Its Fancy, Honey
Copyright 2005 David Daniel
Friday, April 29, 2005
Friday, April 22, 2005
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Waiting For St. Francis
Waiting For St. Francis
Mission San Xavier del Bac
"White Dove of the Desert"
Near Tucson, Arizona
Monday, April 18, 2005
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Idle Hours
Just Outside the Douglas Unit of Coronado National Forest
Extreme Southeast Corner of Arizona
Diane and I had made a long circle through the Douglas Unit of the Coronado National Forest. We headed up to Portal, New Mexico and then over to Animas, New Mexico before turning west just north of the Mexican border. The southwest corner of New Mexico/southeast corner of Arizona is some of the most remote country in the United States. You are about as far from "civilization" as you can get in this day and age. Along this road are a very few, far-flung ranches. Things around these parts have not changed for a hundred years. This is what the old west must have felt like.
Just past one of these ranches, a small creek flowed through a stand of trees. I was driving at least 20 miles an hour (autobahn fast on these roads) and something in the trees caught my eye. I went past it by a hundred yards or so and then turned around. Diane asked me what I had seen...and all I said was, "Just wait, you'll see."
The chair under the tree just called out to me...and to Diane as well. This was a place I could see just sitting and pondering the world - just like the old rancher who lived there. After a hard day's work with the herd, I am sure that he just sat in this chair with a glass of tea and put the universe all in perspective.
This is one of the very few times when I knew immediately that, beyond the shadow of a doubt, I had made a good picture.
When Diane and I looked at it, she could only say two words, "Uncle Bill." Her uncle Bill Sides would take a chair like this out to Cape Cod and sit on the top of the dunes and take it all in - for hours on end. Bill's son commented, "Yep, looks like my Dad's chair - or one that he had 'acquired' from the school where he was the principal."
I really do hope that you can find yourself - or even your own "Uncle Bill" in this image...I know I can.
Extreme Southeast Corner of Arizona
Diane and I had made a long circle through the Douglas Unit of the Coronado National Forest. We headed up to Portal, New Mexico and then over to Animas, New Mexico before turning west just north of the Mexican border. The southwest corner of New Mexico/southeast corner of Arizona is some of the most remote country in the United States. You are about as far from "civilization" as you can get in this day and age. Along this road are a very few, far-flung ranches. Things around these parts have not changed for a hundred years. This is what the old west must have felt like.
Just past one of these ranches, a small creek flowed through a stand of trees. I was driving at least 20 miles an hour (autobahn fast on these roads) and something in the trees caught my eye. I went past it by a hundred yards or so and then turned around. Diane asked me what I had seen...and all I said was, "Just wait, you'll see."
The chair under the tree just called out to me...and to Diane as well. This was a place I could see just sitting and pondering the world - just like the old rancher who lived there. After a hard day's work with the herd, I am sure that he just sat in this chair with a glass of tea and put the universe all in perspective.
This is one of the very few times when I knew immediately that, beyond the shadow of a doubt, I had made a good picture.
When Diane and I looked at it, she could only say two words, "Uncle Bill." Her uncle Bill Sides would take a chair like this out to Cape Cod and sit on the top of the dunes and take it all in - for hours on end. Bill's son commented, "Yep, looks like my Dad's chair - or one that he had 'acquired' from the school where he was the principal."
I really do hope that you can find yourself - or even your own "Uncle Bill" in this image...I know I can.
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Monday, April 11, 2005
The Door To History
The Door To History
Sparta Train Depot
Sparta, Georgia
Soon after we moved to Georgia, Diane and I went on a tour of old abandoned buildings/houses. Good thing it was winter, the snakes and other critters left us pretty much alone.
This is the depot in Sparta, Georgia - a wonderful building that takes you back in time with the first step inside. From a look around, no one had been in this building (functionally) since the early 1980's. You could see the old safe, the signaling levers - which I tried and they still work! - and the rooms where the train crews would sleep while waiting for their trains.
The floors creaked with every step. You could see the ghosts of the folks busying themselves with the work that envelopes a train station. The manifests and invoices were laying on the desks, right where they were when the last shift left the building.For a train buff, which I am, this was priceless!
The two of us walked out on the platform and I looked down the tracks: I could see the station manager sticking his head out of the door and checking his watch, feel the trains rumbling into the station, hear the clatter of luggage being unloaded by the porters...it was truly a step back into the 1940's....I want to take it over and over again.
Alone On The Prairie
I walked around this windmill for about 30 minutes, looking at the cows, the grass, the sky - everything. Made dozens of shots from all perspectives....and yet it was only when I got home and started looking at the day's images that my fiance said something like, "Oh I am so glad you got that bird's nest in your image!"
