I have been doing Freelance Photography for more than 20 years. / I Tarvel so that I can Snap That “Certain” Picture that jumps out at me….
I have been doing Freelance Photography for more than 20 years. / I Tarvel so that I can Snap That “Certain” Picture that jumps out at me.In a Moments Notice I will catch”That” picture. / I have found that you will get the best photo when you least expect it..So always have your camera ready. / I never leave home without mine. The littlest object, can make a picture worth a Million. Stop by and tell me what you think of my photos.I am new here,would like to meet fellow Photographers,aswell as friends.
Folks, Thank you for the VERY warm welcome I received here. This site is a really good fit for me; I love it here. Already someone has…
Folks, Thank you for the VERY warm welcome I received here. This site is a really good fit for me; I love it here. Already someone has bought my art. That’s awesome! One of the special features I love is the fact I can add an art work to one of my groups just by checking the box! What a great idea! Hopefully, there will be more connectivity, such as clickable links. I’d like to see the archives of the bubblemail I’ve sent, but I can’t find it. If someone knows, let ME know! Thanks! I’ll try to tell a little about myself from time to time, and the work I have been doing. Today, it will be about my photography. I first got serious about photography 50 years ago when I joined the photography club at school. I was able to use the darkroom. It was very interesting, and I enjoyed it a lot, though that was the end of my darkroom career, after that year. That’s OK. At that time, it was pretty much just black and white, though my dad started taking color slides before that. But I couldn’t afford that. Somewhere, he scrounged an old reel of unexposed 35mm film, which I sliced and loaded in cans myself. After that, I didn’t do much with photography until about ten years ago, mostly from lack of time. At that point, I suddenly became more free to do stuff like that because the last of my kids had left home, and I had finished taking care of my mother-in-law. That’s about when I got on the internet, too. I spend most of my time on the internet these days, but I also take trips to do photography. Every time I have an occasion to go somewhere else, I pack a pile of camera equipment, though if the restrictions on airlines get any worse, I probably won’t be flying much. But that’s OK, because I can always drive. :) Most of my photography is done in or around Arizona, but I have also been other places. In particular, I was delighted to be able to go to the ocean in Maine and Massachusetts. I need to go back; you don’t do all the ocean photography you want to do in a couple of days. For one thing, you have to wait for the right skies, and that’s not easy, though I did luck out some of the time. I also got to go to an awesome botanical garden and butterfly pavilion there. In Arizona, I have been all over the state, from south to north, west, and so forth. In the south, I have been to Nogales, Sonoita, Parker Canyon Lake, Patagonia Lake, the Catalina Mountains, the Santa Rita Mountains, the Rincon Mountains, the Tucson Mountains, the Silverbell Mountains, Kitt Peak and the Quinlan Mountains, Organpipe Cactus National Monument, Ajo, Yuma, Castle Rock Wilderness (thereby hangs a tale, which I’ll tell sometime), moving north, Phoenix, White Tank Mountains, Globe, Prescott, Sedona, Lake Havasu (and the London Bridge), Flagstaff and the San Francisco Peaks, Cosanti, Arcosanti, Biosphere II, Sunset Crater, Meteor Crater, Painted Desert, Petrified Forest, Wupatki Ruins, Toozigoot, Horseshoe Bend, Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, Glen Canyon, the Vermilion Cliffs, Antelope Canyon, Jerome and some places within some of these destinations, and probably some places I can’t remember. In Utah, I have been to Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, and Grand Staircase/Escalante. I have more trips into Utah and New Mexico planned. You will get to see some of my photography from all these places. I have also photographed many animals and plants, and have studied the ethnobotany of the Sonoran Desert. I have been preparing a book on this subject, and I have taken thousands of photographs of plants for it. Some of them are good enough to show you, so I’ll be doing that. I frequently go to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, which has plants, birds, insects, animals, and many other creatures of the desert. Arizona has 8 species of hummingbirds, and I have photographed five of them. I also was able to photograph birds in their other aviary. About half my wild animal photos were actually taken in the wild, and the rest mostly at the Museum. I also go to the zoo and the botanical gardens less often. The butterfly photos I have taken in southern Arizona were taken in a butterfly garden, so they are technically wild and free. The butterfly pavilion in Phoenix is enclosed, as is the annual tropical butterfly display at the Tucson Botanical