iPhone Photography – Page 2 – Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

Santa Fe Impressions – Part 1

Santa Fe, New Mexico has a picturesque downtown area with its Southwestern Adobe architecture, but it is a busy, tourist filled city, which negates some of its charm. Walking down almost any downtown street one is sure to be accosted numerous times by business hawkers trying to give “free” samples with a spiel designed to lure a passerby into their shops.

The crowds make it difficult to photograph the city. I thought about getting out in the very early morning hours, even before daylight, to try to capture the city streets with no people in them, but I never did that. I still think that would be a good way to capture the essence of the city’s architecture and charm without the distraction of the crowds.

In any case, I wanted to try to photograph Santa Fe in a way that showcased its charm without the people. So one afternoon I went for a walk around the city and managed to capture a few images with my iPhone camera, while avoiding the crowds and mostly keeping people out of my images. While I’m not opposed to street photography with people in the images, some folks don’t like to be photographed and I don’t want to be involved in any altercations with those objecting to being photographed. So while I might photograph some street people and crowd scenes, I usually keep that to a minimum and exercise caution in posting such images.

In the Plaza, where there were often crowds, especially when there was entertainment, I spotted this “camouflaged” man standing against a tree. He would suddenly emerge to frighten those unobservant enough not to have noticed him, scaring little kids and adults. I’m not sure this is a good idea as some older folks with heart conditions might suffer from such a shock. Or some might even react negatively to being so startled.

There are plenty of flowers decorating the public areas and private businesses in Santa Fe, which adds much to the beauty of the downtown area.

It was not uncommon for an afternoon thunderstorm to pop up in the general area, but only light rain fell in the downtown area during this visit.

Clouds over Santa Fe Museum of Fine Arts

To be continued,

Ken

Panum Volcano Cone, California

Near Mono Lake there is a volcanic cone called Panum. Panum is not a dormant volcano. This area is monitored by geologists for any signs of activity that might signal another eruption.

There is a 2.1 mile loop trail around the Panum crater. My son and I hike a portion of this trail. Mono Lake and the Sierra Nevada are visible from portions of the trail.

Large chunks of obsidian are common along the hiking trail.

In addition to the large chunks of obsidian there are common layered rocks of obsidian and pumice scattered around the area.

Relic – Monochrome of an old tree remnant.

A view of the Sierra Nevada from the crater trail

A portion of the trail is visible in the lower portion of this image.

This information sign is posted at the trailhead.

This wraps up my March visit to California.

Thanks for following,

Ken

Alabama Hills Scouting Photos Part 8

This is the final part of exploring Alabama Hills, California and capturing scouting photos with a phone camera.

The rock on the right reminds me of a turtle stretching its neck out to bask in sunlight.

Sky Pointers 2 is a view from behind Sky Pointers.

The rock on the left seems especially in awe of the sky.

I promise to move on to photos from other areas in upcoming posts,

Ken

Alabama Hills Scouting Photos Part 7

More iPhone scouting photos from Alabama Hills, California, March 2024.

Until next time,

Ken

Death Valley – Brief Visit and iPhone Photos

My son and I made a trip into Death Valley from Lone Pine, thinking we might return for more serious photography, but the distance and the timing difficulty steered us away from that idea.

Yet it was good to see Badwater Basin with the shallow lake created by the recent heavy rains. It appears that this unusual event attracted others, too. there were lots of people, more than I had seen there in previous visits, in the park.

The road to Devil’s Golf Course was closed, requiring a long walk to see that feature.

Shallow water covers the salt that appears brown and the salt protruding above the water is white.

The salt is showing indications of forming geometrical patterns typical of this salt as it dries. The heavy rains have destroyed or muted such patterns.

We stopped a little short of the turn in the road, which goes by the traditional Devil’s Golf Course, but this rugged salt is what we would expect to see there. The rains have muted some of the sharp features that I recall from previous visits.

Back in Lone Pine, we had Pizza and Beer for dinner. This IPA seemed a fitting choice after our time in Death Valley.

Until next time,

Ken

March 2024 iPhone Photos – Part 6

More scouting photos in Alabama Hills, California, March 2024.

Ok, this vandalized arch is called “Surprise Arch” (I think), but it looks more like the Pillsbury Doughboy.

I’ll have more iPhone images in the next post, but from an area well outside of Alabama Hills, so stay tuned,

Ken

March 2024 iPhone Photos – Part 5

And even more iPhone scouting photos in Alabama Hills, California.

This monochrome version of an iPhone photo was chosen for Flickr’s Explore page July 25, 2024. The bright white clouds behind the arch draws the eye to the arch. Against a clear, bland sky, a photo of this arch would be much less interesting, maybe even boring.

I called this natural rock feature “The Head”, because it looks like a head on a neck looking across the broad valley into the Sierra Nevada Mountains, maybe thinking it would be cooler to be in those mountains, under a blanket of snow, rather than stuck down here forever.