Phoenix
Exploring Phoenix
February 23rd, 2020 I decided to explore Phoenix while working a bit. It was for a photo project and also to get some exercise. It was a Sunday and the streets still had people coming and going like it was Monday. It’s nice to see the first time tourists come in and give them rides around town.
Here are some pictures to look at while we virtually ride around town.
Downtown Phoenix Ambassadors
Feeling a little lost and hopeless? No worries look for an ambassador to help find your way. In the downtown district in particular life is growing upwards, which can obscure landmarks and navigational reference points. Here’s a helpful hint. Phoenix is divided East and West from Central Avenue. The area for the most part is a grid, but maps can be deceiving as the entire metro area is about 75 miles wide. I once picked a up a couple using a brochure trying to walk to a farmers market about 15-20 miles away. The map made it appear to be walking distance.
Abandoned Phoenix 1st Baptist Church
The Phoenix 1st Baptist church had a fire and was preserved by Mayor at the time Terry Goddard as a historical building. I see it’s been used as a wedding venue for photoshoots also.
Monroe Street
Monroe and Central has some cool spots. Cornish Pasty was a small shop about the width of a hallway in Tempe back in the day. Now it has several locations including this beautiful store front.
Central Station
Janet Echelman’s – Her Secret Is Patience
A glimpse of the Westward Ho and the Civic Space Park where events are held on occasion with laser light shows with Electronic Dance Music EDM. I think the structures holding up the wire vector sculpture are just as interesting as the sculpture itself. You can also purchase bus passes and lightrail tickets Central Station. They are handy for getting up and down Central Ave to visit restaurants and other venues. People that have baseball game tickets can ride the lightrail for free from park and ride stations.
Roosevelt Row
Roosevelt Row keeps changing from my observation. I visited First Fridays early on and participated in Tempe’s version as an artist. It’s great to see this nurtured over the years and wish everyone success.
Business or Pleasure?
Sculpture John Henry Waddell
Phoenix is set up for a work and play atmosphere. When Phoenix Comicon comes to town people walk around dressed up as their favorite comic culture icons. People walking with lanyards is a common sight around the the convention center. I know they appreciate a driver sometimes that doesn’t mind giving a little tour.
Reflecting on the Past
When I went out to take pictures it was for a project currently being evaluated. I got home and was pretty happy overall. There were some things I need to be aware of in the future. Especially the critics in my head.
Life sure has changed since then. Looking forward to the next time we can do this.
Pictures are Perfect
Digital photos are almost forever. That’s exactly what my thought was getting back into photography with digital equipment. Figured one day I might find myself in a position that I could use thousands of photos to go through.
Here I am now. Here we are now, if you are in the same boat. Pictures are perfect for looking back as a fond memory or just a reference in life. Pinch myself everyday wondering if this is reality.
The Old I-8 Bypass Rest Stop was a recovered file edited in Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, and Camera Raw. I was trying to give the sign some luminescence and things got nasty quick. I moved on from trying to fix it that day and published the original image.
I already had an advance knowledge for making textures and other magic in Photoshop. Then I had a bunch of spare time with free E-learning courses. Below are the results of getting up to speed 2020.
This is two images auto-blended similar to an HDR photo with some final Camera RAW touch ups. The original plan was to use two different focal points to make up for a wide open aperture and blurry vegetation.
One of the biggest challenges of taking photos in the desert is wind and brush. The needle like leaves on the trees and brush make for some tough issues with chromatic aberration against the skyline. It’s like a green or purple digital divide between contrasting objects. In the final photo the rubber stamp tool came in handy for fixing anomalies.
I think a little blur, a little imperfection is ok. I’m happy with it as it is now looking more natural. Not everything has to be perfect.
11th Hour
Man I had awful feeling taking pictures the morning of March 13th. I tend to stay aware of what is going on globally in a general sense, because there are things that have a butterfly effect with an infinite amount of variables.
Taking photos this morning was to help rid my anxiety of what was about to happen and should have happened sooner. I understand the economics in scale. Obviously my work as a photographer and driver are greatly impacted.
The next morning I quit hauling people after a couple rough nights. I was giving people rides that had no business being in public and rated them accordingly. One of my last rides I saved the day by doing nothing as a wrong way driver passed slowly by us in the next lane.
It’s been two weeks since I had to sell my camera to pay rent. It was apart of the short plan if worse came to worse. Who would have imagined the enormity of that statement back in October? Me. It’s just how business works and I had more than one set back with this being a pretty hard blow. Still rocking hardware for photo and video editing (my son) and looking into online contracts along with driving for a living.
We are all dealing with a lot right now. This was my productivity for today so far and fingers crossed for paying work. Think I’ll just listen to some Pearl Jam for now though.
Killer Bees & Desert Lavender
Went out for a quick hike and captured a great series of photos with Bees and Lavender the other day. I was feeling relaxed, calm, cool and calculated in a light swarm of bees feasting on brittlebrush, creosote, and of course lavender. Some of these might make a nice coffee table book if found in the annals of stock photography on Dreamstime.
