Tag: Flagstaff
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Moonset in the Mountains 17March2022
Until recently, a huge frustration in shooting the bright moon and its dimmer context was this— I could 1) brighten the whole image in order to make the context visible, washing out the features of the moon, 2) dim the moon and make the context even less visible, or 3) use a brush to change…
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Night Photography
Star Trails Over San Francisco Peaks Another photo from my pre-dawn photo-walk yesterday (2/17/22) morning…another shot at night photography (pun intended). What I am attempting is to minimize noise while maximizing light on my subject— the peaks and the stars above them. This involves the following settings— ISO 1000, f/2.8 at .50s, shot on my…
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Motion Blur #2: Photographing American Avocets in Flight
I live hundreds of miles inland from the Pacific, but late in August, Flagstaff was visited by a flock of American Avocets. As you saw in my first Motion Blur post, the technique produces some cool effects. (By the way, like yesterday’s post, this shot was taken at the Old Walnut Canyon Road Ponds. I…
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Waterfowl on Frances Short Pond (Flagstaff)
It’s been a frightfully warm winter, but not so warm as to completely melt the ice on our fair city’s beloved municipal pond near a couple of our public schools. Frances Short was an “educator and city councilperson” in Flagstaff. (For more information, click here.) The pond and its immediate environs are home to waterfowl…
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Dragonflies mating mid-air
One of my favorite places in Flagstaff is Frances Short Pond. It is a hotspot for members of the Order Odonata— dragonflies and damselflies like the one below, which is, I believe, a “bluet.” But now the show I promised—a shaky video of two orange dragonflies and their mid-air mating dance. The still photos on…
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Hitchhiker butterfly
The other day, I came in from a photographic moment down on my knees in the front yard. This put my legs in direct contact with a pile of dead plant matter. So I should have seen this coming— a hitchhiker apparently crawled onto my blue jeans. So it was not until I came inside…
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How great to have an arboretum nearby
It seems to me that supporting one’s local arboretum is a darned good idea, if one is lucky enough to have one. The Arboretum of Flagstaff is part of a network that includes the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix (dbg.org). That’s doubly convenient for us, since we travel to Phoenix from time to time. Four…

