Sunflower

Sorry folks. Just had to include a shot of the ubiquitous wild sunflower. Enjoy.

Hops

As some of you may know I brew my own beer. And since store-bought hops are so expensive, I thought I would try my hand at growing my own. This photo is of my hops plant. The small, green cones are the hops flowers and are what are added to beer to give it it's bitter taste and floral aroma. My hops plant is of the Cascade variety.

View

This photo was taken during a hike on Humphreys Peak Trail. We were taking a break in this open area where you could practically see the Grand Canyon. I believe the peak in the distance is Kendrick Peak. The red blob next to my wife is our dog Curry, an Irish Setter.

Good Measure

OK, so here is one more macro wildflower shot, just for good measure. I'm about 95% sure it is a California Poppy, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

My Equipment

Just for those other photographers who may be curious, all of these macro shots were shot with my Canon Digital Rebel XTi with a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 prime lens and a Canon Extension Tube EF12 II. I love the lens, it makes extremely clear photos and the extension tube really allows me to get close up.

Black & Yellow

Here's another wildflower from my yard. The contrast of the black center and yellow petals really caught my eye.

Wildflower

Sorry for the flood of macro photos of flowers lately, but it is "wildflower season" in Northern Arizona right now, so I'm gettin' out while the gettin's good. Here's another wildflower macro that I took in my yard. I'm not sure what kind it is, so if anyone knows please let me know. Thanks and Happy Summer to everyone!


EDIT: I was searching the website for a local nursery (Flagstaff Native Plants and Seeds) and I just happened upon the name of this flower.I'm pretty sure it's called a Firewheel (Gaillardia pulchella).

New Mexican Vervain

I went backpacking recently and found this little guy on my way down the trail. Not sure the kind of flower, but the purple really caught my eye.

EDIT: I was searching the website for a local nursery (Flagstaff Native Plants and Seeds) and I just happened upon the name of this flower. It's called New Mexican Vervain.

Beautiful Weed

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted last. Sorry about that, everyone. It's been a busy summer, but that's no excuse. Here's a macro shot I took recently of a thistle in our backyard. Weeds can be beautiful at times.

Give Me a Hug

Backyard Prickly Pear6127a, originally uploaded by dustinjblodgett.

A macro shot of a prickly pear cactus in our backyard.

Ice plant 6109a

Ice plant 6109a, originally uploaded by dustinjblodgett.

The blooming pink flowers from our Ice Plant in our front garden.

Red Hot Poker 6087a

Red Hot Poker 6087a, originally uploaded by dustinjblodgett.

A newly planted Red Hot Poker plant (a.k.a. Torch Lilly) from our garden

Hunt n' Peck

A bee hunts for pollen on a lupine flower near Veit Springs Trail.

Just Starting

A fern stem just starting to unfurl. Photo taken on Veit Springs Trail near Flagstaff, AZ.

On The Trail

My Irish Setter, Curry, on Veit Springs Trail near Flagstaff.

Elements of Life

Some elements of a relaxing evening in Flagstaff. ;-)


FYI: the beer in the background is the superb Fat Tire Amber Ale produced by the New Belgium Brewing Company.

Ice Plant

I love how this macro shot turned out. It is a close-up of an Ice Plant, which we transplanted from a friend's house. They fell in love with this little, unassuming plant during a trip to Mexico.

It is a succulent that thrives in hot, dry areas and works well in landscaping as a groundncover. Ours is starting to bloom with small, magenta colored flowers. I love the texture of the "leaves" in this photo, as well as the swirl of the flower bud just starting to grow.

Landscaping

My wife and I have made it our mission to do some major landscaping this summer. One of our smaller projects is putting in a "border" along the side of the driveway. We wanted plants that were low maintenance, required little water once established, and could handle having 4+ feet of snow piled on them during the winter. And it sounds like these three types of plants fit the bill perfectly.

From bottom to top they are: bronze carpet stonecrop, variegated stonecrop and Elijah Blue grass.

A Rose By Any Other Name.......

A macro shot of a pink rose.

Little One

An HDR image of a little cactus I found when we pulled over off of Schnebly Hill Road.

Over the Hill

The San Francisco Peaks seen from Schnebly Hill Road, south of Flagstaff.