I got a nice confidence boost from my local bee lovers in the AZ Photography group and feel these are sweet enough to attract more than a few people. Which makes me think of how specific animals have a niche market. Bees, Ladybugs, birds, fish, etc. It means I need to add a better telephoto lens that meets 2020 image standards.
Still figuring out the keywording for most stock websites as I help catalog plant species in the Sonoran Desert. It’s such a specific market most of what I am taking is just waiting for a few people rather than many. Time will tell if this was a personal epiphany. In the meantime feel free to use the cover photo for non-commercial use. If you have an idea for profit let me in on it.
Link to Purchase Killer Bees & Desert Lavender on Hartshornphoto.com
A Photographer’s Niche
I started this journey a couple years ago and find myself now saying I need to find my niche. I think it’s obvious what I am passionate about though. Needed to exercise and release some stress first and foremost.
This has been a great year for sunsets in Arizona. This one in particular is just on the edge of a storm blowing dust northward. Not the most epic one but enough to create a soft glow.
The cover photo is available for sale here.
Largest format available @ 16 bit 11900 x 3940 Pixels
Arizona Bay
Updated the cover with a subtly adjusted image to reflect a journey to undo the negative thought process in my head. Where the stark contrast of right and wrong is extreme at times. Not everything is evil. Or wrong. We all are trying to figure this out in the shortest amount of time as possible to be successful in life. Maybe one day catch a wave in Hunnington Beach, CA with some friends.
I was out driving around as usual and saw the sliver of the moon setting right behind another beautiful sunset. The colors are enhanced, but they are there. We normally can’t see them, like Donald Trump’s spray on tan. It takes a minor adjustment to a 30 MegaPixel photo to expose fine gradients and subtle tones. Then It takes some painting and advance photo editing skills to make the comet.
The idea behind this I believe is through Bill Hicks. A little before my time, but Keenan Maynard and the Tool band honed in on it and wrote Ænema. If you listen to the lyrics I honestly feel that way being an adult that still has that little candle of naive innocence only to be crushed by shitty people.
I went to this thought as I tend to think about the big picture. So looking at that sunset I think about what was creating it. The refraction of light angled against our dirty atmosphere. Really dirty.
There are plenty of solutions. Some people think the solution is destruction and rebirth. Sure sounds good to me. So does changing the culture we’ve created.
Poetically philosophically the title is,
“The End was Beautiful. Arizona Bay had the Best View.”
Dreamstime PlugIn
Recently installed the Dreamstime Stock Image WordPress Plug-in for sharing photos with a link to buy them if interested. The featured image of the Jumping Cholla Fruit and the Saguaro below were downloaded straight to the WordPress Media Library.
*Little technical note on my side it showed an error after downloading, but that is a small comment error in WordPress. Check the media library and filter the photos by the current month to find them. Happens with regular uploads also.
Burning Midnight Oil
When It Rains, It Pours
Desert Scout
Today was a productive day after being down with the flu for a week. Glad to be back in action even at 3/4 speed. I was trying to find a way to Red Mountain and might have stumbled onto a desert scout that those big signs warn people about. Joking aside I was in a secret location in North Mesa, the picture below is more benign.
The Storm of February 10th, 2020 in Fountain Hills
After getting some great stock photos of the Sonoran Desert. I had to go back home and figure out how to pay bills. Currently I drive rideshare and delivery, which is awesome for someone that needs thousands of pictures to make money selling stock photos.
The route went back East to Fountain Hills, where I got to see the storm develop with a mountain top view. I took my time, usually I am trying to set delivery records. Tonight I finished just in time to catch the squall that hit about 6:30 PM. I was leaving the last neighborhood and saw a dead end. The Airborne Ranger in the Sky was looking out tonight. Reviewing the weather radar, a squall formed over Gilbert hitting Fountain Hills right as I made my last delivery. I popped my trunk and just started shooting.
Cloud to Cloud
It took about 700 shots to get these three. I didn’t have time to focus man! A raging storm was throwing out lighting and I was laying down suppressive fire in response. Petting the Pig! Working that Canon 5D MKIV like it was one anyway.
Alright lesson learned. Again.
I need to look into new approaches for catching lightning. I think these were cloud to cloud. I honestly don’t remember hearing thunder. This time I just used the button, but the last time I would shoot ten frames at a time on tripod. Next time going with time lapse like I know I probably should. It’s tough to be in the right place at the right time to set-up though.
It did give me a bit of a chance to play with settings, but figuring out the best settings is challenging. I was parked at the bottom of very dark fishbowl surrounded by mountains. Lightning caught at the right moment would act as a flash.
Here’s what worked for these shots on a Canon 5D Mark IV.
- F/3.5
- 1/60th of a Second
- ISO 6400
- Canon EF 28-135mm (@28mm) f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Zoom Lens
- White Balanced for Flash
Patience
After sleeping on the files I discovered some more beautiful shots and reworked these a bit. I am creating a sequenced video file also, but probably will abondone my grand scheme for it. Note to self. Try video next time. I am not sure what I captured, but it certainly is a weather phenomenon. It looks like the lightning is remaining in the same general area. And some shots appear to be balls, but that’s probably due to the camera being out of focus.
