I was struck by the shadows of leaves falling on the trunks of aspens in the sunshine. I had never noticed this effect before- and then I saw it everywhere! For this image, I chose to convert the photo to black and white for emphasis.
We took our traditional walk on Mount Vernon Street- and the Halloween decorations were the best yet!
I won’t say where this is, because someone lives here. But… I will say that this old house checks a lot of my photography boxes: it’s old, it has seen better days, it has peeling paint, it’s surrounded by trees, and there’s a bicycle parked outside. My husband spotted it and drove me there- how could I resist?
What a week it’s been- and it’s still going on! I managed to sign up for THREE photo related online classes/summits that are all happening within the space of a week: Drew Steinbrecher’s Digital Art Summit (one new class on using 3 iPad creative apps- especially Procreate- a new class every day for a week), Kim Klassen’s class, Digital Meets Analog, and Hazel Meredith’s Creative Photography Conference (all weekend).
It was also the week of our photo club’s free raffle of our dear friend, Jerry’s photo equipment. Jerry passed away unexpectedly at the end of the year, and his family generously donated everything the family did not want to our club to give away to members. Every member got 25 tickets to use for drawings for 69 individual items or groups of items that had belonged to Jerry. I didn’t think I wanted anything- but then I saw this wonderful monopod- and I won it! I’m thrilled to have it, because I’ve wanted one- and especially because it was Jerry’s.
Today was the second day of Kim Klassen’s Digital Meets Analog. Back when I was learning photography, I fell in love with Kim’s textured still life and flower images online, took an online Photoshop class from her, and bought her textures. Everything I know about Photoshop started with that first class. After we moved here and I joined my photo club and then my weekly photo group, my photo interests became more varied. It has been years since I took a class from Kim, but this one sparked my interest- how to shoot and edit digitally to create a more film-like, tactile look. I’m talking diffusion, less contrast, paper-like textures, added grain and beautiful vintage frames! As a lover of everything vintage, I feel very much in my comfort zone using these processes.
The old photo above is from 2016 and is my first editing attempt- and I forgot to add a texture!
A little abstract created for No Kings Day.
We are just back from a sad trip to Kansas for Lonnie’s stepsister, Sue’s Celebration of Life. It was a quick but very meaningful trip, especially for Lonnie who has lost both stepsisters and his stepmother, Laura over the last couple years.
On the way to the airport, we stopped at the outlet mall for a snack, and I ended up having a quick photo session with a beautiful saguaro outside. I have many photos from Kansas that I will share later on- but my external hard drive (loaded with ALL my photos and ALL my genealogy documents and photos) is on its last legs and is headed to our computer guys for a data transfer to a new drive. Yes I have a backup system in place, but I won’t relax until all my files are safely back where they belong.
As Lonnie and I headed to Holbrook the first day of our field trip, I captured this view out the car window. It had clouded over, threatening rain, and the exit sign seemed to point up into the clouds- suggesting an earthly exit perhaps?
Last week we took a fun trip with my photo club to the Winslow/Holbrook area to view explore this part of Arizona’s Route 66. This iPhone shot was taken from the backseat at Two Guns, a 1920-40’s era ghost town with ruins of a gas station, a “zoo” and many old structures.
We are encouraging our Photo Club to experiment with new techniques (if they desire…). One of the ways we’ve done this is to have an AI gallery on our website where members can post images created with AI or composited with AI elements. I added this AI image of a woman created with CoPilot (after many, many tries at getting the prompt right for what I wanted) to my photo taken last year on a drive through rural Sonoma County. I named the resulting image “Jane’s World” after my mother and one of my favorite paintings, “Christina’s World” by Andrew Wyeth.
What a sweet face this Cooper’s? Hawk has as it sits atop the shepherd’s pole waiting for birds to come out of the bushes to get breakfast from the feeder hanging below! I only got one click of the shutter through the window and off it flew! Update: Although my Merlin birding app identified this photo as a sharp shinned hawk (with Cooper’s as second choice), my son-in-law thinks it is a Merlin Falcon, and he is pretty sure. Lonnie thought it was a falcon as it flew in- and I thought kestrel or peregrine falcon because of its size, but I trusted my app! Now I’m not so sure!
Meanwhile across the yard, our Gambel’s quail family was making an entrance. The mom has discovered the Bird Buddy in the apple tree and enjoyed her breakfast for a good ten minutes as I took photos through the window.
That intense gaze was directed at the sparrows and finches at the bird feeder. I took my photos and off he went. He looks like a Cooper’s hawk- but seems smaller than the other ones we’ve seen.
Another view of sunrise at Whitewater Draw
“Hope” is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.
Emily Dickinson
P.S. Looking ahead to the next four years, I am trying to choose HOPE, despite all appearances of dark days ahead.
Looking back to last winter- I hope to see some more of this white stuff in the coming weeks.
Wishing you all the absolute BEST in 2025!
melinda anderson photography 