Where there is no vision, the pictures perish.

In the town where I grew up there was an auto parts store that had a quote from Proverbs painted in large letters on the side of the building:  Where there is no vision, the people cherish.

Well, as you can tell from the title, I am going to paraphrase that just a little:  Where there is no vision, the pictures perish.

When I went outside with my camera to take a picture of this flower, I took my tripod.  I knew I wanted to take a picture of the flower, but I didn't have a vision of what I wanted.  So I just snapped away, trying various compositions.  I didn't even use the tripod.

Now if I had a vision, I would have used the tripod so that I could have closed down the aperture and achieved more depth of field.  But I didn't find this out until I looked at the image on the computer screen.

I don't think my vision would have included a patch of sky peeking through to draw attention away from the flower.  Nor would it have included the light colored rock in the lower left.

And what's up with that tip of a flower petal poking in on the lower right?

Oh well, every experience is a learning opportunity!

Sunset Shadows on Sculpture

It's great to have family and to enjoy their company.  Unfortunately, we don't get to see the ones we love often and long enough.  But last Monday evening, Annette and I went to Gettysburg to see Clayt and Ashley.  We enjoyed it tremendously.

I had my camera and took it out to shoot a tree.  I felt bad about taking time away from Annette, Clayt and Ashley.  So I only took two pictures; neither one quite right.

Then we went over to the Peace Memorial with the "Eternal" flame. On the front of the memorial was this sculpture.  I loved the light on it so I took the time to take three shots of it and then returned to the conversation.

I liked this picture for a couple of reasons.  I like the way the light washes across the sculpture from camera left to camera right.  It shows the "folds" in the dresses.  It makes the birds chest/breast stronger.  It gives dimension to the faces.  Actually it gives dimension to almost every part of the sculpture.

So many photographers when shooting at sunset want that beautiful sky picture, so they face the sun and shoot into the sun. 

And there are some fantastic pictures of sunsets out there!

However, I enjoy looking for the shadows to see how they "inform" the image.  What do the shadows enhance?  What do the shadows hide?

 In the picture above where the man is photographing the sunset (camera left), look at how the main trunk of the tree is darker on the right than on the left.  Look how some of the ridges in the far background are lit and some are not.  And though it is not as obvious, notice how the left side of the tower is brighter than the right.


To do that I look at right angles to the sun light.  Try it.  You might like it!

And now a picture to totally go against what I have been saying.

Along the Apache Trail

As I mentioned before, we drove the Apache Trail.  There is a section of the trail that is 22 miles long that is more like a dirt track.  It is graded well enough that you can take your car on the trail, but there are spots where there are drop off without guard rails and there are sharp turns where the trail is only one vehicle wide.  You better hope you don't meet anyone coming the other way.

Actually there was one spot where we me an Ambulance!!!  Luckily it didn't have its lights and sirens turned on!!.  We just pulled over to the edge of the road.  Again, luckily we were on the side away from the drop-off.  The ambulance and 3-4 cars squeezed past us.  It was interesting to say the least!

This first picture was at the Canyon Lake Vista in Tonto National Forest.  (Of course, you already knew this if you read the sign!)  This was early in the trip so we all jumped out and had to have our pictures taken.

Mom at Canyon Lake Vista

Annette and Mom at the Pavilion at Canyon Lake.

 Mom and Woody at Canyon Lake Vista

 At the end of the dirt portion of the Apache Trail was Roosevelt Dam, which created the reservoir of water in the next picture.  There is also a neat suspension bridge just upstream of the dam.  You can see it behind Mom.

One of the things that I remember about this bridge is that they designed a hump in the road surface.  The sign said that otherwise, it would be a slight optical illusion and people would think that the road was sagging!

Mom at Roosevelt Dam Rest Area

Another highlight of the trip was the boat ride down the Colorado River.  We started at the Glen Canyon Dam and ended at Lee's Ferry.  It took several hours.  I think that sitting on a bench without back support is hard on peoples' backs.  What do you think, Mom?

Woody and Mom in the boat on the Colorado River

Mom at the Grand Canyon and Sedona

Hey! Guess where this first picture was taken! It was interesting that so many people had taken their picture there that the park service actually put up a little post with a platform on top so that you could put your camera there, activate the self-timer and then run and get in the picture. I think I did that with this one. There was another one where a guy waiting his turn took the picture.

There is a picture at the bottom of this post that shows Mom near the edge of the Grand Canyon. Of course, Mom chose a spot where there was plenty of rock beside the path so she couldn't see into the canyon.

In case you didn't know, Mom is very afraid of heights. Maybe I get it honestly!

The picture with the white Suburbans was taken after we got back from the hot air balloon flight. Can you pick our Mom? Hint: See what she is wearing in the next picture.

Speaking of the next picture...Doesn't Mom look so relaxed and peaceful in the hot air balloon? Or is that a death-grip on the side of the basket???

Actually it was a very peaceful ride. There was no wind so we didn't go far; about 2 miles in an hour and a half! The landing was absolutely marvelous. We hardly felt it when we touched down.

