It’s finally wet out there, and Mother Nature is being very kind. It’s raining in the evening and through the night. At least it did last night. But, what’s that got to do with my Toastmaster photography club? Nothing! California is just happy that it is raining.
And, I’m happy with this Toastmaster club that is like no other. Wanting to combine my two passions, I started All About Photography almost a year ago. It’s been fun finding our way, keeping the Toastmaster structure and making the meeting all about photography. Now you see how we got our name.
We are the same as any other Toastmaster club except all our speeches are on photography and our table topics are basically critiques of images. Last Monday I was the Table Topics Master. I selected some images I wanted feedback on and presented them to the club. Before I selected the member participant, I gave a brief background on the picture. The selected member then gave a 1 – 2 minute critique. We do vote on who did the best job and present them with a ribbon.
I’m going to try something new and insert the pictures in the blog individually, not in a gallery.
This image from the ghost town Bodie was well received, mostly for the color and texture.When I shot this, I was trying to show the musician’s emotions. However, the participant felt there wasn’t enough contrast for his face to be predominate. I need to figure out how to darken the tent top.I put this one in because I happen to love it and it didn’t get great play on Facebook when I posted it. I wanted to know why and what I could do to make it better. The participant loved it as much as I do, but she noticed the neon open sign in the window furthest away. Can you see it? She thought it was distracting. To be honest, I hadn’t noticed it until she mentioned it!This, from near Sedona, AZ, was liked because of the action and depth of field. I thought it might be too busy, but the participant didn’t think so.I showed this one because I almost didn’t process it. I thought the vertical orientation made it too tight. The participant thought so also. He thought a horizontal orientation would have shown more of the landscape, giving the viewer an idea of the image’s context. I agree. However, I do like the texture of the wood and grasses.
So there you have it–a glimpse of what we do during an All About Photography meeting. And, to top off the meeting, the former District 39 Photographer told me how much he enjoyed my pictures and thought I had a great eye for composition.
It’s going to possibly rain again tomorrow, so I’ll be busy processing this week’s Tuesday With Seniors photo outing.
It wasn’t supposed to be a journey’s end, but it was. We were going to take a day on our way home, from Sedona, to drive through Sequoia and King’s Canyon National Parks, but I fell on the way to Bakersfield. It’s amazing how people rush to help when you have gray hair! I’m okay–just a couple scrapes, one big bruise and a sore shoulder. With that happening, I decided it would be best to head home.
Yes, I’m disappointed because those National Parks are my favorite. I’ll try to get there in the fall. In the meantime, I want to show you a little of the Out of Africa Wildlife Park. This isn’t like a safari park where you drive through and the animals are walking about. This park is a sanctuary. On this trip, we saw a small animal show, a tiger swim and play show and rode through an area where the animals roamed free. You’ll see from the pictures that these animals are very used to humans, especially the giraffes! The zebras can become a little testy!
Tuzigoot is a National Monument of Native American ruins. When you see the small rooms, you’ll wonder what the Southern Sinagua tribe would think if they saw our large dwellings! We decided not to visit their other dwellings, Montezuma Castle and Well, because we saw them during our last visit.
Caterpillar Point was our last stop on this trip. It was a rocky stream bed, some small water falls and lots of wildflowers including a century cactus bloom.
Take a look at our last two days before we ended our journey and headed home.
The Tuzigoot ruins. Each one of these sections was a family dwelling.
Not only were they on the top of the hill, but on the slight slope.
Here is a stairway.
Looking down on more dwellings.
This little guy still lives here!
This parrot was part of the small animal show at Out of Africa.
I don’t remember what this one is called, but he sure is cute.
Again, I can’t remember this guy’s name either.
I know this one–a tiger. The park has a pair of siblings. But just one performs in the water show.
I just couldn’t focus through the fencing to make it disappear.
This is the tiger that loves to play with toys and in the water.
The toys are inflated and held at the end of a long pole. The handlers could pet the tiger, but do have to be careful during play.
We also attended the snake show. Yes, this is one snake. I had volunteered to enter the grass area where the show was.
Imagine wearing this when you go out for the evening!
