Here is Tuzigoot, the last ancient pueblo we visited- not built into a cliff, but at the top of a rise. We arrived about 15 minutes before closing, so we had barely got to the top when it was time to climb down again.
Here is the view as we pulled into the parking lot.
A shot taken as we climbed the steps at the top.
And here is the view FROM the top- the road we took back as we headed to Jerome, the last stop on our trip before we headed down the mountain back to Prescott.
The travelogue continues! After visiting Montezuma Castle (and then having lunch at the nearby casino on the reservation!), we drove down the highway to Montezuma Well, another part of the same National Monument. A short walk takes you to an overlook of an eerily deep green/blue well, where cliff dwellings line the surrounding rocks. Yes, the water does really look this color!
We didn’t take the steps down to the water itself, but just continued on the upper trail.
I converted the photo below to black and white; it looks a bit like another planet to me!
Last week, we had a beautiful day of sunshine, a break before the torrential monsoon rains we had a day or two later. We decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and take a drive to the Verde Valley (about an hour away) to see some of the sights on our Arizona bucket list.
The first place on our list was Montezuma Castle to see cliff dwellings!
The pueblos are located in the cliffs overlooking Beaver Creek, hidden behind the trees.
The topic for this month’s photo club is an interesting one: each member randomly drew a piece of paper which had a section of a map of Prescott and the surrounding area on it. Our photo had to be taken within our section of the map. I believe the word creative was used in the description. Gah!
Lonnie and I drove out to my area, and he immediately spied an old windmill, which stands in someone’s yard. Perfect! It was midday with no clouds and 95 degrees, so we planned to go back. The following week, we drove out there again about 9 a.m., and I had a nice chat with the owner of the property. The windmill was there before the land was developed and was evidently part of the original ranch. It still works, although he doesn’t have it going right now.
I had this brilliant (hah!) idea of taking photos of the windmill, a poppy, a street sign and Granite Mountain (visible from the street) and then creating a composite that would be very artsy. I need practice in making composites- both the technical side and the creative side. I never did get all the elements into the photo- maybe someday. And neither of the two composites look at all like I envisioned. I will probably use a plain windmill shot for the photo club.
Here is my first effort. Later in the week, I’ll post my second try.
Don’t you think colour looks better than color? One of my favorite quotes is “Keep calm and fake a British accent,” so this is in that spirit (nothing to do with Brexit. . .).
The above is from last week’s trip to the Grand Canyon. The hazy sky desaturated the colors, which I brought back with Lightroom’s Dehaze brush and some other adjustments. THEN I added a very slight adjustment with Topaz Glow, which is such a cool little plug-in- it does things I don’t know how to do otherwise. Very fun! The frame is from On1 Effects.
This morning I was out with my macro lens, trying to capture the early morning light on the flowers when I became aware of some movement across the street.
It was a javelina!
He seemed on a mission and continued up the hill and up the driveway of our neighbor’s house, where I lost sight of him.
We have lived here almost three years and, although herds of javelinas can be seen throughout Prescott, especially in early evening, we had never seen a javelina in our neighborhood until today. I know from neighbors that they are around, but they seem to avoid my camera. In fact, last month something rooted up all our bulbs in the front flower bed- and damaged some of the drip system. And now I have a potential suspect!
Unfortunately, my 80mm macro lens was on the camera, so I wasn’t able to zoom in on our visitor. The first two photos are cropped.
FYI, javelinas are collared peccaries, not boars or pigs. They are usually in small herds or family groups and can be aggressive.
And they sound like this! http://www.desertmuseum.org/books/audio/javlina_medley.mp3
at the Bryce Thompson Arboretum
On Saturday, Lonnie and I got OUT OF TOWN! After a couple weeks of illness- and then a water leak which will eventually lead to our floors being replaced- we were more than ready for an outing. We didn’t go far- just southeast to the town of Superior to visit the Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park, where we walked and walked and walked admiring all the different cacti and wildflowers. It is a beautiful spot! I took dozens and dozens of photos; it felt so good to get out and use my camera again.
These rocks form the backdrop of the state park, which is right by the highway. Octotillo was in bloom everywhere!
