Category Archive

Saguaro cactus, Tonto National Forest, Arizona.

This was last night at sunset. I love the unique shapes of these guys – saguaros are cool!

Scottsdale Waterfront, Scottsdale, Arizona.

Any water feature seems to really add to a community whether it is a river, lake or ocean.  Towns like Scottsdale and San Antonio, where such things don’t occur naturally have had to get creative in creating a “waterfront”.

This area of Scottsdale has changed a lot since we first visited this region 4 years ago.  Back then, this area was completely under construction.  Last year it was finished, but not much of the landscaping had grown in.  Now, it really is a nice little waterfront with outdoor restaurants, galleries and residential towers.  It is a big change from the sprawling, low density development that has typically taken place in this region.

Downtown Phoenix has changed even more.  Four years ago everything was torn up thanks to the addition of a mass transit rail system, construction of additional convention facilities and office buildings.  Today, all those projects are complete, and it is a nice improvement.

Lesser Goldfinch, Fort McDowell, Arizona.

I noticed a few people having good luck with bird feeders at this campground so I decided to put one out.  Well, it only took about an hour before goldfinches began to show up!  These colorful birds are a lot of fun to watch and photograph!

Sunset, McDowell Mountain Regional Park, Arizona.

We have now moved a bit east into Arizona.  As you can see, there aren’t any wildflowers.  We are here a tad bit earlier then normal, but the lack of wildflowers has much more to do with a dry and unseasonably cold winter that included some freezes.   In some parts of McDowell, many plants appeared dead, hopefully they are just damaged by the freeze.

It is possible that late rains, and now unseasonably warm weather might give us a few flowers – but we definitely won’t be seeing the hills of solid color like we did in 2008.

Sonoran Desert wildflowers, near Fountain Hills, Arizona.

You may have noticed the photo blog activity has slowed down a bit, partly because this rainy, snow-less winter has had me concentrating on office work, and has not provided me with new material for the blog.  But, mostly because we have been trying to get everything wrapped up before our next trip which we leave for on Monday!

Where are we going?  At first we fly to Palm Springs and then head down to Anza-Borrego where we will stay for about a month, and where I will do my Anza-Borrego photo workshop.

After that, believe it or not, we haven’t decided.  With all the rain the Southwest has received, there is a good chance we will chase some wildflowers possibly to Arizona.  But, we have kicked around a few other ideas and may go a different direction.  For now, we have not booked a flight home – we will pick our departure city and date later which makes it kind of fun.

Bartlett Lake at sunset, near Phoenix, Arizona.

Sticking with the new update theme – Janine now has our website updated with new photos of Phoenix Arizona.  Many of these were captured during our spring trip to the area.

Bartlett Lake, Arizona.

A recently adjusted photo from our spring trip of the wildflowers around Bartlett Lake, Arizona.