A beautiful view from Point Loma in San Diego
Constellation Trail
We have miles and miles of trails yet to discover here in Prescott. Saturday, we took a short walk on the Constellation Trail, which winds by the Granite Dells just outside of town. Because my husband is still in recovery mode, we stopped after a half hour, but really enjoyed the trails and scenery.
A Wintry Mix
We don’t have snow all winter long in Prescott- at least not since we’ve lived here- so each snowy day is like a gift. Of course, people who have lived here for awhile tell me to be careful what I wish for and then relate tales of the winter of _____ (supply your own year). I have no desire to experience winter like most of North America has had this year; I just would like a bit more of the pretty white stuff.
Yesterday, a snowstorm was predicted above 5500 feet (our house is at 5470), and we were predicted to get a “wintry mix”- rain and snow. It had rained steadily during the night, and about 8:00am, it turned to snow. LOTS of it!
I was without my Nikon for yesterday’s snowstorm, so I had to make do with my iPhone and my husband’s Canon Powershot SX50. The photos below were taken with the Canon. I’m trying to learn this nifty little camera and managed to take the still shots with aperture priority and the birds with shutter priority (at least I THINK so. . .).
It was a whiteout for most of the morning.
The birds didn’t seem to mind.
The sun came out in the middle of the afternoon, and by sunset, half of the snow was gone. 😦
Edge 80 at Willow Lake
Still practicing- and having fun with this creative lens and optic!
Up at Sunrise
After a day of acclimating to being home from our road trip, I began to look at some of the lessons I’d missed in BeStill 52. One jumped out at me right away, because it featured photos of cows. Cows! It turned out that the lesson challenged us to change things up, to do something different. For Kim Klassen, this meant cows; for me it means traditional landscape photography.
I am pretty intimidated by the kind of photography that involves neutral density filters, polarizers, higher f-stop numbers (deep depth of field), tripods, composing a landscape shot, and, especially, getting up early to find the perfect light. This is the kind of photography that the people in my camera club are good at. Upon reading the lesson, I realized that I had been dabbling in that on our vacation, well, actually on most of our vacations. I always excuse my mediocre results by explaining that I never get up early enough to get the perfect light. Well, this time I did.
I didn’t have to get up especially early, get in the car, drive to the scenic spot I had scouted out the day before, hike in, and then set up among other photographers all with better equipment than I have. All I had to do was roll out of bed, grab my camera, and walk out the door of our hotel room in Moab- because this is what was outside:
This is the same scene that I photographed in the sunset shots I posted Friday. What a view!
I didn’t use any filters (although my ND ones would have been useful if I’d brought them!), but did bracket my shots just in case. So. . . I think this foray into early morning landscape photography qualifies as changing things up. Next time, maybe I will actually drive somewhere!
Heartland
As we drove west across Kansas, heading to Colorado after visiting my husband’s father, I found myself entranced by the minimalism of the flat horizon, unbroken except for occasional barn or silo. I think I could spend days exploring that landscape. All the photos were taken with my iPhone and edited in Snapseed. The last image was taken using the Slow Shutter app.
Sunset Shadow and Reflection
The last stop on our 11 day journey was a beautiful lodge along the Colorado River outside Moab, Utah. Watching the ever changing reflections and shadows of the red cliffs at sunset is an experience we’ll never forget.
Linking up with Friday Finds today- because this view (and this part of Utah!) was the best find I’ve had in a long time!
Covered Bridge
Another photo from our weekend in Vail- textured with Kim Klassen’s kk_chill for Texture Tuesday.
La Ventana Natural Arch
On our way to Kansas, we made a point to stop at Grants, New Mexico to see La Ventana Natural Arch, the second largest in New Mexico. After a scenic 18 mile drive off the main highway, we came upon the arch and took a short walk to get as close to it as we could. Rain threatened most of the drive there, but the sun stayed out long enough for us to see the arch and some of the beautiful views of the sandstone cliffs and El Malpais Lava Field.
From My Phone
We’re at Yellowstone taking care of the grandboys, who have grown SO much since we saw them in May (photos to be posted soon)!
I’m sharing a few iPhone photos from our travels. All were edited with Snapseed, and some of the plane photos also have a gradient added to the sky in Lightroom.
We flew over the Grand Canyon!
And here is somewhere in Utah :
On the drive from Montana to Yellowstone, we stopped in Livingston for dinner. It’s an old town with great old buildings; someday I want to explore it with my camera. The sky was dark, and the light was golden, and as we walked into the Mexican restaurant, we spotted a rainbow.
Connecting today with Barb’s App-Happy Wednesday.
Up the Hill, part 2
Here are two more shots I love from last week’s (short) walk up the hill to the top of our lot. I want to make clear that none of this land above is ours- and it does crack me up that it took me a year to walk through our weeds to get to the pretty ones above. Just know that I don’t like the possibility of snakes- or even lizards. Or frogs. I think that covers it.
Lovely weeds!
And here is a view of Prescott’s iconic Thumb Butte.
Up the Hill
Our house sits on a hill on a half-acre wedge-ish shaped lot with the most of the backyard on a steep slope, covered with rocks to keep the hill intact. There is a rickety stairway going up the hill on one side to an unlandscaped area that is mostly, um, weeds. We had the weeds cut down this summer, and this week I finally ventured all the way to the top of our property! Before, I had been concerned about what might be living in those weeds and didn’t really want to walk through them, chicken that I am.
At the top, I could stand at the edge of our uphill neighbor’s property and enjoy the view over our house to the hills and also see our neighbor’s fields at the top of the hill. Pretty!
BTW, I did play with the color in the bottom photo; the fields are actually pretty green. Artistic license!
I’m linking up with Friday Finds today.
More from Willow Lake
Golden Hour- EXTREME edition
We have lived in Arizona for a year now, and I am still obsessed with the changing skies. On Monday night, we looked out the window to see this (captured with my iPhone):
I grabbed my Nikon and ran outside. Unfortunately my macro lens (85mm) was on the camera, but, knowing how quickly light can change, I didn’t take the time to change it to my zoom to be able to capture a wide angle view. By the time, I got outside, the rainbow had faded and everything was bathed in an almost eerie golden light.
The clouds in every direction were shades of pink and gold, which darkened during the 5-10 minutes I took these photos.
All the photos have only minor exposure and clarity adjustments. The last one has Kim Klassen’s everyday texture added.
Prairie Sunflowers
Prairie sunflowers! At our monthly photography club meeting last week, I learned that the Flagstaff area is blanketed with prairie sunflowers in August and September. Bonito Park, north of Flagstaff, is a particularly photogenic spot as it sits between Sunset Crater and the San Francisco Peaks. My husband and I headed up there on Saturday and found it lives up to its reputation.
Here is the meadow with Sunset Crater in the background.
Looking the other direction, I photographed the sunflowers with the San Francisco peaks behind them.
As we began the drive home, we enjoyed seeing prairie sunflowers in bloom everywhere.
melinda anderson photography 