My first books arrived today and I’m thrilled with them! The quality of the paper and the color rendition is excellent.
In fact, images look exactly as they do on my monitor. The only disappointment is the books are really thin which
is emphasized by the soft cover. A hard cover would be nice but just too expensive.
This afternoon, I finally published two books through Blurb. One features my first Photo a Day Project.
Because that was pre-Lightroom (2007), I totally underestimated the time it would take to put it together!
The other book is a fun one featuring the faces I’ve captured in the Preserve and surrounding desert.
All profit from this book will go to the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy. If you’ve created books thru
Blurb, you know it’s not much but every bit helps!
The next photo walk is Sunday March 8th. We will discuss tips for capturing wildflowers.
Click here for details.
I shot the above photos in my yard this morning. Our neighborhood borders the Preserve so you should be finding these on the trails now! The close-ups show two tips. 1. Fill your frame. 2. Use a large aperture. Below is an excellent video regarding photographing flowers! Her presentation is useful for both compact and SLR camera users.
When you live in the Sonoran Desert, it’s easy to start assigning human characteristics to the giant Saguaro so it’s always sad to see one down. This specimen no doubt lost his footing when the wash he was growing next to grew wider over the years. Rest in peace big guy.
Conditions are looking good for another banner year of wildflowers! A heavy frost would be our only enemy. Below are some early flowers I saw on the MSC hike this morning. Also seen but not pictured are Chuparosa, Fiddleneck and Cryptantha. Most flowers are teeny, tiny so you need to keep a sharp eye out for them!
This morning, I and three other photographers joined MSC steward and Saguaro expert, Dave Lorenz, on a scouting trip for his “Big Saguaro” hike on Sunday. During the hike, we found several unusual Saguaro but this was the best discovery. Dave counted 32 arms! Note also the big shadow in the foreground. It helps show that we really were in the land of giants!
A more acceptable cause of death in Saguaros is an act of nature. In this case, it was probably a lightning strike.
Note: For those digital darkroom users out there, you can probably tell that I’ve been playing with High Dynamic Range (HDR) this week. It’s hard to resist when you have clouds. Forgive me for getting a little carried away sometimes 🙂
It’s been heartbreaking watching these giant 100-200 year old cactus being cut down. According to APS, the water laden cactus could cause potential arcing under the power lines but it seems to me that if the higher ups at APS were educated about the desert, they could have come up with an alternative to destroying so many. Thankfully, a public outcry has influenced APS to reconsider how these giants are removed thus saving some from this fate.
I’ve been hearing about Tres Amigos ever since I first starting hiking with the MSC so I was excited to finally have a chance to photograph them. What makes them unusual is not that there are three standing so close together but that they are in perfect alignment….as if they had been planted. The general consensus is that it’s a fluke but maybe someone planted them about 200 years ago? Either way, they make a wonderful photo op. We’ve been having stormy weather for a few days so I thought these three friends would look great with a kind of antique look.