Published! ...photo used for official AATF poster...fruit of a French-speaking summer

A few summers ago, I took my wife on her first visit to Québec and Montréal. One of our favorite places was the Marché Jean-Talon, North America's largest farmer's market, located in Montréal's vibrant 'Petite Italie' neighborhood. The market's colorful displays of fresh produce just cry out to be photographed.

Ah, the berries of a northern summer:

...des fraises (strawberries), des groseilles (gooseberries), des mûres (blackberries)

des framboises (raspberries), et des bleuets (blueberries)...
et de petites tomates, aussi (and small tomatoes, too)

A while back, I submitted a few photos from that trip to the AATF (The American Association of French Teachers), which is one of the world's largest professional organizations of French language teachers. I was recently notified that one of my photos was chosen for their "National French Week" posters which will be mailed out to about 10,000 members later this year!

Below, you'll see the above photo in the lower right corner--the image got 'flipped' in the design. The director of the AATF wrote me: "The vivid red gave our student designer the inspiration for the rest of the poster, and red was a color we had not featured yet for National French Week."

Vive le français!

...along the San Pedro on the way to Bisbee

A spring morning down in Cochise county--

a pond near the San Pedro River a few miles east of Sierra Vista:

Bullfrogs, birds...a nice break from the lower desert on a day off...

Along sections of the riparian forest, there were so many caterpillars that you could hear them all around--chewing on leaves, crawling over dry grasses, raining down, even...

...a bit of fun with the color accent feature on my camera,

a cottonwood skeleton just a few yards away from the river:

The vaguely Italian-feeling old mining town of Bisbee, a mile-high in the Mule mountains:

Palo verde in bloom, primary colors of spring

...spring in the Sonoran desert--Tucson lit up with palo verdes in bloom...

I took this a couple of years ago up in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains--I was just trying to get some shots of the vibrant yellow blooms against the sky after work; the ladybug was completely serendipitous and totally made my afternoon.

Spring in the Sonoran desert...one year ago: blooms and birds

A year ago exactly, I was out and about in Catalina State Park, just to the north of Tucson--hiking  amidst a once-in-a-generation (perhaps) display of lupine and poppies that had popped up after perfectly timed winter rain.

I took the above views in the late afternoon, after work...

...and then a couple of mornings later, after a frosty sunrise, a couple of miles away,

as the poppies were finally warm enough to unfurl:

By mid-morning the sunlight was getting harsh,

 but the complementary pairing of blue-violet and yellow-orange

continued to be irresistile, mile after mile:

...and a bit of cholla cactus as a contrast:

The next day, I took some family visiting from out-of-town

to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.
The hummingbird aviary there was a particular highlight that day,

with this Costa's hummingbird feeding her 10-day-old hatchlings:

(No vast fields of wildflowers this year--it's been a drier-than-normal winter here in Tucson.)

...and I can't help but think back to a spring image from our 'former life' in Seattle--

the cherry trees on the main quad of the University of Washington:

...a far cry from the desert.

From last week's beginnings, to today's latest...

Friday afternoon: fun with phone-camera after work...

For background, first, an excerpt from the New York Times:

Bringing Big Smiles to iPhone Shutterbugs by Rik Fairlie

       A basic tenet of photography is that the best camera is the one you have on hand when you need it. For many people these days, that means an iPhone.
       It’s easy to understand why: not only is the iPhone a universal communications tool, its one-button camera is also stunningly simple to use.
       “It really opens your eyes creatively when you have to take a photo with something with such limited functionality,” said Chase Jarvis, a commercial photographer based in Seattle who has been smitten by the iPhone’s camera. “The beauty is in its simplicity. There are no lights or other equipment.”

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Today after work, I needed to drive up to the far NW side of Tucson to pick up my packet and t-shirt for Sunday's half-marathon...The running-store where I picked those things up is not far from the actual course for the race, and I hadn't been up in that area in a while, so I thought I'd drive along the running route.

It's not actually in Tucson; it's in Oro Valley--intriguing name for a town only incorporated in the mid-1970's. There is no 'downtown.' It's suburbia: strip-malls of chain-stores and traffic...but it's suburbia-with-scenery. The 'backside' of the Santa Catalina Mountains is gorgeous--canyons and uplifted outcroppings soaring above the saguaros.

Spring desert evening light flatters cell-phone-camera-photos--the only camera I had with me:

The wilderness-y hills hide suburbia, lurking just beyond the saguaro-studded horizon...

This panorama stitched together on the iPhone, using Cloudburst Research's AutoStitch app.

These photos were taken in an area along the route called

 'Honeybee Canyon,' a natural preserve surrounded by

the Rancho Vistoso 'master planned community.'

Looking forward to Sunday morning...

Beginnings

I start with this scanned photo from the early '90's:

...fresh out of high school, with a plain ol' point-and-shoot, I took this in Odae-san National Park, along the east coast of South Korea: autumn morning, steam from cooking fires at a temple in the mountains.

All through high school I'd wanted to take photography classes, but it never fit in my schedule or my parents' budget...During my senior year, a brand new fine arts wing opened, with a state-of-the-art darkroom...Alas, it was not to be. After I graduated, I started college right away, attending summer quarter so that I would be able to take fall quarter off to visit relatives and tour around Korea--a slightly delayed graduation-trip. (My grandmother died while I was there; a sobering privilege of sorts, to be able to be at her side as life left her...)

After returning home, I went back to my old high school; my former art teacher had asked me if I would come show her some photos from my trip. She lingered on the photo above, telling me "that's a good one; like, something you'd see in National Geographic." Encouraging words (!), especially since I'd never taken a photography class and didn't even have a 'good' camera! (It didn't even have a zoom!) And her opinion coincided with mine--this is still one of my favorite photos from that trip...

And so I begin this photo-blog with it...

...and a few more from that autumn in Korea, so many years ago now...

another October morning photo from Odae-san National Park:

skyscrapers of downtown Seoul, from the walled compound of the 15th c. Tõk-su Palace:

Yes, it is a worn travel-writer's cliché to talk about 'the unique contrast of old and new,' or 'the blending of the ancient and the modern;' nearly every major world city is a combination of traditional and post-modern...BUT, as the first major foreign city that I came to know, Seoul's amalgam of pre-modern upswept roofs, post-war skyscrapers and omnipresent mountains still anchors my eye as the first place where I  learned to truly look photographically at architecture and landscape....

...and to see smaller details as image-worthy:

dried fish for sale in a small-town food market:

Going back even further, I found this photograph of me looking at Seoul's 14th-c. Namdaemun South Gate--
an uncle took it when I was still in high school.

The summer between my freshman and sophomore years, I spent a month in the countryside--in a village where the majority of the residents were related, in varying degrees, to my mother's family. Once or twice a week we would take the bus and train into Seoul: errands, visiting people...and me looking at everything--with a camera bag slung over my shoulder...

So, the begnnings of my photography-hobby-sans-fancy-camera...

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Have you heard of the 'best camera' app?

       From thebestcamera.com:

              "The Best Camera is the one that's with you" is more than a catchphrase, it's a belief in the power and immediacy of the photographic image. The best photos don't come from megapixels or expensive cameras, they come from being there to capture the moment as it happens. It's a liberating concept..."

And, this morning's New York Times happens to have this interesting article about photography:

             Chimping and Other Photo-taking Tips

                       Hmm..."chimping?"--funny new word for me...only in this digital age...