Picture of the Day - Tumacacori

I almost didn’t publish this picture here as the image of the church is so small and I can't publish large pictures in the blog anyway. But, I went ahead and did it (as you can see) just because I like the picture.

Tumacacori is an old Spanish mission church whose actual name is Mission San José de Tumacácori. It was established in January 1691 by Jesuit Father Eusebio Francisco Kino and is located on 310 acres at the town of Tumacácori, Arizona, about 50 miles south of Tucson (and 18 miles north of the Mexican Border), off of Interstate 19. It is a National Historical Park, run by the National Park Service.

This is an example of using a frame within a frame, a prime technique for photographers. I photographed the church from an outdoor courtyard that leads from the visitor center, thus providing the curved window frame.

In processing the picture, I used a vignette filter to remove any distracting element from the window and in the lower part of the picture. I wanted my viewers to focus completely on the church through the frame.

This was shot late in the afternoon when the light was especially stunning.

Pictures of the Day – Tale of Two Ferns

When I look at a subject with my camera these days, I often think what would be the best way to render this subject as a photograph. Again, when I look at the same image in my computer, I go through the same process again.

Besides color, there is of course black and white, sepia, blue tones, split tones, antique, cyanotype, infrared, and others. But, for now, lets stick to color and black and white.

Take for instance, these two separate ferns that were located not too far from each other in Glacier National Park. I had a choice in each case of making them either color or black and white.

On one, I chose color…and the other, obviously, I choose to go with black and white. Why? Because using color on the first one brought out the intenseness of the green, and it was offset by the red colorings in the wood. Having some sunlight break through the forest when I made the exposure also helped to give the picture some depth. All these factors made it clear to me that color was the best way to go.

As for the other image, I went for black and white as there was mostly green in the entire image and not enough other interesting colors to offset it. Then I used a series of special digital filters (mostly using Adobe Lightroom) to render the fern a lighter tone while leaving the other elements of the picture a bit darker.

In the old days of film cameras, I would have exposed my camera (loaded with B&W film) using a green filter in front of the lens. This would render greens a bit lighter, although I would have probably had to use some dodging in the darkroom to get it to the shade I wanted to see.

It is interesting that photography (and television and movies, for that matter) all started out in black and white. Yet even though we have all the color we could ever want, black and white remains a powerful visual tool. It allows, in some cases, more emotion to come through to the viewer as he or she is not distracted by colors. Some of the most powerful movies ever made were shot in black and white, even though color could have been used. And, in this case, your mind knows what color this fern is. It doesn’t need to be told.

So while a fern may not have a lot of emotion to it, it still packs more impact, in many ways, than the colored fern. I just thank God that digital photography has progressed to the point where I can render any image any way I want.

Picture of the Day – Mummy Cave Ruins

I took this picture in Canyon de Chelly National Monument. Here, you see two caves with a ledge in between them that contain the remains of a large Kayenta Anasazi Indian cliff dwelling. The ruins are located deep within the Canyon del Muerto…and are among the oldest known archaeological sites in the park. Some of the ruins in the caves date from 300-400 A.D. Most date from a building boom between the 12th and 13th centuries.

The well-preserved buildings on the ledge between the two caves are among the last structures that the Anasazi built in the complex. Their construction suggests the influence of the Mesa Verde Anasazi. Some archeologists believe a few Mesa Verdeans may have moved into the area during the 13th century. This would be the last pueblo that the Anasazi would occupy before abandoning the Canyon de Chelly region around 1300 A.D.

In its heyday, this pueblo included eighty to 90 rooms and at least three kivas (circular ceremonial rooms). It also includes a roofless, twenty by thirty foot rectangular room that bears a marked resemblance to the great kiva at the Fire Temple ruin at Mesa Verde.

The ruins derived their name from two mummified bodies, still wrapped in fiber made from the yucca plant, that an archeological expedition found there in 1882.

The picture’s impact is much more sustained by using black and white than color. I am sorry that I can't make my photos any bigger in the blog.

A quick note about yesterday’s beach photo. Thanks to George Vetter who correctly identified the location as Arcadia Beach State Park…and the rock in the picture is called Lion Rock as it resembles a sitting lion. Thanks again, George.

Picture of the Day – An Oregon Beach

It’s going to be in the low 90’s here in Tucson today, and on warm days I sometimes think how wonderful it would be to walk along the ocean and feel a cool breeze in my face.

So, for today, I decided to look at some of my ocean photos and pick out one that reminds me of cooler days and also has some beautiful scenery. I like this one because of its balance light and shadows (shadows help provide a feeling of depth) as well as a nice balance of red, green and blue, the primary colors.

The beach is somewhere in Oregon, just south of Cannon Beach. It is in a State Park there, but cannot tell you which one. So just enjoy the image…and I hope that if you live in the Northern climates, this picture doesn’t make you feel colder.

PS – For those of you who subscribe to this blog via email, you were accidentally sent a blog yesterday that was meant for my other blog, Rants and Raves. My mistake and my apologies.

Picture of the Day – A Blurry Duck

Sometimes, happy accidents just happen. I was exploring in and around Tucson one day recently and happened upon this very lovely park in the middle of the desert called Agua Caliente Park. It is located in the very eastern part of Tucson, almost up against the Rincon Mountains. It is an oasis in the Sonoran desert, to say the least. Sometime in the future I will share more images from there.

But on this day, I was in deep shade with my camera and was trying to photograph this family of ducks that inhabit the place. Most pictures came out blurred as they were moving and the camera’s shutter was very slow. Most were not worth keeping.

