Wednesday, 23 March:
The
skies stayed clear overnight so it was a quick full moon set and sunrise. After
breakfast in Tucson we packed up and
headed for Organ Pipe National Monument which is located almost due West of
Tucson and borders with Mexico.
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| Morning Sentinel |
We
took our time driving as it was mid-day light which did not slow down the
shutter on most cameras. Along the highway we found some good displays of
poppies with a few other flowers thrown in. We spent our time trying to catch a
starburst on the edge of a petal of a poppy. This is not an easy task as you either
hand hold and aim hopefully for the right angle, or you get down on your belly
and then try to shoot up with “live View”.
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| Going for Bug View |
Due to the wind there was a lot of
dust and pollen in the air which caused a lot of defraction and shows up with
lots of distracting spots in the photo. This was the case with lots of my photographs, so lots went into the trash bin.
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| Standing Tall |
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| Another Color |
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| A Different Angle |
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| Capturing The Sun |
The nearest town
to Organ Pipe N.M. is Ajo, AZ. The first copper mine located in Arizona was
located in Ajo. The open pit now measures 1.5 miles across and 110 feet deep in
the center and is no longer a working mine. Ajo has a lovely town plaza, and a
beautiful Catholic church. It is also the
home of the Curley School Artisan Apartments, a project of the non-profit
International Sonoran Desert Alliance (ISDA).
We checked into
La Siesta Motel where we each had a small individual cabin for two nights. The design
goes back to the mid-fifties I would guess, but have been up graded with a
large screen TV, small microwave, small refrigerator, and air conditioning. We
were then off to Organ Pipe N.M. for capturing a few landscapes and sunset light
on nearby Ajo Mountain. The Monument Visitor Center is 33 miles from Ajo.
We traveled along
Ajo Mountain Drive and stopped at a promising location for photography of
wildflowers, cacti, and a view of Ajo Mountain. Once again the sunset was
pretty quick due to the mostly clear skies.
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| Organ Pipe Cactus and Distant Arch |
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| Sunset Color on Ajo Mountain |
It was a late night and we closed
down the Pizza Hut as we knoshed on pizza for dinner.
Those flower shots are awesome! I laughed at the thought of you all down on your bellies for those sun shots.
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