Six hundred thousand tons of copper were produced from the pit at the end of this block. Gold, silver, and some of the world’s finest turquoise was also found in the Copper Queen Mine. When the operation was shut down in 1975, the town of Bisbee was brought back to life by artists, crafts people and hippies from the sixties, and is now being kept alive by yuppies and the remaining old hippies. The town’s bank is now a gallery, as is the JC Penny building and the Woolworth building across the street. The business district now houses mostly galleries and coffee shops. The sunny side of the narrow street through the downtown business district reflects in all the windows on the shady side of the street. For the price of a cup of coffee, you can sit at a window and watch the locals go about their lives. I saw images everywhere – store fronts that were not quite right and grand department store interiors where motorcycle clothing was displayed. This incredible rebirth of Bisbee, once the richest city in Arizona, was made possible by the huge pit just south of town.

My Photograph America Newsletter #148 covers my favorite Southern Arizona locations for photographers.

The Carrizo Plain National Monument is located in southwestern California, one hundred miles northwest of Los Angeles and halfway between Bakersfield and the coast. It’s one of those places that few people visit and even avid nature photographers may not know about. Designated as a national monument in 2001, this remote basin has the largest display of spring wildflowers in California. The wildflower season usually starts in late March, peaks in mid-April and ends in mid-May. Twelve miles south of Wallace Creek, on the east side of Elkhorn Road, is a gate that frames a large silo or tank that once held grain or water. The tank has split open and the lid has collapsed. Park outside the gate, and pack all your lenses and your tripod for a spectacular photo of the Temblor Range covered with bright shades of blue, yellow and orange. Hike up the dirt road after closing the gate behind you. Watch for the first side trail leading off to the north. It starts with a short, steep climb for two hundred feet then levels off for a short break and then climbs again. This goes on for thirty minutes before reaching the halfway point where a long, slightly-inclined trail follows a narrow ridge. Along the length of that ridge are spots wide enough for your tripod. Looking up to the southeast is the top of a distant hilltop. When I arrived, it was covered with solid splashes of blue, yellow and orange.

When you hear reports of a great spring wildflower display coming, check my Issue #142 to improve your photo trip.

An unpaved mountain road climbs several thousand feet from the village of Hyder, at the southern-most tip of Alaska, and Fish Creek, which is almost at sea level, to the 4,300 foot summit above Salmon Glacier. About fifteen miles up the road are several small beaver ponds. Beautiful reflections cover these still ponds in mid-morning and late afternoon. This is a good spot to photograph hoary marmots whistling from the edge of their burrows to warn other marmots of your approach. The road to the glaciers continues to climb past steep mountainsides dotted with alpine wildflowers that bloom through the middle of August. Summer is short in this part of the Pacific Northwest.

A trip to Hyder is the easiest way to discover Alaska with my newsletter #65.

In the past, I’ve photographed the Everglades, Sanibel and Captiva Islands, the Big Cypress National Preserve, Fakahatchee Strand, the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary near Fort Myers, and Cedar Key, where I found these Willets. For this photo exploration of Florida’s Wildlife Refuges, I traveled up the Gulf Coast of Florida, across the northern part of the state, and worked my way down the Atlantic Coast, visiting and photographing in parks, refuges, and wildlife refuges for two weeks. Some of the places I explored were remote and a few were popular wildlife parks crowded with tourists. I tried to find the best places for photographers who are looking for birds, wildlife, and subtropical landscapes in northern Florida.

Florida is my favorite destination for bird photography. My newsletter #78.

A very photogenic lighthouse is at the southern tip of Point Loma, the long peninsula that forms the west side of San Diego Bay.  Follow Cabrillo Memorial Drive and continue driving south on Point Loma, through the open gates of Fort Rosecrans Military Reserve. Keep heading south. A National Park pass will get you into the Cabrillo National Monument to the parking area at the end of the road. If it’s a clear day, check out the panoramic view of San Diego from the visitor Center and then follow the short trail to the old lighthouse at the top of Point Loma. One of the original eight New England-style lighthouses that were built on the West Coast still stands at the top of Point Loma, 462 feet above sea level. It was so high that it was often hidden in fog and low clouds. A new lighthouse had to be built nearby, down at the water’s edge. The new lighthouse is not accessible to the public.Follow the paved path that completely circles the old lighthouse to find the best lighting for the time of day you arrive. Morning light strikes the front of the building. Afternoon light creates interesting shadows cast by the white picket fence.

All the best photo spots south of the town of Santa Maria - all the way (300 miles) to San Diego in Issue #121.

