Big Cat

More from Phoenix Zoo. I am not sure if this tiger has a mate, but he/she is only one that I saw.

Prairie Dogs

2 pups checking us out.

Mom and a pup.

Time for a Stretch.


Visited Phoenix Zoo this past weekend. We have a lot of prairie dogs up here at Flagstaff, but can't get too close to them before they run into their burrows, so it's kind of nice to get a fairly close up shots of them using my telephoto lens.

Olympus E500.

Downtown Phoenix

This is actually the first time that we drove through downtown Phoenix. It's kind of empty, sort of reminded me of Downtown Tampa, where it's really dead after business hour.

There was a lot of empty lots, plenty of metered parking, has a wild west feel to me.

Shot with Olympus E500, with in camera black and white conversion.

Playing with Smoke, #1

Trying out the smoke picture for the first time - after reading about the HOWTO pages online, I finally puchased the last piece of what I needed - Incense.

Setup a green background, off camera flash (Canon 540EZ at 1/4 power), Nikon D70 at 1/400 sec, aperture of f22-f29. Got a few keepers after some cropping.

I'd say it's easier than water droplet pictures, and it has some very moody/sensual effect with the smoke.

Texas Medical Center

UT school of Nursing.

The "Water Fall". It probaly has another name, but I don't know it.

A fancy new building.

Texas Medical Center, in Houston, TX.

It's a huge multi-hospital complex, that's a little city in itself. There's still a lot of construction, but the hospital where I was working, surprisingly, is laying off people (trying to cut 10% operating cost). Economic downturn is hitting some of the most profitable business also....

Fountain Hills, AZ

An aerial view of Fountain Hills.

On my way back from Omaha, Nebraska.

Sorry for the poor quality, it was very cloudy, and the window was very dirty on the plane. I don't think they every clean the airplanes any more. I had to adjust quite a bit to pull out some more contrast.

Downtown Day Out

A sunny day out, temperature is about 80 degrees. Nothing like the 100+ temperature down in Phoenix, this is the best time of the year in Flagstaff.

There was a Taiko concert by elementary school children at the Heritage Plaza. Although they only had 3 weeks of practice, they were really good! That's another thing I like about Flagstaff, so many out door activities during the Summer time.

More Cactus Flowers

Barrel Cactus - a neat yellow flower.

It's now May, and saguaro flowers have started to bloom.

Hummer in flight

These little guys got here early this year. We still dip into the 30s at night, so I am surprised to see them here. But since they are here, I put up the feeder immediately, make sure they have enough nourishment, I don't think we have enough blooms for them to feed on yet. And nope, no food coloring here!

The ruby throats get used to people a little quicker. I can stand pretty close to the feeder to take these pictures, I do have to crop these pics. Later in the season, another species of hummers, called rufous move in. Although a little smaller than the ruby throats, they are much more territorial, and very aggressive towards others, but very shy, I can't get close enough to them.