But this one had some magic to it as it caught my eye immediately upon seeing it. This is pretty much the way the camera caught this image and I have made no changes except enhance the blue a little and take out some small abnormalities that did nothing for the picture. The duck is unchanged.

I have no idea how it turned out the way it did, but there is just some spiritual quality about it that makes it special. I hope you agree.

Picture of the Day – Skull Arch

Actually, I don’t think this pair of arches is called Skull Arch. It has another official name, but can’t remember what it is. There are around 2,200 arches inside Arches National Park, and you just can’t expect me to remember them all.

I just call it Skull Arch because that is what it looks like to me. You have to work to get to this arch. It is located deep inside the so-called Fiery Furnace section of the park…a series of canyons, many of which dead end. One needs a guide the first time you go through it…which is what I did on a walk with Ranger Dave. I will write a separate blog about this hike in the near future as it was most interesting for many reasons.

But, I came across this photo and had to share it right away. It was very dark inside the canyon where I took this, so the ISO was boosted and there was a little push done inside Lightroom and Photoshop to get the real colors to show. It sort of looks like I used a flash, but I didn’t.

Picture of the Day – Sunrise in the Grand Canyon

This is one of many photos I shot at sunrise about 16 months ago. I haven’t shown many here because it was not particularly a well-lit day. The haze you may notice in the canyon itself is actually industrial pollution (smog) which prevented some really good photos and colors on this day.

Nevertheless, it is a good photo as it tells a story. The rock you see leaning in the foreground fell off some long-gone wall of rock many eons ago and was trapped in its current location before it could fall all the way into the canyon. Since then, the wall it fell from has long been eroded a way, but this remnant still exists as it currently rests just below the current day rim.

The background is the magnificent canyon itself, with the top layers being made even more red by the rising sun. Below the red rock, the rest of the canyon still lies in shadow as the sun is just barely up over the horizon.

As I said, this picture illustrates in a tiny microcosm the history of the Grand Canyon. If you ever go, definitely be there for the sunrise.

Picture of the Day – Glacier Tour Bus

If you ever get up to Glacier National Park in Montana and want to take a guided tour of the park, this is what you will be riding in. It is called the Red Bus Tour, for obvious reasons.

These vintage motor coaches, built by the White Motor Company in the 1930’s, travel over the Going-to-the-Sun Road and link all of the hotels and inns within the park, even going into the Canadian side of the park. They offer roll-back canvas tops which allow for very spectacular views.

The entire fleet of 33 touring coaches were completely renovated at a cost of $250,000 each in 2002 enabling the reds to continue serving the parks visitors. Glacier's fleet of touring coaches are thought to be the largest and oldest continually operating fleet of remaining White touring coaches. In the 1930s, the White Company built 500 of these buses for Glacier, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Zion , Bryce, Mt Rainier and Rocky Mountain National Parks. That was a fairly large production run of a unique vehicle and most of the buses in other parks were retired from service in the 1950s.

It certainly a fantastic way to see this magnificent park. I photographed this image up on the Going-to-the-Sun highway last July.

Picture of the Day – Twisted Rocks

OK…this is the last one of the rocks for a while. I just can resist playing a bit. I used a different plug-in on the same picture of the rocks and came up with this one. It is a lot of fun to play with all the possibilities that this filter offers.

Actually, it is not rocket science. I just open the original photo in Photoshop and activate the plug-in….then start playing. The plug-in has a “take a chance” button that you can hit and it changes all the possibilities for you. On this one, I just kept clicking and clicking until I got tired and liked this one. You can also change your own settings manually to work on variations of a pattern you like.

I hope you enjoy it…but I promise something completely different in the next blog.

Picture of the Day – Rocks in Water

You may notice a distinct similarity of this image to the one I published yesterday. That is because it is the same picture, only this time the rocks are sitting in a pool of water.

Actually, they are not. I used a new plug-in filter called “Flood” to put in the water and reflection. It isn’t really there although I must say it looks awful darn good.

As I said yesterday, I had to fix my broken Photoshop, but instead of just fixing it, I installed the brand new Photoshop CS4. It was a laborious process as I had to reinstall all of my plug-ins and filters one at a time. In doing so, I came across this “Flood” filter that I had never used before. So I decided to install it and play. And this is what came up. I did a few enhancements to it as there are many controls that are included with it.

I used the same image as it was a simple picture, with lots of color, and it was very handy to pull up and use to test all the plug-ins as I installed them. I have done a few more “enhancements” with other plug-ins and maybe I will show you one of them the next time. Hope you don’t mind.

Picture of the Day – More Rocks

Sorry that is has been a few days since my last blog. But, my computer just got back from the shop on Monday and I have had a few technical issues with it since. The main problem I had was Photoshop not working properly. But, I have that fixed today, so was able to work on an image for the blog.

In honor of the huge Gem and Rock show now going on here in Tucson, I chose this image that I took last year in Quartzite, AZ…another town that also has its own rock and gem show (not as big as Tucson, however).

If you have a good memory, you know that several months ago I ran a similar image of rocks, but this one is different. I enjoying seeing all the various colors of rocks all mixed together. I hope you also like it.

Picture of the Day – The Painted Desert

Not too long ago, I showed you a photo from the Little Painted Desert. This one was taken at THE Painted Desert, several miles east of the little one. This painted desert is the very north part of the Petrified Forest National Park in Eastern Arizona. As you can see it is quite lovely, and definitely more photogenic the the rest of the park.

It is easy to explore from the main road, but it can be interesting to hike in it, which I unfortunately did not have time to do. Amazingly, this portion of the national park gets far fewer visitors than the petrified forest portion of the park. But, as a photographer who loves color, I am, of course, prejudiced.

