Election day in the United States of America. This is most definitely not a political post, but I would encourage everyone to go vote if they can and want. Echoing David Hobby over at Strobist, you can’t really justify griping at the next four years if you don’t vote…but then again, it is your right to vote, and that means you have the right to not vote.

Among all the talk about the election, and I listen to a great deal of news/talk radio while on the road, and frankly, I find myself switching to music stations more and more instead of learning about what is happening in the world, primarily because of the amount of election talk I hear. That and XM’s Lucy rocks!

The point I’m getting to is while I was photographing in Palo Duro Canyon State Park last Friday, I totally forgot about all of the things that affects me that I hear from a radio station or television news network. Getting in to a zone with photography is a great stimulation to produce successful images, but it’s also nice to just take a step out of the current world and walk in a significantly different world for at least a small amount of time.

I woke up Friday morning early, and my brother and I were at the park right before sunrise. For the rest of the day, we just shot and hiked, stopped for a meal, then shot and hiked. It was a good reminder of the past weekend at Guadalupe Mountains National Park (more on that later), and good practice in approaching nature/landscape photography. We literally shot the entire day, taking advantage of those golden hours, as well as finding the right type of light to shoot during the middle of the day.

These are just a few images that I produced from the day, but again, even knowing I was there to “work,” jumping in to a world that you love, even for just a day, can be a great breather from the greater, while totally awesome, sometimes overbearing, world around you! Cheers!