Spirit of the Mountain

I took photos from different angles and decided the mountain in the back ground would please Allan Houser, the sculptor.

Spirit of the Wind

Spirit of the Wind by Allan Houser is at the Phoenix Botanical Gardens. http://www.dbg.org/ links you to the Botanical Gardens. http://houserphoenix.org/about.html links you to the connection between the Heard Museum and the Botanical Gardens that are both showing Allan Houser's art. I enjoyed several hours of shooting pictures. I will show some of my favorites over the next few days.

Up close?

These two pictures were taken from the same spot. All I changed was the zoom of the lens. Zooming the lens flattened the image, until the mountain and the sculpture look like they are very close, instead of far apart.

Celebrating

Up close and personal. I finally uploaded my pictures from graduation day. I am so happy to be done.

After Chirstmas

Yup, after Christmas blahs. I hope to recover in a shorter period of time this year.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve

Last ditch effort after struggling to stay off the naughty list. How can Santa resist?

Snowbirds

Ever wonder where birds go when they fly south? They come to Phoenix. Geese and many other birds come here to enjoy the warmer weather. Trying to snap their pictures as they swoop through is a bit of a trick on cloudy mornings.

Duck

I chuckle every time I see the ducks that are really standing on the rocks. I enjoy nature's little tricks.

Birds in the water

Out on the lake these two birds were having a marvelous time. I tried to capture their playfulness. I haven't had time to play lately. Need to add play to my schedule. :)

I'm back

Hi-
I'm back from all the excitement of the end of the semester, finishing my book, and graduating with a Bachelors of Fine Art in Photography. Christmas is the worse possible time of the year to be job hunting. Time for a brief mini vacation, and printing resumes with my updated information. This is one of my photographs from a year ago. I still like abstractions and pictures that seem not to mean anything. To me, I was fascinated by the bougainvillea leaves sprinkled amongst the succulent plants. Contrast of color and textures. Enjoy!

Inadequate

Sometimes the smallness of the image and the inadequacies of the internet keeps me from sharing how truly stunning this looked. My camera can get it, but it needs to be printed about 16 x 20 or bigger.

Soaring

I am always amazed by how beautiful a bird soaring looks.

Try again

Tried again to see if I could get it a little more natural looking. I think it is a bit better. Thanks for the suggestion.

Improvement?

Animal shots at night are difficult. Flash photography is so common, the bright eyes, look more natural then the ones I photoshopped back to black. What will it take to make it look natural?

Goin' Fish'n

Yup, caught the fish. I couldn't snap fast enough. Every once in a while video would be useful.

Hello Moon

I fell in love with the moon when I was a child watching the moon launches and Ansel Adams pictures used to convince the American public the importance of Man walking on the moon. I am old enough to have lived through history in the making. I enjoyed the past couple of weeks of the moon not setting until after sunrise. I need a better zoom.

Only Phoenix

Early morning hours the sprinklers come on and the water turns to ice on each blade of grass. The neighbor slowed his car when he saw me lying on the driveway. He smiled and waved after I got up holding my camera.

Morning lake

Wow! I love it when I can capture the feel of the morning.

Early Morning

Rewarded myself with an early morning trip to Phoenix Mountains. Winter is lovely since you don't have to get up so early for Sunrise. :)

Bird

Just a bird. Nothing special. I don't even know what type. Just a bird.

Ready, Set, Action

More homework. :( I am so ready for school to be done. No time for picture taking so pulled these up from my day with Maui. I enjoyed that day.

Light in the blossom

I was able to get the glowing of the sun at the center of this trumpeter flower. I needed something interesting and different. I just spent most of the week finishing three major projects for school. Graduation in less than 3 weeks. I will soon be counting the days, which is 17 at this point.

Water

I am totally intrigued by the many moods and looks of water. Slightly chilly, blustery morning by the park lake. I am trying to capture the water's restlessness. I am not sure I succeeded.

Looking for Breakfast

Thanksgiving morning our friendly neighborhood osprey checked out the park lake for breakfast. Unfortunately, he found breakfast across the lake and the camera couldn't get a good shot.

Thankful for the year

Gratitude fills my heart on Thanksgiving Eve. I chose 3 pictures from this past year, one about beginnings, one about endings, and one about wonder. This was a spectacular year. I worked so hard all year to finish my degree in Photography. In one month, I will officially graduate. I am so excited.

One in the Show

Woohoo!! One of my pictures made it into the show juried by Joel Meyerowitz. His web page is http://www.joelmeyerowitz.com/ I went to his presentation and found out he was the photographer picked to photographically record the aftermath of 9/11. He also spoke to the ASU photo club about what choices he has made as a photographer. I enjoyed what he shared. The show will be at Northlight Gallery at ASU Feb 2010.

Tree

This is my favorite tree. I have a long history with it. I chuckled, when I saw that they have added supports for the tree. I got up in the tree to take some inside pictures. Fortunately, the branches are low to the ground, so that when I fell out of the tree I didn't have far to go. I protected my camera from the fall, in the process, kept myself from breaking my arm. I am amazed that I have no bruising from the activity. I need to work on paying attention where I am when taking pictures. When standing in a tree, do not lean a little further to the right to get a better picture.

Blending in

I was flipping through the ground squirrel pictures when I realized how the markings on the squirrel matched the colors on the rocks. With his tail flipped over his back, he looks like the rock just behind him and over a little. The dead give-away is the racing strip on the squirrel.
So cool. :)

New view

I pass dropped oranges on a regular basis, by crouching down, and getting a worm's-eye perspective, the orange takes on a new view.

Where it was

Sometimes all I get is a ripple of where the duck was. The submarine ducks just vanish and you have to scan the lake until you find where they pop up. I noticed that they can go 10 to 20 feet underwater.

Wren

Cactus wren makes their home in the desert. Their long beak helps them eat between the cactus spines. The birds fascinate me in that they make their home in a place considered hostile.

Juried show

These are the top contenders for a juried show I will be entering. I have to choose only four. I like them all, but I need to think about what might go well with other people's work that I haven't seen, an interesting guessing game.