Saturday, November 30, 2013

Round Robin: Someone Else's Family

For the Round Robin Challenge: Family, I asked to see pictures of family, or pictures of something that represents the concept of family. I knew it was going to be a tough one for me to do; John does not allow me to take pictures of him, much less post them. The only family in reach is my dad, and I post lots of pictures of him already!

But I did have a few family-related encounters in the last month. First off, there was the All Souls Procession in Tucson on Sunday, November 3rd. Most of the people who take part in this annual local tradition do so on honor of dead family members. They often carry a photo of the deceased as they walk through the streets of downtown Tucson.


After the procession passed by me, a family set up to sell ice cream to passersby:


Here is a little film I made of that night. Note it doesn't play on mobile devices for some reason.


The other encounter with a family was last Saturday, November 23rd. It was a rainy, cold, blustery day. I took my dad for a drive, and stopped briefly at Agua Caliente Park, a place I've photographed before. I got Dad to walk around for about five minutes, at the end of which he was complaining his hands were cold. As we returned to the car, I spotted a woman in a bridal gown, and her family!


Agua Caliente Park is a beautiful place for a wedding, but not on a day like this! Note the bridal gown under a dark jacket.

 As we left, the bridal party was gamely carrying folding chairs from their cars to set up for the ceremony. "I bet you were hoping for better weather than this!" I called out to the father of the bride (or whoever).

"Sure was," he said ruefully.

Now let's see the other Robins' family photos!

Linking List
as of Saturday, 12/`/13, 1:18 AM

Freda - Posted!
Day One
http://fredamans.blogspot.ca

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/mavarin

Carly - Posted!
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

Karen

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Round Robin: True Colors of Autumn - in Southern Arizona?

As I was saying this morning, for the Round Robin Challenge: All Natural Colors, I asked to see photos of natural materials, presented with colors as close to what our eyes see as possible. I was so exhausted after a very long day that I didn't post an entry last night at all, and this morning's entry was a rush job. But this afternoon I took my Dad for a 90-minute drive down to the Nature Conservancy's Ramsey Canyon Preserve. I freely admit that half the point of the trip was to photograph autumn leaves in their natural colors!


Ramsey Canyon is southeast of Tucson near Sierra Vista, Arizona. It's on private land owned by the Nature Conservancy, at the end of a narrow paved road. You have to go through the gift shop and pay a $6 fee to hike the trail...



...but there is no charge for sitting on a bench behind the gift shop, watching the bird feeders and drinking in the beauty and the cooler mountain air.


I hadn't been there in about a quarter of a century, despite it being one of the top 15 birding spots in the entire country. Today I wasn't really focused on seeing their 15+ species of hummingbirds, their Elegant Trogans, their Chihuahua Leopard frogs or black bears. I didn't even bring binoculars. That's okay, because this isn't the season for most of the birds that frequent the canyon. The only one I even saw was a single wild turkey outside the preserve itself.



The photography was a little tricky. The late afternoon sun shone through the trees, making the scene either too dark or too light. Almost everything here has been edited on my computer to brighten colors and reduce glare.


Still, I think these are pretty close to what I saw!



Autumn leaves are few and far between in Tucson. We don't have the climate or the native species for it. I'm pretty sure even the oak tree species in Arizona don't change color. But when I Googled Autumn leaves Southern Arizona, I found pretty much what I expected to see. Driving into the mountains takes me to a cooler, more colorful climate! We're past the prime fall leaf season by at least two weeks, but I think the drive was worth it - even if my dad was bored and asking to leave about a minute after we arrived.

Please scroll down for my other RR entry of the day, and then check out the other Robins' entries!

Linking List
as of Saturday, November 16th, 7:27 MST

Freda - Posted!
Day One
http://fredamans.blogspot.ca

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Carly - Posted!
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

Karen - two entries posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/mavarin


Karen

Round Robin: Truly Natural (or not)

For the Round Robin Challenge: All Natural Colors, I asked to see colors that are as true to life as we can get them, photographing something made of natural materials and left its natural color. I'm very late in posting this and due at my dad's in five minutes, but here's a quick stab and this. I'll add the text tonight!