Gardens. I have photographed quite a few insects inside my home! It’s interesting sharing my home with all these critters. Most of them are perfectly OK with me. The only ones I don’t like are the ones that bite and sting. At the museum, I have been able to photograph a number of large cats of Arizona, bighorn sheep, jaguarundi, otters, coyotes, bears, deer, iguanas and collared lizards (in the wild, especially), prairie dogs, and many more. We have had javelina living here on our property, and they are not the least afraid of us. So I have gotten a number of closeups. They’re supposed to be dangerous, but as long as they are hungry or thirsty and you don’t corner them or threaten their young, they won’t bother you, though they look fierce enough! Some of the flowers I have photographed are so tiny (1/4” across, for example) you have to get on your belly to see them. We call these “belly flowers” for that reason. To begin with, I didn’t have a decent macro lens, so I reverse-mounted my 55mm with a string of closeup lenses on it, and was able to photograph belly flowers with that setup. Other flowers are spectacular, like the cactus flowers (hedgehog, saguaro, organpipe, claret cups, prickly pear, torch cactus, and cholla), and others are downright peculiar, like the flowers of the Ephedra plant (from which pseudephedrin was developed). It looks like nothing but a bunch of vaguely green stalks, and the flowers have no petals at all! I got pictures of the flowers at Picacho Peak, another place I’ve been. Picacho Peak was the site of the westernmost battle in the Civil War. Some flowers are edible. I like the petals of prickly pear and cholla, and I eat the whole flower of the palo verde tree. The palo verde (“green trunk” in Spanish) has chlorophyll in the trunk, and during the part of the year when it has no leaves, it makes food for itself in its trunk. The beans are very good when they are not fully developed and still green, but they’re a pain to pick out of the shell, one at a time. They taste like green peas, but sweeter. Another flower I like is the ocotillo flower. I like to pick those, stuff a gallon jar full of them, fill it with water, and leave it in the refrigerator for about 18 hours. It makes a wonderful punch. People like to cut the branches and tie them together to make fences. If you stick the end in the ground, it might take root, and then you will have a green fence! Hummingbirds like the flowers, and I like suck on them like honeysuckle. The bark is used medicinally for female troubles. Maybe sometime I’ll tell you more about the medicinal uses of various plants. There are a number of stinging insects in the Sonoran Desert. We have several kinds of bees (including killer bees at this point), wasps, yellow jackets, and so forth. We also have more than one size of red and black ants. There is a very unpretentious plant called Sand Spurge which has tiny leaves and lies on the ground, with belly flowers. It is a member of the Euphorbia family, and has a milky juice. If you put that juice on the sting, it will take the pain right out! You can also take the pain out by cutting a chunk of prickly pear and laying the inside on the skin. Be sure and make it large enough, because otherwise you will be pain free in the center, but as the venom spreads outside the area under the chunk, it will hurt! If none of these are available, a paste of water and baking soda works well. I’ll tell you more about the other insects in the future. I do tell people, if you can’t stand the critters, you don’t belong in the desert! The fruit of all native cactus is edible. I like to juice prickly pear fruit and drink it fresh. I like eating saguaro fruit right off the cactus, IF I can reach it. Hedgehog fruit tastes somewhat like strawberries, and you can also eat the flesh, but don’t eat it when it’s cold, because it will cool you down some more. Also, they are endangered, so don’t eat them much. I also like some of the berries. Wolfberries and hackberries are wonderful, but very small, so you have to eat a lot of them to get a real meal from them. The seeds are also edible, as are the seeds of the barrel cactus. The fruit of the barrel has the texture of very firm green peppers, and tastes like lime when green and lemon when yellow. One of my favorite foods is chia seeds, but it’s very hard to harvest enough of them. So I buy them. People sometimes plant pyracantha in the city. It’s not native. But the berries are edible. Prickly pear pads can be boiled and eaten; make sure the prickly pear is standing upright. The best are the young pads before the “leaves” form into thorns. They’re called “nopalitos” by the Spanish-speaking people, and they are delicious! You have to cook them about five minutes in lightly salted boiling water three times, changing water in between. Then you can mix it with your favorite meat chili or other good ingredients. Well, I could tell you about all the other edible things, but that will give you an idea. It would be difficult to survive in the desert any time of the year, but not impossible. See ya!
