Postcard from Tucson

I bet very few of you have ever seen snow on a Saguaro Cactus. I know this was my first time. One of my great hopes when it started snowing last week was to go out at sunrise and photograph one of these big monsters covered in lovely white powder.

As I mentioned in my last blog, the most snow I found was up around Gates Pass. Sadly, 98% of Saguaros up there in the kiddie class…meaning they are under 100 years old and have no arms yet. Darn.

This was the only old-timer I could find (I should say, get to) that had some semblance of snow on it. Of course, when one thinks about it, most of a Saguaro is vertical, meaning snow will only stick on the tops or in the bends of the arms. So, the bottom line in photographing a big cactus with snow on it is you take what you can get.

Actually, I thought this turned out pretty nice. To get to the cactus, I had to position myself on a steep vertical incline…and of course the early morning sun was directly in my face. There was no moving around to another angle as I would lose the arms and snow in the shot (the snow was really starting to melt by this time, so I had to work fast).

So, I used the cactus to block the sun, which gave me an incredible back-lit view. You can see thousands of needles (aka “spines”) coming out of the cactus backlit by the blazing sun. In any other light, you might not pay attentions to these small needles. They so dominate the photo that they almost distract you from noticing that this cactus has snow on it.

In thinking about it, this may have been my one and only chance in life to photograph a cactus in the snow. I am glad for the opportunity. Now back to the boring old sunny days in shorts and t-shirts.     

Postcard from Tucson

Last Tuesday night, I sat in a lecture hall over at University of Arizona listening to an interesting talk on photography. Out of courtesy, I turned my phone set on “Do Not Disturb” mode before the lecture began. All of a sudden, my phone and several others in the room started emitting that terrible emergency warning screech. Scared me, that’s for sure. I pull it out of my pocket and it’s a blizzard warning for the greater Tucson area. What?

Now that was a bit strange as I spent most of this very day in shorts. But, it was a foreshadow of things to come. Still, getting a blizzard warning for Tucson is a bit unnerving.

The next day, it started raining…then around 2:00 PM it started snowing…yes I said snowing, here in the desert. It didn’t stick and eventually it stopped. But after the sun went down, it started raining first, then turned to snow…not little tiny snow flakes…no, these were big mothers just like I used to experience in WA. And, they started sticking.

According to the news, it was snowing everywhere in the Tucson area. They were closing roads into the mountains (Tucson is surrounded by mountains). The PGA golf tour happened to be here this weekend and they had to shut down play as the course became completely covered in snow. I saw two major golfers on the tour throwing snowballs at each other. What a day!

Of course, I saw this as a major opportunity to go out and take some photos. So I was up before sunrise…and after a quick scouting trip around my area, I realized most of the snow here had melted. So, I headed for a little higher elevation.

Gates Pass sits above Tucson and is only a couple of miles from my home. So I headed up there and quickly found a lot of snow still on the ground and on the cacti. So I started shooting as soon as there was enough light.

This was one of my first shots, looking down on the city of Tucson at sunrise. You can barely make out some of the snow on the nearby cactus. Off in the distance past the city lights, you can make out the Santa Catalina Mountains on the left and the Rincon Mountains on the right. As you can see, the snow comes all the way down to the city.

From what I’ve learned, snow in Tucson happens about once every ten years. So, you can probably guess we don’t have many snow plows and you can’t find any snow shovels in the hardware stores. So we just had to sit this one out in front of a warm fire (oops, we don’t have fireplaces either) and wait for it all to melt.

In all fairness, we do get snow every year high in the mountains (there is a ski resort up on Mt. Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountains) but it does not normally come down this far. It’s the first time I’ve seen it in the four years I lived here.

It was quite an exciting 24 hours, to be sure…but we are back to normal and by Thursday we should be in the low 70’s again. But, it was quite an experience for us desert rats and I will have more shots from this extraordinary day in the near future.  

(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com

If you subscribe to this blog by e-mail and wish to purchase a print or send a free e-mail greeting card using this image, click this link to the main Postcard Blog Site.

Postcard from Mt. Rainier

This is one of my heretofore unpublished photographs from the only trip I ever made to Mt. Rainier National Park. It was in September of 2005 and I was using my first digital camera, an Olympus DSLR. In fact, this trip was my first chance to give this camera a real workout…and to learn how to use it. It felt so different in my hands than all my film cameras. I felt like a complete novice that first day out.

And it showed…my first day of shooting was less than spectacular. I made a lot of mistakes in the settings. I got a few good shots, but most were not “Jim” quality.

I remember getting a hotel room west of the park in the town of Ashford and sitting their half the night, going over the photos I took and discovering what I did wrong. Then, with the help of the manual, I reset the camera’s settings and learned how to do certain settings when the situation called for it. You know what they say, when all else fails, consult the manual. I even fell asleep that night with the manual in my hand.

The next day’s shooting yielded much better results, including this photo taken on a trail in Paradise Valley. Besides learning how to properly use my new camera, I got lucky with the light and the wind on the mountain.

Mt. Rainier National Park is really only available to travelers and photographers for part of the year. As it sits at a high elevation, the roads close early. And if the snow is heavy in the winter, the roads are not open until late spring or even early summer.

As I said, I took this photo in September. But because of the short seasons at these higher elevations, this area of the park had a great many flowers in bloom…as if it was springtime. That was a nice surprise and helped yield some nice results.

