Tucson and Tumacacori Historical Visit April 2011

I accompanied my colleague Dr. David Rubi’s Paradise Valley Community College Spanish 245 class again for his Southern Arizona field trip of historical places... and some great Mexican food.  Why me?  I spent many many years in Tucson, first as a student at the University of Arizona, and as a resident of Tucson, working at the UA as first a reporter then instructor in the then Radio and TV Department, still later as an education specialist with the U.S. Army at nearby Fort Huachuca.  So my Southern Arizona roots are deep.

For many of our student at PVCC, located on the north side of Phoenix, Tucson seems far away, even though it is only two hours south by car.  This is a chance to show them some of the architecture, history, and culture of Tucson, a much older city than Phoenix. 

All along the way, students were exposed to the old downtown/barrio architecture.  We visited the La Casa Cordova and art museum area, the Presidio museum, La Pilita and the interesting shrine to a murdered sinner El Tiradito.

We then travelled south of Tucson to the Mission at Tumacacori then on the way back to Tucson we visited the world famous “White Dove of the Desert,” the Mission San Xavier del Bac.

Saturday morning we went to the Ted DeGrazia Gallery of the Sun art studio, located on the north side of Tucson off of Swan Road.  We then finished our trip with a visit to the Pascua Yaqui Ceremonial Grounds.

The photos you see here were shot this time with my trusty little Canon SD950.  You know my main camera of choice is the Canon 7D, but this was a trip I decided to travel light and take the little guy along.  The photos aren’t too bad for a 12mexapixal “point and shoot” that only takes jpg’s.  I edited with Lightroom. 

Happy Shooting!

Jim Patterson

http://JamesGordonPatterson.com

More photos from my Flickr page!

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Finals of the Cave Creek Rodeo on 10 April 2011

Located minutes north of Phoenix, Cave Creek hosts a professional rodeo in April as part of its “Fiesta Days” celebration.  I had the pleasure of photographing this years finals on Sunday 10 April 2011.  I used both my new Tamron 200-500mm lens (maybe TOO MUCH reach for this rodeo since I was so close to the action) and the Canon 28-135mm lens, which worked very well!

The rodeo website says it was started to honor its long time “Rodeo Boss” Wayne Wilson.  Wayne believed every child in our community deserved an opportunity to become successful and have a better life than his parents.  To further his wishes, the Desert Foothills Community Association began the Wayne Wilson Children’s Charity Rodeo & Carnival with a goal of support our community and its youth’s needs.  Other charities supported include the Desert Hills Food bank, Ride Rank for a Cure (Cancer), Cowboys for Kids, Starlight Foundation, Queen Creek Junior Rodeo, Arizona Wrangler Junior High School Rodeo and several local area elementary schools and after school programs.

I’m a long time veteran of the Tucson Rodeo held every year in February.  That’s a pretty big time rodeo.  The Cave Creek Rodeo is smaller, but still professional rodeo.  AND, for a photographer, you can get pretty darn close to the action and only pay ten bucks at the door!  I must say, for a community organization, this was a professionally RUN rodeo too. 

I plan on taking a class there next year to photograph the action.  If you want to know more about the rodeo, go to http://cavecreekrodeo.com/ 

Happy Shooting!

Jim Patterson

http://JamesGordonPatterson.com

Photographs of the Cave Creek Rodeo:

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Shooting the Relay for Life at Paradise Valley Community College

The American Cancer Society’s “Relay for Life” event on 8 April 2011 provided a nice charitable event to cover for a Paradise Valley Community College continuing education class I taught on evening event photography.  Eight shooters joined me on that Friday night, capturing the dusk and night scenes around the PVCC track, where the Relay for Life has been held over the last few years.  The photos will be donated to the North Valley Relay for Life.  Photographers shooting for a good cause!

As it got darker, we needed to rely more on a tripod.  I used a Canon 7D with a Canon 28-135mm lens for most of these shots.  A few of my shots I used the Sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens.  Some of the shots of the candles were actually hand held.  I had a great student question: "How do you stop people blur in the evening?"  Answer:  Make them stop.  Sometimes the blur can be called "art" remember!   

According to the Cancer Society, the international relay began in 1985 when Dr. Gordy Klatt, a colorectal surgeon in Tacoma, Washington, ran and walked around a track for 24 hours to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Since then, the relay has grown from a single man’s passion to fight cancer into the world’s largest movement to end the disease. Each year, more than 3.5 million people in 5,000 communities in the United States, along with additional communities in 20 other countries, gather to take part in this global phenomenon and raise much-needed funds and awareness to save lives from cancer.

The local PVCC Relay had 43 teams, 479 participants, and raised (so far) over $41 thousand dollars for cancer research. 

