Month: March 2017

Big Bend National Park

Posted on by Annie

Catching up on recent travel, I was down in Big Bend National Park in February, and it is yet another amazing place that Americans can enjoy as part of the National Park System. Big and wide, open and ancient, I loved exploring here. From the first glimpse of the mountains on the road down from Marathon, I was constantly challenged to figure out how to capture this place with my camera. Just driving along a road becomes a show, and they thoughtfully provide pullouts for people like me. We spent a whole day exploring the west end of the park…

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Sunday Serenity: Focus

Posted on by Annie

One of the things I’ve been working on in my photography is focus and really seeing what I am looking at through the viewfinder. This dried out, used up flower stem from a yucca plant might not look like much at first glance. Take a closer look. And then even closer. The texture, the structure is amazing. Like so much in life, I almost let this beauty slip by me. Be in love with your life, every detail of it.  Jack Kerouac

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Visiting the Past

Posted on by Annie

Every so often, I end up in eastern Arizona, where my Dad’s family is from, driving the two-lane roads between the small towns where he grew up. This was my first trip back since he died last year, and my cousin and I did OK, although more than once, we wondered about who that person was or how exactly we were related to that other person. One of the traditions here is to leave flowers on the graves. It’s done in other parts of the country, yes, but probably few do it the way eastern Arizona people do it. You…

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Redwoods State & National Park

Posted on by Annie

Warning: This page has two video clips, so it may take a while to load. It’s worth the wait, trust me! The California Redwoods are truly amazing things so if you are EVER near the Jedidiah Redwoods State and National Park, go see them! The park is way up in the farthest northwest corner of California, but it’s worth the trip. And I’ll do my best in this post to convince you of that. It’s hard to get a sense of how wide and how tall these trees are. In this photo, you can see a person to the far…

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Sunday Serenity: Dusk and Dawn

Posted on by Annie

In the stillness of a sunset, the heart can find its own truth. I walk slowly, watching my feet dance around the stones in the path. I walk slowly, watching the light changing in the sky. I walk slowly, thoughts tumbling round in my head. My grandfather met my grandmother on a farm in New Mexico that had a working windmill. They’ve been dead for more than two decades but this windmill at sunset brings them back to me. I see their faces in the fading light, I hear their voices in the wind. In the morning, something wakes me out…

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