Barrett-Jackson Car Auction 21 January 2024

Arguably the largest and biggest wow factor car auction is the Barrett-Jackson auction held again in Westworld Scottsdale.

Doors opened at 8am so I thought I'd be clever and get there right after opening.   There was already a huge crowd there!  

There were race cars, souped up cars you'd see on the streets, and cars owned by famous people.  There was also exciting and colorful lit signs. 

I used the Canon EOS R6 Mark II and the Canon 14-35mm lens with a circular polarizer.   The CP I used to cut down on the glare.   Westworld was very well lit.

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

For images from my visit, click HERE

ZooLights at the Zoo 25 November 2023

A yearly tradition in the Phoenix area is ZooLights at the Phoenix Zoo.   It's my chance to capture low light images with my Canon EOS R6 Mark II and this time using the wide angle Canon RF 14-35mm lens.  

It's truly amazing how beautiful the zoo  is at night with all of these lights.   

I even caught a jet coming in to land at nearby Sky Harbor airport.  

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

For images from my visit, click HERE

Various Photo Ops from May 2022 to August 2023

* All of my images on Flickr

* All of my images on SmugMug

* My Instagram Feed

8 May 2022: Crystal Gayle and Gatlin Brothers at the Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix.  Images captured with the iPhone 13.  

21 May 2022:  Canon Models at Tempe Camera.

22 May 2022:  Wild Horses of Tonto National Forest.

May 2022:  Hummingbirds in my front yard.  They seem attracted to the Red Yucca blooms.

25 June 2022: Wickenburg Spurs Cafe and Museum.  First, breakfast at the Spurs Cafe and then a tour of the Desert Caballeros Western Museum and their "Cowgirl Up" exhibit of artwork.

2 July 2022: Arizona Downs in Prescott Valley. Enjoying horse racing in the high desert of Arizona at Arizona Downs.

4 July 2022: Bull Riding at the Buffalo Chip. To celebrate the 4th of July, bull riding in the Buffalo Chip arena in Cave Creek, Arizona.

9 July 2022: Wickenburg Hassyampa BBQ & Palomino & Saguaros.  Another visit to Wickenburg, Arizona, an hour northwest of Phoenix. Visits to Hassyampa BBQ, the Palomino Club, and the saguaro cactus forests along Vulture Mine Road.

Late July to Early August 2022: Hunter Peak Ranch + Beartooths + Cody Wyoming. Northwest Wyoming from Hunter Peak Ranch to the Beartooth Mountains to Cody.

13 August 2022: Butterfly Wonderland Photowalk 2022.  A KelbyOne photowalk to Butterfly Wonderland in Scottsdale.

20 August 2022: Payson Arizona Rodeo. Billed as the oldest continuous rodeo, the Payson Arizona Rodeo held their afternoon rodeo that Sunday.

October 2022: Joshua Tree National Park. Visit to Joshua Tree National Park in California with the Tamron people. Close enough for me to drive from Phoenix!

November 2022: Big Sur Carmel. The Tamron VIP trip to Big Sur and Carmel, California.

December 2022: Australia and New Zealand. Visiting three ports in Australia and five ports in New Zealand aboard the Viking Orion.

January 2023: Barrett-Jackson Auto Auction. Barrett-Jackson is the HUGE auto show in Scottsdale. After the show, dinner at Brugos of Cave Creek.

11 February 2023:  Wickenburg Arizona Gold Rush parade, then enough time to make the Wickenburg Senior Pro Rodeo.

25 February 2023: Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show from Westworld.

19 March 2023: Bartlett Lake and Dam are east of Cave Creek and Carefree Arizona, north of Phoenix and Scottsdale. Water levels are probably now over 100%. The spring of '23 was a wet one and more rain coming!

3 April 2023: Hunting for spring wildflowers at Thunderbird Park between Glendale and Phoenix Arizona.  

9 April 2023: Spur Cross to Apache Wash. Walkabout from the Sonoran Desert on Easter Sunday. Also amazing wildflowers after our wetter than normal winter.

15 April 2023: Picacho Peak Arizona. Picacho Peak Arizona is about an hour northwest of Tucson just off I-10. Still a few wildflowers out and tons of saguaro cactus.

6 May 2023: Alice in Wonderland Characters from Tempe Camera. Alice in Wonderland with The Mad Hatter and Queen of Hearts.

7 May 2023: Salt River Horses. The hunt for wild horses along the Salt River in Arizona.

4 June 2023: Lake Pleasant sunset dinner cruise in Peoria, north of Phoenix, Arizona.

3 & 4 July 2023: Fireworks from Hurricane Harbor in Glendale Arizona.

July & August 2023: Seeing the sights in New Brunswick, Canada. Craft beer, Bay of Fundy, Highland Games, Kings Landing, and more!

19 August 2023: Karchner Caverns Benson Arizona. The amazing underground world of Karchner Caverns.

Buckeye Arizona AirFair 19 Feb 2023 and 20 Feb 2022

 

Buckeye, a city west of Phoenix, hosts a yearly air show each year in February.   Here I share with you images I captured from both 2022 and 2023.

I captured images with both the Canon EOS R6 and Canon EOS R6 Mark II.   

Before the main show, there was an air race of smaller yellow planes that were highly maneuverable.  

After the air races, they opened the show with parachutists.

A variety of planes made an appearance.  The vast majority were propeller planes.  

One interesting plane had both propellers and a jet engine and was made with two aircraft, surplus from the old Soviet air force.

The 2024 air fair will run from 16 to 18 February.  I will be there with camera, of course! 

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

Here are all of my images from the 2022 and 2023 Buckeye AirFairs!

Balloons in Cave Creek January 2022

A sunrise visit to the Cave Creek Arizona area north of Phoenix hunting for hot air balloons. 

