All Posts By

Phil Colla

Uncategorized

Fossil Fish

This fossil fish was collected at the Green River geological formation, Kemmerer, Wyoming. Well preserved deep in the sediment of an ancient lake, this fossil fish is estimated to be about 40 to 50 million years old, from the Eocene Epoch of the Cenozoic Era. From a private collection. Fossil…
July 6, 2008
Surf

Fourth of July Surf

A beautiful Independence Day morning at Ponto: sunny, glassed with lots of little peaks rolling by. Too bad all the folks from out of town got there at 6am and blocked the Coast Highway with their mega-RVs, making it nearly impossible for the people who actually live around here to…
July 4, 2008
CaliforniaFunny

Health Food

We made our annual visit to the Del Mar Fair last night. I hate to admit it, but we ate some of the food. Have you seen the food at the Del Mar Fair? It's enough to give a cardiologist a heart attack just looking at it. Grease and salt…
July 2, 2008
Surf

Cardiff Morning Glass Redux

I got out early again this morning and swam out at Cardiff just north of Seaside Reef. For the most part the size had dropped off but it was still warm, glassy, not a speck of wind and sunny at 6:30am. Once again I had a huge stretch of water…
June 22, 2008
Surf

For Immediate Release: Summer is Here

Thank you for your patience. This is your official notification: summer is here. You are now free to dive in, a wetsuit is no longer required. Effective until September: casual Friday is expanded to include Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as well. From this morning: Dawn patrol morning surf, hollow…
June 21, 2008
Surf

Carlsbad Morning Surf

Got out for the first time in a long time this morning for a swim before work. Summer is here. Morning surf.Image ID: 20793Location: Carlsbad, California, USA Morning surf.Image ID: 20795Location: Carlsbad, California, USA
June 19, 2008
New York

Photo of the Williamsburg Bridge, New York City

From a trip to New York City a few years ago: I took a boat around Manhattan Island and saw all the bridges that cross from various burroughs into Manhattan. This one is the Williamsburg Bridge. The Williamsburg Bridge viewed from the East River. The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension…
June 12, 2008
Arizona

Photo of Buckskin Gulch

Last one from Buckskin Gulch: a hiker considering the towering walls and narrow, convoluted passageway of the the Buckskin Gulch narrows. The trail continues behind the hiker, disappearing into the twisting walls so that it is hard to tell that it is even there. The floor of the passage is…
June 11, 2008
Arizona

Buckskin Gulch Backpacking

Here are a few backpackers walking through the Buckskin Gulch narrows. They are blurry because it is so dark in the narrows that a tripod and long exposure must be used, which caused the backpackers to smear across the photo as they walked while the stationary walls and ground remain…
June 10, 2008
ArizonaPanoramas

Hiking Buckskin Gulch

This is a 360-degree panorama showing, in a single image, a hiker in Buckskin Gulch both coming and going. I set my camera on a tripod in the middle of the trail through Buckskin Gulch, leveled it with a bubble level, and spun it in a complete circle taking sixteen…
June 9, 2008
Uncategorized

Bubble Rings

Bubble Ring Day. It was so hot in the desert today all we could do was swim in the pool. Good thing I had my trusty uber-unterwasser-oring-foto-kamera along. We blew off some fine bubble rings and had fun watching them wobble and grow as they floated up through the water.…
June 8, 2008
Arizona

Photos of the Wire Pass Narrows

After an easy half-hour walk from the Wire Pass Trailhead, one reaches the end of the sandy Wire Pass trail. At this point the trail enters the first of two Wire Pass Narrows, two fine examples of sandstone slot canyons. Formed by years of water erosion these slots are really…
June 7, 2008
ArizonaThe American SouthwestThe Wave

Wire Pass Trailhead

If you are going to hike to Buckskin Gulch or the North Coyote Buttes, you will likely start at the Wire Pass trailhead. Here is what it looks like at 6am. The dirt road you see, on which the trailhead parking lot is located, is the House Rock Valley Road.…
June 6, 2008
Utah