Now we are on safari. They gave us celery to feed the giraffes. They don’t get along so one can’t be in the safari area.
Here one is eating a piece of celery.
The zoologist gives him a cookie.
And gets a kiss in gratitude from the giraffe.
The zebra is anticipating receiving a cookie.
Ope wide! The zebras are not as polite as the giraffes, so we were not allowed to feed them.
Here are the wildflowers at Caterpillar Point.
The bloom from the Century Cactus. I’ve never seen one in bloom before.
I have a bird book, but not a wildflower book. I think I’m satisfied to enjoy nature’s unamed beauty.
But, our time here has been wonderful. I didn’t tell you that we met our friends Sandy and Ken here. We also came to Sedona five years ago with them. It’s been great sharing this beautiful area with them. Tonight I’m going to show you some more highlights. Please understand that we did not go into Sedona proper, just through it. It’s become crowded and commercial with so many timeshare companies wanting to sell their plans. And, now if you don’t want to go on one of the many jeep tours, you can rent your own.
We didn’t rent one, didn’t go on a jeep tour, but decided to take the scenic Verde Canyon Railroad 4-hour ride. None of us was up for long hikes this trip. We also walked and stepped over the stream at the Call of the Canyon, state park. So here are some images from those activities.
Yes, the week went by so fast that I’ll have to continue showing you this trip on the way home.
The North Fork is a beauty.
Red rock, shear walls and water.
The colors in the rock walls are tremendous.
The walls have been polished and smoothed by the water.
Reflections can be seen.
Unusual formations add to the color.
It was just thrilling to be here.
On the way back to the parking lot.
On the train ride, their were several open air cars that facilitated our taking pictures.
Here you can see one of those cars.
I think this is the Verde river.
This unusual rock formation juts out from the mountain.
A pyramid!
I liked the formation of these mountains.
The train came very close to the mountain wall.
Here we’re going through a tunnel.
This is what is left of Perkinsville.
House and pasture land.
On our way back to Clarkdale.
Dinner after the train trip. From left: Anne, Sandy, Ken and Richard.
Days! I do wish we had more days here in Sedona. Full days push us to the point of exhaustion, so we try to just go to one or two places each day. That’s not enough to see all there is in Sedona or the surrounding area. But, at our age we do the best we can.
Today, I’ll show you some of the better known sights. Since we were here in 2010 and visited these areas, we didn’t do too much during our visit. One sad fact is that Sedona has haze that was not here in 2010. It does make it difficult to do photography, at least for an amateur. The saving grace is the breeze/wind that comes in every afternoon. Not only does it help to cool us off, it pushes out the haze.
I’ll be finishing the Sedona series at home since we have only one full day here and then we start the trek home. Yes, I’d like more days in this area.
Bell Rock. A high energy vortex.
The top of Bell Rock.
Courthouse Butte/ In the same vortex area as Bell Rock.
Slide Rock State Park. A popular swim area for families.
The rocks form natural slides.
An old structure on the property.
A nice swim hole.
From the Slide Rock parking area.
Church called Cathedral Rock. This is in a calming vortex.
Beautiful red rock is what will first catch your eye when you venture into Sedona, but for me, the attraction is the vortexes. What, you ask! A vortex is an energy field that affects you in various ways.
A masculine vortex will energize you and a feminine vortex will calm you down. And, it works. Today we spent the day in a calming vortex and I’m so relaxed even though we went for a short hike. Because of these vortexes, Sedona has become the center for all things spiritual. You’ll find all sorts of shops dedicated to the spiritual arts: readings, crystals, massage, and more.
In addition, sorry to say, Sedona has become some what of a tourist trap. We are staying in West Sedona away from the heart of the tourist frenzy. I will tell you more about this area in subsequent posts. We are here until June 6, so enjoy the red rock beauty with me.
This guy is a resident of Red Rock Crossing Park, a feminine vortex
Families come here to wade and swim. This rock is a natural slide.
This girl gets ready to slide down.
And there she goes.
A bee gets nourishment.
The park is surrounded by red mountains.
A determined plant pushes its way through the rock.
Slow Shutter Speed 