John Byerly Photography

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Tucson, AZ
John Byerly Photography

Sharing the wonder and beauty of nature; landscapes, wildlife, vegetation, as well as artistic photos

Grateful to be alive and to have a passion for nature and photography
Have camera, will travel.

10/22/2026

Biggest hail I’ve ever experienced, luckily only a few small dents on my van from a big supercell this afternoon in North Phoenix .

10/13/2026

Took a little spontaneous camping trip up to Sedona and Flagstaff to try to experience a little bit of the fall vibes with my love. We were planning on staying three nights but got rained out after two. But the rain added some beauty and contributed unexpected novelty to the experience.
It wasn’t until we arrived at the campground…in nature amongst the trees, in the still woods that I realized how busy my mind really is, how Ive become so used to constant stimulation between my phone, music, YouTube, movies and tv shows. High stimulus density makes it so that we perceive time flying by faster and faster. Rapid streams of incoming sensory data, constant notifications, rapid cuts in media, and continuous scrolling feed the brain a high volume of micro-stimuli without emotional or narrative weight, tricking internal time-keeping proxies. Combine that with predictable, repetitive daily patterns lacking novelty, and the brain groups the days together rather than recording distinct memories. Add in stress, cortisol, and a series of never-ending, triggering and depressing news headlines, and a financial hamster wheel and it makes for a very heavy, busy, unhealthy and unhappy mind and spirit. Going camping and being out in nature felt like a miracle cure, just being in the trees and around the water allowed time to slow down and for me to sink and relax into the present moment and for time to feel expensive again. The first night in the tent felt like it was 20 hours long. I haven’t felt such a restorative feeling in a while. So I definitely need to do more camping and more time spent outdoors.
The time spent in the Aspen Grove was both beautiful and peaceful, but also it was an interesting experience to observe human behavior. We went on a holiday weekend on a Saturday, it was my first time up there for the fall, and I was truly mind blown at how many people also went up there that day. We had to wait in traffic pretty much all the way from the bottom of the mountain, and then we had to wait in traffic all the way down the mountain and all the way back to Flagstaff from Snowbowl.
It was worth it I suppose, but I probably wouldn’t do it again 😂

10/05/2026

We used to be part of the great nature, in it, one with it, amongst it, living with it. Some people still are. But for many of us we peer at it from behind fences or plexiglass, trying to catch a glimpse, trying to recover a sense of what it was like before an umbilical cord of connection was severed. Before we found ourselves laboring for currency in this modern Petro-industrial, techno-digital age. I hope we can find a way back, before we destroy all of it.
Some more photos from Yellowstone, one of my favorite places, where at certain moments, you can sense a strong connection to those primal elemental forces of nature, and where you can watch modern humans interact with those in real time.

10/03/2026

Well, monsoon season is officially over here in Arizona, so back to your regular scheduled programming of nature photos and wildlife and whatnot!
Here’s some photos from Great Sand Dunes National Park, just made a quick stop over, since I’ve always wanted to see it. I would love to go back there and do some backpacking into the deep desert, there are places where rivers come out of the mountains and flow into the desert sands and it looks like a pretty spectacular place.

09/27/2026

On my drive home this evening I witnessed the beautiful sight of the full moon coming over the mountains. The autumn Harvest full moon cast a warm radiant glow in the perfect shape of a cross. I’m not particularly an overly religious person. My father passed away just a little over a month ago and it has me thinking about these things more than ever. I choose to believe that there is something greater and beyond, something that orchestrated all of this, love and beauty, pain and death. As I get older this life we live feels shorter all the time, and we are all marching towards our eventual leaving of this physical plane. Where we go? I do not know, maybe it’s to a paradise heaven, maybe we all go someplace different, maybe we merge back into the unified field of everything. But I hope that we get to see our loved ones again, in some form or another. I believe that there is some sort of greater plan by a higher divine order, it’s the only way I can derive any sense of comfort with all the horrendous and catastrophic things that happen on this planet and knowing that every person I love and myself will ultimately die.
I’m happy it’s finally fall, I also find comfort in nature and the changing of the seasons and their rhythmic cycles.
This image is a Photoshop combining two different photos I took tonight of the moon and clouds. Remember to not take life or your loved ones for granted and enjoy this fall season and the coming Halloween holiday.

08/20/2026

Yesterday was a beautiful day for storm chasing in southern Arizona. My intuition took me to a perfect location with a perfect composition at the most beautiful time of day just slightly after sunset, the light, the clouds, and the set up was absolutely incredible. Right where I was planning to take some photos with another storm photographer. So I got there and greeted him and started chitchatting a little bit right when I was feeling all of the energy and everything peeking! And right then one of the most beautiful lightning bolts I’ve ever seen came down in the exact spot I was planning to set up my camera. I missed the shot of the year, or even maybe even one of the best ever because of formalities 🤣🤣 and then the rest of the night went on to not produce any good lightning photographs, it was like it wasn’t meant to be yesterday. The lightning gods didn’t want me to get a great photo.
I did get this moody photograph of an intense storm north of Tucson, a 20 second exposure, which was lit up by at least six different very bright lightning flashes.

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Tucson, AZ

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http://www.johnbyerlyphotos.com/

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