Early on I was disappointed.  I could see a few balloons, but they were way off in the distance.   I was thinking... well, at least I'll get a great breakfast at Local Jonny's in Cave Creek.  

Then I got excited heading east on Carefree Highway and pulled over on 24th Street because there were TONS of balloons in the air!   

I found them!!!!!

I used a Canon EOS R6 and two lenses: the Canon RF 24-240mm and the Canon RF 800mm.

After capturing images for about an hour, down the road I go and had a great breakfast.

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

Click the photo below for all of my images of the hot air balloons over Cave Creek Arizona!

Images from the Front Yard

I spent a few early mornings in my front yard capturing images of bees, flowers, and (finally!) hummingbirds with my Canon EOS R6 and Canon 24-240 and Tamron 100-400mm lenses.

See the bee on the left?  He has a green tint and that came from the very green Brazilian Pepper Tree to his right.

Only one morning was I lucky enough to get images of hummingbirds.   Then in post processing, I had to go in and clean up the images in Photoshop.   I also used Lightroom and Luminar ai.

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

Click the photo below to see all the images I captured from my front yard in north Phoenix…

Arizona Gunfighters Visit Cave Creek Arizona

The Arizona Gunfighters came back to Cave Creek with their real show (not a rehearsal like a few weeks earlier).

They re-enacted famous gunfights from Dodge City and of course Tombstone and the OK Corral.

I captured all images with the Canon EOS R6 and the Tamron 70-200mm lens.   If I had to do it over again, I would have used the Tamron 24-70 since I was able to get closer than I thought. 

Post processing in Lightroom and Photoshop and a few also with Luminar ai.   

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

Click the photo below to see all the images from the Arizona Gunfighters in Cave Creek, Arizona…

Wildlife World Zoo and Arrowhead CC Egrets

Waay out on the west side of the Phoenix area valley in Litchfield Park is Wildlife World Zoo.  There's also an aquarium there.  So photographing would be a challenge.   The aquarium was of course much darker than outside where the animals lived.  

 

I captured images with the Canon EOS R6 and Canon RF 24-240.   When in the aquarium, I wished I had the Tamron 24-70 f/2.8 with me.   And there were times out in the zoo I wished I had more reach like the Tamron 100-400mm lens.   

Then again, I wasn't interested in lugging around all that heavy equipment.

One chief challenge is photographing animals through fencing.  If you can get close enough to the fence, you can focus through it.   Sometimes it just plain doesn't work.  

It's a pretty large park with lots of walking.   I'd advise going at 9am before it gets crowded.

The next day, I went to Arrowhead Country Club in Glendale to see if I could photograph the egrets that live around the pond at the golf course.   

I chose Monday since most everything at the club is shut down on that day.   I captured images with the Canon EOS R6 and the Tamron 150-600mm.  Some of the earlier shots were combined with the Tamron 2x extender, making my effective reach of 1200mm.

My camera set up is difficult to hand hold.   I found even with the new image stabilization feature in the lens and body it was still difficult to get good shots.  I should have brought my monopod.  

The solution was to go to the second floor of the clubhouse where I could set my camera on the hand rail.   And it worked.

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

Click the photo below to see all the images from Wildlife World Zoo...

Click the photo below to see all the images of the egrets of Arrowhead Country Club in Glendale....

Christmas Lights 2020

For two consecutive nights in December I took out my new Canon EOS R6 and Tamron 24-70mm lens capturing images of Christmas lights in my neighborhood and at Phoenix ZooLights.

Around the neighborhood, I decided to go auto ISO.   There were some images that the camera selected the highest ISO of 102,400.   I was obviously very worried about grain in those photos and sure enough, I got some.   SOME.   Not overwhelming grain.   Most were fixable in post processing with Lightroom and sometimes with Luminar.   

The next night, we went to Phoenix ZooLights.   Here, I decided to go with an ISO set to 6400.  I wanted to test the in camera and in lens stabilization.   

On both nights, the photos showed very little motion blur, so the stabilization was a vast improvement over previous Canon cameras.   

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

Click the photo below to see all the images from my neighborhood...

Click the photo below to see all the images from Phoenix ZooLights...

Japanese Friendship Garden "Illumination 2020"

The Japanese Friendship Garden in downtown Phoenix opened its gates at night to what they called "Illumination 2020.".   The pathways and lake were lit with colored lights, giving off a surreal feeling.   

It was so very dark!   I had to walk gingerly because the footpath was so hard to see.   

I recently purchased the Canon EOS R6 and was anxious to test it out in extremely low light conditions.  My lens was the Tamron 24-70mm.   All images were captured with the lens fully open to f/2.8.   I put the camera in AUTO ISO, knowing full well I might have some grain in the photos.   Everything was hand held.   

Post processing was done in Lightroom.   

I do believe I'll do some additional low light photography in my own neighborhood as there are some lovely Christmas lights out!

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

.... and all of the photos!

https://jamesgordonpatterson.smugmug.com/Japanese-Friendship-Garden-Illumination-5-December-2020 

Vintage Planes in Prescott 7 June 2020

Canon graciously sponsored a shoot with vintage airplanes and models with Explorer of Light Bruce Dorn.   A few years ago, I took a class with Bruce photographing models in Oak Creek Canyon.  He has a cinematography background from Hollywood and is a treat to work with.

We had a few hours to capture images of vintage World War Two planes with models!

I captured images with a Canon EOS R and Tamron 15-30mm wide angle.   Post processing with Lightroom and Luminar 4 (quickly becoming my go-to Lightroom plugin!).   

I bought the Tamron wide angle based on reviews and how nice it would work with astrophotography and real estate.   But look how well it worked photographing planes!

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

Watch the entire slideshow below!