April's Arizona Theme Day

The 15th of every month is Arizona Theme Day, and this month's theme is "Doors". So this is my contribution. I guess technically it's not a door, per se, but rather where a door used to be, but I think it will work. It was taken in an alley in historic downtown Flagstaff. I upped the contrast on this one to get the texture from the rock. I hope you all like it and happy theme day.

Check out the photography of the other Arizona photobloggers who take part in theme day:

Julie (Scottsdale) - http://www.scottsdaledailyphoto.com/
Pat (Chandler) - http://chandlerarizonausa.blogspot.com/
Angie (Tempe) – http://tempearizonadailyphoto.blogspot.com/
Sharon (Phoenix) – http://phxdp.blogspot.com/
Melinda (Chandler) – http://chandlerdailyphoto.blogspot.com/
Judy (Prescott) - http://prescottareadailyphoto.blogspot.com/

Just When You Think......

Just when you think that Winter is over and Summer is quickly approaching, you get 2 inches of the white stuff. D'oh!! This was the view out of master bedroom on the morning of April 3rd.

The temperatures had been pretty consistently warm for the last few weeks and then BAM! Mother Nature gets in one last uppercut. Gee, thanks.

Oh well, it had all melted by the end of the day.

Lag Time

I'm sorry for the recent lack of posts here. I've been pretty busy with outside projects, homebrewing beer and having a nasty head cold (right now). But just to make everyone feel that their life isn't really that bad, here is a photo of what I woke up to this morning:

a whole roll of paper towels

the jade plant is no more.

It took our puppy, Curry, no more than 45 minutes to do that, from the time my wife left for work to the time I got up. Very efficient animal...I just wish she would be efficient at NOT destroying my house for a change.

Pink Sunset

I love Arizona sunsets. I may be a little biased, but I think they are some of the most beautiful in the world. We are lucky enough to have a backyard that faces almost due west, which makes for some great sunset viewing. I captured this photo a few days ago, which the sky had a great pink hue to it. The silhouette of the tree on the right helped to balance the photo's composition.

Growing Up

Our Irish Setter puppy named Curry, while hiking on the trail with me. She just had her 6 month birthday and she is on the way to saying goodbye to her "puppyhood".

Here's what she looked like the day we got her at 11 weeks old.

Wupatki Ruins with Moon

This months theme for Arizona Daily Photo is "Old Arizona", so I thought this photo of a reconstructed wall at Wupatki National Monument would be a good example.

Once consisting of about 100 rooms, Wupatki Pueblo was probably home to 85-100 people, one of the largest settlements in the area. Today evidence of ball courts and ceremonial structures can still be found here.

Photographically speaking, I really like the composition and the angle of light, but I think I went a little crazy with the color saturation in trying to bring out the red of the rock and the blue of the sky. I still like it thought. Check out the photos by these other Arizona Blogger who take part in theme day with me:

Julie(Scottsdale) - http://www.scottsdaledailyphoto.com/
Pat(Chandler) - http://chandlerarizonausa.blogspot.com/
Angie(Tempe) – http://tempearizonadailyphoto.blogspot.com/
Sharon(Phoenix) – http://phxdp.blogspot.com/
Melinda(Chandler) – http://chandlerdailyphoto.blogspot.com/
Judy(Prescott) - http://prescottareadailyphoto.blogspot.com/
Stephanie(Scottsdale) - http://seeingscottsdale.blogspot.com/

Out of Rock

During a hike on McMillan Mesa the other day, I found this cactus growing out of the rock. Although a couple kinds of cactus do grow in Flagstaff, they usually don't do very well. However, this little guy seems to be thriving.

Morning

Matthew Dutile, a fellow photographer that I have as a contact on Flickr.com, has gotten me interested in doing HDR photography again. This is one of my recent ones. It's a little subtle and not so tonemapped as this example, but I like it. It definitely represents a very important part of my life......coffee! :-) Yum!!

Here's a link to some of my other HDR photography.

Favorite

I found this olive oil at World Market the other day and it is great on a salad with a little bit of salt. They have 2 other kinds, one from Greece and one from Italy. I plan on doing a little side-by-side taste test to see which I like best. My friend Cesar, from Spain, would be happy I chose this one to try first.