This little gate caught my eye as we were walking to the petroglyph site the other day.
Petroglyphs
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!
Sonoran Light, Part 3
Even in the day time the water towers in the Sonoran Light exhibit at Phoenix’s DBG were impressive.
Sonoran Light, Part 2
There were other light installations besides the wonderful water towers. Here’s that bejeweled hill again- this time with cacti in the foreground.
The lights continually changed colors, making an ever-changing display.
Here’s what the lights at the bottom of the hill look like up close. Notice that they have changed color!
And last, but not least, here is one of several beautiful hanging light sculptures, which rotated slowly as we walked by:
Sonoran Light
Sunday night we visited Phoenix’s Desert Botanical Garden for the Sonoran Light exhibit by Bruce Munro. We got there around 5pm, before sunset to see the plants and to preview the installation before it got dark. We stopped for snacks after the sun went down- and then ventured back out on the now dim and crowded garden paths.
This post could easily be titled “Stumbling Around in the Dark.” I have new appreciation for my photo buddy, Carol, of In Focus Daily as she walks along jungle paths at night lugging all her camera gear. At one point I simply lost my balance and fell over! And then there was the problem of attaching my camera to the tripod and adjusting my settings in the dark! Lonnie learned how to work the flashlight on his new iPhone finally which helped- but didn’t save me from accidentally changing from RAW to jpg file format in the dark.
Below are some images of Water Towers, a huge installation of water bottles that lit up and changed color. Using a long exposure was a bit tricky as people continually walked in front of the lens- sometimes not even showing up in the photo. I am not very experienced in night photography, so I just went with the flow- and it was fun!
Here is a view of the general scene- note the lights on the hill in the background!
A closer look:
And even closer:
I’ll be posting more photos from Sonoran Light as the week goes by. By the way- these were all jpgs.
Flower and Sticks Times Two
I was somehow compelled to stick a sunflower in with my branches and kind of liked the contrast between the shapes (and of course the lensbaby blur). So here is the result- two ways.
Vintage
Just a book and a rose. . .
Playing with Sticks
More branches in a jar. This was shot with the Lensbaby Edge 80 again, but then I used an oil painting filter in Topaz Impression and a Flypaper texture after that. Yup- just playing with sticks. . .
The Berries- again
I found a couple other shots I took when I was taking my berry still life for my class. These were taken before or after- without a tripod, because I couldn’t get high enough with the tripod. I used a shallow depth of field for fun- and I guess I wasn’t very steady on the stepstool, because these would definitely not pass the sharpness test! I like them anyway.
BTW, my hummingbird passed muster yesterday in my new photo class. I wondered how people (especially the instructor) would respond to the background, which had been edited using Topaz Impression- but they were fine with it. If you read my blog regularly, you’ll recognize this photo from last summer. The only critiques were some thought the little twig under the hummingbird could be cloned out, and one person would have liked a closed beak. One thing I’m learning is that people have differing opinions of each other’s work- and it’s all ok. It’s a very nice group of people, which makes it all easier.
Bone Structure
“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape.
Something waits beneath it; the whole story doesn’t show.”
– Andrew Wyeth
Iris Play
I had some fun with the edit on this iris photo. I took it into Topaz Impression twice (two different layers in Photoshop) and added a texture as well. This is therapy for me!
Full of Beans
When I was a little girl, I was fascinated with the antique gold pencil that was kept in the chest that held the good silver. My mother said it belonged to a great-great grandmother, but that I was not named after her- which was obvious to me, because Melinda was SPELLED WRONG! My mother was not particularly interested in family history, but I was, even at a young age. I wondered who that Malinda could be (and why her named was spelled wrong).
Of course, I didn’t realize at that time that variations in spelling are the norm rather than the exception in genealogy- as are inaccurate family stories. When I started doing genealogical research, I discovered that Malinda Tucker was actually the second wife of my great-great grandfather, Luther Bean, whom he married after my great-great grandmother died. My mother’s mother would turn out to be Luther’s only heir after her aunt died, so we have quite a few of his things.
As you can see by examining the photo, he was in the Civil War as a surgeon. He grew up in New Hampshire, and he and my great-great grandmother, came from a long line of New Englanders- going all the way back to the early colonists (right AFTER the Mayflower). Later in life he moved to Waukegan, Illinois, where he continued to practice medicine.
Another inaccurate (I think) family story was that I had a great-grandfather who was in the battle of the Monitor vs the Merrimack, which I learned about in school. I remember being proud to tell my sixth grade class all about it- minus the name of this mysterious great-grandfather. I have searched and have yet to find him, the most likely candidate being Luther- but there is no record of this in his service record that I can find. This story may be as false as the story that my husband’s grandfather was “half Indian”- and his mother grew up on a reservation in Oklahoma. Wrong!
Oh- about the spelling of Malinda/Melinda– on her gravestone, her name is spelled with an E, like mine!
Photography note: the gold lines under the pencil in the top photo are reflections.
Tulip Impressions
What can I say?- I am in the mood for BLUR!
These photos were shot with the Lensbaby Velvet 56; the resulting softness was further emphasized by editing with Topaz Impression.
Company Came!
Yesterday we woke up to a couple inches of snow on the ground- which quickly became 4 or 5 inches at least, as it snowed steadily all day. It is super cold, as it was during and after our last snowstorm, so snow is still on the ground- unlike in our first two winters here, when it all melted away by noon. We are experiencing a real winter in the Arizona high country!
Around noon, my husband spotted this hawk sitting quietly on one of the birdhouses. It was snowing lightly at the time, and the wind was blowing. I’m not sure if he was just resting or was waiting for the birds that frequent the bird feeders in this part of the yard. I posted a shot of him on Facebook, and it was suggested he was either a Copper’s hawk or a Sharp-Shinned Hawk. I didn’t enter the debate (I have no confidence in this area), but I did read that even experienced birders have trouble telling them apart.
For the above image, I cloned out all the distracting branches and the rocks on the hill in the background, and then added a texture at low opacity to make the background less stark. Below is a more natural photo- with the branches and background clutter. Both photos were taken through a bedroom window, and he was definitely aware of my presence!
Sun, Snow, and Steam
I couldn’t resist- here’s another image from our visit to Mammoth Hot Springs. . .
melinda anderson photography 