PS: Something I have noticed lately is that the colors of the photographs that appear on the blog Web site and in the e-mail's subscribers get are no where near as colorful as they appear on my screen when I create the JPG copy from the original photograph. Of course, the JPG is shrunk down in size from the original and converted to JPG from the standard Photoshop format. It is too bad and I don't know if I can do much about it.

Postcard from Yuma – Taken to Task

Within 24 hours of posting my last blog on snowbirds in Yuma, I received a comment, well actually more of a criticism, from a lady named Ann. From her note, I assume she might be in someway associated with the Yuma Visitor’s Center. Be that as it may, she took me to task, and rightly so, for my comment, “there doesn’t seem to be all that much to do.”

What I was really trying to say was that for me personally, there doesn’t seem to be all that much to do…and I should have said it that way. As you know, I love Tucson because there is always so much to do…for me personally. I am more into culture and arts than most folks.

But, in the interest of fairness to my readers, and for Ann, let me list some of the things you can do in Yuma.

1. There are some historical places to visit like the Yuma Territorial Prison (see photo 1), where some of the badest folks from the 19th century spent some time. There is also the Yuma Crossing, the Yuma Valley Railway and the St. Thomas Mission.
2. For nature lovers, there is the three National Wildlife Refuges, and plenty of open spaces to do bird watching (also the Yuma Birding and Nature Festival in April). And there are some lovely state and local parks to explore.
3. Just west of town in California is the huge Imperial Sand Dunes National Recreational Area (see photo 2) where you can take your sand buggies, ATV’s and other vehicles and ride for miles and miles and miles over some beautiful sand dunes. These dunes stretch all the way into Mexico (some sequences from Star Wars were filmed here).
4. Just before you get to the Dunes, you can stop at “The Center of the Universe,” and wander about and try and figure what the hell this place is all about (I will have a blog on this place soon).
5. Being that Yuma also borders on Mexico, you can drive west to Algodones and get cheap medicine or good tacos and marguerites. Or south to San Luis and check out how your tax dollars are being spent on the border fence (see photo 3).
6. You can eat drink and dance at the LZ Bar and Grill (Landing Zone).
7. You can eat, drink, and dance at Crazy Earls.
8. You can eat, drink and watch sports at Buffalo Wild Wings (don’t order the Blazin’ wings or you suffer)
9. There is a ton of good Mexican restaurants (and a few bad ones)
10. You can drive just north through the Yuma Proving Grounds and watch bombs, tanks, and missiles being tested
11. Go museum hopping at different places
12. Golf courses are everywhere (13 to be exact)
13. Fishing and boating in several places
14. Check out the border along the Colorado River at sunset and watch the smugglers on the Mexican side trying to figure out how to get drugs and illegal aliens across at night (I’m not joking as I have done this).
15. Check out the RV Parks for games of Pentanque (see last blog).

So, Ann, I hope I have been fair in my list of things to do in Yuma. I’ve listed some things that you can find on the Visitor’s Center Web site along with a few things you won’t. Can’t be any fairer than that. There is a lot happening in Yuma, although classical music concerts seem to be in short supply.

Postcard from Yuma – Trippin’ with the Snowbirds

Yuma, AZ sits right on the California/Arizona/Mexico border. It is pure desert country with sand everywhere as opposed to the cactus-covered Sonoran Desert of Tucson. It has more sunshiny days than any city in America. In summer, it is blazing hot, day after day. In the winter, temperatures are in the high 70’s and low 80’s, day after day. The native population is around 60,000 people…but now, in the middle of winter, the population is around 160,000 people. This is where many people from the northern climates come when the weather starts turning cold at home.

And, boy, do they come! They get in some of the biggest, most luxurious RV’s you have ever seen and point their vehicles towards the Southwest. Most are retired and they come here year after year without fail, at least until fate steps in. They are spread throughout southern Arizona from the Phoenix area, to Tucson, and smaller places like Yuma and Quartzite. In the big cities, you don’t notice them as the populations are quite large and they blend in. But in smaller places like Yuma, they standout like icicles on a cactus because they are everywhere.

If you don’t believe me, take a walk through a Yuma grocery store or Wal-Mart…or cross the border into Algodones where the meds and dentists are cheap. There are 112 RV Parks in and around Yuma (maybe up to 170, as I read in one article)…and they are mostly full. Some have trees and landscaping, others have nothing except plastic flowers and even plastic palm trees. But, that doesn’t discourage the folks who show up there without fail. And who can blame them? The winter weather is amazing, although in Yuma, there doesn’t seem to be all that much to do.

There are a couple of parks located just a couple of blocks from my son’s home, so when I am there and am out for a morning walk, I sometimes wander through these parks just to look in amazement at the collection of incredible vehicles and to see what is going on. There are license plates from all over the United States and Canada…and its cheap for them. For $300 a month you get your space, all connections, and even DirectTV.

At one park, I stood for a while and watched the guys playing a game called Pentanque. It is a simple game, just like horseshoes. There's a target, and you have to get as close to it as possible. What makes it so appealing, is that you can be way ahead for a while, yet lose a second later, or vice versa. Because nothing is decided until the last player plays the very last boule.

And here they were, a sandpit full of guys, all older than me, faithfully playing the game for about two hours every morning…same time, same sandbox. I met one man in his late 80’s who was diagnosed with a serious cancer, just before it was time to come south. Doctors told him not to come but to stay up north and take the treatments. Obviously, he refused and came south to play Pentanque with the boys. I was asked to join in, and even though I wasn’t a snowbird or even an RVer, they still wanted me to play. I was tempted but was leaving soon for the next phase of my journey.

