Category Archives: Family

Family, People, Travel, Uncategorized

People along the way

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We are surrounded by beautiful souls in our lives and on this trip, we got to visit some of our favorites and meet some new ones along the way.

I have known Eddie and Michelle for a LONG time. I met Michelle when she came to work at Killip Elementary School in Flagstaff in maybe 2000? Two years later I got a cancelation for a Grand Canyon River Trip and they joined us. Later that fall, in October 2002, Ellen and I got married and we fashioned our wedding after theirs from the previous year. So, our anniversary is one year and one week later than this sweet couple.

This is a spray paint artist we watched in Progreso, Mexico. He was quite good and I STILL can’t figure out how anyone paints anything worth hanging with spray paint. What talent.

We spent most of our time in Houston with my cousin David. Our fathers were brothers, both now deceased. Bong, his husband as of March 26th, could join us on occasion as he was still teaching school when we were there. Dave is retired so we played, a LOT. Looking forward to more time in Houston.

On one of our bayou bike rides in Houston, we came across a wall of murals on the back walls of a strip mall.  This guy came out of one of the doors and we asked if he was one of the artists and he said YES! What are the odds?

A creepy little guy selling clothing in Galveston.

This guy had caught a yellowfin tuna and wanted someone at the fish market to filet it for him but they had already closed for the afternoon so he had to walk his poor tuna back to his boat, dragging its nose along the dock, to filet it himself.

We fund several folks on the South Padre Island Beach searching for treasures.

This is the beautiful couple now living in ellen’s childhood home in Harlingen, Tiffany, and Rudy. They were gracious hosts, let us wander into each room, and even sent us off with a Texas treat bag.

This guy was fishing off the end of the pier at Fountainebleau State Park on Lake Ponchatrain. He caught s small ray of some sort.

This is our very knowledgeable Voodoo Museum guide who took us all around New Orleans and had great stories. And this beautiful voodoo queen ran the cash register in the museum.

This is the artist who makes the mardi gras masks. They are exquisite.

Back at camp, we were approached by Erin who invited us back to her pad to meet Andy. They own the only Four Wheel Camper in the south! Ok, probably not but it’s the only other one we saw once we left Arizona. It’s an early 1990s Granby on a ’73 Ford 100. They live in it full time and travel in between Amazon warehouse jobs. Quite the interesting couple.

I first saw this colorful character coming from behind us, walking down a side street toward the parade. Once she was in front of all the bands she came alive and began dancing along with the music as she made her way down the avenue.

Only in New Orleans…

We stopped to visit ellen’s sister Ruth who happened to be staying with her son and daughter-in-law in Poplar, Mississippi.

THIS was an interesting conversation. We stopped in this coffee shop in Houston, MS looking for help in finding the road and house Ellen and her family lived in 1969-70ish. Ellen mentioned the high school where she was a freshman and this lady lowered her voice and said, in a soft southern accent, that the old high school had burned down in 1973 under suspicious circumstances. When we asked what happened she lowered her voice, even more, looked around, and said that was the year they elected their first Black homecoming queen. Yikes!

We drove from Mississippi to Dollywood then on to Weaverville just outside of Ashville, NC for a day to visit our old neighbors from Flagstaff, Trish and Paul. They were wonderful hosts and gave us the lay of the land and Paul’s signature egg muffins for breakfast.

From Ashville, it wasn’t far to Hillsborough and cousin Wendy and her two charming children. We stayed three days, saw some beautiful country, hung out with amazing people, and talked to our granddaughter on the lid of a trash container.

Then it was the big drive to Ohio! We stayed there for six days and had some wonderful family time.

Evonne and Akacia showed us their favorite places.

Rob spends a lot of time on his craft as a tattoo artist.

Chelsea joined us for Mother’s Day morning coffee.

Rob got to join us on a sunny day downtown.

We went to Evonne’s place of work on our way out of town at the end of the week. They all love her there.

We met these two lovely folks at Sugar Bottom Campground outside of Iowa City. We hope to run into them again in our adventures.

We spent two days at the family farm in Nebraska where we extracted honey from bee boxes with this amazing lady, Becky Puncochar, my half-brother’s Aunt. We also learned about and got to ride a folding bike which we have incorporated into our camping rig, and got to wander down by the Platt River with Jonathan who came to visit from Denver for the weekend. It was a busy two days.

Our final stop was Denver where we got to walk the niece and nephew to school.

Hang out with Chelsea in Idaho Springs and hot tub.

Have dinner with the Prow family.  I taught with Laura at Killip in Flagstaff some years ago. Timothy is a master plumber and Nate hales from Ethiopia. We love this framily.

