As part of my exploration of Prescott, I visited the old railroad bridge, which is no longer in use. I took several photos and decided I like the bridge best in black and white.
Historic Prescott
Learning a bit about my new town is a big part of a personal photography project I am undertaking. My plan is to photograph buildings and/or areas in Prescott, a town with a rich and interesting history. I have been taking photos since I moved here, but now I am doing it with the intention of making a collection, eventually a gallery slideshow on my blog.
Yesterday, I chose to photograph the courthouse with a view of the Thumb Butte behind it. I took the photo on a hill (which I’ve read is called Nob Hill) standing just down from the Goldwater House.
I considered Photoshopping the wires out, but decided against it for the sake of authenticity- but may reconsider. There are wires obstructing almost every view in this town- perhaps they add to the character!
And below is the Goldwater House, built by Henry Goldwater (uncle to Barry) in 1894. 
Linking up with Friday Finds.
White on black
Blossoms!
From our plum tree
Textures are my own, from one of Kim Klassen’s lessons a few months back.
Still
I took this photo for Texture Tuesday and then realized there is a THEME- still. I’m not sure this photo represents still, but it is a still life.
Textured with sybil by Kim Klassen.
On the rocks
My husband and I tried geocaching this weekend! Armed with a GPS and an iPhone with the geocaching app, we searched for three geocaches (out of hundreds to choose from) in our area. We started with an easy one at Lynx Lake, where we had lunch- I think it took us about 20 minutes to find. Then we went out to Willow Lake and quickly found another (a tiny one this time), although it took us about 20 minutes also, most of which was spent tromping through weeds and climbing an embankment to get to the location.
Our confidence high, we tried to find a third one hidden on or around the granite boulders closer to the lake itself. It was an educational geocache in that there was a quiz as part of it, based on the information the cache hider provided about the Liesegang bands or rings found atop the granite rocks at the location. These bands are concentric circles or rounded squares formed by a chemical process involving erosion and minerals and other things beyond my comprehension. And they are pretty amazing to look at! I can attest to how cool they are, because I spent a good hour and a half looking at them as we searched for the cache. I kind of gave up about halfway through, because the iPhone battery gave out (why didn’t we bring the new portable charger I just gave my husband for his birthday?). My husband had become pretty obsessed, though and was charging around determined to not be beaten. But beaten we were- at least for this weekend- but we’ll be back!
P.S. If you are interested in finding out more about geocaching, go to geocaching.com and set up a free account.
Happy
I’ve got that Happy song by Pharrell Williams going through my head (it was in my Facebook feed this morning)- a great way to start the day! If you know it, sing (clap!) along as you look at these two photos from our walk at Willow Lake earlier in the week. I know that going on this walk certainly made me happy, as did remembering how to add a frame on each photo!
I used two of Kim Klassen’s textures in both: bien and daisy.
Linking up with Friday Finds.
Two
We spent a few hours in Benicia on our California trip last week- long enough for me to visit the waterfront and take a few photos.
The photo below is of boats at the Yacht Club, with the refinery towers looming in background. I edited this in Photoshop, using a filter to “posterize” the image and adding one of the free Flypaper textures from Adobe Exchange.
This is your basic Benicia waterfront photo, edited in Lightroom.
A Birthday Walk
Special breakfast treats, presents, phone calls and facetime with kids and grandkids, and a walk at the lake were all part of my husband’s special day yesterday. And evening brought a delicious dinner and cake at Debbie and Dale’s house.
We puzzled over the big white bird we could see in a tree by the lake, but it was too far to see clearly, even with the zoom lens.After, looking at it on the computer (and asking my bird expert friend, Carol), we have decided it is a black-shouldered kite, which isn’t supposed to be in our area.
Textures by Jessica Drossin and Kerstin Frank
LIGHT!
When I first started this whole photography thing, I literally couldn’t see the light. I think it took me almost a year before I was able to really see how light differs from moment to moment, from place to place. And now I am obsessed with it.
While we were in California, I took advantage of the beautiful light (and Spring flowers) when taking photos. The theme for this week’s Texture Tuesday is light, and I think this photo demonstrates how light (in this case, backlighting) can enhance a photograph.
Textured with bent edges and florence, by Kim Klassen.
Something like Spring
It is Spring- or something like that- in California! We are returning from a whirlwind business trip where we managed to see most of our friends that we didn’t see the last time we were there. We talked, we laughed, we ate, we drank- it was great!
There were blossoms and flowers, and even a bit of rain. I didn’t do a lot of photography, but here are a couple shots from when we stopped at a shopping area to load up on “necessities” we haven’t found in Prescott (think Aveda and Art of Shaving. . .).
Yes, that’s Nordstrom in the above photo- no, we didn’t shop there.
We’re on our way home now. Funny- I refer to both the Bay Area and Prescott as home- as in, “We are going back home to visit our friends,” and “We’ll be driving home tomorrow.” I guess it’s a good thing to feel that way about two places!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
From the archives
A view of the San Francisco Peaks (Flagstaff) from across the street
The end (I think)
This is most likely the end of my tulip photos (unless I find another candidate for editing!). Time for new flowers!
All you need is . . .
The theme for this week’s Texture Tuesday is LOVE, of course. This is textured with Kim’s deco and magicfilm3.
melinda anderson photography 