The sunset was beautiful as we went out to get into our car last week when we were on our trip to Arizona. I went back inside to grab my camera and got this quick shot of the pines by our friends’ house.
Image enhanced with Jessica Drossin’s Mumbai texture
We are moving out of our house in 2-3 weeks and into the new at the end of August. Despite the presence of creatures like the one below found on my friend, Debbie’s window screen, we are getting so excited about moving to Arizona!
We bought a house!!!! It’s just what we were looking for- smaller, one level, low maintenance, and beautiful! We will finally exhale when all is finalized with the sale of our home in California- but it looks like we will be living in Arizona by the end of August! This will be a HUGE change for us- especially leaving all our friends. We expect lots of visitors!
Today’s photo was taken in the backyard of our ever-hospitable friends, the Thomases, who live in a gorgeous home in the pines of Prescott. We’re hoping they won’t be sick of us by the time we move here!
Today I am having a brief moment of “fame”, thanks to WordPress, the site that hosts my blog . My jellyfish photo from a few weeks ago was published in an article about serialized posts, such as Texture Tuesday! The WordPress editor, Ben, didn’t write about Texture Tuesday itself, but included my photo as a demonstration of how to bring readers to your blog by having regular features that would draw in more visitors. The article appears in the daily WordPress blog, which I confess I had never read before (I’m going to start reading it RIGHT NOW!).
Now, back to photography- here is Jackson, our constant companion in Prescott. He is the very goofy, playful and extroverted kitty belonging to Debbie and Dale, our wonderful hosts in Prescott, where we house-hunted.
Here’s a view of flowers blooming on the balcony of our hotel room at Lake Gregory, where we stopped on the way to Arizona last week. This photo is textured with two layers of Kim Klassen’s kk_1301, one at soft light blend mode and one at color burn.
Check out some more photos using textures by Kim Klassen by visiting her site at kimklassencafe.com
Mama Bunny is a regular visitor to my friend, Debbie’s backyard in Prescott, Arizona. Baby avoided my lens, but I managed to zoom in for this shot of Mama.
We took a drive yesterday and checked out some model home sites in Enchanted Canyon (in Prescott). It is a beautiful area, and one of the attractions is petroglyphs on Indian Rock. There are several other areas around Prescott that also have petroglyphs; I hope to check them out someday.
I haven’t posted this week, because we’ve been busy visiting our friends in Prescott, Arizona- and looking for a house to buy. I’ve barely taken time for photography, much less gotten my laptop out. It has been a wonderful visit, and although we haven’t yet bought a house, we’ve fallen in love with Prescott again.
The day before we left for Arizona was the day of the horrible tragic deaths of the firefighters in the Yarnell fire (just outside of Prescott). The town is in mourning and coming together to help the families of those who were evacuated and/or lost homes as well as the families of the fire crew who lost their lives.
Fire was on our minds as we drove Hwy. 40 from California into Arizona. Just past Kingman we saw another wildfire- the Dean Peak fire.
Since we’ve been here, we’ve seen a wildfire- and experienced lightning, thunder, a hailstorm and flash flooding! We’ve seen lots of lizards and one javelina- think I’ll go sit outside now and hope a herd of javelinas come through the yard before dark!
textured with Kim Klassen’s kk_daisy
Remembering . . . morning fog on Monterey Bay
We spent just about 24 hours in Monterey this week to take our daughter’s family to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Hundreds of photos were taken; here is one of just a few of sea creatures- the gorgeous jelly fish. Truthfully, I took just as nice shots with my point and shoot camera on my last visit. I think they are almost impossible not to photograph well in their beautifully lit tank. This one I edited with a texture, so that I would have something to post for this week’s Texture Tuesday (a couple days late). I used Kim Klassen’s teatime texture.
Miles and his mama looking out across the bay before sunset.
My grandbabies are here!!! Not much time for blogging- but here’s a quick tribute to Henry’s curls (photo taken yesterday on the beach at Monterey):
He is so cute I could just eat him up! Really- the cuteness is just overwhelming! Seriously CUTE!
This month’s Clickin Moms blog link up challenges us to shoot through glass. Off and on during the month, I would think of the topic, but never seemed to be anywhere where an idea just jumped out at me. I did a few lame attempts at home, and finally settled for some shots at my church this week. But I do offer up these photos from LAST month’s trip to San Diego where I took a few shots of the spectacular view of downtown San Diego from my son’s apartment. I did not use a tripod (tsk, tsk) and shot at a very high ISO (6400!) so yes, there is digital noise! And what did I learn from taking these photos? Use a tripod! Check for reflections (they are almost impossible to edit out). Do it right the first time- our son has since moved to a new apartment, and I will never have the opportunity to retake these photos.
To keep myself honest, here are a few photos I did take this week. They are through glass, but not quite with the dramatic view. . .
Flowers as shot through the sliding glass door of the sanctuary at church:
This is almost the same view- but with the focus on the door. Hmmm, the glass isn’t quite clean!
And here is the stained glass over the door, shot from inside:
There are some wonderful creative photographers in our blog circle. If you click on each link in each photographer’s blog, you will be able to make the complete circle and end up back here. Start with Jennifer Bantle’s blog!
melinda anderson photography 