We had days mostly to ourselves as Chelsea took the week off but got sick and spent time sleeping, everyone else was either at work or school.

Except for this guy, he seemed to be the neighborhood watch guy. Creepy.

People, it’s what travel is really all about. And if they live in cool places? it’s a bonus.

Adventure, Family, Places to Shoot, pop-up camping, Travel

Coyote Hawk’s Big Adventure

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April 2nd is one week away. That’s when Coyote Hawk takes us on our epic journey South to Portal, AZ to visit good friends then East on Interstate 10 all the way to New Orleans, visiting friends and family along the way. From there we’ll head North to Cincinnati before jumping on Interstate 80 and heading back home, again, visiting friends and family along the way. Keep on the lookout as I will post on this blog our adventures and discoveries along the way.

Let’s begin with a camper tour:

In the above image, you see the driver’s side of the camper. The bench my feet are on as well as the one I’m sitting on provides us with a lot of storage. This is good as we’ll need to bring clothing for 85 degrees and humidity in south texas as well as potential late spring blizzards along I-80.

The counter has a two-burner stove, a sink, and a small counter space. The drawer on the left holds our utensils and the cabinet below that is for our pots, pans, and dishes. Below that are the batteries and the other cabinet doors are the water pump and fuses.

On this side is the refrigerator with stickers on it. Above that is a shallow space for personal items. To the right of that is our pantry. Below that is a double-door cabinet for ellen’s clothes and below that is a similar cabinet for our shoes. The bed pulls out over the table to make it King-Size. We have to push it back each morning to access the table.

We’ve now spent 12 nights in her. Ellen has been it her 16 nights as she took her camping while I was in Florida on a photo workshop.

We’ve had her off-grid at White Tank Mountain Park, Lake Pleasant Regional Park, and McDowell Mountain Regional Park, all in the Maricopa county park system in the Phoenix area. We fill up the 20-gallon fresh water tank, run the hot water heater that holds six gallons and get our electricity from our solar panels.

We hooked her up to shore power once, at Patagonia Lake State Park in Southern Arizona, over Christmas last year. We also experimented with city water, bypassing the 20-gallon tank. Both systems worked great. Sadly, though, we did not blow out the outdoor shower well enough and ended up with a leak in the brass faucet system. Four-Wheel Camper sent us a replacement and it was just installed.

The other item we recently fixed, with the help of our brilliant friend Rod Horn, was the after-market backup camera. Ours disappeared when we took off the tailgate. Rod machined a bracket that goes over the license plate and he was able to attach the backup camera to it.  Works like a charm.

Coyote Hawk will get her first oil change on March 30th. Other than that, we should be ready to roll on April 2nd. For this trip, we decided to leave behind bikes and paddleboards as we will be spending a lot of time with friends, family and in cities,  visiting museums. We have menus ready to go and will spend the day or two before we leave grocery shopping and packing any last-minute items. We have lists and lists of lists.

Our mail is taken care of, our neighbors are watching the place and watering our plants. We don’t have any pets. I think we’re set!

I’m not sure what this Epic Adventure Blog is going to look like exactly so be patient and let’s see how it turns out together, shall we?

Thanks for reading!

 

Architecture, Family, Gear, People, Places to Shoot, Travel, Urban Art

A Smart Phone Works…

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Let me say right up front that I am a minimalist in life, meaning I live by the “Less is More” motto, and am a photojournalist at heart. It was my major in college which fit as I began documenting my life, in pictures, at an early age.

With that in mind, I’ve heard it said that the best camera you own is the one you have with you or the one you actually use. For example, if I own a heavy full-frame camera with equally heavy lenses but do most of my shooting with my smartphone because of the weight, then, in my opinion, my best camera is the phone camera. This theory brought me to minimalism in photography. I reduced my gear down from the Canon line to the mirrorless Lumix brand. It serves me well and more often than not I take a lens attached to a camera body attached to a sling and go out shooting for the day. In my pockets, I have an extra battery and a lens cleaning cloth. No pack full of extra lenses, and all the gear that might distract me. I also have just quit bringing a tripod as it always seemed to be an exercise in futility, I NEVER used it.

You now know enough for me to get to the actual subject of this blog…photographing San Francisco with an iPhone 8.

Last summer, August 2021 to be exact, we finally made it to Northern California to see the family after a two-year Covid hiatus. The family lives in Marin County, north of the Golden Gate Bridge. One day a group of us decided to take the ferry to the City then spend the day hopping on and off cable cars. I was torn as to whether I would capture this adventure in a “real” camera or “live it” and just go with grab shots with the iPhone. I chose to live it. Here are some of my images:

This is the crew we went with: my mom, step-dad, sister-in-law, and her two kids, granddaughter, nephew, and my cousin’s kid. It was a formidable team.

