My favorite 33 photos from 2013 (with 36.5 hours to go)

I decided to make a quick pass through my 2013 photos and pick a few personal favorites to share.

This turned out to be an interesting process.  I ended up with 33 images.  These aren't necessarily the best images, just a few personal favorites.

I selected five images from this year's Veteran's Parade.  The five combined make for an interesting and emotional sequence.  

There were several large groups of High School JROTC students marching in the parade.  I couldn't help but look at these young men and women passing by and wonder what their futures will hold, what they will do for our country, what our country will do with them, to them, and for them.  It makes me both proud and concerned in a mixed bag of emotions.

The Future:

The Present:

The Past:

poster carried in the parade -- "Have a great time in heaven.  You were awesome"

I'm proud of our military; less proud, at times, of what conflicts our civilians send them into.

Veterans for Peace marching in the Veteran's Day Parade.

ok, moving right along, trying not to bug anyone...  I really like old fluorescent signs that have survived time, including this one at a pest control company in Tucson.

I didn't do as much birding as I hoped to during 2013.  This is probably my best bird image of the year, a Great Horned Owl leaving it's perch during one of the Free Flight programs that the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum holds.  I like the intent focus of the eyes, it already knows where it is going and what it is going to do.  Check out the talons.   BTW, you can click on any of these pictures (no, not like a porpoise) to see a larger image.

I really like the lighting of this Belly Dancer performing at this year's MoctoberFest.  Great eyes and smile!

A couple and their dog enjoying the day during Cyclovia.  Smiles all around!

"The Messenger" in snow.  One of my favorite sculptures in Tucson.

It is not at all unusual to see architects, landscape architects, and artists have great initial concepts and then trip all over each other in what the passerby sees.  This house in downtown Tucson really blended colors nicely with the outside vegetation.  This is also one of the very nice things about The Messenger sculpture above: clean lines of sight of the sculpture and all the way back to the Santa Catalina Mountains, no utility lines or street lights in the way.

If you hear someone talking about the 'blooming desert" around here, they aren't talking about the heat.  Below, a night blooming cereus that blooms one night a year and looks like a dead stick much of the rest of the time.  Also called "The Queen of the Night".

Not a great technical shot, and no time to retake before the subjects shifted around, but I still like it.  I especially like the Corgi taking a drink out of the cup while folks enjoy violin music at one of the Armory Park PorchFest stops this year.  Adults, kids, musicians, and dogs all enjoying PorchFest -- the way things should be.

Another image from the Armory Park neighborhood PorchFest.  This one reminds me of what a great night that turned into with a very hot day turning into an event-threatening rainstorm which turned out to only show up long enough to cool things off;  the evening of porches and music proceeded spectacularly.  Classic example of the benefits of not letting weather discourage you from attending an event, especially in Tucson.

My night blooming Echinopsis cacti really outdid itself one night.  I captured this image with the patient help of a friend -- I handled the camera while she moved a light at different angles.  I really like the way it turned out.

A fun shot at this year's GLOW festival, a Circus Amperian performer standing on top of a Tesla coil holding an umbrella frame with one tip igniting.

Miss Frankie Stein and James Arr of the Mission Creeps performing downtown.  Always a good show with great music!

Having fun at the Cardboard Ball, where most everyone wore one or more pieces of cardboard.  This was such a fun evening among some very creative folks in Tucson.

This is one of my favorite shots of the year.  This was a quick candid shot during the Cardboard Ball and is just so strange.  What's that bright light come from the left?  Where do all these stairs head to?  Why the barricade?  What's death waiting on?

I took a number of pictures of Tucson Mayer Jonathan Rothschild at events over the year, but this is one of my favorites.  He is holding his hands up in victory after having just used an angle grinder to cut the steel metal ribbon bolted across the entry at Xerocraft's Grand Opening of their new Hackerspace home.  Several Xerocraft members are in the background, rightly pleased with how well their unique ribbon cutting ceremony went off.  The Mayer is a good sport.

Stiltwalkers performing in Armory Park at Dios de la Adrenalina 

This is a small portion of a wonderful long mural in the Dunbar Springs neighborhood.  I like the angle and lighting which conveys a wind blowing out of the shadows...

Performers at the second PorchFest in of the year in Tucson, this time in the Dunbar Springs neighborhood.  I love these informal community neighborhood events that bring people together, out of their own neighborhoods, out of their houses, out of their backyards.

A talented harp player with a great look -- at this year's Procession of Little Angels in Armory Park.

Roaming neighborhoods to celebrate the longest night -- during the Winter Solstice @ LumiNight.

A passerby during LumiNight holding his present, a small lit candle.  This photo could certainly be improved upon technically, but I still like it and what it captures for that evening of giving out small presents to strangers during the Winter Solstice.

The Festive Bike (aka The Loud Bike) which carries a 300 watt sound system and is a very popular addition to many small community events around town.  Seen below with Christmas lights at night during LumiNight.

I acquired the metal sculpture created by Erik Bang during this year's BICAS silent art auction and had a tremendous amount of fun building a temporary "world" for it on my kitchen counter with sand, sky, colors, lighting angles, etc.  I really like the way it came out and its was fun to be doing this in reality, not with Photoshop effects or anything.  I want to do more!  Moving and positioning lighting and angles on inanimate, non-blinking objects gave me a new appreciation of what my wedding/portrait photographer friends must go through with living, moving people.  :-)

And of course, I have to include a few images from Tucson's signature event, the All Souls Procession.  I really liked this trio's look.

as well as this trio -- simple face designs that look incredible

This one, because standing on it's own visual merits alone, it's pretty strange.  In a good way.

