Yesterday I walked past a window in my house and out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of a small bobcat sleeping in the garden. We’re in the hottest part of summer and this kitty had found a shady, cool spot to hang out on a 100º plus day. I grabbed my iphone to catch some video and snapshots. I was only a couple of feet away on the other side of the windowpane, but the bobcat had no idea I was there.
I consider myself to be extraordinarily fortunate to live in a riparian area that creates a wildlife corridor for Arizona’s desert creatures. Bobcats are frequent visitors. I often see them strolling along our driveway, or lapping water out of the fountain, completely relaxed in what they surely consider their own private estate. Presumably, they offer some semblance of rodent control as well!
Below are a few shots I’ve captured of our resident felines over the years. Usually I don’t have my ‘big’ camera with me when I happen to spot one, but occasionally I luck out. I just thought I’d share my enjoyment of these beautiful creatures while my recent encounter was fresh in my mind.
I am excited that ShoutOut Arizona Magazine released a feature story about my photography online. This week I thought I’d share it with you. Click on the link below to read the entire article. I hope you enjoy this peek into my background and motivation!
That honor belongs to my photographer sister Patty Hosmer, who recently was awarded an amazing “3rd Place – Honor of Distinction” in the 15th Annual International Color Awards photography competition. This is a worldwide photography contest that drew 7,000 entries from more than 38 countries in the professional division that she entered. What an incredible achievement to place in the Top Three! This same image also won 1st Place in the professional division of the Silhouettes Category.
Another of Patty’s award-winning photographs is this beautiful Western Lifestyle image “Gathering With God’s Rays” which won Best in Competition in the Calgary Stampeded’s 2017 Photo Competition. Patty and I traveled together to Calgary during the Stampede to accept her prize.
Patty was taking beautiful photographs before I ever got started. As a matter of fact, I bought my first professional camera gear from Patty when she was making the switch from Nikon to Canon. It’s fun to share our passion with each other, from ideas to editing techniques. Best of all, we have traveled worldwide together taking advantage of exciting photo workshops.
Our very first joint venture was to Prague in the Czech Republic way back in 2007. Since then we have shared adventures to Africa’s Masai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya, the Katmai Wilderness in Alaska, an Icelandic Horse Farm in Iceland, Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, Kauai and the Big Island in Hawaii, Mammoth in California, Photoshop World in Las Vegas, and next summer we have plans to travel to France to photograph the beautiful white horses of the Camargue.
Patty is a lifelong horse person, a trait she and I both inherited from our mother who was an avid horsewoman all her life. Here we are at ages 9 (Patty) and 11 (me) at the Barrington Horse Show in Illinois.
Patty started her equine photography career specializing in champion Quarter Horses on the show circuit. Her in-depth knowledge of horse behavior and conformation helps her produce superior equine portraiture. From horses her business expanded to include portraits of girls with their horses, and eventually to high school senior portraits taken in natural surroundings. Even to this day, I always invite her to photography my own horses because she has such a good eye for best showcasing their quality. This is a head shot of my Holsteiner stallion Clintord I.
These days Patty is an avid Welsh Corgi fancier as well, competing her homebred dogs in both conformation and agility with great success. Of course Corgi portraiture is another of her talents!
The scent of spring is in the air here in the desert southwest. Our daytime highs are headed into the 80s and maybe even a few low 90s (but it’s a dry heat!) this week and next . We never know – a week ago our nighttime temps were in the 30s and last year it snowed right about now.
Seasoned desert dwellers know to judge the true arrival of consistently warm weather by observing the mesquite trees. These hardy natives only leaf out when all threat of frost has passed. In contrast, cottonwood trees offer an early harbinger of spring – they start to bud in February and by now they are fully crowned with new green leaves.
The image above is a favorite of mine. I have it framed and hanging in my home. The pink flowers are Mexican primroses. They bloom enthusiastically every year, showing their pink faces for at least a month before subsiding into nondescript ground cover until the next spring. This was an exceptionally good season for them and my backyard was filled with billows of pink.
To capture this image, I slipped out of the house at dawn. Stretching out flat on the ground on my stomach, I placed my wide-angle lens as close as possible to the flowers while still maintaining focus. Visions of rattlesnakes lurking in the ground cover definitely danced through my head. The mesquite tree in the distance and the glimpse of our Catalina mountain range on the horizon add environmental context to this wildflower portrait.