Um....yes...it was my incredible eye that saw that nest...yep...sure....ummmm.....that was....unexpected.....
Magic Eye
Magic Eye
Apache Power
Willcox Dry Lake Bed, Arizona
I love to ask people to figure out how I made this image. It is unretouched.Once you know how I made it, you cannot help but see it.
Diane and I were driving up toward Willcox when we went past a sign that said "Wildlife Viewing Area Next Right". We were actually trying to figure out a way to get out on the dry lake, which the Army Air Corps used as a bombing range for B-17s in WWII. Needless to say, the Air Force doesn't want you wandering around unexploded ordnance. This viewing area is about the best vantage point to look out over the lake (except for the guy whose driveway we went down, but he wasn't too happy about trespassers).
The birds out here are phenomenal! This is one of the "must see" attractions for the birdwatching crowd. I don't know any of the ones we saw, but there were literally thousands of them...fantastic....and a fantastic day for a road trip!
Saturday, April 09, 2005
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
A Frond Of Mine
A Frond Of Mine
John White's Driveway
Green Valley, Arizona
It was a beautiful day to go for a ride in Southern Arizona and Diane and I made the best possible use of it. We headed out of Bisbee on Highway 92, out of Sierra Vista and over to Sonoita and Patagonia. The day was FANTASTIC, the drive was FANTASTIC, the company was FANTASTIC, the scenery was FANTASTIC - did I mention that it was a FANTASTIC day?!At Patagonia, we cut down to Duquesne, Lochiel and over to Nogales. The ride was presenting image after image of overwhelming Arizona landscapes! Eventually, we made it to Interstate 19. Normally, I hate interstate driving, but I-19 is different. The sun was hitting the mountains and making them sparkle. This is a light that comes only rarely in most parts of the world, but in Arizona, it comes about once a week - and I was here for it.
The western states have one beautiful thing in common - the particular hue of blue that we get that just isn't found anywhere else. I think (and I may be wrong on this one) that it is the lack of humidity that brings this unique color of blue out of the sky. When you see it, you cannot help but think that it is "too blue" for nature - or that all other natural blue is somehow "tainted" (the latter being my personal feeling)
The contrast of Diane's father's palm trees with this particular blue was astounding. The greens and the blues were just unnatural. Did I mention that it was a FANTASTIC day?
Monday, April 04, 2005
Ready To Rumble
Ready To Rumble
Washington Town Square
Washington, Georgia
Okay, not all of my shots have some deep personal story behind them. This is the left fender of a 1962 Austin Healy 3000 Mark III - one of my all time favourite cars...It truly is "Ready To Rumble".
Sunday, Diane's two cousins, Amanda and Nat, stopped by on their way from Arizona to Maine. We took them up to Washington, Georgia for brunch at The Fitzpatrick Hotel's restaurant, Watchmakers. After a fine brunch (as usual) we walked outside to take a stroll around Washington's square. This car was parked outside of the hotel - its owner was right inside his antique shop next door to the hotel. I introduced myself as a fellow Alabamian (as the Austin had Alabama plates) and that I was sorry that I had dragged these "damn Yankees" to Georgia. He pointed out to Nat the fine armoire, noting that it was "made somewhere up there, like Boston perhaps." The owner then told us the real reason that this fantastic piece of furniture was not in his own home, "...don't want the Yankee ghosts coming in..."
I think that up until that point, Diane's cousins were taking him seriously in his light hearted ribbing of the Yankees...but then again, he might not have been joking...
Friday, April 01, 2005
Silhouette Of A Nation
Silhouette Of A Nation
Southern Arizona Veteran's Memorial Cemetery
Ft. Huachuca, Arizona
The Veteran's Memorial Cemetery at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona is a place of many contrasts. The graves of the fallen, the dry grass of the High Chaparral and the Huachuca Mountains forming a backdrop present so many stirring images that it is hard to capture one that speaks to the entire experience.
After a frustrating day of work at the fort, I decided to take a slight detour through the cemetery. I had no intentions of making any pictures - I just wanted to unwind and I figured that the cemetery would at least be quiet. As I walked though the graves of the service men and women, it dawned on me that no matter how frustrating my job is, it is worth it. These people did what it took to get the job done. Our country is what it is - right or wrong - because of these people's sacrifice. My job is just a continuation of that struggle. I may not have bullets being fired at me on a daily basis, but my job of making the Army's computer networks better directly impacts those who do.
The dead spoke to me. The living owe it to them to keep their dreams of America alive.
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