I'm going to be here in a few days!

I can hardly contain myself, I'm so excited about this trip. I will get to go to the top of this mountain and hopefully take some wonderful pictures. Here is a little taste of how beautiful this place is. Enjoy!





I hope you are having a great holiday weekend. Nothing much so far here but that's just fine. A nice quite weekend at home. Chat with you later.

H

We had a storm...

I'm so sorry for the telephone pole in the middle of the picture. This is not my best work but the sunrises after a storm here are amazing. So I'm showing the colors not any skill I might be gaining.

And this was the sky a little later that morning. I just love the blue and white of the sky!


I hope you enjoyed the pictures! I'll have some more for you soon. Have a good rest of your week.

H

Desert Botanical Gardens is for the birds

Okay so not really but there are a lot of birds. Above is a Cactus Wren and below I think its a woodpecker. I got there as early as they open, 7AM to get these. There are lots of little creatures out and about that early on a Saturday morning. Some of the little creatures didn't want to stop and pose for me. Like the rabbits and quail. Maybe next time.






I hope you all had a good weekend. Bailey officially starts school in the morning, not just the jump start to kindergarten that she's been doing for the last 2 weeks. She is very excited! I'll post pictures sometime this week. Have a good week with whatever you have planned.

H

Full Moon

We had a full moon last night and I photographed it. Well I tried anyway. I went to the Desert Botanical Gardens and took a class on photographing the moon. We didn't get a chance to photograph any of the night blooming flowers. We did a little painting with light. The following photographs were done on a long exposure and then I took a flashlight and 'painted' the cactus with the light as the shutter was open. I so need some work but I think I'm going to have fun try this new technique out.










We had a few clouds last night but I love the way it looked as it lit up the clouds around. These we're also taken on a long exposure so the picture is still pretty dark but I like the effect.


And one last shot of the moon. I wish it hadn't been so hot that is my only complaint! It was still over 100 degrees at 9PM last night. I am so looking forward to the cooler weather. Well the weekend is coming. I hope I have time for some more enamel and maybe some more pictures of the desert!

H

I took a challenge

Bailey's picture

So the challenge was to take a child out and photograph the same things and see what you come up with. I gave Bailey my Point and Shoot camera and I used my Canon Rebel and this is what we came up with. I let her decide what would be a good thing to take a pictures of at the zoo. We went when they open, 6AM, because its real hot here right now and not too bad that early. We also got to see some animals that usually aren't out, ever, because we were there so early.

my picture

Bailey's picture

My picture

Bailey's picture

My picture

Well whatcha' think? I think she did a pretty good job on composition. I think we will do this again sometime.

H

Do you like Strawberries?

So I've been crazy busy lately but we took a quick day trip to Strawberry, Arizona. Its about 120 miles or so North East of us and it was also 40+ degrees cooler! That was a wonderful thing since we've been dealing with 110+ degrees here in Scottsdale for the last month or so.

I know all the pictures are of the clouds but I just couldn't get over beautiful they are! A storm was rolling in and then it started to rain and hail! I couldn't take pictures anymore because it was raining and hailing so hard. It was beautiful. I love the smell of rain.


Bailey starts school tomorrow so I will have more pictures to show as the week goes on. We saw the oldest school house in Arizona while we we're in Strawberry so I will have pictures of that cute little place later on in the week. Oh and I do like strawberries and I like Strawberry, Arizona! Have a great week.

H

Really Cool Camera Stuff

I personally use a Canon but this little video sure is cool! Enjoy!




Hope you're having a good week.

H

Baby feet and hands

So in a need to practice I've been taking pictures of many things like this cute little baby boy. He is my oldest nephews' new baby brother, he is not my nephew. He and my nephew came over this week to give Bailey a birthday gift and he fell asleep before he got there and I thought it was a perfect opportunity to snap a few pictures.


I love feet and hands and since these weren't moving everywhere I could get some good pictures. I'm super happy with the foot picture but I didn't want to wake him to get a better angle. I like the hands but I still need work. I do want his eyelashes! This is just not right for a boy to have eyelashes this long!



But these eyelashes run in the family because this is my nephew and I've always thought it wasn't right how beautiful his eyes and eyelashes are! He has the most beautiful smile when he isn't 'trying' to smile for you.



And now I give you the cheesy, fake smile. I guess its better then my daughter not smiling at all! I don't have many of them together so I had to take the 'lets pose for a picture' shot. I'm working on a photo book for my mom for Christmas and I want to include all kinds of pictures of all of her grandchildren. She doesn't read blogs so she won't know.
Anyway, hope you're having a good weekend.

H

I thought I would introduce you...

...to a new passion of mine. I've always loved photography but lately my playing around with the camera just for fun has gotten me some recognition. I've had an online travel business that is also an app for the iphone is using 2 of my photographs for places in cities that they cover. The picture I took of Bailey with the pineapple in Hawaii is being used. One of the pictures I took in San Francisco of China Town is being used and I have one of the pictures from here in Phoenix is being considered.
I'm not stopping the jewelry but I'm going to start adding in the photography as well to what I do. When I started Cherry Creek Designs as a real business not just a hobby I always intended it to be much more then just jewelry, I just never thought it would be in photography! But the ideas are starting to flow for me on what to do with this to include it with my business. I will keep you informed on where this goes.

I will tell you that I'll be taking a course in photography with some amazing photographers in the business! It will kill me to go but it happens to be in Hawaii so I'll force myself to go and learn as much as I can. I'll let you know more as I get closer to the time to go. Until next time please enjoy the photographs. I would love feedback if you have any, just be nice!

H

I miss living near the ocean

I so miss living near the ocean. I love putting my feet in the sand. I don't love where the sand seems to end up but I'll take it if I could live near the ocean again. Here are a few more pictures for you to enjoy today.


If you've seen 'Finding Nemo' you'll know what I'm talking about. (If you haven't then go rent it because its a good movie!) So for those of you who have seen it, all I could think about when I saw the gulls walking and flying around was 'Mine, mine, mine!' I really think they we're saying that!
Anyway enjoy!

H

I'm so busy!

I'm feeling a little like this bird looks! I'm so busy but I'm not complaining just sayin'. I have some new things in the works and hope to share soon. So I'm just popping in to say Hi and now off to work again. Have a good Wednesday!

H

A few pretties for you to enjoy

Okay, where in the heck have I been!? Well I've been in San Diego for a little girls birthday. She turned 5. So we went to Sea World and the San Diego Zoo. I'll show you pictures of the rest of the trip but for right now I thought you would enjoy a few flowers. The one above has to be my favorite.







Okay so these two nuts aren't flowers but I thought I would show them anyway. Hope you have a good week.

H