Next to the Pentanque pit was a shuffleboard court and a horseshoe pit…and next to that was a large clubhouse for all the potluck dinners. These folks, God love ‘em gave up shoveling snow for playing in the sun. And they are having a great time, or so it appears. No doubt they have put in their time at work, raising families and all the other goodies that go along with life. Now, they have earned this time to play in the sun and no one is happier than me for them.

Maybe the next time I"’m in Yuma, I might just try my hand at Pentanque.

Picture of the Day – Reflections in Oak Creek Canyon

I have written about Oak Creek Canyon before and have shown a couple of photographs from there in previous blogs. In case you don’t remember, this canyon lies about 10 miles north of Sedona, Arizona and is for hiking only. It is an easy hike along a fairly level road that takes you deep into the canyon. There are some wonderful photo opportunities all along the way and I took advantage of many of them.

As you can see, it is late autumn here in the canyon as the leaves are mostly gone and the water level is pretty low. Still, the reds from the rock and some greens are still prevalent and make for a good picture, especially with the water reflections. I look forward to further photographic adventures in the canyon in different times of the year.

Enjoy!

Picture of the Day – Autumn Colors on Icicle Creek

Over the years, I have taken many many pictures of autumn colors. I was in the mood to look at a few this morning and I came across this image I took a few years ago in the Icicle Canyon. If you are not familiar with this lovely place, it is just a few miles out of Leavenworth Washington. Autumn is always a great time to visit.

As I had a travel trailer parked in the Icicle Valley, just outside the canyon, I often wandered up into the canyon looking for good images. I like this picture even though it is far from my best. It shows the two primary colors of autumn using the creek as a backdrop. Sometimes simple is so very nice.

While I really like living in Tucson now, I miss the special beauty of mountains like the Cascades and the Sierra Nevada’s.

Picture of the Day – A Dry Yosemite Creek

This is another of the pictures that I took on my last visit to Yosemite in October. At this point, I am descending on the Tioga Road near where it meets up with the Big Oak Flat Road to go down into Yosemite Valley. There is a creek underneath these rocks, but at this point in Autumn, it is only a tiny trickle. In Spring it will be much fuller as the snow pack melts.

It may be difficult to tell, but the creek bed here is very steep and even steeper behind me as the water makes its way north down to the Tuolumne River. This large jumble of rocks actually blocks the flow of the river and it must go underneath these rocks to continue. I would love to go back in Spring when the water is full to capture this same scene.

But this photo shows Autumn in bloom in upper Yosemite. As I descended further down the roads, it got better and better. I was lucky on this trip, at least in Yosemite Valley, as I found Autumn at the very best time.

Picture of the Day – Tenaya Lake

Last year, I wrote a blog featuring the Yosemite High Country and Tenaya Lake. Here is another photo from that series showing the lake from a slightly different location. I also did a little post-processing magic in the digital darkroom to give it a more sunset appearance, rather than a 1:00 PM appearance which is when it was taken.

In the middle of the day, light is pure white, while at sunrise and sunset, it has more of a red glow to it. So, I added a little red glow of my own, brought out more of the existing colors and gave them a little boost.

The sky color, by the way, is close as again I used a polarizing filter. Just enjoy.

Picture of the Day – Balanced Rock at Sunset

Back in December, I showed you a different sunset image of Balanced Rock in Arches National Park in Utah. This one was taken on the next night, if memory serves, and shows not only Balanced Rock, but another rock formation right next to it. Now, you must believe me when I tell you this…this image was almost exactly what my Olympus camera photographed that night with no digital enhancements added by Photoshop or any other software that night. All I did with this image is put my copyright notice on it and add a very small amount of sharpening.

Now was this the sunset I saw with my eyes that night? Well, perhaps not exactly. The Olympus, which I still take with me, has a setting called “Sunrise/Sunset” that adds a little oomph to photographs taken during those times. I like to experiment with it every once in a while to see what I get…and this is what I got that night. I like it…sort of a fire-in-the-sky effect.

The more I work with digital equipment, the more I realize that an image one takes with a camera and what comes out after post processing, are a product of the eye, the mind, the heart, and the soul of the photographer. All great photographers work with the concept of “what is” VS “what I want it to be.” There is no such thing as a pure image…there can’t be. Go back to film cameras…every kind of film, black and white, or color, renders the same scene differently.

Did you know that there is now a filter that can work inside Photoshop that can take your digital image and apply a replica image of what the photograph would look like with just about every kind of film? So you can take your image and make it appear like it was shot on Kodachrome. So what is real…what is it supposed to really look like? There is no answer to that question. So anyone who says they take only pure images and debunks Photoshop is full of you-know-what.

Photography is rendering an image the way you see it…in your heart, mind, eyes and soul (I believe I said that already). This image is what my Olympus saw that night and I rendered it that way.

Picture of the Day – The Virgin River

This is an image I took a little over a year ago in Zion National Park. I like it as it is a cornucopia of colors, including red rock, autumn leaves, and a beautiful sky.

By the way, when you see a dark blue sky like this one, it usually means that I used a polarizing filter on the camera. Unlike film cameras, where I had lots of filters…for my digital cameras, I use only two filters: a UV filter, basically to protect the lens if I fall or drop the camera or even worse; and a polarizing filter to enhance colors like the sky and red rocks…AND, to reduce glare on reflections like water or autumn leaves.

A quality rotating polarizing filter should be in every camera bag, especially if you use a single lens reflex camera. If you have never used one, the only work at their best when you are at right angles to the sun…meaning the sun is at your shoulder. If the sun is behind you, a polarizer will have little, if any, effect.

