Main Street - Bisbee, Arizona

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“Bisbee, 90 miles southeast of Tucson, is the picturesque county seat of historic Cochise County. The community was founded in 1880 and named after Judge DeWitt Bisbee, a financial backer of the Copper Queen Mine. This Old West mining camp proved to be one of the richest mineral sites in the world, producing nearly three million ounces of gold and more than eight billion pounds of copper, not to mention the silver, lead and zinc that came from these rich Mule Mountains.”
“In 1908 a fire ravaged most of Bisbee’s commercial district along Main Street, leaving nothing but a pile of ashes. Reconstruction began immediately and by 1910 most of the district had been rebuilt and remains completely intact today. Activities began to slow as the mines played out and the population began to shrink; mining operations on a large scale became unprofitable in 1975.”  Source: Bisbee Chamber of Commerce

“Main Street” is still the main street in Bisbee and now has many shops selling antiques, artist creations, clothing and honey from Mexican Killer Bees sold out of a little hole in the wall shop.

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The  photo was taken with a Canon EOS 40D, EF17-40mm f/4L lens, 1/125 sec at f/16, ISO 400.

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:

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

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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.

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.

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

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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.

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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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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.

The Bell Tower at Tlaquepaque

This bell tower is at the Tlaquepaque Center in Sedona near the bridge that crosses Oak Creek. The shopping center is fashioned after a Mexican village and is a very beautiful place to visit, shop and dine. Here is a link to its interesting history.

This photo was taken with my Canon 4OD DSLR, upladed to my iPad and processed with the SnapSeed App.

We’re traveling in Arizona and had dinner at one of our favorite Japanese restaurant in Sedona. Something about my glass of water made me want to take out my iPhone and take this shot.

A favorite meadow looking from Carme to Carmel Highlands.

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Some friends of ours are preparing to build a house at a magnificent location in Carmel with views that go from Carmel Valley to Monterey Bay. I was up there to check out the lot and thought I’d take some photos for a “before” picture. When I turned around to see what their view would be, I noticed that they looked at a meadow tucked into the hills of Carmel Highlands. I’ve been searching for a location to take photos of this beautiful scene for several years and had never found one that gave me a clear view of the meadow. It was, unfortunately, a hazy day and I didn’t have my tripod with me so the photographs I got were pretty blah. Now that I know this shot is available from up there, I can go back again when the weather is better and get a clearer image. But, I decided to have some fun with this one in Photoshop and Nik Color Efex Pro, and give it this kind of soft, mysterious appearance and I wanted to share it with you.

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The photo was taken with a Canon EOS 40D, EF17-40mm f/4L lens, 1/100 sec at f/19, ISO 250 on SanDisk Extreme IV Digital Film.