115

We go down to “the valley” fairly often. When we moved here, I was puzzled by people referring to “the valley” until I finally asked- it means the Phoenix area. The elevation there is about 1000 feet, compared to Prescott, which is a mile high. We get snow- Phoenix does not. Phoenix has saguaro cacti and paloverde trees; we do not. Summer temperatures in Phoenix are often well over 110 degrees. That doesn’t happen up here in the high country.

A month ago when we drove to the airport for our flight to Alaska, it was 115 degrees in Phoenix. Today’s abstract is a tribute to the blistering heat of the valley.

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Turnagain Again and Again

We return to the same spots along the Seward Highway every year- mostly for me to take photos of the Turnagain Arm. I’m fascinated by the mountains and glaciers- and am always looking for beluga whales at Beluga Point (no, not yet…). The last couple years I’ve spent time taking ICM images- each one turning out different from the others.

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Lakeside

Ahhh the lazy days of summer, just hanging out by a lake- in this case, at our daughter’s cabin at Crooked Lake in Alaska. The sunlight shimmering on the water behind the fireweed caught my eye, and I tried to capture the dreamy feeling using multiple exposures and a slow shutter.

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In the Forest

We’ve just returned from a visit with our daughter’s family in Alaska. My camera got a workout taking dozens of senior photos of our oldest grandson, and lots of ICM photos of places we’ve visited many times, trying to capture them in a different way. The photos here taken on a short hike to a spot we had never visited before- Barbara Falls in Eagle River. I took the photo above as we walked along and the more traditional photo below of the falls themselves. Quite a contrast to Arizona!

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Checking the Boxes

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?

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Downtown Squares

A couple months ago I went on a photo walk with 3 other members of my Monday photo group. We walked around Cortez Street and the alleyway taking photos of whatever caught our fancy. I remembered what fun it was the other day and created a little grid of some of the details.

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Colors of Kansas

We visited the tiny family cemetery when we were in Kansas a few weeks ago. After taking time to look at the graves of so many members of Lonnie’s family- ones I knew and those whose names I knew only from genealogy research- I stood and looked down at the fields and trees of Manchester, the tiny community where Lonnie’s grandparents lived, trying to sear it all into my brain, as this was probably our last visit. I love the varying hues and tones of the fields and composed a quick ICM image to remember these last moments.

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Analog

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!

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Saguaro Portrait

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.

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