If you or a team wants to get involved in next years Relay for Life, click here. 

Happy Shooting!

Jim Patterson

http://JamesGordonPatterson.com

Flickr Slideshow from the Relay for Life:

Jim’s Online Camera Store

Sights from the National Auto Sports Association Arizona Region

I visited the infield at Firebird Raceway south of Phoenix on 6 March 2011 and was able to capture some of the cars and people of NASAAZ that day.  NASA is a club level motorsport association.  The cars are driven by people you know; just regular folks.  Having been to NASCAR races at Phoenix International Raceway, one nice thing for me was it wasn’t so LOUD!  I had my earplugs with me but didn’t need them.  WHEW!

And if you want to get involved, you can train as a driver, for instance.  You can get more information at http://www.nasaaz.com/

Here are the photos at my Flickr site 

Check out the music video below!

Enjoy,

Jim Patterson

http://JamesGordonPatterson.com

Jim’s Online Camera Store

Fiesta de los Vaqueros - Tucson Rodeo 19 February 2011

Wind and dust and a bit of rain were the backdrop of the first day of Tucson’s La Fiesta de los Vaqueros 86^th Annual Rodeo.  Having spent so many years in Tucson and having attended the rodeo in the past, it was really a coming home for me in so many ways.  I’ve been through rain and snow and hot hot sun and temperatures at previous rodeos.  I wish I could have worn my cowboy hat, but I knew it would blow off, darn it.

Western Photographer David Stoecklein spoke and shared his background and that was great hearing from him.  Here is his site with his beautiful photos:  http://stoeckleinphotography.com/

The wind and rain presented some real challenges in photographing the event.  I was at the north end of the arena, which is located south of I-10 down 6^th Avenue.  Always AFTER an event I think of things I should have done differently.  I wish I had brought my monopod, although that wasn’t crucial.  I wish WISH I had brought my Tamron 100- 300mm lens instead of the all purpose Tamron 18-270mm.  The latter lens was fine, as you can see from the photos, but I wanted a bit more reach.  I didn’t get any keepers from the bull riding because they put up temporary fencing and I couldn’t shoot over the fence.  I wish I had gone up higher in the stands for that, but then I would have needed a lens with more reach.  I also sadly did not get any mutton busters, the young 4 and 5 year old kids who ride the very docile sheep.  Sometimes it just doesn’t happen for you on a shoot. 

What did go right?  Well, I think I got some great bronco riding and steer wrestling shots.  There are a few great photos I got of a Native American cowboy steer wrestler... I didn’t get his name, but what a face! 

I hope you enjoy!

Jim Patterson

http://JamesGordonPatterson.com
Jim's Online Camera Store

Near Picture Perfect Wildcats!

23 October 2010...  The Arizona Wildcats defeated the Washington Huskies 44 to 14 to cap homecoming in front of a capacity crowd of over 56,000.  The win puts the Wildcats tied for second place in the Pac-10 conference, 6 and 1 overall, and ranked 15^th in both the AP and Coaches polls. 

Matt Scott, subbing for injured starting quarterback Nic Foles, was like most of the Wildcat football team - near picture perfect.  With the exception of some sloppy arm tackling early in the game and some bizarre Pac-10 referee calls, the Cats dominated their rivals from the Pacific Northwest.

Before the game, the UA mall was filled with tailgaters and party tents.  The homecoming parade came before the Wildcat Walk of football players from Cherry and University Avenue to the football stadium.  Sadly, I missed the Wildcat Walk, but I had a very good reason:  Homecoming for our tailgate gang means STEAK!  No way I was leaving my steak behind. 

Happy Shooting,

Jim Patterson

Jim's Online Camera Store

Enjoy more photos from the Arizona Wildcats Homecoming....

“JIM! What’s new with your photography?"

I heard that so often this last month I thought it was time to update the ole blog.

I went to another Photoshop World in Las Vegas the first week of September.  Lots and lots of classes from great instructors on everything having to do with photography and Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom.  One of the fun things I did was attend the APC Artistic Photo Canvas “walkshop” of Fremont Street in Las Vegas, dedicated to HDR or High Dynamic Range photography.  Photographer Brian Matiash was the host.  It’s the kind of photography you’ve seen that reminds you of “grunge” for the lack of a better word.  That was a fun activity that took us out into the earthier Fremont area of Las Vegas.  About thirty photographers with tripods all walking through taking photos.  The easiest explanation I have is you take several photos of the same thing with slightly different exposure settings, then combine in the new Adobe Photoshop CS5. 