Bad Cop, No Donut

While passing through beautiful Kanab, Utah, on my way to hike Wire Pass, Buckskin Gulch and the North Coyote Buttes, I spotted a cop on the side of the road, presumably speed-gunning people as they entered town. Last time I blew through Kanab I noticed it was crawling with cops,…
June 5, 2008
Underwater Life

Kelp Fronds, Santa Barbara Island

Santa Barbara Island is part of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. I used to dive at Santa Barbara Island a few times each year. There are a few pinniped rookeries there, the best one being the sea lions at Webster Point. When the water is clean at Santa Barbara…
May 18, 2008
ArizonaThe American SouthwestThe Wave

Photo of the Second Wave

The Second Wave is found a few hundred yards from the Wave itself. While the Second Wave is characterized by striated sandstone in the same way that the Wave is, beyond that it is quite different in appearance, having a half-hourglass shape and being somewhat lighter in color. For photography…
April 28, 2008
ArizonaThe American SouthwestThe Wave

Photo of Brain Rocks

Brain Rocks are found in the vicinity around the Wave. Here are some sporting a view across the Navaho sandstone of the North Coyote Buttes: Brain rocks, curious sandstone formations in the North Coyote Buttes. Image ID: 20611 Location: North Coyote Buttes, Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, Arizona, USA Photos of…
April 27, 2008
California

Route 66

One our recent desert road trip, we found ourselves on Route 66 for a while. We passed some seriously forlorn-looking old eateries, defunct and barely surviving service stations, and some funky little communities that look like they are ever-so-slowly fading away. It was strange to think that before the interstate…
April 8, 2008
Uncategorized

Late Night Run to the Ice Machine

As soon as we check into a hotel room, any hotel room, one of my kids always has to make a run to the ice machine. What's up with that? Girl walks down hotel corridor at night, carrying ice bucket, abstract blur time exposure. Image ID: 20571
April 7, 2008
Las VegasNevada

Photo of the Paris Hotel Fountain

The Paris Hotel in Las Vegas is most noted for its tall, half-scale replica of the Eiffel Tower. However, it also has a replica of the Arc de Triomphe, a neon-light balloon and a cool fountain at street level as well. Here is the fountain with the balloon in the…
April 3, 2008
Las VegasNevada

Photo of Caesar’s Palace and Jasmine Restaurant

Caesar's Palace, a Las Vegas landmark, seems so surrounded by other buildings that it was hard to get a decent photo of just the hotel itself. I liked the blue lights in the Bellagio reflection pool illuminating the Jasmine Restaurant with Caesar's rising in the background. Jasmine Restaurant and Caesar's…
April 2, 2008
Las VegasNevada

Photo of the Bellagio Fountains and the Eiffel Tower

Here is another view of the Bellagio Hotel fountains, this time with the Paris Hotel's half-scale replica of the Eiffel Tower (yet another Las Vegas landmark) in the background. Bally's is just seen on the left, and the Planet Hollywood Hotel is on the right. The Bellagio Hotel fountains light…
March 31, 2008
Las VegasNevada

Photo of the Bellagio Hotel Fountains

One of my favorite attractions in Las Vegas doesn't cost any money: the superb Bellagio Hotel fountain show in the reflecting pool in front of the Bellagio Hotel on the Strip. Choreographed to music, punctuated with bright lights and showing frequently throughout the day and night, the fountain show is…
March 30, 2008
Las VegasNevada

Las Vegas Blvd, 3am

View from a taxicab after a hard night on the Las Vegas Strip, trying to figure out whether to hit another club, bar, casino or just call it a night. Image ID: 20566Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA More photos of Las Vegas at night.
March 29, 2008
San DiegoWildflowers

Photo of California Poppy

Here are a few more photos of California poppies (Eschscholzia californica) near Del Dios, California. I got lucky with the weather, with lots of sun and blue skies the day I shot these. Now we have leaden gray skies and its supposed to be windy and cold this weekend. California…
March 14, 2008
San DiegoWildflowers

Photos of Eschscholzia californica

This field of dreams is a literal carpet of California poppies (Eschscholzia californica) on the hillsides above Lake Hodges in Del Dios, California. In October this hill was ablaze with the Witch Creek wildfire, one of the worst fires southern California has experienced. Five months later it is ablaze again…
March 13, 2008