A cast iron staircase spirals up a tower to a catwalk around the top of this tower, offering great views in all directions. Most of the lighthouse interiors are open to the public, charging a small fee to climb the towers. My favorite lighthouses are all different.  Of the 700 lighthouses in the United States, 225 of them are scattered around the Great Lakes. Lake Michigan has almost a hundred. Many are unseen, offshore, sitting on dangerous rocks and marking narrow passages where strong currents flow. Many have been closed by the Coast Guard and replaced with modern, automated, high-intensity beacons and GPS-based navigation aids. Some of these historic towers and keepers homes have been purchased from the government with private donations. Volunteers have restored and maintained many of these historic sites. Keepers’ homes have been restored with authentic furnishings. Some of the light towers have their original lamps and their Fresnel lenses, works of art in glass and brass. This is the northernmost light house on Lake Michigan.

My favorite 18 lighthouses, all the way around Lake Michigan with photos and details on shooting them  in #135.

I drove as far north as Opheim and then turned east on Montana’s Route 248, Montana’s longest paved east and west road this close to the Canadian border. I discovered several more railroad spurs, some abandoned and some still being used. Grain elevators are scattered all along the road extending all the way east to North Dakota. Seven miles east of Scobey, I spotted two grain elevators in the distance–the abandoned relics of an old town called Madoc, where older wooden elevators were easy to approach on a paved road. Faded red paint on one of them added an interesting contrast to the surrounding green fields. The road loops around the red elevator and crosses the tracks. An old RR Crossing sign adds an authentic touch to the elevators in the background. Montana’s Hi-Line country is dotted with abandoned farmhouses and villages.

My newsletter #119 contains my favorites.

Located high in the hills on the west side of Portland, just west of the Japanese Garden, is the Hoyt Arboretum. The former site of the Multnomah County Poor Farm is now an outdoor tree museum. Established in 1931 as the home of the largest collection of conifers in the world and spread across 175 acres, the arboretum has over 800 labeled species clustered among the remaining native trees in ten separate groups. Find the specific type of tree you would like to photograph–coast redwoods, giant sequoias, bald cypress, larch, Himalayan birch, ginkgo, bristlecone pines, magnolias and bamboo–on their map. Then follow the trails through dense groves of tall trees that do not naturally grow this far north, like bald cypress that normally grow in southern swamps. These are fully grown, mature trees that look like they have always been here. Small labels identify the different varieties without spoiling your photography. At the bottom of the canyon, the Redwood Trail crosses a small stream and turns to climb the other slope. At that point, a very large cedar clings to a steep hillside above the stream. Its roots have created a pattern covering the hillside, exposed by winter floods pouring down the canyon. I photographed the diagonal lines of roots as both horizontal and vertical images.

My newsletter #124 covers many more trees and flowers plus some of my favorite photo spots in Portland.

St. Augustine Florida has an alligator farm a mile north of town, up Highway A1A. The St. Augustine Alligator Farm was established 110 years ago. It’s open from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm and the admission fee was reasonable with the 20% off discount coupon I had printed from their web site at www.alligatorfarm.com. I got my hand stamped for a return visit later in the day. Except for a lunch break, I was there all day. Out behind the main area of the farm is a large pond crossed by a raised boardwalk. Many large alligators live in the pond and protect the wading bird rookery from predators, raccoons trying to steal the bird’s eggs. Large trees around the pond are filled with many nests. All the nests were filled with blue eggs in mid-March. Hundreds of snowy egrets and a few wood storks were busy repairing nests and sitting on eggs. In a few months, the trees would be filled with chicks. Sandhill cranes, ibis, herons, and other small birds are continually flying out to the nearby salt marshes for food and returning with twigs for their nests. Male snowy egrets were dancing in the treetops and preening their feathers, many were fighting over the best twigs.

If you plan to visit Florida, check out my Issue #78 Florida Wildlife Refuges.

I packed up my gear an hour before sunrise and drove east from Alturas, across the Surprise Valley and into Nevada. A few hundred feet up the foothills, I had a better view of the Surprise Valley and most of California’s Warner Range covered with snow. Every few minutes, the sun would pop out between the clouds and light up parts of the valley, distant barns and groves of tall poplars. Nine miles east of Cedarville, I spotted an old windmill in the distance. I pulled off the paved road and headed cross-country on the dry lakebed. A cold wind was blowing. The blades on the old Aermotor windmill were stationary. I waited for the perfect light on this scene, maybe a spotlight through the clouds, but the sky did not cooperate. After a thirty-minute wait, I walked around the windmill and photographed it from the other side.

Issue #128 contains information about the seldom-visited northeastern corner of California.