Philli Art Garden

The "Magic Garden" by Philli artist Isaiah Zagar is jammed into a once vacant city building lot, it has 2 levels, multiple staircases, tunnels, bridges, corridors and courtyards, all completely covered in mosaics and hand made masonry using broken mirrors, hand made tiles, old glass bottles, bicycle parts and recycled pieces of other artistic media. It took the artist all of 14 years to finish, and includes tons of separate sculptures, sketches, quotes and stories that all meld together to form this amazing labyrinthine garden. We could have spent weeks there and not noticed everything. Connected to the garden is an indoor gallery, the basement of which is also completely covered, walls ceiling and floors, in the artists unique style of mosaics. The upstairs and back garage were used to display sculptures, prints and other media by the same artist. It was incredible, and as fun as these pics are, they still don't quite do the place its due justice.

Isaac admiring the artwork thru one of many old bicycle wheels.

We found this good little thinking spot.

It was morning, so the sun was coming in all sorts of interesting ways.

One set of steps, shot from one of several bridges.

The grand staicase.

Old bottles and broken mirrors make great walls.

The back gallery in the garage. The sun sneaks in again.

The Basement.

Magic Garden

A Collage Preview

(Kristin, Isaac and me are each in there somewhere, see if you can spot us.)

Macro that!

Raw

I started playing with RAW format photos. it gives way more control over color. This is a leaf in the flooded field near our house. It has been raining for days which is odd for AZ.

Graffiti falls

From our trip to Colorado. Dad and I went to Manitou springs to check out the graffiti falls. It was really interesting to see the contrast between what God created, and what man created. Pretty cool.

The stream below the falls.

A beach freezes over.

More to come on our fam blog....

Jump!

The thick ice was thawing...

How to take pictures of thawing ice:

1.) Bust it.



2.) Fish it.



3.) Show it.



4.) Pass it.



4, 5 and 6.) Shoot it.

This camera is FAST!!

Photog Spotlight

Here's to the cutest photographer in the family!

and yes, we are enjoying the new software, thank you Santa!

Birthday Photos!

For my birthday, Mike offered to take me on a photo trip for a couple hours. We went to the garden, and he taught me about my macro lens and showed me how to do a pano since DJ has been wanting one of Pikes Peak. When we walked into the Garden of the Gods, there were ice crystals covering everything... you can sure get close with the macro! Its incredible how you can see the lines the create the crystals. It was way fun! Here are some of the pics we did! Thanks Mike!
Dad mike and DJ all went in and got my a camera pack. Thank goodness! I have been carrying my lenses in t-shirts. you guys are awesome!



with photos this trip I learned that I have a TON to learn still... but at least its fun learning! Pano To come soon!