Ladee's Travels

A fellow photographer set up a Sunday night sunset tour of Phoenix.  We met at the Arizona Center and started walking. Our destination was "Civic Space Park" and the air sculpture by Janet Echelman.  The park is located between Central Avenue and 1st Avenue, just north of the Van Buren Metro stop.  Our timing was very close to perfect as we were there for the "golden hour" in Phoenix, that magic time about an hour before the sun sets.  The light is incredible.  Look at the two photos below.  The top one shows the colors with the golden light, and the second one shows the colors after the sun has set.  Our goal was to photograph the air sculpture "Her Secret is Patience".  This high flying sculpture was commissioned by the City of Phoenix and designed by Janet Echelman.  In the daylight, the sculpture is very interesting, floating above the park.  We patiently waited and chatted, and were rewarded with awesome colors and des...

Today was Mother's Day and my favorite activity on this day is to go to Schnepf Farms and pick peaches.  Mother's Day normally coincides with the Peach Festival, so I like to go early and get in and out to quickly pick my fill. We started our walk down the long rows of peach trees.  We were in the Florida Prince section and I wanted to see if the EarliGrande section was pickable.  No luck.  The Princes were sweet and juicy.  There were a lot of peaches tucked up in the branches.  We needed to make sure that we picked some that were ripe now and some that would ripen in a week. It was necessary to test them just to make sure that they were ripe! This entrance and the nice row behind it with lanterns, is available for events. Later that day I made "Fire and Ice" Salsa with some of my peaches.  Very tasty and a surprise to those who thought that it didn't sound appetizing.

I saw this Liberty Bell in an office park next to The Stockyards Restaurant on Washington and 48 St. What a surprise!

Quite surprised to see this as I was pulling out of a parking lot. Just a mile or so from my home. Never noticed it. Must be new. ;)

This is the start of my work on the photos that I took of the moon eclipse.  I want to either put them in a straight line across the page or curved following the natural arch in the sky.

Sunday and a perfect day for a ride to red rock country.  The day started out overcast.  I wasn't driving so I was able to take photos as we drove along.  The scenery always is spellbinding.  We took I17 north from Phoenix.  Exit and head to Cottonwood for lunch.  George's Cafe was J's selection. We checked it out, and the full parking lot, and went inside. The food was good and very reasonably priced. Maybe I've been living in the big city for too long.  Ah, the road to Red Rock State Park (we are on a paved one).  Beautiful.  Two bird feeders were buzzing with bees and hummingbirds.  We decided to take the back road to Sedona and take in the view.  I liked this fence. The homes were nice and had a great view.  A little rust is always fun to photograph.  Sedona has some cool art.  We stopped for coffee at Tlaquepaque and then took the freeway back home. We did stop at Rock Springs to...

I went to the Phoenix Zoo today and was able to start taking photos at 8AM.  It was nice and cool and many of the animals were out.  Here are a few that I liked.  Of the animals, my favorites are the ones that are captured when they look right at the camera.  This bird has the word "Egyptian" in his name.  Is he "walking like an Eqyptian"?  This one looks like he has a fancy vest on, and a tie!  I was very excited to see the bees buzzing around a flower bed.  I adjusted my camera to try to catch them in flight and lucked out with this one.  This bird was very cooperative to stand all in the sun and take a drink.  I like the reflection. A zoo keeper stopped by to feed the water and told the story of this guy.   This tortoise is 21 years old and was born at the Zoo.  (Note to the family to remember the time, perhaps 22 years ago, when we went to the Zoo.  Son stared at the crocodile a...