
or… how palm trees are born…
Having fun with multiple exposures! This is definitely on the very edge of what I like to create.

or… how palm trees are born…
Having fun with multiple exposures! This is definitely on the very edge of what I like to create.

Watching egrets on a southern California beach was new to us. We were used to seeing them in the marshes of the Bay Area, but watching them march through the waves on Newport Beach was a whole different experience. I took many more photos than I needed!

This photo taken at Newport Beach tickles my funny bone and makes me smile. It’s even in the place of honor on my iPhone lock screen. If you have an appropriate caption for it, let me know!

We took a quick, last minute trip to Southern California to visit our son’s family before Thanksgiving. We spent a couple days at Newport Beach, spending time each day at the beach and meeting up with the family for the evening. It was so relaxing to be back at one of our favorite spots! The weather was great, the beach not crowded, and we saw lots of beach birds. What was surprising to us as infrequent visitors was that the pelicans were on the beach, not just flying low over the water as we usually see them. We were closer to them than we ever can remember. One of the days we drove up to Huntington Beach, and as we walked on the pier, this fellow landed on the rooftop above us. Soon another joined him, and we had a great time pelican watching. I took so many photos that I not only had to change batteries, but ran out of room on my SD card!

Blue on blue- a flower fantasy with a bit of Photoshop magic!

We were up late OR got up early…
Whatever we were… we saw it… and it was magnificent! These shots don’t nearly do it justice. I don’t know if these are my best shots- too many to look at.
Feeling very sleep deprived, but it was worth it.
Camera nerds: I didn’t even know I could push my ISO so high (20,000 at one point- this was 12,800 on the right).

A few days ago, the wind blew some beautiful leaves into our driveway. I remembered making some images a few years ago of flowers I had frozen and decided to try the process with leaves. I am currently working on creating abstracts using in-camera multiple exposures, and I find it interesting how the doubly exposed ice and leaves interacted with each other to create this abstract image.

Memories of last year’s trek up the hill to Flagstaff to visit the aspen groves

Fall has arrived here with cooler temperatures, some rain, and a lot of WIND! We actually turned the fireplace on last night during Monday night football (okay, I was doing genealogy on my iPhone…). We haven’t made it up to Flagstaff to see the aspens- so here’s an image from last year.

This is the last post in my Downtown Details series. We always take photos of Courthouse Square in Prescott. Above is a view of what is UNDER the square!
I’ve also taken many photos of Whiskey Row over the years, so I wanted to do something different. Below is a multiple exposure composite- Whiskey Row Impressions. I didn’t use this for my photo group, but used photos shot for this topic to create the image.


More Downtown Details today! Above is the light fixture hanging in a doorway of the old Masonic building, and below is the clock on the same building. By the way, these photos were taken in the morning- and the clock reads two o’clock- hence its title- Correct Time Twice a Day.

to be continued…

This month’s theme for my AAUW photo group was Downtown Details. I wandered around downtown on a Friday morning, armed with my iPhone and looking for details to capture. Above is a lamppost sign on a Cortez Street intersection. As the wires and lamppost intersect (as do past and present), I call this one Intersections.
Below is Through a Glass Brightly (groan…), a view of a window, the lights inside, and a reflection of the building across the street.

to be continued…

Back when we were at the Desert Botanical Garden a few months ago, I’m sure my husband was a bit taken aback by my enthusiasm over these watering cans which were sitting on a ledge in a corner, almost out of sight. We were surrounded by the beauty of nature and the magic of Chihuly glass, but there is something so amazing about finding an unstaged, “found still life” just waiting to be captured by the camera! I aimed my camera with my zoom lens and took a few quick shots, feeling very lucky to have come upon this little wabi sabi scene.

We have been to see Chihuly glass exhibits at the Desert Botanical Garden at least three times since we’ve lived here. We visited the gardens again in May, and I’m still going through my photographs. I had fun this time creating a multiple exposure image of an agave layered with Chihuly glass.

A recent assignment for our photo group was an image with a “vintage” feel. I chose a Kansas barn and windmill shot with a Lensbaby Edge80. The Edge 80 is certainly not a vintage lens, but the areas of blur and the brown tones added in post-processing hopefully give this photo an old-timey feel.