Another of my favorite spring subjects are the vibrant blooms of the Santa Rita Prickly Pear cactus. The contrast between the profuse yellow flowers and the lavender paddles of the cacti always catches my eye. I have spent hours circling a clumb of cactus trying for close-up compositions. Predictably, I have come away with multiple minuscule needles embedded in my fingers and hands as a result of brushing up too close.
Still I’m hopeful that the chilly winter temps are done for now. I’m in a spring mood!
I thought I’d share how an image can progress from a mundane photo to a print-worthy work of art. And to celebrate the successful creation of my new release, I’m offering ‘Love Song’ at a deep discount in an introductory Flash Sale!
A few weeks ago I went on a day trip to Whitewater Draw in southeastern Arizona, only a couple of hours from my home. Sandhill cranes in the tens of thousands are wintering there. They roost in the shallow ponds at night for safety from predators and fly out at sunrise to nearby fields to forage. They return to the ponds midday when the light for photography is harsh and unappealing.
Due to our ongoing drought, the water level was low and the shoreline had receded from the designated observation areas. I used a big 200-600mm zoom to catch the action, but everything was pretty far off in the distance. Here’s the shot I captured, straight from my camera. Not too inspiring, huh?
Sandhill cranes mate for life and they keep the bond strong throughout the year by performing courtship displays, not only during the breeding season but all year around. In the far distance I could see this pair dancing, spreading their wings, strutting, and raising their voices in vocalization. I clicked the shutter and grabbed what I could, but by no means could this be called a masterful ‘in camera’ capture!
The first thing to do was look for a crop to highlight the intended subject matter and eliminate the distractions. The saving grace that makes this possible is the fact that my professional camera is capable of taking high resolution images which allows for such a severe crop without pixellating the image. I tried both horizontal and vertical crops, tweaking until I finally settled on this for starters. But again, the background was an uninspiring muddy brown and still included bits and pieces of neighboring cranes.
Some enhancements in Photoshop eliminated the distractions and brightened and sharpened the details. But it still was not an image to write home about.
Back again in Photoshop, the final step was to merge the subject cranes with an artistic textural background, using digital brush strokes to blend, strengthen or soften the effect as needed. I chose this particular background for the soft complementary colors and the spattered white space that helps to frame the romantic duo and erase the last vestiges of neighboring birds.
A fun outing last week to Whitewater Draw, not far from home. Whitewater Draw is a wildlife area managed by the Arizona Game & Fish Department. It covers approximately 600 acres of wetlands and riparian habitat and features a large lake. Located only a couple of hours from Tucson, and close to Tombstone and Bisbee, it makes for an entertaining day trip.
Sandhill Cranes in the tens of thousands spend the winter there. The cranes take wing at sunrise, leaving the ponds to forage for food in nearby fields. They return to the water midday to spend the night in safety from predators. Other waterfowl including ducks, geese, herons, egrets and shorebirds are also attracted to the shallow waters and wetlands.
The site amenities are minimal but include gravel parking lots, picnic tables, signed trails, and benches and viewing platforms by the lake shore. Dogs on leash are allowed. We visited on a Tuesday and it was not at all crowded – just scattered small groups of folks enjoying the sights and sounds of nature.
My visit was a casual foray just to check things out. If I had been serious about photography, I would have arrived the evening before, camped overnight, and set my alarm clock to wake pre-dawn to photograph the cranes taking off at sunrise. Still, even though this was just a scouting expedition, I didn’t leave my camera at home.
The cloudy skies were to my benefit, canceling out harsh midday shadows. I was happy with the images I captured that day. I’m still looking through my files for the keepers, but here are a couple I thought were print-worthy.
Be sure to click on the video at the top of this post to hear the sound of thousands of cranes socializing.
SYNCHRONIZED FOR SPLASHDOWN Sandhill Cranes glide down for a water landing at the Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area in southeastern Arizona. It’s fascinating to see their ability to synchronize wingstrokes in flight.FORAGING IN THE MUD I like the pose of this bird, with his lifted foot encased in mud and his eyes intently focused in search of a meal.
