This photograph was taken in the early evening hours at Red Rock Crossing State Park. Red Rock Crossing is one of my favorite places to shoot at this time of day. The light and colors are continuously changing along with the reflections in the water of Cathedral Rock. The flowing water and setting sun makes it a technical challenge for anyone’s camera skills.
Hart’s Prairie, Northwest of Flagstaff, is another location that I love to visit in Arizona. It is best shot when the colors of the leaves are changing in the fall. Every year I make the trip up there, just to get some new seasonal images of the area. Born and raised here, I have discovered so many great places to visit and photograph in Arizona that I rarely venture out of the state for my fine art photography. In Southern Arizona I never get tired of visiting the San Xavier del Bac Mission outside of Tucson and the Tumacacori National Historical Park.
In 1963 I became a staff photographer at the Evening American Newspaper. After the closing of the newspaper I worked for the U.S. Geological Survey and did freelance photography on weekends for two more local weekly newspapers.
With my newly acquired passion for both news and photography I started my next career as news photographer with Channel 3. Here the photographical opportunities were vast. Throughout the 38 years I have covered stories involving Presidents, Governors and famous news stories. I have been nominated for the Rocky Mountain Emmys five times and won several second place awards for the Arizona Press Club and four awards from the Associated Press.
Today I am retired from News Channel 3 which frees up my time for my new found passion of landscape, nature and portrait fine art photography.
By: Jaime Ontiveros
