Backyard wildlife

Anyone who has lived in Tucson for a while is familiar with back yard lizards. Apparently, the Desert Spiny Lizard is the most common of the bunch. I've always called them "alligators" due to their relatively large size and fearlessness. They're also "push-up lizards" to me because they do a defensive pumping posture that looks just like a human doing push-ups. This one was on a friend's back wall and let me get very close. Would have been a great time for a macro lens, but one can't be choosy when a photo op presents itself.

4th Avenue Street Fair

One of our assignments in photography class was to put together a series of panoramic images. The images had to have a minimum of 6 source photos, and there was no maximum. While at the 4th Avenue street fair this past spring, I snapped a series of shots of the Chocolate Iguana while waiting for my friend and her kids to wrap up inside. It turned out to be one of my favorite panoramas ever.



My friend's son is in the red shirt on the left. Then you see the tents of the street fair marching down 4th Ave. My friend and her daughter are in the door of the cafe, and then, on the right side of the building, there's a dove I happened to catch in mid-flight. It's a great little slice of life photo from a very fun outing.

Chihuly glass at the Desert Botanical Garden

I visited the Desert Botanical Garden (in Phoenix, AZ) this past weekend, and came away with almost 200 photos. There's an incredible exhibit there by glass artist Dale Chihuly. He has created amazing forms with colored glass and integrated them into the desert landscape. Some are huge pieces of sculpture and some are small forms which are easy to overlook. I had the good fortune to be there in the late afternoon when the sunlight slanted through and made everything glow. We stayed on after dark and did another circuit of the park to see the glass forms take center stage. Incredible! Here's one of the more subtle pieces:

4th Avenue Street Fair

4th Avenue is known for being a haven of alternative lifestyles and funky shops. You'll always find people sporting dreadlocks, or exotic ethnic clothing, or something outside the norm. These drummers were in one of the first tents we came to - 4th Avenue in a nutshell.

Tucson Festival of Books

I spent most of the day at the Festival of Books, and caught this great balloon artist near the entrance to the children's area.

Sometimes it just works...

I have a new camera, and I've been terribly lax in posting new images. It's amazing going from a point & shoot digital to a shiny, new DSLR, but there's a pretty steep learning curve in the beginning. Luckily, I have quite a few subjects on which to practice. This past weekend, I spent some time chasing the cats around my friend's house. I was focused on one cat when I felt a whisker tickle my arm from behind. I swung the camera over my shoulder, and snapped a picture on the fly. I love the result - a cat candid without any the benefit of the viewfinder or LCD screen - and it worked wonderfully. As my friend said, having a great model helps, too.

Vintage planes

On Saturday, some friends and I visited the Pima Air & Space Museum. I'm not much of a gearhead, but I love museums, and I love the lore and pop culture surrounding aviation, so this was a great trip. Here's one of my favorite planes, an old TWA "Constellation".

Downtown Tucson

Ah, it's good to be back. A friend came in from out of town, so we did the whirlwind tour of the major sites in Tucson. A trip to the Pima Air & Space Museum led us to A-Mountain (Sentinel Peak) at sunset. It was breezy, and tough to take clear shots even with a tripod, but a few came out pretty well. Here's downtown as seen from just below the "A" on the mountain. The big white tents near the highway are for the upcomming Gem & Mineral Show - one of our biggest events of the year.