The filter is basically two layers with a rotatable top layer. By rotating the top, you can change the amount from full polarization to no polarization and everything in between. Don’t leave home without it!

Postcard from Tucson – Stranger in a Strange Land

In 1992, when I moved out of California to Ephrata, WA, it was a little different, but not all that much, at least until winter hit. But, now I’ve moved from Ephrata to Tucson Arizona…and the difference between Ephrata and here is huge.

Of course, the first is obvious….winter. If I were still in Ephrata, I would be shoveling snow, worrying about the pipes freezing, and generally wearing long pants and sweaters, even in the house.

Here, I write these words in shorts and a tee shirt. Its been in the low 70’s all day. Cools off at night, but not like the Northwest. I can sit out by the pool here and read a book and get a nice tan. It’s January, for God’s sake! And while all this seems strange, I am having a little trouble getting used to other things.

Zip Code:

I have spent all of my life having a zip code that started with 9. Now it starts with 8. I still sometimes start writing my zip code with a 9. Hard to get used to it. Of course, I am old enough to remember the time when there were no zip codes.

Time Zone:

Now this is a tough one. Right now I am in the Mountain Time Zone…two hours earlier than eastern time. So when a football game says it starts at 1:00 Eastern, I have to remember that’s 11:00 here, not 10:00 like it has been all my life. I am really having some problems with that one. But, I am slowly getting used to it. But of course, I am an hour ahead of all my friends on the West Coast.

More Time Zone:

Now, just when I get used to that, suddenly in March, I will be in Pacific Time. What? You see, Arizona doesn’t observe Daylight Savings. So, football games in August through the first of November, will start at 10:00…then in November start at 11:00. This is getting weird!

Architecture:

The Southwestern Adobe look is everywhere here…probably because I am here in the Southwest. I like it, in fact I live in one. It’s just different than I am used to.

Cactus Everywhere:

Not just the little cactus that people have in their homes in pots, but giant Saguaro cactus of all shapes and sizes that tower way over you. They abound everywhere here. I like them actually…again, just not used to seeing them everywhere. They can grow to a height of 50 feet and if you see one with 5 arms or more, it’s over 200 years old.

Elevation

The city sits at 2,400 feet above sea level. My son lives in Yuma, about 225 miles to the west at an elevation of 138 feet. When I travel from Yuma to Tucson, I have no idea how I gain 2200 feet in elevation. It is all basically flat!! I don’t think the elevation is bothering me, but I will never know because I huff and puff a lot more than I used to anyway.

The Big City:

I moved from a town of 7,000 and a county with 70,000 people. I now live in Pima County with a population of over 1 million. That’s a big jump. There is traffic, although it moves pretty well as Tucson has the best traffic light system I have ever seen. Fortunately, before Ephrata I lived in large cities for most of my life. So, the adjustment is not as bad as it could be. But still…

Culture Everywhere:

Now, I admit I am not having any problems here…Tucson is full of culture and things to do. Saturday, I spent time in three art galleries enjoying the art works. I have already been to one classical music concert and am going to another one Sunday prior to the Super Bowl. Of course this is a University city, so there is plenty happening here. Tuesday I am going to an astronomy lecture for the public. Wonderful. It’s just hard to get used to after coming from a culturally-starved place like Central Washington. And it is hard to keep up with all that’s going on (poor, poor Jim).

All this feels strange, but I am slowly getting used to this whole new lifestyle...and I like it. So far so good. But, you know that when spring approaches, I will get the wandering itch.

As for the photos here, none of which are very good, the first shows part of Tucson looking from west to east. It was taken very near where I live and is the view I have when going into town. All the buildings you see in the background belong to the University of Arizona. You can even see the football stadium on the far right of the campus. The mountains in the background are the Rincon Mountains.

The second photo is to the left of the first photo, but taken from the same spot. It shows the Santa Catalina Mountains. The area below it with all the homes is called, The Foothills. Tucson is surrounded by five mountain ranges and spreads out in all directions for miles and miles and miles.

The third photo shows the courtyard in my apartment building. Notice the Southwest style, even in apartments. You won’t find this kind of architecture in Central Washington.

Anyway, all this is taking some getting used to…but I must say I like it a great deal.

Photo of the Day - Two Views of Landscape Arch

As you can see, I have been busy with my photo toys…working away on more of my images from the past few month. It is so nice to have my desktop computer back with a big screen.

Anyway this is Landscape Arch in the Arches National Park. It is about a mile walk from the Devil’s Garden. I believe it is the largest arch in the park. In a blog I wrote a while ago called “Falling Arches,” I talked about how part of this arch fell back in 1991. In the color photo, the rocks you see on the right side of the photo are remnants of that day.

In re-examining all my photos of Landscape Arch, I realized that many of them don’t show the arch very well as the rocks behind the arch blend in so well. They don’t when you are there, but in a 2-dimensional photograph they do.

The best photos are the ones where you move along the trail to the farthest point towards the right of the arch. Then, the sky becomes more of an element and sets Landscape Arch apart from its background.

I wanted to do a black and white photo of it and I chose the one I did based on the wonderful cloud formation. I had to really work in Lightroom and Photoshop to make it stand out as the sun was so bright and behind the arch. I do like the way it turned out.

But after completing it, I decided I wanted a good color photo of the arch, so I chose the one you see here, again showing a fair amount of sky between the arch and its background.

I like the rock in the foreground as it mimics (sort of) the shape of the arch…and there are some other nice elements in the photo. There is also some enhancement done with the Tiffen Filter set to make the rocks pop a bit.