We spent most of the day in Chinatown where I found some amazing murals.

My wife, Ellen, and I with our granddaughter. It was her first trip to see the family in eight years.

I love wondering unfamiliar cities and finding treasures like this parking garage entrance.

We HAD to stop by the fortune cookie factory!

We grabbed lunch inside this giant mall and did some quick shopping.

Our two youngest team members were SUCH troopers.

After lunch, we boarded the trolly and headed to Fisherman’s Wharf where we ended the day. From there we walked back to the Ferry Building and headed home.  

Our crew hanging off the trolly as we pass one going in the opposite direction. You can see the Bay in the distance.

I wasn’t preoccupied with photo gear and was able to be present and spend a glorious day with my family while still documenting the day. And it was a single-lens iPhone 8! Not even the fancy three-lens 13 (or whatever generation they are on to).

Have a great time on your next family adventure and remember, it’s okay to live it. 😉

Happy Shooting!

Cultural, Family, People, Places to Shoot, Travel

How the Locals Live

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I love to travel. Traveling to new places is such an enriching, eye-opening experience. I love the scenery, the food, the culture but what I like the best is meeting new people. This is also true of my volunteer “job” with Arizona Highways Photoscapes but that’s another blog post.

This post has three parts.                                                                        1. Seeing the home of our Sherpa                                                  2. Gifting his daughter with money for school                      3. Providing money for his family for meals as                           opposed to a single dinner.

Stick with me…all will be explained. 😉

Dilip Rai and his family outside of their home in Lukla.

1. A tour of the house.

Dilip Rai was our “Sherpa”. He is of Rai ethnicity but was our sherpa on the trail. He invited us to his home upon our return to Lukla to visit his wife and three children.

To get there we dropped our gear off at the hotel near the airport and promptly met downstairs in the lobby for the walk to Dilip’s home. The beginning of the walk was on the usual tourist paths but quickly turned into side alleyways and local haunts.  We walked past homes with neighbors chatting, children playing and the ever-present pack animals strolling through town.

Keep in mind the ISO for these images was at 25,000 due to the low light conditions. The entire room was lit with a single dim bulb and some outside light sneaking in through the fabric door.

Dilip’s home was incredibly modest. As you enter through the front door you are in the living room, dining room and bedroom all at once. To the left, as you enter, you can see kitchen items stored on shelves. The table you see coming out of the lower left corner is about eight feet long. One the right, as you enter the home, is a long bench. On the other, where Stephanos is sitting,  is a bed.

This image is of the left side of the bed which is to the right of the kitchen supplies from the image above. In the upper left corner are piles of blankets used by the family at night to keep warm.

Here Dilip is peeking behind a blanket which separates the kitchen from the main room. In the kitchen, his wife is making popcorn and heating water for warm drinks to serve to us. What struck me about the kitchen is that she was cooking in conditions and on equipment that I have used while camping. She had a wood fire going in one corner and a stove top heated with gas in another. There was room for one, maybe two people to stand comfortably. We came to learn that nine people lived in this little home the size of our master bedroom, bathroom and closet. I forgot to mention that off the kitchen was another small room with a bed and lots of clothing stored in it.

Their hospitality was unparalleled. We were served popcorn, hot lemon tea, hot cocoa and cookies.

2. The next thing we did was gift their eldest daughter with $100 for school. This is a lot of money for their family and will help purchase school uniforms, paper and pencils as well as other supplies. She then proceeded to gift US with a ceremonial gold scarf and a heartfelt “Namaste”.

3. Groceries instead of dinner.

One of the traditions of having guides is to treat them to a nice dinner, kind of a farewell/thank you gesture, following a trip. We had done it in June following our Grand Canyon River rafting trip. Here, however, we decided that the money spent on feeding our three porters and sherpa one dinner could better be spent by presenting the money to the workers and letting them purchase food for their families. It would feed them for several weeks.

So we walked through town to a local market and let Dilip, his nephew (one of the porters) and the other porter pick what food they wanted.

Dilip is proudly looking on at his 16-year-old nephew who recently lost his father and now has to earn money for his family back in the small village where they come from.
The happy and gracious matriarch.

This visit to Lukla happened at the end of the trek on day 12. It was amazing to meet this family, see where they live and how. Did I mention there also is not a bathroom in the home? They DO have running water in a sink behind the front door but the bathroom is some 50 meters away. They live how we camp, let that sink in when you feel burdened by your life.

