One of the places we visited on our Route 66 trip with my photo club was the Little Painted Desert (outside of Winslow)- an amazingly beautiful spot. I was entranced from the beginning by the creases and folds in the rock formations that looked like tree branches to me. And of course the colors were spectacular!
It was snowing lightly as we left our neighborhood at noon today for a little drive. As we left our neighborhood, we could see dark skies to the south, and as we headed toward town, we could see Thumb Butte shrouded in fog. We drove up to the Resort on a bluff overlooking town, and, as I took this shot, sunshine and big puffy clouds were to the right and behind me which illuminated the VA Hospital below.
The sun broke through the fog at Whitewater Draw presenting us with an unforgettable scene. Behind us though, the cranes were still almost invisible in the early morning fog. Time for photographers to head to breakfast!
A couple weeks ago, we spent the weekend in Wamego, Kansas visiting with Lonnie’s beloved stepmother, Laura, who at age 92 is in poor health. The two full days we were there, we spent time in the mornings and early evenings with Laura and her daughter, Sue, caregiver extraordinaire, but in the afternoons we went out on some adventures. We drove to Manchester to visit the family graves and the site of the old burnt out family home, as we always do, but this time we decided to add an additional cemetery to the itinerary. Lonnie’s great-grandmother Carrie Funk Wolfe, who died when his grandmother, Irene, was only twelve years old, was buried in the Catholic Cemetery in Vine Creek, only 7 Miles from Manchester. I don’t remember how long it took to get there (an hour? 2 hours?), but what were listed as roads on Google maps, turned out to be narrow rutted dirt roads. Despite us having been raised in Kansas (Lonnie) and small-town Chico (me) and living in Arizona, which is full of dirt roads, we felt like city slickers in this area. The closer we got to Vine Creek, the more confused we became, but we got there! However, we chose to go a different way back (why?), and the directions on Google took us to a road not really there and a road ending in a gate. We basically followed our noses and eventually found a main (dirt) road that was familiar and took us straight to Manchester and the highway back to Wamego, only a half hour late.
I love the scene above which shows the beauty of Kansas farmlands. I took it to my weekly photo group and talked about converting it to a black and white, which everyone agreed would not work. Because I have been working with black and white film recently (details eventually in another post), I have been experimenting with converting more photos to black and white, as well as editing my film photos- so here is my moody version:
I think I like it better in some ways than the color version, although the color image is certainly more true to the scene.
Photographed on our drive to Bodega Bay a few weeks ago, this barn looms out of a gloomy sky when converted to a black and white image.
One of our favorite (and almost NECESSARY) things to do when we go back to the Bay Area is to drive over to Bodega Bay, the scene of many memories from our dating and early marriage days. The drive from Petaluma is through rural Sonoma County, and it still looks much like it did over 50 years ago. I loved this view of the curve in the road, the white power poles, and the intense green as we approached a hill and made Lonnie slow down so I could take an iPhone shot through the windshield.
Our snow has melted after hanging around for a week. Today’s photo was taken in January on our trip up to Snow Bowl in Flagstaff. It was snowing lightly, and fog obscured some of the trees in the distance- creating another winter white image.
The Thumb Butte sits overlooking Prescott like a guardian. I always think of it as a mother figure protecting the town, but from this angle it looks more like a maned lion to me. I’ve always wanted to capture this side view, and, as we drove on Iron Springs Road, the final leg of our journey home from California, I was able to hold my iPhone steady enough to capture this shot through the window as we zoomed by. And then we were home!
This was one of our first views of the Sierras as we headed to California a few weeks ago. There was a enough room to pull over, and I climbed up the hill a bit to be able to get a view of the curvy road as well as the Sierras in the distance. I was born and raised in California, so this view pulls on my heartstrings. California will always be HOME to this Arizonan!
I think there’s nothing more serene than looking out at water, especially a still Alaska lake with reflections of the shore. This is NOT my daughter’s cabin, but I am now thinking I need to take my camera out in their boat and take a similar photo.
As we walked on the path through the trees, the sun started peeking through the clouds, creating spots of sunlight among the aspens on this overcast day. We are hoping for good weather next week when we make the trek up to Flagstaff once more on our quest for fall color.
We will be in Alaska for the next two weeks! I am scheduling a few posts of some photos from previous Alaska trips to publish while I’m gone. We’ll be seeing our Alaska family for the first time in a year and a half; their youngest, Henry is now 10 1/2 and Miles is a teenager- 13 1/2! AND we will be celebrating our 50th anniversary!
Here is where we’ll be celebrating- Homer, Alaska!
Last night we went out to grab a quick salad before settling down to rewatch one of our favorite Brit TV series- Scott and Bailey (we just can’t seem to get enough of these fascinating characters!). After dinner, the sky put on an amazing display for us, complete with God-beams highlighting Granite Mountain! I managed to capture several shots with my iPhone through the windshield as we drove towards home.
After we had been home for a bit, we heard the pitter patter of gentle rain, which had been predicted for earlier in the day. We ran outside and watched, and, unfortunately, the rain stopped after about ten minutes. The drought here is getting scary- our lakes are drying up and there are wildfires burning. In fact, it is likely that the some of the clouds and haze behind the mountains in this photo are actually smoke.
It was almost sunset in the desert, but the sun was still fiery hot. This was taken after dinner outside the house where we stayed in Oro Valley, Arizona for my birthday.
It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.
Rainer Maria Rilke
melinda anderson photography 