Sorry about the order of the pictures. I haven't figured out how to use this Blogger, yet.

Mom/Nana in Arizona

For this vacation in Arizona, Annette and I decided to take Mom. We wanted her to see landscapes, vegetation and other things that she had never seen before. I think we accomplished that. She said several times that she could not even imagine such geography/landscapes.

We also wanted for all of us to have some fun. I think the pictures in the this blog and the next couple will show that we were at least able to get some smiles out of Mom.

On the first Saturday that we in Arizona, we went over and visited Annette's Aunt Sandy. Annette and Sandy were like giggly school girls and I think they got Mom into the act.

I'm not quite sure where this picture was taken. We were on the road between here and there and I saw a pull-off for an overlook so I whipped the car in. I think I scared Mom.

This picture of Mom waving is at the overlook for Spider Rock at Canyon de Chelly (pronounced de shay).

I wonder if we could control Mom?!?! (See the sign) She was the first one down the path, all the way to the end. Of course, Annette and I had to get pictures along the way. Annette was the last one to the car. I hope she got great pictures.



One of the highlights of the trip was the Jeep Tour in Canyon de Chelly. Mom liked Eleanor, the tour guide. Of course, Mom never met some one she didn't like!

The great part was that most of the driving was in the middle of the river! We all got a little bit of water sprayed on us.

The cliffs were great. There were many cliff dwellings. It makes you wonder how those people lived up there.





We took the Apache Trail from Apache Junction over to Roosevelt Dam. One of the only places along the trail was Tortilla Flats, which was just a collection of a half dozen buildings with restaurants, Ice Cream shops and the like.

We found this interesting "artifact" (the seat or Mom?) in Tortilla Flats.

Grand Canyon, Glen Canyon

May 15, 2010

Annette and I allowed ourselves to sleep a little later this morning. We got up at 5:00 a.m.!!

This allowed us enough time to throw on some clothes and walk down to the rim behind El Tovar before the sun came up over the horizon. We got some great pictures.

Again, it was a wonderful experience to watch the sun come up and to see the light change on the rocks and cliffs of the Grand Canyon.

Also, it was the right tactic for me to go to different spots for each sunrise. Although they are similar, there are differences in all of the spots. Some have more reds. Some rocks are almost white. The way the light strikes them changes them.

The changing light from sunrise, to midday to sunset, makes any spot in the canyon change and morph throughout the day. In some spots the reds are best with sunrise. But yet I saw some vivid reds in the midday sun. Sunset light shines differently still.

So after breakfast we started on our way to Page, AZ, where we were going to take a still water raft ride on the Colorado River. We needed to be at the meeting place at 12:30. I thought I allowed enough time, but when we plugged the address into the GPS, it said we wouldn't be there until after 1:00 p.m. Woah!! What a shock. We better get moving!

But then Annette smartly checked the current time on the GPS and found that it was an hour ahead of what we thought it was. Whew! We might just make it!

Even though we stopped at a roadside Indian craft stand, we made it to the meeting place by 12:15. they told us to meet out front at 1:00, so we went to the car and made sandwiches.

After a brief orientation session, we were loaded onto buses for the trip to the base of the Glen Canyon Dam. The guide said that this dam was wider than Hoover Dam!

On the way to the dam we went through a 2 mile long access tunnel. Every so often there were side tunnels that went out toward the river. Each of these side tunnels gave us a blast of light as we passed. If you ever go on this trip and they ask you how many of these side tunnels there are, tell them 18!

When we got off of the bus we had to wear hard hats. It seems that people like to throw coins off of the bridge. They try to hit the river but are rarely successful. The coins land on the path and possibly on the people getting off of the bus. Our group ran the gauntlet without incident!

The float trip down the river was very good. It was amazing to see the canyon walls from the river's perspective.

I thought the trip would take 3-4 hours, but from the time that we left the store until we returned it was closer to five hours.

Sitting on the bench on the boat for 3-4 hours began to make Mom's back hurt. But she was a trooper. She made it.

We were going to eat at the Dam Bar and grill in the Dam Plaza, but it looked a little too much like a bar. So we settled for an Italian restaurant in the Dam Plaza.

Arizona Highways

May 15, 2010

A lot of driving today. And these Arizona roads can be bears to deal with. They are long and straight and the view changes very slowly. You can see the mountains coming for miles and miles.

Now, just to contradict what I just said, we were amazed at how quickly the terrain and vegetation changed.

We was the vegetation go from scrubby little bushes to Ponderosa pines in a matter of 10's of miles. Amazing!

But back to the long straight roads. It is so tempting to let your speed creep up to 80 MPH and beyond. But you don't know where the cops are. You don't know when an animal will pop out onto the road. And you don't know when the next bend in the road will appear. Gotta stay alert!

And you know you should always be a lert. The world needs more lerts!

However, staying alert is a problem. The long roads are sometimes boring. they lure you into a sense of serenity or inactivity. But pay attention! You are hurtling down the road at 70 MPH or more! Things happen fast!