Happy shooting!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cultural, Family, Travel

Lukla, Nepal (9,317 ft.)

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Although Lukla means “place with many goats and sheep”, few are found in the area these days. What we found instead were trains of zokpas (cattle/yak mixture) and horses, the local beasts of burden. More on them later.

Lukla is the launching pad for numerous treks and expeditions in this region of eastern Nepal. Once we landed we gathered our gear, met our porters (more on them later) who we handed our duffels off to, grabbed our daypacks and followed Nutan and Dilip to our first tea lodge (more on that later as well) for lunch.

The village itself has one main touristy “street” (there are no cars from here on out) that caters to trekkers needing last minute gear or souvenirs.

Monks have been a common sight since we landed in Nepal. They were plentiful in Kathmandu and here was no exception. What made me feel silly was trekking with them along the trail; me in my big hiking boots, trekking poles, daypack loaded with water, snacks, fancy clothing layers and sunscreen being passed by a monk in simple robes, running shoes and nothing else, heading to the same place. I was almost always out of breath and his or her walking seemed effortless.

These canisters are what makes the world go ’round in this region. It is the fuel that heats and cooks. It is brought in and up by helicopter or pack animal. The canisters are everywhere. And that broom? also everywhere. They use nothing but.

The archway in the distance is the official beginning of the Everest Base Camp Trek or any other trek or expedition one might be heading off to. The mountains are calling.

Signs like this appeared occasionally on the trail. It was cool because it gives the name and elevation of where you are, a map of the region and names of towns. The towns are listed in both distance and hours walk. We were heading to Namche.

Prayer flags and temples are everywhere in Nepal, at least in the areas we were, and Lukla was no exception. There are so many flags here one can barely see the little temple among them. Our big question became, “How did they hang them all?!?”.

On Monday you will get a bonus post. You will meet Dilip’s family and hear the story of one of the top highlights for me on this trip, seeing how other people live and feeling very privileged.

Cultural, Family, Outdoors, People, Places to Shoot, Shooting Close to Home, Travel

Hashknife Colt Sale, People

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Last year was my first time shooting the Babbitt Ranches Annual Hashknife Colt Sale in July. This year I decided to offer it up as a Photography Meetup through Arizona Highways PhotoScapes. To my surprise, it filled.

I wasn’t sure I’d shoot much this year as I thought I had pretty well covered it last year. Boy was I wrong.

There are pretty much two things to shoot at the colt sale…people and horses. This first installment focusses on people. In particular, the little humans trying to operate in a grown-up world.

 

This little one was all duded up in her fancy jeans and cowgirl shirt.

These two cuties are the children of a Babbitt Ranches cowboy.

Kids just don’t walk around puddles. Ever.

Here are a couple of my token adults. An old cowboy in a rustic landscape…on a cell phone.

And some guys here with their chuck wagon from the Pioneer Museum making cowboy coffee the old-fashioned way.

And then I fell in love. What you are about to witness is the kid that got my attention instantly. He was 18 months old and walking around holding his rope like he owned the place. Enjoy.

 

You’re welcome. 😉

He was ADORABLE! And THAT, my friends, is why you go to a place more than once to shoot it. A location is never the same year to year just as YOU are never the same.

Go to a familiar location with this year’s vision and shoot what you see. I bet it will be different than last year!

Happy Shooting!!

Animals, Family

Photographing Puppies!

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camera settings

eye level, handheld, focus on the eyes

Photographing puppies is like photographing kids, don’t waste time and plan on doing it later because they grow up TOO FAST and there IS no later.

In 2016 my granddaughter got a Dorky. A mix of a Yorkshire Terrier and a Dachshund. A Dorky, cute, right? The puppy lives at Akacia’s dad’s house which means we rarely see her so I KNEW, on this visit, I’d spend a lot of the time shooting and capturing that adorable puppiness before it was all gone.

Plan on this shoot being handheld as I doubt a puppy will stay in shot of a tripod mount. Set you ISO at 400 in good light with the shutter speed at 500 or above. Get as close down to the animal’s level as possible, in other words, don’t stand and shoot from above. Make a sound in hopes they will cock their head, lift their ears and look at you and not run straight at you. It’s a delicate situation.

In this series, she was preoccupied with her leash. You want to try to focus on the eyes, which isn’t always easy as they keep moving. Be sure your camera is set on burst mode and fire away.

What you’re trying to capture is expression and personality.

Seriously, how cute is THAT?!?

Another concept I think is important in photography is to add a human to show scale. These images show how really little this puppy is.

They also tucker out pretty quickly so take advantage of their stillness to grab some more cuteness.

