After four years in Arizona, I decided it was finally time to visit Arcosanti, Paolo Soleri’s city of the future , which is just off the freeway between Phoenix and Flagstaff. You can only walk around the site with a tour guide, so it’s difficult to slow down enough to find interesting photographs. I’m not thrilled with anything I shot in Arcosanti itself, but I thought this was an interesting scene: a slightly worse for wear RV under the huge Arizona sky.
When I was younger and more prone to moments of wonder, I always chose to sit by the window when I flew. I loved the freshness of perspective that looking down from 36,000 feet gave me. As I have gotten older and more claustrophobic, however, I have increasingly opted to sit on the aisle. I want to be as comfortable as possible in that cramped aluminum tube, and when I arrive I want to get out as quickly as I can can. Which means, of course, I miss those moments of reflection and wonder that come from staring out the window as the country passes below.
I have seen so many amazing sights from the window of an airplane: lightning storms all along the eastern seaboard as I flew from D.C. to Miami; the thin, green ribbon of the Nile tracing its way through the Sahara; the flood-stricken Great Plains states; the mast of an enormous sailboat poking through the fog as we took off from Orange County, California; the Grand Canyon and the Meteor Crater in Arizona; the Milky Way and countless full moons and sunsets. As I think about those experiences, I feel indicted by Louis CK’s widely viewed Everything’s Amazing and Nobody’s Happy rant on Conan O’Brien’s talk show.
So, on a recent two hour flight, when I found myself in a row by myself, I moved from the aisle to the window, put away the stacks of reading materials I had brought and pulled down my camera from the overhead bin. It was hot on the ground and the air was hazy, but I still took about 250 photographs along the way. It was another example of a recurring phenomenon in my life as a photographer: the camera helps me to see. The world is an amazing place. I need to remember to slow down and look at it.
Here are a couple of images from my recent flight:
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One of the joys of visiting San Jose, California is hiking in the spectacular Almaden Quicksilver County Park that rises above the western edge of the Almaden Valley. I have hiked Quicksilver in every season, in every kind of weather, and never cease to be amazed by its serenity and beauty, particularly considering its proximity to the cacophony of the city just beyond its ridges. I was in Northern California this past weekend and was able to extract myself from a busy schedule to do a quick hour and a half loop on a drizzly Saturday morning. I’m so accustomed to trying to compensate for the searing light of the desert Southwest that shooting on a softly lit, overcast day was a joy. Here are two of the images from our morning hike:
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I spent several hours recently wandering around Guadalupe, which is a small town – you might even describe it as a village – situated right in the middle of greater metropolitan Phoenix. It is kind of surreal to turn off Baseline Rd. in Tempe and suddenly find yourself in a place that feels like it could be in Mexico. The town is home to 6,000 Latinos and Yaqui Indians and is perhaps best known to Anglos as a place to go for authentic, inexpensive Mexican food. I ate lunch at Del Yaqui, which I highly recommend. Great food and nice people. I plan to spend some more time in Guadalupe over the next several months, but here are a couple of images from my first foray:
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Because it has been a rainy winter in Arizona, expectations are high for a colorful spring wildflower season in the desert. I drove up to Bartlett and Horseshoe Lakes, about 50 miles northeast of Phoenix, a couple of days ago and, while it is still a little early, there are already dense patches of lupine and poppies. The reservoirs are filled to brimming and the mountainsides are green…. at least for a few more weeks.
Dramatic light on a blustery day in the Gila Valley of southeastern Arizona.