Win this print. “White Water Lily”, 10″ x 15″ fine art paper print, digitally signed. Shipped for free worldwide to the winner. Winner to be announced May 1, 2020.
April 6, 2020
In these strange times, as we socially distance ourselves and hunker down in self-isolation, meanwhile the earth keeps on rotating and the seasons continue to come and go. Spring has arrived in full force here in Arizona. The temperatures are balmy, the wildflowers are blooming, and I saw the first waterlily blossom of the season show its face on our pond just this week. The cottonwood trees are fully leafed out, and the mesquite trees are thinking about it!
Speaking of cottonwood trees, a pair of Cooper’s hawks have a nest of youngsters in the tree right outside my kitchen window – but I can’t see them because of all those green leaves! I’m jealous of a photographer friend in Scottsdale who has a nest of red-tail hawks in the arms of a saguaro. He has a great view of the fledglings. Did you know a baby hawk is called an eyas? I didn’t – I had to look it up.
On my Facebook and Instagram pages I’ve been sharing some photos with a springtime theme, just to bring a little beauty into our lives. And that has inspired me to initiate a monthly free print giveaway. The free print for the month of April is “White Water Lily”. Anyone who subscribes to this blog and is on my email list is automatically entered. So if you are reading this now in your email, know that you’re already in the drawing.
For anyone else who’d like to participate, just add your first name and email to this subscription page, and you’ll be entered for this drawing and future monthly giveaways as well! Share the good news with your friends!
Click below to enjoy a gallery of spring images. All are available for purchase over on my website if you decide you’d like to bring the outdoors into your home to brighten those four walls!
“Are We Having Fun Yet?” – I love this photo of Salvador Alvarado and CCF Hibiscus Coast hanging out before a class. It really captures the adrenalin and action of horse show competition, dontcha think?
March 14, 2020
Originally the title of this post just referred to the fact that the big hunter-jumper circuits that take place every winter in the warm southern states were winding down, and so was my focus on equine-themed photography. I attended a few shows in Thermal, California, and in my own home town of Tucson, Arizona, photographing my own horses and my own daughter who is a professional rider/trainer/coach based near San Diego, and I was prepping to share some of the fun and action captured by my camera.
But now, of course, the season really is over! Along with multiple other sporting events, horse shows are canceling competitions for at least the next 30 days. Included in those many casualties coast to coast is the FEI World Cup that was coming to Las Vegas in April.
As originally planned, I am sharing some of those show jumping images I captured last month. And then I think the focus going forward is going to be Vicarious Travel – as in, since I’m staying close to home and won’t be traveling for the foreseeable future, it’s time to dig into those photo files and see what treasures I can find and share from previous adventures. I also have closet-cleaning and file organization on my activity schedule!
So enjoy a little distraction from the gloomy state of the world. I promise my emails and slideshows are germ free, although I wouldn’t mind if they went viral;-)
PS – I’m getting ready to offer some print giveaways over on Facebook. Be sure to Like my page so you don’t miss out!
The holiday season always catches Southern Arizona residents by surprise. In October we are just starting to enjoy temps reliably not in the triple digits. We’re still wearing shorts and basking in balmy warm sunshine while much of the country is getting its first dusting of snow, if not a blizzard or two. By Thanksgiving we might get our first frost, and then suddenly Christmas is upon us and we are not emotionally ready for the transition!
My favorite trees, the cottonwoods, seem to share this attitude. They cling to their fall foliage well into December or even January. Finally a winter windstorm will blow the last clinging leaves away, but by early February their crowns start to shimmer green as new leaves sprout, months before any other native tree species.
But as desert dwellers we treasure the rare moisture that the winter storms bring. Wildflowers germinate, forecasting a colorful spring. The usually dry riverbeds begin to flow, fed first by the rain and then maintained with snowmelt from the mountains. Cacti and deep-rooted mesquite store up enough water to get them through the dry, hot summer to come.
Most of the images in this collection were taken last New Year’s Day. A winter storm had blanketed the Tucson valley with heavy clouds. It was a gloomy grey day and the mountains were hidden away from view. I had a new 400mm prime lens I was itching to try out. I kept peering out the windows, hoping for a ray of sunshine. Finally the clouds began to lift just as the sun started to set, briefly lighting up the newly snow-covered peaks with shades of rose and magenta before nightfall turned all to grey again.
