Greg McCown's (gmmccown) Blog

Tucson: The Best Place to Photograph Lightning Tucson is the best place to photograph lightning.  I grew up here in Tucson, Arizona.  I moved here when I was 9 months old and lived here until I was nineteen.  Huge monsoon storms filled with incredible lightning displays were a common sight durin...

Philmont: The Pinnacle of Boy Scout Camps I've been gone for the last two weeks on a trek at Philmont Scout Ranch in northern New Mexico.  Located about 2 hours northeast of Santa Fe is the pinnacle of Boy Scout Camps.  137,000 acres of beautiful rugged wilderness welcome over 20,000 Boy Scouts ...

The Most Beautiful Hike in Southern Arizona: Aravaipa Canyon I have lived and enjoyed the outdoors in southern Arizona for over the past 35 years.  I've hiked many trails and visited some beautiful locations but none of them came even close to last weekend's trip.  A couple of Facebook friends, ...

  Sunburst through Saguaros   February 26th of this year was the most amazing photography day I have ever had.  My wife and kids had gone up to visit my in-laws.  Being home alone was never my idea of fun, so I started out early in the morning taking a short hike in Saguaro National Park Rincon D...

Did you know Saguaros can Glow? I'll apologize ahead of time about the cheezy title.  Saguaros and some other cactus actually can glow.  This happens just after sunset and just before sunrise.  When the sun is behind the cactus at the right angle the suns rays will hit the semi translucent needl...

Gorgeous sunset and time with my son As my son gets older he has gotten more and more busy.  His involvement in sports and social activities means less time with the family.  When I mentioned the possibility that I might go out and shoot the sunset he asked if he could go along.  We grabbed my wi...

Tucson Real Estate Statistics for April, 2011   April was a good month for Tucson.  Sales activity was up over the previous month and most statistical categories saw improvement.  More importantly, there is a greater sense of optimism from agents, buyers, and sellers.   Key Statistics for April,...

My Grandfather was a Hero For Memorial Day I thought I would share the shortened version of the story of my Grandfather with my kids along with some of my own personal memories.   Loren Spencer Tyler was born in Fort Thomas, Arizona on July 30, 1922.  He grew up on his father's dairy farm and was...

Memorial Day: Family, Food, and remembering Grandpa   For Memorial Day weekend my cousins came into town to visit.  We spent yesterday at the pool with them and some friends.  This is my son, Josh learning that he can swim by himself is he's got a noodle. My younger son, Jacob, spent most of his ...

My Favorite Landscape Photographs   For the past six years my passion for photography has grown tremendously.  For the first decade of our marriage, my wife was always the photographer of the family.  On a vacation to Hawaii and somewhere between photographing dolphins and the Na-Pali coastline ...