Spring Break 2006

In 2006, Barb and I took a trip to Arizona as a part of the Elderhostel program. IT was specifically a photography class with an instructor from "Arizona Highways" who also has shot for National Geographic. I would recommend the Elderhostel program to everyone old enough to participate. They do a first class job of setting you up in a program that from the front door to the back door is all paid for. This includes meals, transportation and lodging.
The nearest thing I can equate it to is a sea cruise on land. We went to some very diverse terrain from Sedona with it's wonderful red rocks to Apache Junction east of Phoenix that is on the edge of the desert.
One of the biggest things that was pointed out to us is like real estate has Location,Location and Location, photography has that and timing. The bright picture above is location but without the interesting color and shadow variations of late afternoon or early morning. Our vacation this year was at our leisure so I was not out shooting either early or late. My error but with the fact I shot with a camera in one hand and a box of Kleenex in the other, no one else would have been out as much or as long.
I'm not sure exactly why the setting or early sun makes pictures so colorful but I suspect it has something to do with the atmosphere and how it turns the colors a different refraction and adds shadows.
I hope that many of you are moving with the technology to digital. The great thing for us is that most all of Barb's Nikon family of lenses work on my Nikon digital body. There was one that didn't seem to work well but out of a bag of five that ain't bad. The great lens the camera came with is pretty darned good. Barb is still shooting her film camera for the most part but has played with the digital and we have looked at the newer fancy dancy Nikon 200 but it is still a little too expensive. Perhaps by next year it will fall off a few hundred and we'll see then.
Spring Break 2007 is going to be spent for the most part here at Rabbit Run. There are a lot of spring time things to do and I like to get them done before the chiggers,ticks and snakes get out. I have a lot of projects this year and hope to get a few of them done to shape up the place. I want an arbor in the front of the house and a retaining wall on the backside. Mostly semi skilled labor items with a lot of back work thrown in. I also have grand plans to for some great bike riding this year so I need to get the old legs in shape for that.
The school board election is only a couple of weeks away and I am not campaigning hard. The good news is that my opponent isn't either. Perhaps we neither want the job deep down but are running for the heck of it. We'll see.
Thats my story and I'm sticking to it! MUD