Scottsdale’s annual Canal Convergence event along the downtown waterfront provided so many opportunities for interesting street photography mixed with light and art- and of course, water. What are you looking at here? I’ll leave it up to your imagination!
Out for a walk last week, we took time to stand quietly and watch birdlife- mallards, Canada geese, coots, a hawk, redwing blackbirds, egrets and one heron. Using multiple exposure camera techniques, I created this impressionistic image of the heron waiting patiently for prey in the waters of Willow Lake.
Although it is winter now, it seems like yesterday that our backyard birds were hiding among the leaves instead of enduring freezing temps and dodging raindrops and snowflakes.
This is another in my Bird by Bird series.
Now Presenting Old Will, an 80 something year old resident of Bodie- back in the heyday of this old west mining town.
The photo comes from my trip to Bodie last October, and I created Will himself with the help of AI! This has been a fun departure for me! I think I was putting on my genealogy hat as I created (in my mind) a backstory for this old guy, including farming in Michigan, a sojourn in Colorado mining for gold, and then his later years spent in Bodie with the family of his son, Luke, who was living in Bodie.
Above is Old Will, sitting on his front porch- and below is his son, Luke, striding purposefully through Bodie.
I have created some other members of the family- less successfully, I think. For me, Old Will is the star of the show. I have abandoned the project for now, and am currently creating clip art with AI for the newsletter I do for my photo club.
All photos are my own. Each image contains a character I created with Microsoft Bing Image Creator.
Here is another image in my Bird by Bird series- as yet untitled. I’ve had a lot of fun with this series!
This particular image, which started out as a multiple exposure has gone through several iterations. Once this color combination emerged, I knew I was on the right track for what I wanted to create. But I have another version too- I always am attracted to the simplicity of a square crop.
I spotted this little scene at Bodega on our trip to California last month. I’ve added it to a little bird series I’m creating for my small group as part of Find Your Voice. I am always drawn to scenes that include birds, so why not include them in my expressionist images?
The series itself is called Bird by Bird– after the wonderful book on writing by Anne Lamott. I think much of her advice applies to photographers, as well as writers!
This image is part of a series of abstracts I’ve been working on that feature birds. The blog post title is from one of the Shetland mystery series by Ann Cleeves that I love- I haven’t come up with a title for this image as yet. Ideas?
Update: The image is now called Treasure Hunter! I had to come up with a title FAST for my AAUW photography group, and I think it works. . .
My mother, who was definitely a fashion plate, emphasized the rules of dressing properly during my formative years. For example, she never wore jeans, but did find a pair of stylish “frontier pants” that she wore to events where the other women wore jeans. She allowed me to wear my beloved cut off jeans during my teen years, because she knew it was important for me to fit in, but her own style remained elegant. One of the rules that stuck with me, was the one we all know- Don’t wear white after Labor Day! But she also taught me the great exception to the rule- winter white. Think of soft white angora or cashmere sweaters- not white cotton pedal pushers or white patent leather heels.
I thought of my mother’s use of the term winter white, when trying to come up with a title for this post. I think she would be pleased.
Below is a different crop of the same image- just to test out the reliability of using the “Large” setting for blog photos. Fingers crossed that we can see both images on our phones!
As always- click here to go to your browser if you can’t see both images correctly.
Fog and snow shrouded this scene up at Flagstaff’s Snow Bowl.
I do realize that this is the second blog post of the day, BUT I am trying to solve my image size problem on my own (WordPress still maintains it is an Apple problem). I changed the image size in my post earlier today to the default setting of Large (I have been using the Full Size setting for several years), and this morning’s image showed up correctly in emails. I’m trying again with a square image to see if it will work! You may see more posts in the next week as I test this out, so bear with me!
Head over to my blog if the image does not show up in your mail program- click here.
We had our first snow this week, just a couple inches, which has melted away- at least at our house. Yesterday we went up to Flagstaff for a doctor appointment and drove up to Snow Bowl for a bit of photography. I think the smaller details of the snowy trees were more compelling to me than the larger scene.
Click here to see image in browser if you only see a thumbnail.
Serene beach day from a little over a year ago.
If you can’t see the image above, please click on this link: https://melinda365.com/blog/
Above is another view of the Benicia waterfront from our trip to California. All my photos were taken in the rain, which I didn’t mind at all. I have been taking photos of this particular scene for years and years, and I noticed that the yellow crane seems even tippier than the last time I was there. I googled and found this article: https://beniciaheraldonline.com/is-cove-crane-tipping-into-the-carquinez/
Evidently it is a controversy right now.
Tech note: If you would like to help get to the bottom of why my images are not showing up full size most days in your iPhone mail program, please click through to see the image in Safari. Does it show up there? It always does for me. And if you REALLY want to help, go to your computer and check to see if the images show up in your computer mail program. If you have another type of mobile phone, I’d love to know how the images look there. So far, WordPress is saying that this seems to be a device issue- but I can see images from other WordPress blogs at the right size on all my devices. I have nothing to do with editing the emails- they go out automatically. But I am wondering if there is a setting in my account or blog theme that has changed. Thank you for your patience. If you have info for me, please put in comments.
Click here: https://melinda365.com/blog/ if you can’t see the image.
Click here if you can’t see the photo- this is a photography blog, after all: https://melinda365.com/blog/
How many times have I taken this photo? We passed through Benicia, where we lived for almost 30 years, on our way to Petaluma for my friend, Georgia’s memorial. We ate lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant (Sandoval’s!), running into two people we knew! This almost never happens in Arizona- and that’s one of the things I miss most about living in Benicia. One of the other things I miss is this scene! This view of the fog-shrouded Carquinez Bridge, where the waterway leads out to the San Francisco Bay says home to me!
Tech Support: If you are viewing this post on your phone, it is possible that the photo is missing or is just a thumbnail. I have made WordPress aware of it, and they are thinking it is an iPhone problem. However, I can see my friend, Carol’s WordPress blog just fine on my phone! I believe WordPress is still working on the problem. I have put a link to my blog right under the photo, so if you can’t see the photo, that link should take you to my blog.
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