May

18

Red Shoes Hair Salon

Architecture / B+W / Bisbee / 5 comments
Red Shoes Hair Salon

Red Shoes Hair Salon in Bisbee, AZ

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The Red Shoes Hair Salon sits next to the old mechanic’s shop where the VW bus was painted on the garage door. It’s a classic style building for Bisbee and is both a multi-family dwelling and a commercial space on the ground floor. There was a stylist working on a client in the room on the lower right. I liked how the building looked in black and white, and I also wanted to take advantage of the colorful sign in the window. Click on the photo to enlarge it and see more detail.

Parking for the salon was next door in front of the mechanic’s office wall, on which this sign was painted:

Red Shoes Only

The sign on the wall for parking at the Red Shoes Hair Styling Shop

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May

14

VW Bus in Bisbee

Arizona / Bisbee / 7 comments

VW Bus in Bisbee

The corrugated aluminum door on a closed down auto mechanic's garage

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Bisbee Arizona is an old copper, silver and gold mining town south of Tucson, near the Mexican border. Mining ceased in the mid-1970′s. It’s also known for mining Bisbee turquoise, although that operation has ended as well. It’s a classic “Old West” mining town that has become an artist’s community and its architectural and historic heritage has been preserved.

The VW Bus was painted on the corrugated aluminum door of an auto mechanic’s shop that has been closed down and is for sale. At first glance, it’s so realistic it looked like it was going to drive out of the garage’s doorway. But, of course, the paint peeling off the door gives it away. I don’t know who the artist was but she or he did a great job. For future reference, the garage sits next to the Red Shoes Hair Salon, a photograph of which will be posted later this week.

The photo was taken with a Canon EOS 40D, EF17-40mm f/4L lens, 1/30 sec at f/16, ISO 400 on SanDisk Extreme IV Digital Film.

May

11

The Saguaro and the Ocotillo

Cactus / Flowers / Landscape / Tucson / 4 comments
The Saguaro and the Ocotillo Cactus

Saguaro and Ocotillo Cactus at the Saguaro National Park, Tucson Arizona

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While on a drive through the Saguaro National Park in Tucson, we stopped at a lookout turn off. Along side the parking area were these two cacti, a beautiful Saguaro with its majestic arms and behind it an Ocotillo Cactus in bloom with its brilliant red flowers.

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The photo was taken with a Canon EOS 40D, EF17-40mm f/4L lens, 1/90 sec at f/13, ISO 125 on SanDisk Extreme IV Digital Film.

May

08

Sedona From Airport Mesa

Arizona / Sedona / 7 comments
Sedona from Airport Mesa

From the mesa you see Chimney Rock, Capital Dome and Coffee Pot Rock.

To get the full impact of this image,  click on it to enlarge it!

Two weeks ago we were traveling in Arizona. One of our favorite places, and our home for five years, is Sedona. In this image, you see the magical red rock formations that we never took for granted while living there. This is a view from atop Airport Mesa with West Sedona nestled beneath the rock formations. It was a beautifully cloudy day and we did get rained on while up there. But the view was magnificent and the clouds added so much to the image. Timing, luck and patience are the good friends of photographers.

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The photo was taken with a Canon EOS 40D, EF17-40mm f/4L lens and a polarizing filter, at 1/90 sec at f/16, ISO 200 on SanDisk Extreme IV Digital Film.

May

06

Super Moon Rising

Carmel Valley Ranch / Full Moon / Moonrise / 20 comments

Be sure to scroll down as there are 3 photos in this blog post.

May 5, 2012 - The Super Moon rises over Carmel Valley

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A “Super Moon” is a full moon that looks especially large. The moon appears that large because it is as much as 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than the other full moons of 2012. This occurs when the moon reaches its closest spot to the Earth at the same time it is in its full phase. The moon takes an elliptical path around the Earth with one side, or perigee, about 31,000 miles closer than the other, or apogee. As such, this is also called a “perigee moon.”

As a full moon rises, it often appears to be orange in color. The reason for this is that as it is rising, the light from the sun must pass through the most Earth’s atmosphere as it illuminates the rising moon. Some of the blue part of the spectrum gets filtered out by the Earth’s atmosphere. Then the light has to come back through the atmosphere to get to your eye. This last trip causes some reddening color change to the moon. As the moon rises further, the moon’s light passes through less of the Earth’s atmosphere and the color begins to disappear.

May 5, 2012 - The Super Moon 20 minutes after moonrise in Carmel Valley.

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The Super Moon at 35 minutes after moonrise in Carmel Valley.

May 5, 2012 - The Super Moon 35 minutes after moonrise in Carmel Valley.

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There were no artificial modifications of the size of the moon relative to the hillside. It really looked that large! All the photos were taken with a Canon EOS 40D, Sigma APO 150-500mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Lens. The top photo was at 164mm, 0.7 sec at f/16, ISO 400. The middle image was at 403mm, 0.3 sec at f/16, ISO 400. The bottom photo was taken at 500mm, 1/20 sec at f/19, ISO 400. With these type of photographs, I certainly learned to appreciate the value of my tripod and cable release.

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