Wildflower Watch

Mar 2

Wildflower Watch

The McDowell Sonoran Conservancy is about to start its annual Wildflower Watch. I was asked to come up with a logo for their Facebook page and here is the result. To get to the Wildflower Watch page, CLICK HERE to the Activities Calendar. Then click on the last tab on the right above the calendar (Special Event-Wildflower Event). Look to the left and click on Wildflower Watch for lots of information including photos of flowers. Poppies captured last year on the Tom’s Thumb trail. (oops…title not centered!)

Mar 1

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Work It!

Today marks the beginning of an “at home” photo challenge called Work It! being conducted through our digital club’s new Meetup Group. If you’ve never heard of Meetup, let me tell you it is truly an amazing organizational tool! Our club has started doing instructional sessions outside of our regular meeting times and Meetup handles all the details. All we have to do is type in where and when and Meetup creates and keeps track of everything including sending reminders to members of upcoming sessions they’ve signed up for. At the moment, we have Meetup sessions in Lightroom, Elements 9, Self Publishing, Basic Composition, a photo outing and an at home project. Meetup provides instant communication between members and we’re able to share photographs. All for a nominal fee per month! Have I mentioned “Best thing since sliced bread” yet? 🙂

My WORK IT submission is a Sunflower purchased yesterday at Trader Joes.

Feb 28

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Snow in the Preserve

More photos from Sunday’s snow appearance. We went out very early knowing it would melt quickly once the sun came up. Because we were trying to see all our favorite areas covered in snow, we moved quickly which meant shooting mostly handheld at a high ISO. Noise was easy to get rid of but the color balance still needs work. I’ll blame it on my monitor since it’s past time to calibrate 🙂

Feb 26

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Field Institute

The McDowell Sonoran Conservancy now has a Field Institute and today was the first day for many members, including me, to collect flora specimens. The goal of the Institute is to document the flora in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve during the next 3 years. Besides being fun, this Flora Survey will be a great opportunity to gain some botanical knowledge. Front and center (holding White RatanBursage) is our fearless leader; botanist Steve Jones.

Feb 25

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Shape Collage

I’m teaching a class in basic compositing next week. These days there are multiple softwares that make the process completely automatic but knowing how to create one from scratch can help you tweak the automatic ones and make them your own.

Pages from my Flora Guide gathered in a ball.

Feb 24

The Arboretum at Flagstaff

Our Spring hasn’t even started and I’m already thinking about Flagstaff in the Summer! Once the weather heats up here and our Wildflowers are gone, we only have to drive two hours to experience mountain flowers. One of my favorite places to visit up north is the Arboretum at Flagstaff. There are 200 gorgeous acres of Pine Forest that hold many interesting themed gardens, a huge pond, trails, buildings and even a Raptor show. Lots to photograph! (Infrared capture with channel swapping to introduce false color.)

Feb 23

Photoshop Filters

The addition of software filters makes this Prickly Pear heart look extra prickly. (Combination of Topaz filters and Lightroom Presets)

Feb 22

Last Light

Our recent rainstorms, have given us the most spectacular orange light at the end of the last two days. Here’s a digital art rendition of that light. (Topaz filters)

conservation photographer

Posts from the ‘Flora’ Category