Kolob Canyon Sunset

On the western edge of Zion National Park lies the intense red rock canyon of Kolob. The area is a must-see for those visiting Zion. In this image the last rays of sun illuminate the rocks creating an intense display of reds with the green foliage highlighted in the valley. Please click above for a higher resolution view.

Douglas Falls May 2011

Please see the link above for the latest image from the Flowing Water photography workshop, Douglas Falls.

Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae

Looking toward the center of the Milky Way galaxy we are treated to numerous glowing patches of glowing gas and dust. The three most prominent patches of nebulosity in this image are known , from L to R, as NGC 6559, M8, and M20. The large nebula M8 (M for Charles Messier) is commonly known as the Lagoon Nebula. The blue and red nebula at the top right is M20 and is commonly known as the Trifid Nebula. We are looking toward the center of the Milky Way galaxy in this image and the distances to these objects is approximately 4,000 light years away. M8 and M20 are beautiful sights in a common pair of binoculars in the summer sky. From the northern hemisphere they lie due south after sunset in the summer months and are in the constellation of Sagittarius.

3 New Images are now posted to Florida Gallery

In January I had a wonderful opportunity to photograph in the Everglades. 3 new images from that trip are now available at the link in the title. Enjoy.

Blog has begun the move...

Hello and Happy Thanksgiving! I am so happy with the interface on my new website that the blog has already moved over there. So now everything is in one place...jeffball.squarespace.com. Eventually earthandskyphoto.com will point to the new website, but I am cleaning up some issues from a site hack. So for now, the squarespace domain is my home. Please visit when you get a chance and check out the new posts with more on the way. Take care and thanks.

New Website Preview

I am getting excited about my new website. I had been searching for a while and I believe I have found what will work very well for me. The site is hosted by squarespace. They provide a template type of input that is configurable in many different ways. The site will also host my blog. So everything will be moving to the new site when it is up and running. Unfortunately, most of this has been the result of a hack on my original website, but the site was in desperate need of an upgrade. The earthandskyphoto.com link is still not active as I had to transfer web hosts, but you can get a glimpse of the site and new blog at jeffball.squarespace.com. I hope you get a chance to check it out. I don't have the galleries active yet as I am building them now. Please let me know if you have any problems accessing the site and check back often as I hope to take it live very soon. Take care and Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Photographic education

Photographic education never ends. The sources I utilize for continuing education are listed in the links section to the right. Most recently, Charles Cramer provided an update to his Photoshop handbook to his email subscribers for free! Charles is one of, if not the best, photographic instructors in the word today. I owe a great deal of my improvement to his instruction and photographic examples. The update covers a lot of the changes with PS CS4 and there were a lot of changes. I encourage you to visit his website and sign up for his newsletter and to certainly look into taking one of his workshops. I hope to attend one of his Yosemite workshops in the next couple of years myself. One additional note is that I have been working very diligently on the Smoky Mountain portfolio or "folio." This will be an entirely new presentation and one that I really find conducive to my artist vision. I will keep you updated as the folio nears completion. I am expecting the folio to be completed in the next couple of months. Take care and have a great Thanksgiving.