And there she is, surveying the situation on her first big hike in Kachina Village.

Take your camera to a friends house who has a new puppy and practice. The other nice thing is these images make great gifts over the years as the puppy moves through life and ages.

Happy shooting!

Animals, Boating, Family, Nature, Outdoors, Paddling, Places to Shoot, Travel

Watson Lake, Prescott

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There’s a great little lake just north of Prescott on Highway 89 called Watson Lake. I’ve also heard it called Granite Dells for its beautiful rock formations. It’s a great lake for shooting in all seasons. You can get beautiful images from both in the lake (paddling) and around its shores.

The water is calm enough to take a first grader in her brand new sit on top kayak.

It’s also calm enough to play with reflections.

There are plenty of places to park and explore. Folks like to fish here but you are NOT allowed to swim. That’s a big bummer in my family.

There is abundant wildlife. The fun thing about paddling and shooting is the ability to be closer to it.

Plenty of Blue Heron which are SO beautiful.

Random geese hanging out watching the boaters. Speaking of which I’ve never seen a motorboat on this lake. I don’t think they are allowed.  That lack of engine noise is really nice.

Last January Arizona Highways PhotoScapes did a two-day workshop here with Amy Horn, the photographer. Exploring the shore you can look for rocks and reflections…

  …grass designs

…or designs in dried out wood.

The lighting is different in January, duh. And it’s the best season to come in and shoot sunrise as the park doesn’t open until 7:00 am. In the summer you’d be two hours after sunrise and miss all the good light. I like silhouettes.

The evening light in January was also beautiful. This might be a great place to catch incoming monsoons in August!

More silhouettes with sunset colors as a backdrop.

The Canadians were active on that weekend in January.

There are also plenty of geese and ducks which the park sends a guy around to feed a couple of times a week. I could have spent the morning shooting just them!

Celebrations, Cultural, Family, Photography, Shooting at Home, Spring

Easter Eggs

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Easter is coming up in a couple of weeks and it is a fantastic holiday for shooting, especially if you like color as much as I do.

Apparently my household doesn’t color eggs as often as I think we do because I only have two years of examples. But that doesn’t matter. This is a blog about inspiration so YOU get out there and find those eggs and baskets and colors and YOU get some images. 😉

This bowl of eggs was sitting on our kitchen counter. I set up a tripod so I could shoot in low light without camera shake. You could spend an hour just shooting this bowl and changing around the eggs to find the best lines, forms and color combinations.  Of course changing the  angle is also also an option as I did below.

Seriously, this makes me want to color eggs this year just to have a photo session.

One year we got a hold of a box of egg color that had faces and hair in them. That was a fun shoot!

So, this Easter, get with the kids and/or grandkids and color some eggs! Then get out your camera and have some fun. I did!

Happy Shooting!

Adventure, Family, Outdoors, People, Photography, Places to Shoot, Shooting Close to Home, Travel

Grand Falls, Navajo Nation

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Here’s a great place to go shooting for spectacular scenery. Google  images of Grand Falls and you will be impressed. It is a set of waterfalls on the Little Colorado River just outside of Leupp, Arizona on the Navajo Indian Reservation. Also called Chocolate Falls, they run basically twice a year; spring run-off and summer monsoons.

We went on President’s Day last February and found some pretty good water. During peak run-off the water flows all the way across the canyon.

There is a trail that takes you to the bottom of the falls but beware of your camera gear. There is significant spray that comes off the falls and it is full of brown dirt. It also gets quite slippery and muddy to walk very close to the falls itself so I tend to stay downstream a bit.

This image shows a big black volcanic rock in the foreground. Also be ware of these rocks as they are quite sharp!

I, however, love photographing people, even when the scenery is amazing. If you take kids here keep a close eye on them lest they fall in and be swept away.  There is plenty of mud to play in and spread around as my granddaughter is showing. 

 

This composition presented itself as I realized the possibility of silhouette shooting. The falls were in full sun but our side of the canyon was full shade…perfect. I had Akacia climb the rock and strike a pose. I had my other favorite model, my wife, do the same with her beautiful yoga poses. 

This is what happens when Dad is in charge. This man had about five kids with him with no mom in sight. The little girl on the left, BAREFOOT! was crying her eyes out. The little guy on the left had fallen a few times in the mud. They were working their way toward the trail to head out.

This is a clear view of the Little Colorado River Gorge heading west. This water will eventually go under ground and emerge again a teal blue color at the confluence with the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. It’s crazy to think this is the same water…

Grab your camera, go on a small adventure and don’t forget to look around, past the scenery, for the human stories in the area. How we interact with nature is always fascinating.

Happy Shooting!