising so high and so sharp, breaking the setting sun across their razor faces until deep dusk rolls down the arroyos on a breath of moisture. This is the time between flower seasons, the short dry before the hope of a rainy winter. Time will tell whether the ocotillo wakes again before the end of the year.

[kohdiphoto]

Shots from two recent evening hikes in the Phoenix Mountains, showing the gentle glow of an autumn sun on the fractured hills and valleys. The weather has been persistently pleasant, allowing longer treks into the higher terrain which is often too exposed during summer months. Other life business has prevented me from going out quite as often as I’d like, but I hope to have more photos to post soon!

[kohdiphoto]

Autumn aspens around Flagstaff during a lovely weekend getaway, the first time we’ve visited for the occasion in several years. It’s nice, remembering that autumn does exist somewhere out there.

[tlatollotl]

Earliest definitive evidence of people in Americas

Scientists have found evidence that humans reached the Americas earlier than previously thought.

[kohdiphoto]

How beautiful that, in a region where people show the passage of time and space by the mark of footprints, such a pure expression of passage could be preserved. All the reliability of our human material culture and the debates it has sparked for centuries could not provide as clear a picture as this most transient and unlikely of artifacts. 21,000 years old or more...

[kohdiphoto]

KohdiPhoto

Landscape photography of the southwest by Dakota Petersen out of Phoenix, Arizona

Hey all, just wanted to put out a note that I have updated my website to include all my current work, as well as slimmed down the navigation options to make it a little more streamlined. It’s optimized to be viewed on a landscape-orientation device like a PC or tablet, with high-res photos in several locational galleries. I’d be thrilled if you’d give it a visit!

[kohdiphoto]

An evening spent on quiet trails in the Phoenix Mountains, the day’s rainclouds drifting slowly toward the setting sun. I got to play with some very exciting light on this hike, and seemed to be in just the right place and time wherever I stopped. Rainy days tend to be lucky like that.