Photography

Nudge nudge, a nod's as good as a wink to a blind man.

One of my favorite pages — Susan Speaks — often has posts which are her amazeballs photographs, sorta like this one:

Seeing the world in black and white

and being a bit of a shutterbug myself, it is inspiring me to crack out my Photoshop files, and to share some of my past body of work. Alas, I haven’t taken that many photos as of late, but I will work to rectify that soon.

Without further ado, here is my first drop.

in fall of 2010, we visited Monument Valley. It is part of the Navajo nation, and the tribe runs a hotel that we spent the night at (it wasn’t cheap, but it was not too pricey) and I woke up early to catch this sunrise picture of the left “Mitten”. I did process this to make it really feel iconic, and I like the “new beginning” vibe.

In Tortilla Flat, a small “town” east of the Phoenix metropolitan area on the way to the Roosevelt dam, there are a lot of tourist-y things there. This chapel is there, and the rumor is that Elvis Presley was there (or got married there, but that beggar’s belief). Still, I used a filter to make this look like I shot it in infrared, and I really like the contrast between the foreground and the background.

Somewhere along my twisted life’s journey, I started taking pictures of the husks of dead trees. This was a snap from a hike in Sedona, and I used some of the epic filters from Topaz Labs to make it pop.

March 3, 2010, 8 weeks to the day after my heart attack, we had reservations at the Phantom Ranch. In case that doesn’t ring a bell, it is the hostel at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We had been planning for fucking ever to get there, and you have to book your cot in their rooms (and reservations for meals) a year ahead. And it is still a dice roll, as by 12:01AM 1 year in advance, all the reservations are hoovered.

So, there was no fucking way I was not going to do that hike, myocardial infarction or not¹.

In early March, the south rim of the canyon — 8000 ft or so — had a LOT of snow. This is from the very start, looking down the initial switchbacks on the South Kaibab trail down.

En route to Monument Valley, we stopped for the night in Flagstaff Arizona. The historic route 66 runs through it, and like many of the communities that popped up around that artery, there were plenty of vintage era amenities, and the most wonderful old signs. This is the Monte Vista hotel. I used the Topaz Labs filters, some sepia overlays, and some clever vignetting to make this a memorable image.

That’s enough for this trip down memory lane. I have many more, and will share them, if you like.

1. Truth is, I was in probably the best shape of my life when the heart attack occurred, running 5 or 6 days a week, and a day or two at the gym, as well as hiking in the hills around Tucson. It was a freak occurrence that happened when I was 44 years old. The hike to the bottom and back was not really risky, but it was not super kosher as well.

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