kritterspaw

February Snow

Posted on February 6, 2016February 6, 2016 by kritterspaw

We got a nice snowfall last week. It came down heavy most of the day. Not a good day to be on the road…. but we had business in Phx, so we made the trek. We took the big truck and trudged through the blizzardy snow coming down side ways.

It took us 3-1/2 hours to take a trip that should have taken us 2 hours, as we drove slow through the heavy snowfall… stopping along the way to pull out a couple desperate cars stuck in snow drifts.

Despite being a little harrowing, it was a beautiful drive… very scenic with the new fallen snow… a great opportunity to get some nice new snow pix.

Check out my Ice Whiskers post: kritterspaw.com

Dreams DO come true

Posted on February 4, 2016 by kritterspaw

When I was getting ready to graduate from high school, oh so many years ago, like so many other young adults I was faced with that all important decision, ‘what’s next?’. What do I do with my life? At the time, as a teenager, I was really into photography. I used to go out every night and photograph the sunset and mess around with time lapsed photography. I actually thought I was good. I wanted to be a Photographer when I grew up.

Well… my dad, in all his wisdom, steered me in another direction. “Why don’t you go do something that actually makes money? You can be a Photographer when you retire.”, he told me. Wise words indeed. I don’t know what the percentage of Photographers made a successful living at it, particularly back then – before the age of photo workshops and online presence, but it wasn’t very high. And you had to be VERY good – David Muench good.

So I followed my dad’s sage advice and became an Engineer. Now that I’m retired I have picked up my camera and tried to get serious about taking real photos. Moreover, I set a goal for myself… I wanted to be published. Not just published, but published in Arizona Highways. A girl can dream, right?!

To my total aghast and surprise, I got a call from Arizona Highways yesterday. Crazy, right?! They had selected one of my deer photos for the 2017 AZ Highways calendar… not for a large month photo- but as a little inset photo. Baby steps, though. I’m going to have one of MY photos on AZ Highways 2017 classic calendars. Be still my heart. OMG! My dad would be proud.

From the Archives: Europe 2000

Posted on January 31, 2016May 24, 2016 by kritterspaw

I have been scanning my old negatives, though admittedly not doing a very good job of it. Somehow I just don’t find the time or inclination to sit on my back side and go through thousands of negatives. I know it needs to be done, but I always seem to find something else to do.

So here is a small sampling ‘From the Archives’ and many boxes of old negatives I have, labeled only ‘Europe 2000’.

When I hung up my film camera for my first digital camera I was shooting a European model, a Canon EOS 5D. Which ironically is the same model name digital camera I now shoot, a Canon EOS 5D Mark III.

I will say that going through my old negatives has been a very humbling experience. When I first started scanning them I decided to only keep what was ‘wall worthy’. But going through them, I found a LOT of junk. Many pictures I found myself wondering ‘what were you thinking?’, ‘what’s that of?’, ‘why didn’t you move to get that out of the way?’. So I’ve had to ease up on my criteria, just because I wasn’t as good then as I aspire to be now.

So that’s my walk down memory lane from Europe 2000. Maybe this should be an ongoing regular or periodic segment to inspire me to step up my scanning so that I might actually get through it at some point.

Noguchi Gardens: Costa Mesa, CA

Posted on January 24, 2016January 24, 2016 by kritterspaw

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Continuing our efforts to gain new experiences in a familiar area, we read about this ‘place’ Noguchi Gardens. Now don’t think this is a Japanese Gardens kind of place to stroll through… it’s more of a courtyard between buildings outside of The Westin very near South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, CA.

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We went at dusk just before our dinner reservations in South Coast Plaza at ANQi. We loved the way the light played on the water and the ‘streams’ built into the flagstone courtyard for this modern take on a functional Zen garden.. It was very very spiritual and reflective. noguchi falls_Ssi.JPG

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Crystal Cove State Park: Laguna Beach, CA

Posted on January 24, 2016January 24, 2016 by kritterspaw

We just got back from our trip to CA. Someone recommended we do Crystal Cove… so we checked it out. But the really hot tip, was to do The Beachcombers Cafe. Not that the Beachcombers Cafe was that great … or that bad… but the beach was very photogenic with lots of mussel infested rocks for great foreground.. As an added benefit the parking was free with a validated ticket at The Beachcomber (pre-empting the $15 charge to park and walk the beach).

We chased seagulls and danced with the waves as we got our shoes wet and walked up one way, then back the other. It was relaxing, and great fun.