It is usually a tough decision whether to do an image in black and white or color. If the photo has uninteresting colors and contrast, then the decision is easy. But, something like Landscape Arch has beautiful colors, so the decision is much harder.

So, tell me, which do you prefer?

Picture of the Day – Leavenworth

A short time ago, I wrote a couple of blogs about Tombstone, Arizona. In one of them, I called Tombstone, “Leavenworth with Spurs.” It occurred to me that many of you who read that blog have never been to Leavenworth, nor seen any pictures of it.

So, I decided to show you one of my favorite pictures of Leavenworth. I took it about 3 years ago. The building you see has a cuckoo clock just towards the top. You can see the doors as they are about ready to open. When the clock strikes at the top of the hour, a cuckoo does not appear, but rather music plays and some Bavarian dancers (statuettes of course) come out and twirl around. Its kind of fun and first-time Leavenworth visitors just love it.

But, I love the picture because of the clouds in the sky and the flowers in the foreground. Again, as I have explained here before, the photo works because you have a foreground, a middle ground and a background…and the eye flows smoothly through the progression.

Hope it pleases you.

Picture of the Day…The Little Painted Desert

Sorry I have not done more writing about some of my road experiences lately, but have been doing a writing job for a new client which has gobbled up much of my time. But, a least I still show you some interesting pictures from my journey.

Anyhow, this photo is of the Little Painted Desert (yes that is the name). It is a small county park about 15 miles north of Winslow, Arizona. It is called little not because of its size, but to differentiate it from the Painted Desert National Park, several more miles to the east. It is quite lovely, especially when seen towards sunset which of course is when I was there photographing.

I will admit to some enhancements here to make the colors pop, and on a good day with a good sunset, this image would be really close. The one sunset when I was there was not particularly good, light-wise. So I made it a little better…but I admit it freely. But, good or bad light, you should make an effort to go off the main highway and head up to see this park if you are ever in the vicinity. The colors are quite wonderful…as are the colors of the other national park of the same name.

If you go back many blogs to October 2008, you will see a strong resemblance of this desert to the Painted Hills of Oregon.

Picture of the Day – Rock Caves in Bryce Canyon

I photographed this image over a year ago, Thanksgiving morning in 2007 in Bryce Canyon. There were few people around that day as it was Thanksgiving…and the temp was around 10 degrees.

It is always fun having a beautiful place like Bryce all to yourself, then wandering all over clicking away like crazy. I think I took over 400 photographs just that one day. I arrived just as the sun rose in the east.

Anyway, notice the caves at both the top and bottom of the picture. And the different colored layers. I like this photo a lot and was hoping to get back to Bryce this last November, but as I mentioned here in another blog, the cold wintry weather closed in on me and I had to flee south. Maybe later this year.

Picture of the Day – Moon Over the Desert

I photographed this image at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in December of 2008. The cactus on the right in an Organ Pipe, the rare species I talked about in a previous blog. The sun was just beginning to make its presence known and was behind me. Because of the low light, I used a tripod.

While I was lucky to have such a beautiful moon that morning, the image came out a little flat for my taste. So I started working on it in both Lightroom and Photoshop. So, indeed, the image has been “pumped up” a little bit and looks a little better than it actually did…still, it is not that far off.

Being in Tucson has afforded me the pleasure of going to the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona. While there, I learned that several revered photographers from our past, including Ansel Adams, pumped up their images quite a bit while in a darkroom. I saw the original negative and first test print of a very famous image by Adams, and, let me tell you, the final print was so very different than the test print.

So while I used to be skeptical of too many enhancements in my images, I am not anymore, although I will always confess to it when possible.

I am working on revising my current Web site and am going to have a special section on enhanced images. This way, I can do any crazy thing to an image I want as I will be proudly telling the viewers that is exactly what I did.

Picture of the Day – A Russian Mig

There are two places here in Tucson that are must visits if you are an airplane or history nut…that would be the Pima Air and Space Museum and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. The good news is that they are right next to each other.

What makes Davis-Monthan so interesting is the “Boneyard,” a little misnamed, but still somewhat accurate. The Boneyard is where thousands of aircraft are stored in the open air awaiting various fates. At the present time there are approximately 4,500 aircraft stored there. I will write a separate blog about that soon.

At the Pima Air Museum, you walk around and see (and touch) hundreds of different kinds of aircraft ranging in age from the First World War to nearly the present. Some of the aircraft on display include the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane, bombers of all size from WWII, the NASA “Pregnant Guppy,” President Kennedy’s Air Force One, and many, many more. Some are inside hangers, but many, many of them are on display outside.

There are also some foreign aircraft on display, including this Korean War vintage Russian Mig, probably flown to a US facility by a Russian defector.

From time-to-time, I will show you pictures of various aircraft at both the Pima Museum and the Boneyard, but just occasional as I am sure a lot of you have no interest in vintage aircraft (I know…boys and their toys).

Picture of the Day – Devil’s Garden in Black and White

It has been a while since I had a chance to sit down and play with Photoshop and Lightroom. Specifically, I wanted to do some more black and white images using some of the tools and skills I acquired before I left Washington.

Well, today was the day…I picked this image because I liked it for the composition and because there were clouds in the sky. So, I played for a little while using both programs and came up with this black and white print.

The picture was taken in the Arches National Park in the morning very near where I camped. The rock formation naturally leads your eye through the opening in the rocks to the Devil’s Garden rock formation in the distance…and the clouds make the whole image just pop right out.

I think this is a good one and I hope you like it too.

