I was talked into shooting the first wedding I've done since 1989 Saturday 10/20/2012 in this beautiful little chapel in Prescott Valley, Arizona. The confines of the chapel, being rather diminutive, were a bit difficult to shoot in, but it is quite a picturesque chapel nonetheless.
All in all, I'm glad the lovely bride managed to persuade me to photograph their beautiful event!

Chapel of the Valley
Prescott Valley, Arizona

I have a cactus in front of the house and there is a nest in it that has twice been used by Cactus Wrens, but has been recently taken over by Doves. I photographed a Dove and her chicks in June and noticed a Dove with chicks again the past several days. It would seem by her identical markings that she is the same Dove that nested there before. I thought maybe a new shot of her and her fledglings might be appropriate.

I was just thinking how much easier things are now in photography. The manual for my good old Nikon F-Photomic was a grand total of 43 pages and you could spend an interesting few minutes reading through it. The manual for my Nikon D7000 is 325 pages and, even though I've been using the camera for several months now, I still haven't read all the way through it!

The cameras most of us are using now are more like a computer with a lens attached and now, instead of spending hours in the darkroom you can spend just minutes in Lightroom. No more smelly, messy chemicals and you can keep track of what's going on around you a lot easier. I don't miss that trade off in the least.

I can think of almost nothing I can't do with my present setup. If I can conceive a shot, I can do it. Current cameras have far more onboard storage than my first 2 PC's had and can handle almost any situation without breaking a sweat.

While I do sometimes look back to the days of film with a bit of nostalgia, I don't even begin to have any thoughts of reverting back to the days of film and processing

How about you? 

Did the 1st Annual Google + Photowalk in Old Town Scottsdale Saturday, organized by Christina Lawrie. A good time was had by all, even though the temperature could have been a little cooler for most of our liking!

Some of the G+ gang

Boyce Thompson Arboretum
Looking forward to tomorrow's shooting at the Arboretum with Greg Murray and the following Saturday at the Gilbert Riparian Preserve with several of us.
Gilbert Riparian Preserve

I just shot this on a mother dove and her newborn. This was hand held at 1/10 second and I
think it's almost amazing that I can still hand hold and get a decent shot. Shot with a Micro-Nikkor 85mm. There is no crop to the shot. I was that close to her!

My Mockingbird buddy checking out my garage door opener this morning

Mockingbird in my garage

It would seem that my resident Mockingbird has decided that my garage is now his. I had set up my tripod to take some shots of them and the male swooped into the garage, landed on the spoiler of my car and then took up a position on top of the tripod. He seemed to like it as he stayed there for about 5 minutes!

Northern Mockingbirds
My two Mockingbirds making sure I'm keeping a proper distance away from their new nest so they won't have to go to the trouble of dive bombing me today! These guys are funny, since they don't have eggs yet!
Taken with Thunderbolt Android.

My wife, Greg Murray and I ended up spending 2 & 1/2 - 3 hours this morning at the Gilbert Riparian Preserve. What a wonderful place and so very well done. I think all cities should attempt to do something similar for their water reclamation!

Hummingbird

Heading out today to the Riparian Preserve in Gilbert, AZ with my wife and a photo buddy and . Supposed to be tons of birds all over the place there. I guess I'll have some posting to do if there are!

Leaving Home

Since I first photographed my Red-tailed Hawk with her eggs on April 11th, I have watched them grow and mature till Sunday 5/13/2012 when I saw that one had already left the nest and struck out on their own. The remaining fledgling looked to be seriously wondering if he too could fly since his nest buddy was now gone. I wish the two of them luck and happy hunting.

Mom & Eggs 4/11/2012

Last Time Together 5/11/2012

Last One in the Nest 5/13/2012

Fledgling Red-tailed Hawk

Young Red-tailed Hawk playing peek-a-boo with me through the grating of the freeway exit sign catwalk.

Two fledgling Red-tailed Hawks trying to decide if they can or should try to fly from the safety of their nesting area high above U.S. 60 freeway on the catwalk of the exit sign.

Jerome, Arizona


It seems half of the town is in a state of ruin while the other half is in a state of restoration, but still it's a great little town, with a lot of history and fun to explore!

Jerome, Arizona Traffic Mirror
This traffic mirror is one of several along the winding, twisting roads in this former mining town perched high on Mingus Mountain in Arizona. The distortion was such that it actually makes it appear I have hair on the top of my head! I need this mirror!

Traffic Mirror

I did two shots of the "Super Moon" last night and this morning. The moon last night had risen into fairly thick cloud coverage and I really couldn't get a decent shot of it till it was well above the horizon, so it was really hard to distinguish it from any other moon without something on the horizon to judge the size, but as it was setting this morning there were clear skies and trees in the foreground, so that made for the better shot. The morning sun also provided some colorization to the moon.

Last Night's Super Moon 5/5/2012

This Morning's Super Moon 5/6/2012

Did another Sunday shoot of the Red-tailed Hawk fledglings this morning. I think I may just possibly get one more Sunday round with them before they fly the nest. They are growing up incredibly fast!

It seems if you don't carry your camera with you most everywhere you are taking a chance on missing that "once in a lifetime" shot. Earlier on the day I shot this I was sitting on my patio swing and my little female Jack Russell was laying on a blanket in front of me under our hummingbird feeder. A hummingbird stopped at the feeder and apparently curious about this creature laying under the feeder dropped down and hoovered directly in front of her only about 1 foot away and maybe 8 inches above her. It hung there for several seconds and for some reason the dog just watched it. That in itself surprised me, as Molly likes nothing better than to try catching every bird she sees, but she just lay there watching the bird till it left.

The whole point of this post is that this would have made an extremely cool shot, but my camera was in my office, about 15 feet away and I missed a great shot because it was!  On the other hand, if it hadn't been for missing that shot, I probably wouldn't have had my camera with me to get this shot!

Fly Me To The Moon

Two fledgling pigeons playing peek-a-boo with me while I was 

trying to photograph them.

Red-tailed Hawk Feather

While photographing the Red-tailed Hawk young, yesterday I discovered a feather from one of the parent hawks. I thought it was a bit interesting. Guess you could say it's a feather in my cap!

My Honey has made me a big batch of pineapple filled cookie 

to help me celebrate my impending birthday. I guess getting 

older has some benefits!

Pineapple Filled Cookies

Red-tailed Hawk Chicks 4/29/2012

Red Tailed Hawk

The Red-tailed Hawk chicks are growing up fast, but I think I'll still have another week or 2 before they fly from the nest. They're definitely cute little things!

This is my first posting on this blog, which mostly concerns wildlife and scenic photos.
These are a pair of Red-tailed Hawk chicks with their mother pictured below. They have taken up residence on a freeway exit sign, high above the traffic. I have photographed them a few days apart and they seem to be growing quite rapidly.
Tomorrow morning (Sunday) I am going back to their nest to photograph them again, for what might be the last time before they leave the nest and I'll post those results a bit later that day.

Taken 4/18/2012

Taken 4/22/2012

Mamma Red Tailed Hawk