Category Archives: Shooting Close to Home

Food, People, Photography, Places to Shoot, Shooting Close to Home

Shooting the County Fair

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The visual feast of county and state fair season is upon us not to mention the endless carnivals that pop up in local parking lots. Between the food, rides, kids, carnies, colors, patterns, signs, lights and the people to go with, there are unlimited subjects to shoot.

This is last year’s Coconino County Fair with my wife, granddaughter and two step-daughters.

The amount of gross yet yummy food at these things is remarkable. Food is an experience in itself at the fair and the way they advertise it is SO obnoxious that one just HAS to shoot it. Nowhere else do I eat like this.

Aaaaah, the granddaughter. She grew up in front of my camera and loves to strike a pose. I prefer the candids so I snapped this posed one because of the genuine smile.

I got this one as she waved to her mom before going up in a ride I would have surely blown chunks on.

Speaking of rides, they are a great subject to practice slow shutter speeds. Night time would have been better, or at least different, with the lights. But we were there during the day so I slowed the shutter and shot this hand held. I was sure to shoot it near something standing still to really show the motion in a still frame.

This little thing was adorable with her little Micky Mouse ears. I can’t help but wonder if she thought she was at Disneyland.

And here they are, the dynamic trio. These three don’t get together often enough; my wife Ellen and her two beautiful daughters Evonne and Chelsea. Love these women.

I always prefer the candids.

Back to the food theme. There is just something about Fair Food that begs it to be eaten.

I also wanted to capture it in an image so here is a boat full of curly fries. The amounts are absurd and the grease could run a small vehicle fleet. Which is probably why it tastes so good.

Fair workers are also interesting to shoot. This lady had her bare hand working the tongs on the food while her gloved hand held her soda…? If you’re into photographing people you will not be disappointed with the ample opportunity at a fair.

One of my favorite images of Akacia. I think she was gearing up to get some sort of Henna Tattoo.

And then there’s the games. A pond full of sunglass wearing plastic turtles? Had to shoot ’em.

Balloons from a dart game.

The day was winding down, the child wearing out.  Too much junk food and too many spinning rides meant home was not far away.

So look up your local county fairs and grab your camera and go capture some fun images. It’s a great way to spend a few hours.

Happy shooting!

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

Wupatki Meetup

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Meetup.com is a great way to get together with like minded people and go shooting. A recent meetup we (we meaning Amy Horn and myself) hosted was at Wupatki National Monument north of Flagstaff. We met at 4:00 p.m. at the visitor’s center, wandered through the Wupatki Ruin behind the building and quickly decided to head out and visit the other ruins.

The light wasn’t cooperating right away at Wukoki Ruins so we went to another set.

Once there and finding a scene I recommend working it. Move closer, zoom in, zoom out, try different angles and compositions. This blog is more about a great place to shoot and less about all the different things there are to shoot. Wupatki consists of several sets of well preserved ruins that are spectacular at sunset. I was actually hoping to catch some distant summer storms with lightning but that didn’t work out.

So here are my images, I hope they inspire you to get out and take the time to capture some beautiful photos.  Also, check out  Arizona Highways Photo Workshops on Meetup.com and come out and SHOOT!

Celebrations, Cultural, Food, People, Photography, Shooting Close to Home

Flagstaff Celtic Festival

Flagstaff is a great place to be in the summer where photographic opportunities are plentiful. This summer the Flagstaff Celtic Festival was celebrating it’s 20th anniversary and for the first time my wife and I attended. I think we just happened to be home that weekend and had spoken to a neighbor who had gone on Saturday. So we went on Sunday…and were not disappointed.

Apparently flags are a big thing with the Celtic people which worked well for me because I love shooting flags. I love their symbolism, color and the way they move in the wind. Catching them unfurled is a trick. I set the shutter speed to 1,000 and put it on high speed shooting. This collection of flags flew above a tent as we walked in.

Another area of the grounds had guys with swords and other fighting implements of the Highlands. It was interesting to watch the lessons being taught on how to use each tool for war, which, back then, was hand-to-hand combat.

This flag was attached to the band leader of one of the bagpipe bands. What a great sound.

 

 

Our good friend Mike Stuckey playing his beloved bagpipes. The sound this instrument makes gives me chills.

Duelling bagpipes

We approached the food trucks and began asking people as they passed us with food what would be a good traditional item to order. Haggis was recommended so haggis we got. We were also told to not ask what was in it until AFTER we ate it. Hmmmm….ok.

Here it is. We looked it up and it apparently contains sheep heart, liver, stomach stuffed into a sausage skin. Glad I ate it first. It wasn’t terrible but I probably wouldn’t order it again. Pretty happy and proud of ourselves for ordering it though!

The kilts were amazing. It’s remarkable how dressed up the guys can look in a “skirt”. The different patterns represent different clans.

The march of the bands. At one point in the afternoon all of the bagpipe bands lined up and did a small parade through the grounds playing a tune. Again…chills.

