Flagstaff Photography Center Show

Hope to see you at the exhibit, which runs until September 24th. The Flagstaff Photography Center, located on Heritage Square in downtown Flagstaff, is open Wednesday through Saturday, 1 to 5 pm and by appointment. Call 928-774-2544 or visit their website: www.flagstaffphotographycenter.com for more information.

The End is Near

With help from some Bluffoons (or is it Bluffites), I finally have the major adobe clay coat on the inside walls of the strawbale shed. Ann spent her time being very creative on the exterior walls, including "painting" on a beautiful lime-clay slip and greatly improving the outside niche complete with a heart-shaped rock. The loft is ready for guests and is accessed by a ladder I built using directions off Youtube. The ladder's slope is such that a person can carry something in each hand (e.g. beers) without using a hand rail. Sweet!

Adobe Dreams

We were back in Bluff in July and did some more work on the strawbale shed. We also got up on Cedar Mesa to have a walk-about and look at some centuries-old clay work. A couple of wonderful rainstorms managed to blow through and one produced a great rainbow. Another trip in August and most of the adobe clay work should be done. Ann is having fun (at least, I hope that it is fun) trying some different clay and lime slips on the outside walls.

La Plata Mountains

Ann & I recently enjoyed some day-hiking along the Colorado trail in the La Plata Mountains of southwestern Colorado. The wildflowers were amazing and having a camera (Canon G-12) with an articulated LCD screen made picture taking very easy. No groveling in the dirt to get those low down shots.

San Juan River

We were back on the San Juan River on Memorial Day with friends from Flagstaff and Bluff and new friends from Montana and Washington. We lucked out in that the terrible winds that have been raking the Southwest calmed for a week plus the river flow increased. The daily floats were easy, putting us in camp early to explore, nap, or read. We did not even scout Government Rapid, which was a piece of cake at around 3,000 cfs.

North to Alaska

In late April, I boarded the National Geographic Sea Lion in Seattle for a voyage north to Southeast Alaska. I was the Lindblad photo instructor for a series of three trips. National Geographic photographers Kim Heacox and Ira Block joined me for portions of these.

On the way up, we stopped at Alert Bay, a native village in British Columbia. The locals treated us to traditional dances and a snack of smoked salmon and fry bread.

Although April is considered quite early to visit these northern waters, we were awarded with mostly sunny weather and great animal sightings, including being surrounded by orcas in Icy Strait along with fantastic views of the snowy Fairweather Range.

The spring melt was just beginning when we entered Tracy Arm-Ford's Terror Wilderness and dozens of waterfalls plunged down the granite cliffs...spectacular. It was great getting back to Alaska, where I had done one of my first Lindblad Expeditions back in 1981.

Seeing the Invisible

I always get a thrill out of discovering rock art. Sometimes the pictographs and petroglyphs are quite clear and easy to see and photograph. However, more often than not, the images are faded and difficult to decipher. I recently became aware of some software programs that help to enhance photos of rock art.

One program is called DStretch, which can be found by doing a search on the Internet. But first, you will need to download another program called ImageJ. DStretch is a plugin for ImageJ. I am still learning how best to use these programs; but in the meantime, here is an example. Check these programs out, have fun, and send me some of your results at swa@infomagic.net. Thanks.