Ladee's Travels

 Notes from the iPhone photograph To capture better night photography using an iPhone, here are some tips and techniques you can try: 1. Steady the camera: Night photography often requires longer exposure times, making camera shake more noticeable. Use a tripod or find a stable surface to rest your iPhone on for sharper shots. Alternatively, you can use accessories like a tripod adapter or a smartphone stabilizer for more flexibility. 2. Adjust exposure manually: Tap on the screen to focus on your subject, then swipe up or down to manually adjust the exposure. Lowering the exposure can help prevent overexposure in bright areas, while increasing it can bring out more details in darker scenes. 3. Use the Night mode: If you have an iPhone model that supports Night mode (typically available in newer models), use it to capture better low-light photos. Night mode automatically detects low-light conditions and extends the exposure time, resulting in brighter and more detailed images. Keep...

 I traveled with Arizona Highways Photo to Bryce Canyon National Park. The workshop was led by Beth Ruggiero-York.  A former co-worker Michele Holden went also.  It was March, so we knew to expect cold.  The first day it was snowing!

 The park was full. Absolutely full with RVs, camp grounds and the cabins.  I love the cabin location and the fact that there is a warm or cool spot when we are out all night. I ran the location on PhotoPills and our ideal time would be about 2:30 am.  At least we had the cabin and didn't have to crawl inside of a tent or the backseat of the Jeep!  We brought dinner and learned about settings on the cameras, the ones that we did not use so far. I played with white balance shift and bracketing. Very interesting find. We chatted as we saw bits of the Milky Way slowly rise behind the mountain. It is truly beautiful and exciting to have all of the camera settings ready to capture the event.  Finally, at 2:30, we heard the last "click", folded up the tripods and took everything in to the nice warm cabin. Nice night!

Harmony Borax Works in Death Valley National Park, California. Look close and you can see the huge wagons.  20 mules pulled them These "big teams" pulled massive wagons hauling borax from the Harmony Borax Works near Furnace Creek to the railhead near Mojave, a grueling 165 mile, ten day trip across primitive roads. 

I took the new road to cross the border from Arizona to Nevada plus a little side trip to go check out the dam and see how the water is doing. You can see that it's low by the white marks around the edge of the water. So a beautiful piece of work and the new bridge, you can see it in the background, is amazing.

I like to stop by and take a photograph of the spot merely to record it over time and how it's gone from a hustle bustle place to stop to a decent place to pull over and check on the sign. The big sign is now tilting and I don't think that it will be hanging there for very long. I have photos from when this was a place where you could stop and get food, there was an example of a jail, there were baby rattles and other fun things. On One stop about 20-24 years ago the man inside explained all about the population of Nothing and how it went from 30 to 50 to 10 to 20 and he went on and on and on. This was on a trip with hockey players, and so I think I stop here just to remind them to stop along the way because nothing is going to be there forever.

When the group is heading north, north west it's easiest to plan to meet in Wickenburg. There are several large parking lots such as McDonald's and a Burger King that are on the right side of the road for pulling in, grabbing a coffee, and making a pitstop. Step outside of the car and take a deep breath.  The smell of the big city is replaced by the local ranch smells!