Agaves at the Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, Arizona.

Agaves at the Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, Arizona.
From the Interstate 10 tunnel near Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.
Sampling a rose outside the Sun Bowl Amphitheatre in Sun City, Arizona.
If you’re into fluttering insects, the Desert Botanical Garden’s Butterfly Pavilion is the place to be. Located in southeast Phoenix, the Pavilion is quite the draw for photographers, including my friend and mentor, Judy Vorfeld: Judy and I visited the Butterfly Pavilion this past Saturday. You can catch the Butterfly Pavilion exhibit between March 1…
The aloe that I planted four years ago just can’t contain its enthusiasm. This bud is growing through a crack in my retaining wall… The iceplant is much more tame — except for the flowers…
Yesterday was cold, windy, and rainy. Despite the not-so-perfect weather, the annual St. Patrick’s Parade wound its way through Downtown Tucson. The Seven Pipers Society helped lead the way… Since this was a Tucson parade, it had to include some industrial-strength weirdness. The Mashed Potato Queens were more than happy to oblige… This puppy found…
Yesterday was a great day for a ride, and I’m not just referring to bicycles. I pedaled mine down to Fourth Avenue, where the Tucson Law Enforcement Motorcycle Festival and Swap Meet was raising funds for the Special Olympics and Shop with a Cop. As one would expect, there was a lot of highly polished…
Last month, I wrote about a Watershed Management Group project that’s transforming a steep slope on a private property west of Downtown Tucson. I’m pleased to report that this project is now done. A small, but mighty band of WMG volunteers applied the finishing touches this past Sunday. Tip: I am available for construction photography…
This past Saturday, the Watershed Management Group ran a workshop to install earthworks on an undeveloped urban lot in central Tucson. Participants working with an excavator (shown above) to create large broad basins, raised pathways, and swales. The goal is to transform this lot into a green space where wildlife can thrive and people can…
It was almost two years ago when my good friend, Judy Vorfeld, and her brother, David Crook, took me to the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. They loaned me one of their digital cameras, and thus began the rebirth of my love of photography. One of the DBG images became the basis of a birthday…
Spring is in the air, and that means that Tucson’s Watershed Management Group volunteers are back in action. Here, two shovel-wielding volunteers are helping a local family solve a steep problem… Seems that the west side of their property has a steep slope that does a convincing imitation of a waterfall when there’s a heavy…
Yesterday morning, the Mustangs, Thunderbirds, Fairlanes, and T-birds lined up on Tucson’s Fourth Avenue. The occasion was Fords on Fourth, an all-Ford car show… Fords on Fourth offered a veritable banquet of treats for those who like to get under the hood… Or you could see the festivities reflected on this hood… If there’s one…
Fountain on the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus…
Flowers and agave from the Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, Arizona…
Was pedaling over to a Saturday afternoon class, and what should I encounter but the massive Interstate 10 widening project. This construction project is causing all sorts of headaches for the motoring public, and it’s supposed to continue until 2010. I-10’s Downtown Tucson worksite was chock-full of barricades, mud, heavy equipment, and other obstacles that…
It’s raining. Again. Been quite busy pulling weeds, but that’s a good sign. It’s a sign that my yard plants will soon start blooming like this ocotillo, which gets quite motivated after a rainy spell…
I’ve been seeing a lot of the Tucson Fire Department recently. Not that I’ve had any house fires or accidents. It’s just that we keep running into each other at large community events. The above shot is from last Saturday’s Harambee Festival, where the TFD was offering firetruck and ambulance tours.
This past Saturday, Tucson Parks and Recreation and the Northwest Neighborhood Center hosted the 24th annual Harambee Festival. Harambee (pronounced "ha-RAM-bay") was a coming together of cultures to celebrate Black History Month. It featured ethnic food, information on community resources, and plenty of local talent, including One Kingdom Image…
This is the fourth in a series of posts on combining bicycling with photography. This one’s about carrying your photographic gear. As mentioned previously, I’ve done a lot of traveling by bike. To put it mildly, this is a lesson in minimalism. You don’t have a lot of space in your bike packs, so a…