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WhoooooHooooo, Superdepuper!!!!! / A second feature for Almost Night Mojave Desert! / Thank you so very much to Joshua the Host of the group Night Photography fantastic job!!! Happy Dance Day, Joke ;-)
Today my work Joshua Tree National Park – A Landscape to Die For was featured in the group Mornings & Evenings – Sunbeams & Storms...
Today my work Joshua Tree National Park – A Landscape to Die For was featured in the group Mornings & Evenings – Sunbeams & Storms / / A big Thank You to this wonderful, supportive group that is so many great artists.
Ripples in Kelso’s Singing Sand made 6th in the Yellow abstract art, patterns, textures challenge...
Ripples in Kelso’s Singing Sand made 6th in the Yellow abstract art, patterns, textures challenge of the Yellow Fever group Ripples in Kelso’s Singing Sand Thanks to all who voted and Thanks to the administrators of the Group for their great support. Congratulations to Jessica Walker who won the challenge with ‘Lady Lemon’, all the other artists who scored and to everyone who participated.
Thanks to all who voted in the Western United States Artists and Photographers Group Avatar challenge and Thanks to the hosts of the “Wes…
Thanks to all who voted in the Western United States Artists and Photographers Group Avatar challenge and Thanks to the hosts of the Western United States Artists and Photographers group My Joshua Tree National Park – A Landscape to Die For was voted second place. Congratulations to the winner, Golden Gate Bridge (Landscape) by Kimberly Palmer, and all the others who participated.
A brilliant tour with a great bunch of people who were not too worried about the extreme heat for all 5 days. We saw some real special things on this tour including a baby Perentie at kings Canyon and it was a sunrise to remember at Kata Tjuta. Thanks to all the crew for making it a real fun tour for everybody onboard. We had some great conditions for interesting photography at Uluru with a sky covered in small fluffy clouds which can be a great addition to a well shot location. I have thousands of images from Uluru but I am often so busy that I don’t have time to really think about my compositions. So although I might have amny images few in my opinion are real stand out images and most of my favourites are due to unique weather conditions. Day two at Kata Tjuta was lucky the same thou few clouds were present in the sky at sunrise they quickly moved in at the beginning of the walk. I would love to upload them all but that would drown out the real winners too much, its good to be harsh with your selections in the long run. Kings Canyon on day 3 had no clouds and so making quality images was very difficult, it was good for snapshots but not good for constructing winners. If the lights not good there isn’t much you can do, its sort of like trying to make a cake without flower. The best images IMO came from Ormiston Gorge in the West MacDonnell Ranges and yes it is my favourite place to shoot regardless but we arrived late in the afternoon making for a shaded gorge. I can’t think of the last time I was there that late in the afternoon so I really relished the opportunity to retake some previous compositions that were too contrasty to publish. I think that the gorge is much better to photograph in the late afternoon as the light is much more even and it has remarkably different colours, even more so than I would have expected. The final day (day 5) was a stunner with a relaxing sunrise from out campsite along the Finke river viewing Mt Sonder and of course some impressive River Red Gums. Later we moved on to Goss Bluff a 5Km wide comet crater and as we arrived much earlier in the day than usual it was once again a great opportunity to get some new shots. A light covering of clouds in the sky added interest to the usually boring blue fading into the horizon and it was also one of the few times that I’ve had the B+W polarizer on the front to my 70-200 f/2.8 IS USM. Using a polarizer with the lens hood on it very difficult and requires time to remove the hood adjust the polarizer and replace the hood. Doing this hand held is impossible but when mounted on a tripod it far easier. Later in the day we made it to Palm Valley but with such high sun image making images was not very exciting. Still it was a great walk as the crew really did find it an amazing location and it is, the Palms really do make this place special. I would love to get back there at the crack of dawn on a overcast day and shoot some HDRs which is a whole lot of manoeuvring but it could be done. Thanks to the Landcruser we were back in town on time and met for a few drink (non-alcoholic for me) and a great meal to top it all off. / . Go to the Full Gallery HERE . .
