A gallery of images from the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, Lake Tom Steed State Park, and Quartz Mountains Nature Preserve. All three locations are part of the same granite batholith (a large mass of rock which forms the core of the mountains) that runs east to west in the southwestern part of Oklahoma. There are thirteen lakes scattered throughout the range with a great variety of flora, fauna, and lakeside terrain.
Red Rock Canyon State Park is located 45 minutes west of my home, so the park offers an easy place to go and create new images on the spur of the moment. The canyon was made an Oklahoma state park in 1956. Native Americans used the canyon as a refuge from the strong North winds that dominate the area during the winter months. In addition, there is a short section of the California Road which was a connecting route to other trails heading West during the Gold Rush in California, thus the name.
Although the park is not a deep canyon, being only 60 feet in depth, the photographic opportunities are quite varied. There are no truly wide vistas, but detail shots are abundant allowing one to separate out small vignettes of flora against the backdrop of the red Permian Age sandstone, as can be seen in some of the images below.
A gallery of images from the great states of Texas and New Mexico. Inside you will find images from Guadalupe Mountains National Park, the Texas state parks of Caprock Canyon, Mineral Wells, and Palo Duro Canyon, Bisti-DeNazin National Monument and Clayton Lake SP in New Mexico , and 'From The Roadside'.
These images are currently licensed to Getty Images. They are available ONLY as Limited Edition fine art prints from this website. Please go to the PRINTS page for pricing.
For Rights Managed Licensing other than these Limited Edition prints, please click on the link below which will take you to the appropriate page on the Getty Images website.
http://www.gettyimages.com/search/2/image?artist=Thomas%20Welborn&family=creative,editorial&excludenudity=false&sort=newest