Scarecrow on a  pole at St. Michael's.

 Wind chimes and olive trees.

Dusky leaves in a planter.

I must confess that I forgot exactly what I had asked for in this Challenge by the time I took these pictures. But I made up for it later today. Scroll up for my second entry of all-natural color - this time for reals!  Then check out the other Robins' entries:

Linking List
as of Saturday, November 16th, noon MST

Freda - Posted!
Day One
http://fredamans.blogspot.ca

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Carly - Posted!
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

Karen - (will post more later today)
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/mavarin

Karen

Saturday, November 02, 2013

Round Robin: The Way We Listened

For the Round Robin Challenge: Old Tech, New Tech, I asked to see pictures that showed a contrast between old and new technologies for doing the same thing. I don't know about you, but I'm old enough to remember a fairly long progression of ways to listen to music. My first recordings were mostly 45 RPM kid's records, mostly on the Peter Pan, Disneyland and Little Golden labels, but I distinctly remember one or two 78 RPM records in the mix. When I was a little older, the family record player had four speeds, and I used them all - on the same record! It was the last of my kiddie records, The Poky Little Puppy. Meant to be a 45 RPM single, it told the story of a puppy who "just pokes along and he looks at the breeze." Played at 78 RPM, the puppy was much livelier. At 33 1/3 RPM, he really poked along, and at 16 2/3 RPM - yes, there was such a speed! - he turned into a slow-moving oinker. Unfortunately, I don't have the record any more, or I'd show it to you here.

About the same time I was putting the Puppy through his paces, I was buying my first two LPs: More of the Monkees and The Monkees Headquarters.  Soon after that came my first Beatles album, Revolver, chosen because it cost a dollar less than Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band from my brother's record club. Some time after that I bought my first two "adult" 45s: Hair by the Cowsills and Dizzy by Tommy Roe. About five years after that, as I started working on collecting all the Beatles LPs, my brother was very proud of his 8-track tape collection. I'm happy to say I never went down that route!


Me at Rockarama circa 1982

When I was managing a used record store in the early 1980s, I was delighted to take home a 78 RPM single of Little Richard singing Long Tall Sally. The stereo we had at the time must have been one of the last ones that still played that venerable speed. At the time we used to drive from Columbus, Ohio to other major cities in the midwest to sell used records, imports, posters, buttons, etc. at record shows. On the way we listened to music - on cassette tape, of course! Eventually we had to close down Rockarama and I went to work at someone else's record store. I stuck around long enough to sell a few copies of mostly classical albums in a revolutionary new music format: Compact Discs!



I doubt that I still have that Little Richard 78. The vast majority of our LPs are inaccessible in crates in our storage room, and we don't have a turntable set up anyway. But we do have a few stacks of "to be gotten rid off--probably" LPs in our front room.

John left almost our entire cassette collection outside a year and a half ago, where it promptly got rained on in a huge storm. The few cassettes I still have are mostly either audio books or Doctor Who related, such as this novelty single cassette:



And we still have some treasured 45s.


And less-treasured 45s:


I still buy the occasional CD, but only Doctor Who-related ones. Here's my latest purchase:


Mostly, I listed to music on my iPhone, or occasionally my iPad. I don't even know where my iPod is any more. My Halloween music last night was courtesy of Pandora. Two years ago I played a CD on a boombox.


Still, there are some things that remain the same, more or less. The 1963 Beatles may sound better through an iPhone on a dock than on a mono HiFi, but it's still great music. Ditto the 1969 Beatles. And I still love to listen to them!

Now let's see what other old and new tech our Robins have come up with!

Linking List
as of Saturday, November 2nd, 2013
12:34 AM MST

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/mavarin

Ellen - Posted!
Ellen's Phlog
http://ellensphlog.blogspot.com/

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Karen