Clutching one another, they endured the chilly desert night.. passion’s noonday fire… thrashing demon wind… Their devotion was tes…
Clutching one another, they endured the chilly desert night.. passion’s noonday fire… thrashing demon wind… Their devotion was tested as all will know… They’ll now bask in brother Sol’s warm cradle and dance in sister Luna’s loving glow… For they have the prize of the ages… and will suffer no more. Image for this entry HERE “Devotion” ~ Wirikuta region with Quemado in the background, Mexico © Skip Hunt
For those interested… just updated my final entry into the Skip Hunt Vagabond travel blog with fresh text and photos from the desert re…
For those interested… just updated my final entry into the Skip Hunt Vagabond travel blog with fresh text and photos from the desert region called Huiricuta by the Huichol Indians @ Estacion Wadley in San Luis Potosi, Mexico “Again, rain and cold. Hopefully once I get back to the sacred desert known as Huiricuta by the Huichol Indians, where I began this journey, the weather would be good. I thought perhaps I’d get one more lucky break on this trip… that my ride from Zacatecas back to Wadley on the way North to the Texas border would be a good one. Why I thought that, I can’t tell you. Maybe it was because I felt like I’d endured so many unpleasant terror rides already, and I deserved a nice easy ride. Then I sort of gave myself a virtual slap in the face. Why did I feel like I’d earned anything at all? There had been nothing sacrificed to anyone at all. Nothing really labored or offered. It was the rainy season in Mexico, so what did I expect? I’d made it this far and had escaped some fairly dodgy situations completely unscathed. I should be utterly thrilled that I’d made it this far and that soon I would cross the border back into Texas without any catastrophic incident. Besides, what’s a little rain and chilly weather? I’d already endured much worse already and I wouldn’t dwell on the minutia. It was about that time that I pulled over just out of Zacatecas to gas up before heading toward Huiricuta. Almost as soon as I’d given up on self-pity to simply accept the hand I’d currently been dealt, that the clouds began to part. Sunshine started streaming down and washed the entire desert landscape in fresh desert hues. I asked the fellow filling my tank details about the free highway I was about to take toward Wadley and how long he thought it was take to get there. He asked me how fast my bike would go. I told him nearly 200km per hour at maximum throttle. His eyebrows raised and told me I’d make it easily in an hour and a half. I asked, “By the map it looks like easily three hours… are you sure?” He confirmed the estimate and added that the highway is straight, flat, no curves, and empty. Yes! It probably wasn’t the smartest decision I’d ever made, but for an entire hour I maintained 115mph and passed only one pickup truck along the desert highway. My being was again completely immersed with my surroundings of cool, dry desert breeze to my back… puffy clouds floating above in an ocean of royal blue…. the bike’s motor at an even drone that served as mantra…. and again, I felt that sensation of the “me” not even being there at all. It’s hard to describe what that feels like. But, I now know it’s not imperative to have the help of peyote to get there. As I passed the one and only pick up truck on that highway, I noticed it was full of people under a large plastic tarp. As I passed, I noticed three of them had cameras and were trying to take photos of me passing the truck. I smiled. Don Thomas was pleased to see me, partly I suppose because there weren’t many rent-paying bohemians passing through lately. And partly because I’d once again made it back in one piece and he wanted to know of the places I’d been this time. He told me the whole place was empty and handed me the key to my favorite room with the blue deer painted on the wall.” To continue reading the final Skip Hunt Vagabond :: Mexico entry called “Wadley: Círculo Completo” and see fresh photos that go with this entry, go HERE Hasta, Skip
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