Nov 27
There are some Buckwheats blooming right now. This, I believe, is Wrights Buckwheat. Two other much smaller buckwheats, commonly called Skeleton Weed, turn red as they age. I’ll bet you’ve noticed these small plants along the trails in the Preserve and along roadsides but have you taken a really close look? They have tiny very similar flowers to this Buckwheat but the same Pink Pollen!
Nov 23
This past Sunday, I assisted MSC Steward Dave Lorenz on his “Life of a Saguaro” hike. As we were leaving one of his lecture stops, I spotted a possible framing opportunity in these two giant Saguaro. Having a camera with an articulating screen (Canon SX1) allowed me to hold the camera at arms length and and yet still be able to line up the Saguaro in the distance. I then just waited for the hikers to go by and fired off several frames. Cool!
MSC Steward Dave Lorenz leading hikers on the Saguaro Loop.
Nov 20
Fleabane (a member of the Aster family) got its name from a reputation of killing or driving away fleas. That’s good to know but the plant is few and far between so since I haven’t seen a flea in almost 17 years, there must be something else here in Arizona they don’t like! (Blended with a couple of textures.)
Nov 19
We encountered this magnificent Cottonwood tree along the trail to Lower Pine Creek Falls in Zion. It’s very close to the creek so the roots are being bared a little more each time it overflows making the tree twist and turn to survive. Richard and I stopped and photographed it for quite awhile making Chris wonder what happened to us 🙂
Taken with my Canon 10-22m lens which can produce great wide angle macros.
Nov 17
Sunflowers from this past summer with a textured blue sky.
Nov 16
A plant coming up in your yard (or anywhere) is often called a “volunteer”. This one is a beauty (to me anyway) with tiny 1/4 inch translucent cream colored flowers that appear along the stems at every leaf location. I put down topsoil during my landscaping project and hoped I would have some interesting plants pop up so I was happy to see it. I have no idea what it is but as soon as I find out, I will edit this post.
UPDATE: Unfortunately, it’s Russian Thistle. See comment below.
Nov 14
I shot this and many other images of Dandelion seed heads this past Spring with texture blending in mind. The process is very easy but success can be hit or miss depending on the type and color of texture you use on top of your image. This was one of the rare times when it worked perfectly. I love how it came together.
I applied 4 textures downloaded free from Image Abstraction and Flickr.
Nov 12
I captured this amazing Cottonwood scene in the fall of 2001. It was our second trip to Canyonlands but the first in the fall and boy did we hit a good year. Besides the trees, the shrubbery really caught my eye because it was also surprisingly colorful. We’ve been back several times in the fall and I always check on this area but it has never looked this amazing.
Shot with Minolta Dimage 7 (my first digital)
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