Click to view this week’s featured gallery Desert In Winter. This is a secret gallery, visible only by following this link, that I am sharing especially for my readers and supporters.
Of course the total solar eclipse in August was on our bucket list! I elected not to attempt to photograph the main event – that’s a technical challenge better left to more accomplished photographers than I. Considering this once-in-a-lifetime experience of 100% totality would only last 2 1/2 minutes max, I really wanted to absorb the experience without fiddling with camera settings.
But the eclipse was a good excuse to embark on an epic road trip through the Southwest, affording me an opportunity to record some spectacular scenery. From Tucson we drove through the Salt River Canyon up to the White Mountains, and from there traveled through the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert en route to Gallup, New Mexico. I was booking our lodging on the fly, utilizing TripAdvisor on my iPhone en route, and our first night out we stumbled across an unexpectedly wonderful historic hotel in Gallup, New Mexico, on the old Route 66 but just a stone’s throw from the Interstate. Back in the 30s and 40s all the movie stars (John Wayne, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Ronald Reagan to name a few) stayed at El Rancho Hotel. Our room for the night was named after Lee Remick. The ambience and nostalgic memorabilia were a treat to experience.
From Gallup we headed to Santa Fe, detouring to explore the cliff dwellings and petroglyphs of El Morro and Bandolier National Monuments. Santa Fe is always fabulous and we spent an extra day there, visiting a friend and enjoying a superb dinner at one of the town’s finest restaurants. Then on to Taos, followed by a long stretch of highway to our final destination in North Platte, Nebraska, where we joined an international group of eclipse watchers for the big event. Except – having arrived, the weather turned sour, with cloud cover forecast over the entire state of Nebraska on the day of the eclipse. With looming grey skies as well as predictions of massive traffic jams, Mike and I did a quick regroup and abandoned our tour after one day and headed west towards clearer skies forecast for Wyoming.
We drove some 500 plus miles that day and of course there was not a prayer of booking a last minute hotel room within 100 miles of the path of totality! Instead we found a sod farm that was offering overnight parking on the perimeter of their beautiful green grass. The main selling point was the row of porta-potties installed for the convenience of their guests. So for $100 we parked our Jeep by the field, spent $20 more for hamburgers from the grill, and then we settled into the front seat with pillows and blankets picked up at a local Walmart, and spent the night in the car.
Next morning we headed off at dawn to Glendo State Park in Wyoming where we connected with a group from the University of Arizona’s Space Grant Program, associates of Mike’s from work. They were participating in a balloon based experiment and were set up in a prime campsite within the park. Our friends met us at the entrance of the by now crowded park and ferried us in – enabling us to enjoy a spectacular and unobstructed view of the eclipse in 100% totality. Exiting the park at the end of the day was another story – it took nearly 3 hours to drive 3 miles back to the entrance. From there the Interstate 25 was crawling with traffic back to Denver, but fortunately we were headed in the opposite direction. We overnighted in Casper, Wyoming, where a room at the Days Inn cost more $$$$ than a night at a luxury hotel in Santa Fe had cost us the week before!
Heading home from Wyoming we took our time through the spectacular red rock country on the border of Utah and Arizona. Looking at the amazing colors and layers of the landscape, it is easy to see how Native American designs in pottery and blankets were inspired by the geology of this part of the country. Poor Mike, who was driving, was constantly being ordered to pull over to the side of the road so I could photograph another epic scene.
We spent a couple of nights in Monument Valley, first at Gouldings, another historic hotel with ties to the movie industry, and then at a fabulous modern hotel named The View, operated by the Navajo Nation, with every room offering a balcony and unobstructed view of Monument Valley in all its vast glory. We hired a Navajo guide to take us out for both a sunrise photography tour as well as a starlight tour of the park. My night photography results weren’t as consistent as in Maine and I only got a couple of shots that satisfied me – it’s really hard to lock critical focus on a distant star in the dark with aging eyesight! But I love the one shot that I did manage to pull off – and, again, spending hours under the starlit skies with only nature for company was well worth the experience.
From there it was straight home, a surprisingly quick 6 hour drive. We immediately went on a spree of binge-watching a trilogy of old John Wayne movies filmed in the red rock country of Monument Valley. I’m already making plans to return in 2018.
