Shards and Phractures

October 21, 2006, there was an airshow out west of Phoenix. They had all kinds of things worth looking at, but the part that fascinated me most was the last thing they did before packing it all away--the Balloon Glow. -=ad=-

...continuing with the battered antiques at Jerome theme... -=ad=-

...we never did get any seeds out of this sunflower...probably because the insects beat us to it... -=ad=-

...I've said it before...I generally make it a point to not murder my models after the photoshoot is done, but in this case, I had to make an exception... -=ad=-

Flowers for the wife... -=ad=-

Cool looking reflective building in downtown Phoenix. -=ad=-

...he kept watching my camera, and then ate the button off of a jacket when we got too close... -=ad=-

Double-ended fire staff. -=ad=-

Mantises (Manti?) are so much fun to shoot...and it definitely helps to have a not-so-squamish assistant, too. -=ad=-

...very soon now, I'll be uploading pictures from my new camera...*grin* -=ad=-

Curved building in downtown Phoenix. -=ad=-

Petrified Forest, Arizona. -=ad=-

...what do you get when you cross a camera with a pool table...? Lots of motion blur! -=ad=-

...it may look like mid-morning, but this was actually taken at least a half hour after sunset, on a breezy day. The extra-long exposure smoothed out the ripples in the water, and brought back the reflection. Not as rich or vibrant as the London Bridge shot, but I still like how it turned out. -=ad=-

...and we move from fire in the hands to fire in the sky... I actually shot this out of a car window, because I loved the texture in the clouds. But when I pulled it from the camera, it didn't look like I remembered...so, I used Photoshop to darken it until it looked like I remembered. -=ad=-

...gotta love the swirls and shapes of a fire-spinner pic... -=ad=-

...used Photoshop to bring out the color and sharpen a bit. This was part of a fire-spinning performance by the Wizards of AZ, a troupe in Phoenix. -=ad=-

...no, I'm not even sure where this was... I snapped this on a cross-country drive from Phoenix to Colorado Springs--the same trip as the Paria Rimrocks visit, the same trip where I went over Vail Pass in a blizzard...all of which is a story much too long for one of these quickie Pix of the Day posts. Anyway, this was somewhere in the Utah/Colorado area, and I neglected to write down the name of this particular hill and body of water. If anyone recognizes the place, feel free to let me know; I'd love to add a clearer label to this picture besides "...um...some lake...near some mountain...somewhere near Colorado." -=ad=-