I spotted this tree by a hotel where we were staying in Phoenix and was fascinated by the twisty branches. Although I would normally edit a paloverde in color to emphasize the green bark, I thought a black and white treatment better showed off the gnarled quality of the branches.
The Grand Canyon
Whenever I go to Jerome, I always seem to photograph the motorcycles parked in front of the Spirit Room- but I don’t think I’ve ever posted any of the photos. I am so NOT a motorcycle person- I don’t even feel qualified to photograph them!
But it was the beautiful array of colors and shapes all in a row that attracted my eye, so here they are:
It is a pretty simple shot, but it gave me a chance to use Topaz Glow again!
These are just a few of the many expressions that drifted across Henry’s face as he played a game of Mancala (thank you, Debbie!). No one could ever accuse him of being self-conscious!
Don’t you think colour looks better than color? One of my favorite quotes is “Keep calm and fake a British accent,” so this is in that spirit (nothing to do with Brexit. . .).
The above is from last week’s trip to the Grand Canyon. The hazy sky desaturated the colors, which I brought back with Lightroom’s Dehaze brush and some other adjustments. THEN I added a very slight adjustment with Topaz Glow, which is such a cool little plug-in- it does things I don’t know how to do otherwise. Very fun! The frame is from On1 Effects.
We are having a major heatwave, so our two days at the Grand Canyon were punctuated by frequent stops to refill water bottles and stand in the shade. The highlight of the trip was the boys being sworn in as Junior Rangers by a close family friend of theirs, who is indeed a big important ranger at the Grand Canyon. The boys completed all the required pages (at different skill levels) of their official Junior Ranger books and then were sworn in front of a small crowd of curious tourists. They already have badges from Yellowstone, but this particular badge was significant because of the friend that did the ceremony for them. A sweet moment! Unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo of them wearing the badges. . .
And here is a shot of the canyon (I’m amazed it’s as sharp as it is, since it was too hot to carry a tripod and the railings were too hot to lean on to steady the camera!):
We just returned from the Grand Canyon and had the joyful experience of watching the boys have their first look at one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. Here’s Henry taking it all in:
When your family lives in three different states, it’s a rare day when you can all be together. Caitlin and the boys have been here a week, and Matt drove in on Thursday- what a joy it’s been to have both kids and grandkids with us. We are missing Justin, Caity’s husband, because he used the week to drive (pulling a trailer) from their previous home in Yellowstone to the new one in Anchorage, accompanied by his brother, Kris and the family dog, Penny.
Happy Father’s Day to the proud Papa in this photo, to the absent daddy in Alaska, and to all the wonderful dads out there!
Henry and Miles were both entranced by The Magician, the photo I took of our friend Dale a few weeks ago. I asked them who they thought was in the photo, and Henry tentatively asked, “Santa?”. When I told them that it was someone they knew, they both realized it was Dale. They were curious about how the magic got into the photo, so this morning we re-created the photo with Henry as the magician. I think he enjoyed being dressed up and posing more than seeing how the magic got into the photo.
After viewing the print, he said there was one thing he didn’t like about the photo- his FACE. Caitlin says he doesn’t like mad or sad faces in books. He certainly enjoyed making all sorts of faces for the camera!
We ordered some new lego sets for the boys before their arrival, including a huge ship for Miles. He completed it with no help within hours- he’s pretty amazing!
Life is busy and fun right now, because our daughter and sweet grand-boys are here! They are moving from Yellowstone to Anchorage, Alaska, and are visiting with us for two weeks while they are in between houses. They arrived Friday evening, and we spent most of Saturday at the new Legoland Discovery Center and Aquarium in Phoenix- a fun way to begin our visit together. We will be busy keeping them entertained over the next two weeks, so my blog posts will be intermittent.
There were LOTS of Legos to play with.
Miles LOVED building structures and testing them out on the earthquake table.
Assembling Lego cars and sending them down a ramp was a lot of fun.
Yup- life is good!
I’ve been experimenting with some new (to me) Photoshop techniques which are a departure from my usual style- if I indeed have a style. No textures, more obvious textures, frames, and now this:
What? A black background? Drama? Not my usual thing, but I like the effect on this photo.
And now this:
Holy Cow! If you use Photoshop, you probably recognize the Topaz Glow filter (a new purchase), which I used almost full strength on this photo. A little over the top- but FUN!
The perfect photo would have had a crow sitting on the scarecrow, but it was not to be. However, there were birds everywhere- just not in my photo!
melinda anderson photography 