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.

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!

Visiting Out of Africa

The Tamron lens folks sponsored a visit to "Out of Africa" at Camp Verde, Arizona... a little over an hour from Phoenix. 

The weather started to cool down in these parts and it was a great time to get away from the big city.  

I'd never been to this park and came away very impressed.  We'll go again in December, my birthday month, since admission is free for me!

Special thanks to Tamron's Erica Robinson and Armando Flores, who took us on our visit.  

And, to the fine folks of Out of Africa and the good work they do rescuing these fine animals!

I'll be back... with my Canon 5D Mark IV and Tamron lenses!

Until My Next Adventure,

See You On Down the Road!

Jim Patterson

Photos from Flickr ... and, here are all the keeper photos!




We visited Out of Africa a second time on 30 December 2017.  Here are my additional photos from Flickr...

Phoenix Herpetological Society Critters

Early Saturday on the 7th of November 2015 I visited the Phoenix Herpetological Society.  Yes, I know... what the heck is that?  Located in north Scottsdale, they take care of snakes, crocodiles, spiders.. all kinds of reptiles and amphibians really.  

Before the organization started, exotic animals illegally imported into the state would be captured and euthanized to hold as evidence in court trials.  Now, the animals are alive and well cared for.  

I took most of the photos by "bracketing" the shots.  Three rapid fire photos of the same thing that varied in exposures, then I mostly used Photomatrix Pro to achieve a High Dynamic Range look.  Doing HDR combats the light/shade problems and it gives a more contrasty look to the photos.  On a few of the photos, I merely used one shot in Photomatrix Pro for HDR toning, kind of a fake HDR.  My main editing program is Lightroom.  I used a Canon 5D Mark III camera and a Tamron 28-300mm lens.  

This was an opportunity to see animals most of us could never see in real life.  And to see so many in one place over a five hour period was terrific!

Until My Next Adventure, 

See You On Down The Road!

Jim Patterson

...Click here for  all the critter photos from my visit!

Turf Paradise With the Tamron 150-600mm

7 Horse Wins and Costs Me Money 

President’s Day at Turf Paradise.  Was I there to bet on the ponies?  Drink beer and eat hot dogs?  Or, test out my new Tamron 150-600mm lens?  How about all of the above!  The betting?  I got skunked. A few beers and hot dogs and I’m happy.  Now on to the testing of the new Tamron lens.
                

Last Stretch Near Finish Line!

This lens replaced my Tamron 200-500mm.  I tried the new lens with and without a monopod.  The lens is heavy, but not so heavy you can’t use it handheld.  I tried to take most shots at at least 1/600th of a second if not somewhat faster.  Overall, I was pleased with the results.  I could have also tried using the Tamron 2x extender with this lens, but of course I’d lose two or more stops of light. The good news is I shoot with the Canon 5D Mark III and I shot at 400-800 ISO with pretty good results.  Just a few years ago, there was no way a person could shoot with this lens without a tripod, but lenses and camera’s ISO sensitivity is vastly improved.
      

Real or Plastic?

One fellow at the race track told me about two owls… “do you like to photograph birds?” He asked.. so I looked through the lens and… they were fake plastic owls.  But this guy kept at me that they were real and had moved.  I think plastic owls move the more drinks a person has.  Just a guess.  


This will show the reach of the lens at 600mm.  I never noticed the slight haze.  This was hand held, too!  

Far Side of the Track

Until My Next Adventure (rodeo, Santa Fe), 

See You On Down The Road!

Jim Patterson

...and here are all the photos from Turf Paradise!