Ah yes, tug-of-war. The ancient game of pulling a rope to drag your opponent across a line. There were teams of gals and guys in kilts. It was a great opportunity to zero in on facial expressions and details. I liked this one of taped hands and the sleeve tattoo.

Shooting the little humans is one of the best things ever. The festival was selling kilts of all sizes and this little guy picked up one.

There was a tent full of swords, daggers, leather bracelets and musket type guns. The white “pearl” handles on these pistols caught my eye.

Check your local listings for summer festivals. They are a wonderful place to practice the craft of photography. And, if you find yourself going to a festival, be sure to bring your camera. I shot all of these with my Lumix GX-8, 14-150mm lens.  

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

Hashknife Colt Sale

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I was coming back from a family trip to the Grand Canyon, stopped at the Cameron Trading Post for Navajo Tacos. After dinner, while wandering through the store, I ran into a worker who mentioned the “colt sale”. I asked her to tell me about it and she did. I live in Flagstaff and have heard about it for years but was never sure how to get there or who was invited. She encouraged me to go and said it was a wonderful family event. So, on July 8th, I drove the 60 minutes from my home south of Flagstaff to Spider Camp, a Babbitt Ranches location.

I arrived around 9:00 am knowing the auction wasn’t going to begin for an hour. I figured it would give me time to get the lay of the land, wander and shoot. They were still setting up and only a few folks had arrived. There was a line of about 4-5 horses with saddles tied to a fence around the back of the barn. These horses were waiting for their riders who would later herd the mamas and their babies into the auction ring.

The tack room was a great place to shoot as well. I found saddles, reins, blankets and other horse riding gear.

And then…the people began to arrive. This little guy was decked out in his best cowboy gear and followed who I presumed to be Dad everywhere.

During the auction several cowboys climbed up and sat on the fencing to get a better look. The boots were fantastic. This guy had a hole in the bottom of his right boot. Boots and blue jeans, a western classic.

I began a collection of boots. The wear and tear, colors and textures were fun to search out and shoot.

I took several images of this crew sitting on the fence watching the colt sale. They looked pretty at home with the whole situation. This was my favorite.

There were several pens full of different groupings of horses that people were allowed to wander through and look at the horses. Many were looking to buy but there were several people like me just enjoying being around the animals.

The horses were brought to a pen adjacent to the auction pen and the excitement began. The cowboys spent time trying to single out certain pairs of moms and colts to send them through two at a time.

There was a lot of running around the pen and those colts were really good at staying beside mom.

There was also a lot of dust.

I have to admit, I am certainly not a “cowgirl”. I don’t listen to country music and I don’t particularly like riding horses, it hurts my knees. But! This was a great three hours of shooting in a culture I’m not familiar with. I highly recommend it. If you Google Hashknife Colt Sale you will get the low-down of when and where. Look for it in July next year. 

And remember, shooting opportunities don’t have to be far from home! Happy Shooting!

 

Adventure, How To, Nature, Outdoors, Photography, Places to Shoot, Shooting Close to Home

Picture Canyon

My friend Amy Horn and I went out exploring one day after school. We had heard of this place called Picture Canyon but had never been. I had seen a sign for it so we grabbed our cameras and tripods, met in the parking lot of my school at 3:30 and headed out.

We drove east on Route 66 toward the Flagstaff Mall. Before we hit the I-40 overpass we turned right onto Old Route 66, the road that goes along the RR tracks behind the mall. We followed it for about a mile, saw the brown and white sign and turned left. We passed the water treatment plant and parked in one of two tiny parking lots.

We proceeded to look for a map of the area. After locating one and looking at if for a minute or two we chose to take the trail that went to the water fall and petroglyph sites. Great, we had a goal. Check out what else we found!

For this shot I pulled out my tripod, slowed the shutter speed and attached my variable ND filter in order to make it dark enough to get the milky look of the water.

Flagstaff has a waterfall…who knew? It’s small but fun to shoot nevertheless.  We arrived around 4:00 pm and the water was in shadow while the side of the canyon we were on was in full sun. It made for tricky shooting. That rock in the left corner of my image was in full sun. I didn’t do it but in hind sight this would have been a great time to use my bracketing feature on my camera. I can shoot as many as seven different shots and later combine them into an HDR in Lightroom. I recently discovered this feature in both my camera and Lightroom and have been quite pleased with the results.

The petroglyphs were a little farther down the trail. There weren’t a lot but we did find a few behind a well marked interpretive sign that explained their possible meanings.

Our trail eventually merged with the AZT (Arizona Trail), a trail that goes 800+ miles from the Utah border all the way to Mexico. What you see here is the AZT going across a little footbridge that crosses the Rio de Flag, our local stream that mostly runs in the spring with snow melt.

 Another image of our beautiful Ponderosa Pine forest  here in the Flagstaff area. Again, the Rio de Flag is the water feature.

It was a lovely afternoon shooting with my friend Amy. So there you go…find a friend, pick a place and go shoot!