Salome Jug

Friday night I went backpacking at a place a few hours from here called "The Jug" with a friend from our ward in Ahwatukee, Ty Woods. It is a slot canyon on Salome Creek located a couple hours outside of town. We left at 3pm and got to the trail head around 5:30, we were the only car at the trailhead. We made good time on our hike to the mouth of the canyon and got there around 6:30. We put on our swimming suits, grabbed our cameras in water proof gear and swam up through a few different calm pools to get to the bottom waterfall. The water was surprisingly warm. We made it back to our camp site right as it was getting real dark, set the tent up and had dinner. I woke up at 12:30 and took two 8 minute exposures under a full moon.We got up the next morning at 5:30 and hit the trail to the top of the canyon about 6:30. We spent about 4 hours in the canyon taking pictures, we saw other people for the first time at the top of the bottom falls. We took the 2 mile hike out in the mid day heat to find 15 or more cars at the trailhead, we were glad to have spent the majority of our time without seeing anyone. As Ty put it, this was probably in the top 5 hikes I have ever done, it was so unique and more interesting around every corner. The water was cool and clear. The rock was polished pink granite, with many interesting conglomerate rocks throughout the canyon. I could have spent a days in there with my camera.

A few more

This one I took in the back yard. I took the trash out and saw this little fly, grabbed my camera and was able to take 2 pictures before he flew away.

This butterfly would only sit for a second or two.

The green bugs were still there with babies now.

beach part 2

Beach Camping: Part 1

A 6 shot 180 degree panoramic shot of our campground at sunrise

You guessed it... more macro

I recently got my first issue of outdoor photographer magazine, there was an article about a photographer that dedicates his time to macro work because he says it is in his opinion the only type of nature photography that allows for completely unique and original images. This is due to the ever changing macro world, it changes with the seasons and with the time of day. A lot of his images are more abstract, where it is hard to determine what you are actually looking at. He said that his most sold image was taken in his back yard, and that his most photographed areas are within 10 minutes of his house.

So, although these are not abstract, they are within 50 ft of my house.

A small fly.

A weird green bug.

Back yard flowers about to bloom, these ones are more interesting before blooming than in full bloom.

Grass Script

One of the classical styles of Chinese calligraphy is called grass script. I have pretty much no skills when it comes to handwriting or painting etc. So this is my take on the art form

An: Peace

Ai: Love

Le: Happiness

Chan
More commonly know by its Japanese pronunciation: Zen.
History and cultural difference make this character difficult to translate,
but an old Chinese guy once told me that it has to do with
always looking at things calmly with a mind to avoid stress and contention.
I think it's a good one.

back yard photos

So, I spend most of my photographic energies in our back yard with my macro lens due to time constraints. here are a few of the images i have recently taken. I also got a new flash that provides enough light to up the Fstop so i can have greater depth of field with macro shots.

So all of these used the new flash with a homemade diffuser.