Within the space of single week in the winter of 2006, I brought my cameras to bear on two strikingly different American environments. For three days, I photographed in Utah's Zion National Park, a feast of visually stunning scenery found nowhere else on earth. I then traveled southwest to the Mohave Desert of California to visit the historic remnants of US Route 66, known as the Mother of American Roads. On my way between these contrasting landscapes, I briefly explored Nevadas Valley of Fire State Park and the massive Hoover Dam.

If you've viewed the previous articles of travel impressions I've posted on this site, you'll note that my photographic intentions are focused on interpretation, rather than description. I wanted to make more than just a record of the sights I saw in Zion and in the Mohave. I want my pictures to express my own feelings about them, rather than just describing the appearance of what I saw.

Aside from sharing these pictures with you on this website, I also am using many of them to teach the principles of expressive travel photography on my pbase website (http://www.pbase.com/pnd1) as well as in both my Sedona workshops for corporate photojournalists, and my tutorial workshops in Phoenix for newcomers to digital photography.

These 58 images were gleaned from the more than 2,000 digital pictures I shot during this trip. To view them properly, it is essential that you click on the link beneath the image marked "View full-size image -- 1000 x 750" This will allow you to see the picture in all of its detail.

I used an eight megapixel Panasonic FZ-30 to make all but five of these images. It features an amazing 36mm-420mm Leica lens with image stabilization, allowing me to use its long telephoto in low light situations with remarkable clarity. Its flip-out LCD viewfinder allows easy use at low and high angles, making it the single most useful tool for travel photography that I've used to date.

I made the other five images with a Leica D-Lux 2, a pocket camera offering a 28mm wideangle view within a 16x9 frame, a shape similar to a high definition TV screen. The subjects of each of these images were best defined within such a frame.

My friend and fellow photographer Tim May accompanied me on this adventure. You can view his own striking travel galleries here at: http://www.worldisround.com/home/mityam/index.html

For the Mohave Desert segment of this journey, Tim and I joined 18 other photographers in an Image Quest workshop led by Dave Wyman and Ken Rockwell. You can read about this workshop at: http://home.comcast.net/~wymanburke/Route66.html

I've edited all of these images with Photoshop to correct and refine the hue, color, contrast and sharpness levels, hopefully making my pictures more vibrant and meaningful. Although all of these photographs were digitally enhanced to some degree, none of the content has been significantly manipulated. The facts are all here, as I captured them. I hope you will enjoy these photographic impressions. Please post any comments at the end of the article, or ask me any questions you might have via email. Phil Douglis Director, The Douglis Visual Workshops, Phoenix, Arizona, pnd1@cox.net