Ladee's Travels

I joined a group from Arizona Night Photographers this morning on a photo walk at Gilbert Riparian.   While 4:30 am comes around very early, it was good to get out as the sun was starting to rise and the animals were beginning the morning routines. This is a summary of my photographs with some spring color especially for those who have spent this spring in a bit too much snow.

The Scottish Highland Games are held by the Caledonian Society of Arizona.  This year 2018 the event was held at Steele Indian School Park for two days in the beginning of March.  There were many food booths, entertainment, and "heavy athletics" with both women and men divisions.  The general idea is to throw the furthest, the highest, and carry the furthest.  Interesting event with a lot to see and eat.  And a note on parking for next year.  I drove around the park but there were no spaces.  Then I saw a sign that a free shuttle was running from Park Central and decided to go there.  You can also take the Metro Light Rail because it stops near the entrance to Steele Indian School Park.  $20 entrance fee for adults and then discounts for children, seniors and military. This is a grouping of the practice for the women's events on throwing various items. Kilt study. This event involved carrying this huge pole the furthest.  Th...

I was awake before dawn and decided to take a local photo tour to capture dramatic lighting and early mornings sights.  I incorporated my black and white photography work in to this trip. I had my smaller lens because I intended to only work on landscapes. But when I saw this beautiful bird in Papago Park, I had to quietly approach it to get close enough for a photograph.  I was ready to take this "bird in take off position" type of photograph.  This is a view of Papago Park.  Today it is a municipal park in Phoenix and Tempe.  The area is know for the desert plants and the geological formations.  It is a former national monument (1914) but the ownership was transferred to Arizona in 1930.  This is the First Solar office building.  It is interesting with the top part of the wall leaning away from the main part of the building.  This is the new Salt River Project (SRP) office building.  This is a stunning lobby with the neon ar...

A weekend adventure outside of metropolitan Phoenix can deliver some never-before-seen sights (by me, at least) as a reward for making the effort to pack it up and see what is out there. The search for the reported coatimundi started with an action that reminded me of the days living in southwestern Pennsylvania searching the wood's edge for deer.  Every branch was a suspect!  I knew what I was looking for when the target was deer, but I had no idea what a coatimundi was. "It's like a raccoon." "You will know it when you see it." (Great, is it going to jump at me or something?) We drove around for a while in our search. It's not here, it's not there, I'm jinxed, etc.  Then, all of a sudden, there it was!  It didn't run off right away so I was able to take a few "yes, I did really see one" photographs.  It was like a raccoon.  And I did know that this was it as soon as I saw it.

A coworker wants to practice photography skills for an upcoming trip so we went to Tempe Town Lake to capture some sunset shots.