AND, of course, the fall for me means more Arizona Wildcats football.  So far, we are four and zero.  Given where we’ve been in the past, we cannot afford to look past any opponent.  The PAC-10 seems especially strong this year so the next eight games will be quite challenging.  The season is a third over and the Cats have beaten Iowa at home and came from behind to beat a very good California Golden Bears team.  I think we all needed a break this past week; the players needed to heal, the coaches needed to re-evaluate and recuperate, and the fans.. well we need to take a deep breath and get ready for the rest of the season. 

Since I live in Phoenix, many of the locals here will ask me what I think about that outfit in Tempe.  Frankly, I don’t think about them.  Not until it is time to think about them.  I’m worried about my own guys. 

A few of the fun things so far this season include the football game versus The Citadel that we watched from a Super Suite at Arizona Stadium.  It was a fund raiser for the scholarship I dedicated to my parents, Doc and Ann Patterson, and goes to a Paradise Valley Community College graduate who transfers to the University of Arizona.  I’m proud to say we collected close to $5,000. 

Hey, I have to put in a plug to join the Arizona Alumni Association, as one of the newest members of the alumni association board.  Just tell them Jim Patterson sent you.  And you can join even if you didn’t graduate from Arizona.  Most of my tailgate pals did exactly that. 

Hockey season in Phoenix starts on 16 October against the hated Detroit Red Wings (I can say that, muchachos, because I grew up a Red Wings fan... now, not so much).  So I should have hockey photos soon.

Shut up and shoot, as the great photographer Paul Mobley once told me!

Jim Patterson

http://JamesGordonPatterson.com

With the Arizona Wildcats - Fort Huachuca/Sierra Vista

Jim Patterson... EXPOSED!

It’s been a fun week for me, following the Arizona Wildcats athletics department and football team around Arizona.  The ten-city tour concluded with a luncheon with Coach Mike Stoops and players at Fort Huachuca, a U.S. Army post outside of Sierra Vista, located in Southeastern Arizona.

I got a chance to chat with Arizona Wildcats athletic director Greg Byrne at the three stops I made it to.  I figured Greg had to get me in doses in a few places.  All at once is too much shock, I fear. 

After a long drive from Phoenix, the core of our tailgate crew got together at the old NCO club at Fort Huachuca.  This is indoor lighting, a crowd, and the people are moving... a challenge for a photographer.  I adjusted ISO to around 600 on most of the shots; fast enough shutter speed so photos were not that blurry.  There just was not room to set up a tripod; plus I think I would have been tossed out had I tried!  The coach and players were very cooperative and photographer friendly, as I hope the photos show.  As a University of Arizona graduate, I was particularly proud and pleased of the players that ate lunch with us and the whole team in general.  A nice bunch of guys... people you’d love to have over to the house. 

Toward the end of the lunch program, I asked Coach Stoops a silly question that probably didn’t go over as well as I thought it would.  I was sitting next to starting place kicker Alex Zendejas, who kicked the winning field goal against Arizona State last year.  We had a nice chat about his career so far and my memory of his uncle Max kicking the winning field goal for Arizona versus Notre Dame in 1982 (yup, I’m an OLD Cat!).  I asked Coach Stoops if this guy Zendejas didn’t work out as kicker if he’d consider bringing me out of my thirty-three year redshirt.  I think he thought I was a nut, because he just kind of laughed and gave me a hard time for mispronouncing  Alex’s last name!  Later at the scrimmage I asked coach where I should go on the field to work out, while I was making kicking motions. By that point, I think he got that I was just kidding.  Maybe. 

Photos of the scrimmage at Buena High School in Sierra Vista were in bright sunlight.  The problem was taking photos in part shade/part sun.  Luckily I could help adjust some of that in Adobe Lightroom 3, which I did on several shots. 

Happy Shooting,

Jim Patterson

http://JamesGordonPatterson.com            

My Online Camera Store

Cave Creek Photowalk Rousing Success!

Saturday 24 July 2010 fifty photographers trekked north of Phoenix to Cave Creek where we all met for the 3^rd Annual International Photowalk, this time at Frontier Town. 

I’ve embedded several photos I took along with the slideshow from Flickr.  But the event was on the photographers who joined me and the social gathering afterwards at the Silver Spur Saloon, where we shared photos and talked about photography.

By the way, this is the group site on Flickr where you can see all the photographers’ photos during the event. 

After all the participants have submitted their favorite photo, I will decide on the “winner” of this Photowalk and then that winner will compete at the international level for prizes. 

Future events to be announced but will include a local Photowalk during cooler temperatures.  My thought now is a Photowalk around Christmas at the Phoenix Zoo.  The Phoenix Coyotes NHL hockey team and I are looking for a date during the season for me to run a photography workshop at a game.  And, I plan on leading a photography cruise to Alaska during the last week of May 2011.

Happy Shooting Until My Next Blog,

Jim Patterson