Crystal Cove has a unique history in that it was owned by the Irvine family back in 1876. In the 1930’s Hollywood came in and built 46 cottages for a movie set. After the movie production, the cottages were abandoned and squatters came in and occupied them until their eviction in the 1970’s. Today as a State Park there are 17 restored cottages which can be rented. What a hoot that would be!

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Check out more pix at kritterspaw.com

Photo Storage

Posted on January 3, 2016 by kritterspaw

I guess I knew this day was coming. When I decided to start shooting RAW, I knew it would be memory intensive… and it has been. I have had no regrets whatsoever. It was the right decision to make, and has allowed me to better control the color and attributes of my photos without loosing integrity of the digital negative.

As I have taken more photos in RAW, my files and folders have grown to large sizes. Since I keep these photos by year on my computer, my computer has started to bear the brunt of this this volume, bogging down my computer. I had to find a solution to get all those memory extensive photos off my 1tB computer, and put them off computer, yet readily still accessible. I back up all my photos on an external drive.. and these days 3-4 tB drives are cheaper than ever. But to connect and spool up an external drive every time I was to access my photos is time extensive, and didn’t seem practical.

So I started reading about RAID’s: Redundant Array of Independent Disks. These back up units allow you to put independent internal disk drives in the unit, and allow one to mirror data for backup within the unit, yet it can sit on your desk or elsewhere and act as a easily accessible drive unit to backup and store my memory intensive photo files.

Done.

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Enter Drobo 5D. With 5 separate internal disk slots, and 16tB of memory it solves my problem and allows me to store my RAW photos off computer and free up valuable computer space to do, well .. computing, Photoshop, etc. So far so good.

Bosque del Apache

Posted on December 19, 2015December 19, 2015 by kritterspaw

Sometime when we are young we learn that birds fly south for the winter. So I’ve known that somewhere deep in the recesses of my mind, but haven’t really contemplated it or given it much thought.

Yet when we went to Bosque del Apache outside of Socorro, New Mexico that very principle is live and in your face. Thousands of sandhill cranes, white geese, canadian geese, and other waterfowl fly from Alaska – south, to Bosque del Apache wildlife refuge.

Even though it was a ‘light’ year for the birds flocking to Bosque, it was still a sight to see, watching these numerous birds of all different kinds spiraling into the ‘crane pools’.

We watched them early morning (6 am sunrise) and evening (5pm sunset) as they would ‘lift off’ and go to safe ground in the ‘crane pools’. During the day they would flock to the farm fields and feed off the grass. It was definitely good cheap entertainment.

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Fossil Creek

Posted on November 30, 2015November 30, 2015 by kritterspaw

While our fall with all it’s colorful glory, has come and gone… at lower elevations such as Camp Verde & Cottonwood, fall is in full color.

Just off SR260 along FR708, a LONG washboardy dirt road, is Fossil Creek. The distinctive yellowy orange cottonwood leaves are falling everywhere.

I never tire of the abundant aqua waters cascading over endless rocks and fall trees, making for a sublime serenity.

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We sat and had lunch and watched the water go by. What better way to relax and spend the day.

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Turkey Day Cometh

Posted on November 20, 2015 by kritterspaw

Almost as if a sign of Thanksgiving next week… we saw this group of turkey enjoying the snow. Do you know what a group of turkey is called? I didn’t. I thought flock.. or gaggle. But upon further research, it’s a ‘rafter’. Who knew?

Did you know that Ben Franklin wanted the turkey as the newly found United States official bird? In a quote from a letter to his daughter he wrote:

“For my own part I wish the Eagle had not been chosen representative of our country. His is a bird of bad moral character. He does not get his living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead tree near the river, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labor of the Fishing Hawk; and when the diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.

With all this injustice, he is never in good case but like those among men who live by sharping and robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank coward….

I am on this account not displeased that the figure is not known as an Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the truth, the Turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America… He is besides, though a little vain and silly, a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his farm yard with a red coat on.”

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Snow Trees

Posted on November 13, 2015 by kritterspaw

The Forest Service seems to close the roads the minute we get snow… and keep them closed until Spring. So we jumped into action immediately after our first snow storm, and went directly to the Mogollon Rim to see if we could capture the Rim in snow. Unfortunately, the fog rolled in, and the view over the rim was a complete whiteout. Check out my First Snow pix on kritterspaw.com.

What do they say… one closed door leads to another open door. In my case fog lead to some very cool Snow Trees with the last remnants of fall color on pristine snow in an eery fog. It reminded my of an enchanted forest.

kritterspix

K. Ritter's photographs and photo musings from northern arizona

Author: kritterspaw