Postcard from Tombstone – Legend of the OK Corral

There is no more publicized and romanticized event in the days of the wild west than the Gunfight at the OK Corral. It is the stuff of movies, of legends, of exaggerations, and stories handed down from generation to generation. It has been wildly overblown as an event in our history, but still it holds us fascinated.

The OK Corral is located at the very end of the main street of old Tombstone, just where a horse corral should be. When one visits, you will find it surrounded by a tall, impenetrable wall…you see, you have to pay $9 to see it. For your nine bucks, you get to see the rebuilt corral, the Fly Photography studio (most interesting), the actual location of the gunfight (an empty lot behind the OK Corral), and a 1/2 hour re-enactment of the gun battle.

Being somewhat resistant to tourist traps, I wasn’t going to do it, but my curiosity got the better of me, so I slapped down my dollars and headed in. Couldn’t resist.

In the first photo, you can see the actual site where the gunfight took place, complete with some animatronics figures and a voice-over coming through speakers that tell the story of the gunfight itself.

Interesting, but the real bang for your buck comes from the re-enactment with real actors. There is an outdoor set complete with tourist seating where the drama unfolds. What makes it different is the story is told from the point of view of the Clanton Gang (also know as Cowboys) rather than the Earp’s.

The re-enactment is not actually what really happened on October 26, 1881...close, but just off a bit. In a nutshell here is how it is portrayed: Wyatt Earp, brothers Virgil and Morgan, and that most colorful of characters, Doc Holliday, go to the corral area to confront members of the Clanton Gang for carrying weapons, a criminal offense in Tucson. Virgil was the city marshal and Morgan a deputy. For that day, Virgil deputized Wyatt and Doc Holliday. The Earp faction had to be careful as the Clanton’s were part of a much larger group of outlaws called “Cowboys,” of which there were about 50 members who came in and out of Tombstone

Near the corral, they run into members of the Clanton gang…Ike, the leader, his younger brother Billy, two brothers, Frank and Tom McLaury (Billy Claiborne was also there in reality, but not in the re-enactment).

The Clanton gang goes for their guns, but Marshall Virgil tries to stop it before it gets out of hand. He almost succeeds, but Doc Holliday fires his shotgun into the air and the gunfight proceeds. First Ike Clanton runs toward Wyatt to try and stop it saying he is unarmed. He then proceeds to run away into Fly’s Photographic Studio. Then, in a hail of bullets, the two McLaury brothers are killed along with Billy Clanton. Virgil is shot in the leg, Morgan in the arm, and Doc Holliday receives a slight flesh wound. Wyatt is unscathed.

Of course, there is much, much more to the story, both before the gunfight and the aftermath that is worth reading in a very detailed entry in Wikipedia. Fascinating stuff.

Interestingly, the re-enactment is based on the movie, “Tombstone,” an excellent movie released in 1993 starring Kurt Russell as Wyatt, Sam Elliott as Virgil, and an amazing performance by Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday. The characters in this re-enactment are based completely on the actor’s performance in the film, especially Doc’s. Also, the Cowboys are wearing red sashes, just like in the film…only that is not the way it was. The director of the film dreamed up the red sashes so the audience could tell who the bad guys were.

If you have not seen the movie Tombstone, I heartily recommend it. You will find other flights of fancy in the film, but it is pretty close to what really happened. By the way, the gunfight takes place fairly early in the film as there is much more that happens later.

I did enjoy this part of my Tombstone adventure and am glad I spent the nine bucks. As mentioned above, the first photo shows the actual location of the gunfight, the second photo is of the actor playing Wyatt Earp, the third is Doc Holiday addressing the audience, and the fourth shows Doc firing his shotgun in the air as Virgil tries to stop any gunplay.

For your further amusement, have put together a quick slideshow on my web site showing more pictures of the re-enactment with captions. I hope you will take a few more minutes and enjoy them (warning: it takes a minute to load…but worth it).

Postcard from Tombstone – Leavenworth with Spurs

A few days before Christmas, I drove 45 miles southeast of Tucson to visit that legendary town from the old west, Tombstone, Arizona…”the town too tough to die.” I really picked a good time to go as there were very few people in town that day. One employee there told me that had I come just a week later, the town would be jam-packed full of tourists.

Tombstone is built for tourists…or as it is sometimes called, a tourist trap. Within five minutes of my arrival, I was laughing to myself as it reminded me so much of Leavenworth, WA…a tourist town in the Pacific Northwest where I spent a great deal of time in the last few years exhibiting my art. If you have not been there, Leavenworth a Bavarian-theme town set in the mountains that look similar to those in Bavaria.

The difference between Tombstone and Leavenworth (besides the obvious) is the former has a long history as an old west icon…whereas the latter was built from scratch from an ex-lumber town that was dying. Both attract lots and lots of tourists and their dollars. One friend of mine referred to Leavenworth as a cheap date for people from Seattle. I am not sure the same can be said for Tucson residents.

It’s obvious that downtown Tombstone was remodeled to present the downtown you see today, although a great portion of the old town still remains. You can still go into the Bird Cage theater and see the bullet holes from when cowboys shot their pistols in the air to show their approval.

Old Tombstone is three long blocks long and offers all kinds of old-west style shops for you to spend your money. While shop workers in Leavenworth wear Bavarian costumes, folks in Tombstone wear cowboy outfits. And there also any number of cowboys wandering around town along with horses, stage coaches and buckboards. It’s kind of fun, actually.

