Postcard from Tucson – La Placita Village

You want color? You got it. This is La Placita Village, located in downtown Tucson. Simply put, it is a collection of 10 adobe, brick, and wood frame buildings that are used as an office and restaurant complex. It was built to resemble a Mexican marketplace. It is also the home of the Tucson Visitor’s Center, so if you come here, you will probably want to stop by anyway.

Regardless, you will never see a greater collection of colors in any one place. All the buildings use very bold colors, making it a photographers dream.

I believe I showed you another picture of this place some time ago. But, in going through my collection, I came across this one and had to put it up here.

As I’ve mentioned before, I am continuing to put new pictures on line at my revised Website. The latest are new photos from Tucson and Yosemite, with many more coming.

Please stop by if you have a chance.

Postcard from Yosemite – El Capitan in Autumn

This is a slightly different view of the Yosemite’s granite monolith. The most famous photographs of El Capitan are taken from the west side. This one is more to the the east.

I like it because it is a different view than most and, of course, it has a beautiful row of trees bearing their autumn leaves directly in front. Leave it to me to be different.

The sky is darkened quite a bit, thanks mostly to the polarizing filter I used in front of the lens when I shot this picture. I also darkened it a little bit more in post processing.

El Capitan, all three thousand feet of it, is one of America’s foremost challenges for rock climbers. Almost any time of the year, you can see climbers daring to make the ascent. There are dozens of different routes, none of them easy. It can take a few days to get to the top, although the current speed climbing record is 2.5 hours, if you can believe that. I am not sure how that works.

All I know is that I love Yosemite, El Capitan, and this image.

Picture of the Day – Bent Cactus at Sunset

My last blog featured a photo from Mission San Xavier del Bac, just south of Tucson. This cactus photo was also taken there, a little later in that same day, at sunset, to be precise.

In fact, if you look at the picture from the last blog, you can see this very cactus way off in the distance. But, of course, I shot this image with the sun already set below the horizon. The clouds that day just begged to be photographed, so I did.

I’ve written here before about the fantastic sunsets we have here in southern Arizona, and even shared some images with you. Add this one to the list.

Postcard from Tucson –Mission San Xavier

This photo was taken at a lovely old mission church, whose full name is San Xavier del Bac. It lies just south of the outskirts of Tucson. Construction was completed in 1797, making it one of Arizona’s older structures.

San Xavier Mission is acclaimed by many to be the finest example of mission architecture in the United States. It is a graceful blend of Moorish, Byzantine and late Mexican Renaissance architecture, yet the blending is so complete it is hard to tell where one type begins and another ends.

It is a favorite site for many photographers over the years, including my hero Ansel Adams. A while back, I showed you a wonderful sunset picture taken on this same day back in January 2008. This portal photo was taken on the same day. I should go back soon as the day I was there, part of the church was covered in scaffolding as part of a restoration project.

Postcard from Bisbee – Stairs

When I wrote my first blog about Bisbee, I mentioned the city was built on hills and that there were a great many stairs all over town. So, I decided to show you a couple of them.

And, believe me, there are many, many more…some interesting, some very plain. I noticed there was one that was very long and not real interesting that was the subject of a “Save Our Stairs” campaign. I hope they do…maybe even spice it up a little bit.

In some ways, Bisbee with its stairs reminds me of two other similarly-built cities…San Francisco and Ketchikan, Alaska. San Francisco, of course is much, much bigger, but you would be surprised at the number of stairs you will find spread around the city…especially on Russian Hill.

As for Ketchikan, it was difficult for me to go hunting for stairs there as it rains every day and I was only there for 24 hours before I had to catch another ferry. But that is a story for another day.

I do hope some of you get to visit Bisbee. Bring your cameras and your walking shoes as you may have to do some climbing. Adios for now.

Postcard from Quartzite – Just a Rock

I took this image in Quartzite, AZ, a small town in the desert just over the AZ border. It lies on Interstate 10, the road from L.A. to Phoenix. It is always worth a stop there, but only in fall, winter spring when there are rock and gem shows, RV shows, and every other kind of show you can think of. It is a very different place, to put it mildly.

This little town of 7,000 people attracts some 1.5 million visitors a year, many of them snowbirds who dry camp out in the desert; or those who are passing through, but always make it a point to stop here.

Right across from Carl’s Jr. restaurant is a large rock shop with all kinds of rocks and gems for sale. I have stopped there a couple of times, camera in hand, and took several pictures. You have seen some of them here already. Once, an old desert rat took me on a tour of the place so I could see some of the real gems of the collections (no pun intended).

This was one of the large rocks he showed me. Of course, in the digital darkroom, I really made it explode with color. That is the fun of images like this, making them different…and even abstract…taking it even further out than God intended. I mean, what else can you do with rock anyway?

Be sure to click on the photo to see a larger image of it.

Postcard from Soap Lake – Making it Better

I shared this photo with you some time ago…but I want to share it again today because I think I have made it better.

As I’ve said here before, I am always experimenting with new filters and techniques in Lightroom and Photoshop. I was doing that very thing today while working on my new Web site. Specifically, I was picking out some of my better photos to display in a slide show on one of the new pages.

I came across this lovely double rainbow just north of Soap Lake, WA. And having recently discovered with some new filters and effects, I decided to try them on this image. Well, I am so pleased and excited with the results I wanted to show you today. You can click on the image and see it in a larger size. Recommended.

So, I hope you will forgive me for showing you the same image twice…but this one just shines (forgive the pun).