All Souls Procession Finale Performers, amazing as always!

. . .

Part of my to-do list for the coming year includes increasing my technical, composition, and photography related people skills in a variety of environments and settings.  

Stay tuned!   And thanks for visiting my blog!  :-)

Blue skies at night

Toole Ave, Tucson, AZ (10/5/2013)

The Cardboard Ball

On Saturday night I attended a Cardboard Ball -- a wonderfully creative fundraiser for the All Souls Procession workshop program organized by local artist Mykl Wells.   Attendees were encouraged to make outfits out of cardboard or other recycled materials.  It was a really enjoyable evening with art, music, dancing, raffles, and more!  Great event, Mykl!

Amazing costume, and the banjo is made of cardboard as well!  The banjo brought back memories of a great temporary exhibit of cardboard art guitars that I took pictures of sometime back.

even her purse is cardboard, very well done design

beautiful gown made of paper

yet another great Tucson event with a diverse gathering of folks of all ages having fun!

If you would like to see all of my images for the evening, go to my smugmug gallery and then click slideshow in the upper right of your screen for full screen images.  Enjoy!

my All Souls Procession photo contest entries

I entered this year's All Souls Procession Photo Contest and thought I'd share my entries here.  Each entrant could submit up to 4 photos for consideration.  The photos were judged by Mary Virginia Swanson with awards for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place plus honorable mention.  The top 20 photos are going to be hung at Delectables restaurant for a show running October 5th through November 8th.

This year there were 43 photographers entering a total of 161 photos, dare I say some stiff competition with many excellent photographers and images!  I didn't make the top 20, but that's cool, I learned a number of useful things by participating and can't wait to see all the images submitted.  :-)

One of the fun challenges was that the contest was encouraging "outside the box" interpretations of passing, transformation, renewal, and rebirth.  So rather than going for my traditional favorite pictures taken during the All Souls Procession, I found myself digging for more unusual images -- a really good exercise.

I've posted the 4 photos I submitted in order of my personal preference.  My favorite of the set is the image of the woman and child above.

The photo below is from last year's Procession of Little Angels.  Who's carrying who?  Who's watching over who?

This photo is of a woman watching last year's Procession from the sidewalk as the Procession neared the finale grounds.  She's on oxygen and yet dressed up very nicely for the event. 

And finally, this image of two people at the start of last year's procession.  Both with very different face paint and appearances than one traditionally sees at the event.  I like their unusual appearance and how their eyes are fixated in different directions.

I took all of the above pictures last November under "run & gun" circumstances typical at the All Souls Procession -- low light and either I'm in motion or my subject is in motion while I'm trying to capture an image, a lot of one-shot opportunities.  That's one of the fun challenges of photographing moving events.  Another fun thing with the All Souls Procession is that everyone sees something different during it, including photographers.  There are some subjects that it seems everyone gets, and then a handful of unique people or shots that you didn't even see during the evening.

I enjoyed entering the contest and learned a few new tricks by doing so that should serve me well with future photographs.

If you are in the Tucson area and want to see some great images, drop on by Delectables and grab a bite to eat while you're there.  On October 5th from 6pm - 10pm at Delectables on 4th Ave, there will be an opening show of this year's submitted photos (open invitation).  On this night you will not only be able to see the selected 20 prints that will be hung in Delectables, but also a slide show of all 161 entries in this year's contest.  Bound to be some great images and a good time!  Drop on by if you have a chance.

Kathleen Dreier (an excellent Tucson photographer from Esens Photography) did a great job of organizing this year's All Souls Procession Photo contest.

This year's Procession is coming up November 3rd.  Remember, this is far more than just some kind of parade, it is a time of remembrance, reflection, mourning, and celebration.

The All Souls Procession is organized by a non-profit (Many Mouths One Stomach) which depends on the people of our community (you & me) to contribute donations each year to pull it off.  Personally, I feel that the All Souls Procession is not only special to our community, but that it is very healthy for our community as well.  It pulls people from different walks of life together.  It brings young and old together.  It brings people downtown who may not have even realized that we have an increasingly nice downtown.  Healthy.

If you would like to support the All Souls Procession, support the Tucson community, here is information on how you can make your tax-deductable gift.

Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild tests his mettle at this ribbon cutting

 It seems to be ribbon cutting season (see previous post).  On September 7th, I was able to visit Xerocraft's grand re-opening of their new hackerspace in part of the old Steinfeld warehouse in Tucson.  Tucson mayor Jonathan Rothschild was on hand for the ribbon cutting -- fitting for a hackerspace, they made the ribbon out of metal and gave the major a face shield, apron, and angle grinder to do the ribbon cutting.  Nice!

The crowd enjoyed the ribbon cutting method, the organizers were visually pleased with how well this unique ceremony went, and Mayor Rothschild seemed to enjoy the uniqueness of it himself.  I'm sure he cuts a lot of ribbons as Mayor, but none like this before!

Mayor Rothschild standing victorious.  Who knows, maybe more red tape should be addressed with an angle grinder?  :-)

Xerocraft, by the way, is a cool non-profit that provides access to workspace, tools, 3D printers, laser cutters, etc.  From their website:  "The concept of a Hackerspace is a general workshop with resources to take on any project from simple electrical repair to complex electronic design and prototyping to machining gears, casting odd pieces, creating innovative costumes, building art pieces, exploring esoteric arts, and teaching cutting edge technologies."

I plan to take some instruction and use some of their facilities in the future when I get some time.  A very healthy concept, this hackerspace.  Check out their website.