I brought my Lensbaby Edge 80 along too, which I used on these flowers (along with a bit of enhancement from Topaz Impression).
Yesterday, I spent the morning with some friends at the V Bar V Heritage site near the Verde Valley, about an hour from home, and saw some spectacular petroglyphs. These petroglyphs were made by the Sinaguan people in what has been termed the Beaver Creek Rock Art style (dating from about 1100 AD). What was fascinating to me was that they have discovered sunbeams hitting certain parts of a stair-step type design on certain days of the years, which experts believe are signs of when planting should occur. There is also a small area that has been carved out that casts a shadow resembling the San Francisco peaks, a sacred site to local native populations.
If you look closely at the upper right part of the photo above, you can see the stair step (zigzag) glyph, each step of which is lit by sunbeams on a specific day during the growing season. Early calendar!
The snow of a few days ago turned into a drizzle, which created reflections of the Christmas lights at Courthouse Square last night.
Of the photos I took Courthouse Square in the snow, this one is my favorite. After I took photos with my Nikon and got back in the car, I decided to take a quick iPhone shot for Facebook and to text to a few friends. Of course, that one ended up being my favorite- the point of view from the car was much better than from where I had stood for my other photos. I can’t believe I didn’t see that when I was taking pictures. My excuse is that I was concerned about the snow falling on my camera. . .
I converted it to black and white in Lightroom to use for my photo club on Tuesday (the theme was black and white). The photo was well-received, although not a winner in the voting- and the comments all had to do with the unique point of view- the angle of the fence etc. etc. Maybe when it snows again, I can shoot from this angle again- only with my big-girl camera!
Saturday we went to the Prescott Folk Music Festival. It has been going on for 37 years, but this was our first time- actually our first time at ANY folk music festival. We loved it!
Picture a small, rustic venue with small stages, inside and out (the Sharlot Hall Museum). Then picture musicians and some ordinary folks like us walking through the grounds on their way to hear groups or perform on stage- the acts changing about every half hour. There were also workshops for musicians, food of course, and small groups jamming here and there. There was folk music of all kinds- and most of it really, really good! Oh- and most of the performers we saw were at least in their sixties. Lots of men with gray pony tails and beards! I hope there are a lot of young folk singers out there somewhere- we didn’t see any in Prescott!
She looks like Mary Travers, doesn’t she? And yes, they sang Peter, Paul, and Mary songs- and sounded like them too! This is MacDougal Street West.
I LOVED this guy! He is part of a bluegrass group from Phoenix. What a musician! His group was called Jason Donne and the Open Graves!
The two ladies above were a part of a group that sang Southwest cowboy music; we almost didn’t stay to hear them- and they were fabulous! They are called IQ Minus One- and I can’t remember what IQ stands for. . .
One of the highlights of the day was hearing an amazing group from Tucson which included Bobby Kimmel, the founder of the Stone Poneys, and members of the Ronstadt family- Linda’s cousin and wife. I don’t have any great photos of their performance, because it was inside and all I have are iPhone shots, but I had to mention them, because they were sooo good! I Hear Voices is the group.
At the end of the day, many musicians gathered on stage and led the crowd through This Land is Your Land.
We discovered that this two-day folk festival is held the first weekend in October every year- put it on your calendar!
Whenever we take out of town visitors to Sedona, we always take them to Chapel of the Holy Cross. Built into the rocks with a spectacular view, it is a very special place. Despite being full of visitors, you can always sense the spiritual and sacred essence of this spot. When we visited Sedona a week or so ago, I took a few photos inside with my Lensbaby Edge 80.
Editing notes:
The top photo was taken a year or so ago, and I just re-edited it in Perfect Effects (my current go-to tool for editing landscapes) for today’s blog. The head of Christ and the candles at the bottom were edited in Lightroom and Photoshop. The middle photo of the person lighting a candle was edited in Topaz Impression, using the Van Gogh filter (I wish there was a way of recording that so I could remember- maybe a post-it notes feature in Lightroom!).
I fell in love with the colors of the Tucson Barrio when we were there a few weeks ago. Here are some images that didn’t make the blog:
melinda anderson photography 