You can see a few more photos of my only trip to Mt. Rainier on my Website…mostly taken on the second day. I am not sure why I didn’t go back their more often as I lived in WA for 15 years. I guess I was too busy with work and family matters...an excuse we all share. Now, I am really a long way’s away. Too bad as I have a better camera, eight year’s more experience as a photographer, and much better post production software. I can only imagine what I could do today. A photographer’s lament.

(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com

If you subscribe to this blog by e-mail and wish to purchase a print or send a free e-mail greeting card using this image, click this link to the main Postcard Blog Site.

Postcard from Tucson

Well it isn’t quite spring yet, here in Sonoran Desert, but we are getting close. I spent the weekend in glorious sunshine here with temps in the low 70’s. The best part of the days were spent either at a baseball game or sitting outside at UofA reading in the sunshine. The best part of our year starts now.

Sadly, in a couple of days, a nasty storm will be over our heads and temps will be in the 50’s. But I don’t mind. A good rain this time of year means we will have have a glorious March and April filled with wildflowers like the ones pictured here. We’ve had a couple of storms since I’ve been home…so more rain means more flowers.

I remember a couple of years ago driving from Yuma to Tucson, a journey of 3.5 hours. On that trip, it was non-stop wildflowers all the way, both on I-8 and I-10. It wish that trip was always so beautiful.

This image is of Arizona poppies taken a couple of years ago. I used a technique called Digital Crayons to give it a more painterly look. Somehow flowers usually turn out very well when painted. I still enjoy painting the odd photograph here and there. And I hope this year will again reveal some fantastic results.

(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com

If you subscribe to this blog by e-mail and wish to purchase a print or send a free e-mail greeting card using this image, click this link to the main Postcard Blog Site.

Postcard from San Jose

If you are a long-time reader, you may remember this image…or one like it. Back in Sept, I published this photo in color as part of this blog. I liked it at first, very much.

Then self-doubt crept in (a common malady for those folks who think they are artists). I began looking at the lack of color in the original image, and started imagining it in black and white. After a long wrestling match, I decided it would be better in Black and White. But, by then I was on my way to the Bay Area and could not work on it until I returned.

Well I did re-do it in B&W…and I was right. I think this one is better. But, I will let you also be the judge of that. A friend of mine compared the two and he strongly agree with me. What say you?

In case you forgot what this is, it is the interior of the San Jose City Council Chambers looking straight up toward the ceiling. As I said back in Sept, when the entire structure is seen from outside, it reminds me of a football, made partially of glass, that is buried halfway in the ground.

I think putting it in black and white adds to the allure and mystery of the image. Color photos often give away the meaning of the image while black and white removes any distractions and lets you focus on the image. I think that was never so true as with this photo.

If you would like to see the original in color, here is a link to the photo and the blog.

(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com

If you subscribe to this blog by e-mail and wish to purchase a print or send a free e-mail greeting card using this image, click this link to the main Postcard Blog Site.

Postcard from Marble

I bet you don’t know where Marble is? If you do, treat yourself to a chocolate sundae. Marble is actually a small town in Central WA…not far from the Canadian border. There is very little there except a few homes and what appears to be an old western ghost town…all in one building.

It looks old, but I can find no information on it. Anyway, on one side of the building are these stairs. Can you guess where these words come from? If you can, give yourself another chocolate sundae. Give up?

These words form the Boy Scout Law. How they got on these stairs, one can only imagine. I suspect there must be a troop of local scouts who were allowed to paint them. I thought it made for an interesting and unusual photo.

Good luck trying to find out more information on this little town. I have scoured the Net and can find next to nothing. Some locals in the area think the town is owned and occupied by some religious organization. Perhaps…or perhaps not. I just know that it has few interesting photo opportunities.

In closing, let me say I am back in Tucson and will try to get back on my normal publishing schedule. I had a great vacation in the Bay Area for a month, but am absolutely delighted to be back home in Tucson…even though it is raining today.

If you find any new information about Marble, drop me a line.

(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com

If you subscribe to this blog by e-mail and wish to purchase a print or send a free e-mail greeting card using this image, click this link to the main Postcard Blog Site. Don’t forget, e-mail greeting cards are free.

Postcard from Tucson

May

By A.E. Houseman

Yonder see the morning blink:
    The sun is up, and up must I,
To wash and dress and eat and drink
And look at things and talk and think
    And work, and God knows why.
Oh often have I washed and dressed
    And what’s to show for all my pain?
Let me lie abed and rest:
Ten thousand times I’ve done my best
    And all’s to do again.

How clear, how lovely bright,
How beautiful to sight
    Those beams of morning play;
How heaven laughs out with glee
Where, like a bird set free,
Up from the eastern sea
    Soars the delightful day.

To-day I shall be strong,
No more shall yield to wrong,
    Shall squander life no more;
Days lost, I know not how,
I shall retrieve them now;
Now I shall keep the vow
    I never kept before.
Ensanguining the skies
How heavily it dies
    Into the west away;
Past touch and sight and sound
Not further to be found,
How hopeless under ground
    Falls the remorseful day.

 

(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com

If you subscribe to this blog by e-mail and wish to purchase a print or send a free e-mail greeting card using this image, click this link to the main Postcard Blog Site. Don’t forget, e-mail greeting cards are free.