Here are a couple of observations I made while there:

There are two art galleries in town featuring paintings and photographs of mostly western themes. In a word…the art shown there was God-awful…along with the prices. While not being an trained art critic, I know bad art when I see it. And the photographs…I would be completely ashamed to show such terrible photos if I had taken them…and they were so overpriced. Talk about a holdup (that’s a joke)…

There is also at least one photography studio that I saw where a family can go in and dress in Old West outfits and have their picture taken. The pictures turn out well and I am sure that the families who have done this still enjoy them…except when you stop and think about it…the men pose as cowboys and the women pose as saloon gals…who, in those days, also doubled as prostitutes. Now, I am not sure I would want to have a photo of my daughters posing as prostitutes. Just a thought.

I enjoyed some of the town’s employees wandering around the town dressed as authentic cowboys…but it should be a policy that they must go somewhere less public if they want to use their cell phones. Sort of spoils the illusion.

If you like history, you will enjoy wandering around the office of the Tombstone Epitaph newspaper. It also has a permanent place in the history of the Old West. The same can be said for Fly’s Photography Studio.

I hope I didn’t sound too negative here as I enjoyed my brief time there even though my wallet stayed mostly in my pocket. I would like to go back again and focus on some close-up photo opportunities.

Now, you may have noticed that I have not mentioned the town’s most famous event…the gunfight at the OK Corral. Well, that is because I am saving it for my next blog. Stay tuned.

Pictures of the Day – Playing with Filters

Every once in a while, I like to play with all kinds of different filters and plug-ins that I have installed in Photoshop. I don’t normally show them as I prefer showing the image as it presented itself to my camera.

But today, I did some playing and really liked the results, so I am compromising my normal policy by showing you both the original photos (which I also like very much) and the new filtered version.

The picture is one I took at Siesta Lake in the Yosemite High Country. Siesta Lake lies right along the Tioga Road. It is much more a pond than a lake…and in fact when I was a young boy and camped with my family in the high country, this pond didn’t even have a name. It was just a pond that we passed on our way to our camping site.

The first picture is the original imaged processed normally in both Adobe’s Lightroom and Photoshop. The second image is one I did using a plug-in from Tiffen that offers all kinds of filters, each with hundreds of variations. Tiffen’s plug-ins are digital simulations of their glass filters that go in front of film camera lenses.

There was just something I really liked about this second image…probably the introduction of more blues and reds. I may do more of this fun filtering in the future and share them with you, but will always showing you the original image also.

Comments?

Picture of the Day – Dead Tree in the Needles

Sometimes you just get lucky. You get the right light, lots of color on the ground, a great sky with clouds, a good subject, and a good background. That is what happened here.

This was taken early in the morning while I was in The Needles section of the Canyonlands National Park. My photo guidebook said the best time to photograph the Needles themselves was early in the morning, just after sunrise. I headed out on the trail, which fortunately was directly across from my campsite.

After hiking on desert ground, scrambling over large rock formations and even going through a cave, I eventually got to a great location to photograph the Needles at sunrise. But, there were plenty of great photo opportunities along the way…and this was one of them.

Like I said, all the elements are here for a very good photo. All I had to do was compose the subject effectively in my viewfinder…and I believe I did. One thing I remember about this morning was that it was the first time in many, many days that I had clouds in the sky. And I took advantage of it.

On this entire trip, I photographed many dead trees in many settings. I think they make for interesting subjects as elements in a quality photo. You will see more of them over time. But, for now, enjoy this one.

Picture of the Day – Moon over America

Since we are talking about the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, I thought I would share this photo with you. I took it at sunrise, which was happening behind me.

I was lucky on this trip as I had a full moon. It was setting as the sun was rising, which only happens perhaps 2 days a month. So, I had great sunrises and great sunsets…just what a photographer wants. I have a few more shots with the moon in it which I will sneak in here from time to time.

Enjoy.

Postcard from Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

This special and unusual national monument is located about halfway between Yuma and Tucson, but unlike Tucson, Organ Pipe is right on the Mexican border. It is quite large, consisting of some 330,000 acres. But more than that, it is the quintessential Sonoran Desert. When you stand on one of its many hills and survey its landscape, all you see is green desert, filled with 23 different kinds of cactus and many other desert plants, not to mention a whole host of desert animals.

The park is named after a very rare species of cactus, called, of course the Organ Pipe. Photo #1 shows a good sized example of an Organ Pipe. This is one of the very few places in the U.S. where it grows, in fact almost all of the Organ Pipes in the U.S. are located within the park boundaries (It can also be found in Mexico).

The Organ Pipe cactus is found all over the park, especially on the south side of the park’s many hills. It needs abundant heat and light and is very susceptible to frost. It blooms once a year, for one night, anytime from May through June. Cross pollination is accomplished by bats, which, of course, only fly at night.

The other primary cactus here is the Saguaro, the tall one that can be seen in photos. They are all over the Southwest, especially here in Tucson. There is one growing just a few feet from my home here. But there are many others, to be sure, all visually different.

The park has a wonderful campground that is part and parcel of the desert environ. After picking my spot, I walk around and had the distinct impression that the campground had been professionally landscaped to show off all the different types of flora that can be found here. It was so beautifully laid out and easy to walk around in.

After some later explorations of the park, I found out that there was no need to landscape…this is the way this desert is laid out by nature. It looks the same everywhere you look.

The campground is located 5 miles from the border and is elevated so you can see thousands of acres of Sonoran desert as well as Mexico. This is the perfect time of year to visit there as summer temperatures, as you might guess, go well above 100 and drop down between 75-80 at night.

Photo #2 shows the south side of one hill where the Organ Pipes thrive. Picture #3 show an Organ Pipe and a Saguaro at sunset. Oh, and did I mention that the sunsets are incredible here?