Bartlett Lake at sunset, near Phoenix, Arizona.

Sticking with the new update theme – Janine now has our website updated with new photos of Phoenix Arizona.  Many of these were captured during our spring trip to the area.

Bartlett Lake, Arizona.

A recently adjusted photo from our spring trip of the wildflowers around Bartlett Lake, Arizona.

McCormick Ranch Golf Course, Scottsdale, Arizona.

Here is a mistake I have never made before – I went out one evening to photograph sunset in the hills above Scottsdale, and noticed my card was nearly full.  I did a quick look – perfect, these have been downloaded and backed up, so I formatted my card and began shooting.  It wasn’t until I got back to camp that I remembered that I had photographed Scottsdale and the McCormick Ranch the night before and hadn’t backed up or downloaded those images – I just wiped out that evenings work!

I couldn’t believe it – I’m always so careful.  I told Janine that if we ever get any requests for photos of McCormick Ranch, don’t tell me!  I didn’t lose anything that was going to win awards or solve world peace, but it is still a bummer to lose a nights work.

So I decided to see if I could rescue the images – even though the card was formatted, as long as the new images weren’t written over the old, I thought there might be a chance, and I had nothing to lose.  I downloaded a recovery program, and didn’t have any luck.  I then thought of Photo Rescue.  I noticed that I could download a free version that would search your card and tell what it found before you actually had to buy the program – so I would know if it could work before parting with the cash.  Well, sure enough, I believe it found every photo from that night!  I couldn’t believe it, and happily paid the $29 for the actual program.  It successfully recovered every image.

The ironic thing is that this same SanDisk Extreme card came with Photo Rescue on it for free, so I’m sure I had a copy at home – this is just another reason to use  SanDisk Extreme cards.  In the future I will make sure I have that program on my laptop when I travel.

So if you ever unintentionally delete, format, or just have a card go bad, don’t give up until you try Photo Rescue!

McDowell Sonoran Preserve, Scottsdale, Arizona.

The Brittlebush is finally coming into bloom!  The mountains are sure green for the desert, hard to believe this is a desert.

The residents of Scottsdale have voted a number of times to increase their sales tax rate in order to raise money for the purchase of  private land in the mountains near town, thus forming the McDowell Sonoran Preserve.  It is a wonderful Preserve – beautiful scenery and wonderful trails.  When we weren’t mountain biking for exercise, we would come to this area for a trail run.  Thanks Scottsdale!

We are moving on for a brief visit to Tucson before heading back to Alaska.  It was a bit tough leaving Fort McDowell.  We had the best campsite tucked way off in the corner with no one around.  We over looked the Verde River and could see an active bald eagle nest – it was a great, quiet little location.  We received nearly daily visits from a road runner pair, some baby rabbits, flickers and a wide variety of birds.  We even had a brief visit from javalina.

The light rail Valley Metro and Phoenix Convention Center North, Downtown Phoenix, Arizona

This photo epitomizes one of the reason we returned to Phoenix.  Two years ago, the downtown streets were completely torn up due to the construction of the Valley Metro light rail project, and this block was giant construction project as they were hard at work on this brand new convention center.  The downtown area is much nicer now that these big projects are completed.

As a side note, I found it difficult to capture a photo of the Valley Metro without an accompanying automobile even on the weekend.  It didn’t take me long to realize that the train appeared to control the signals at all but a couple of the busiest intersections, and I’m sure it didn’t take drivers long to figure that out either.  So a car that mirrored the speed of the train could be assured of hitting most signals during a green light.  The few lights it didn’t seem to control were major arteries running perpendicular to the rail and I assumed must be timed signals for traffic flow.  How is that for more then you ever wanted to know about downtown Phoenix traffic!

Flowers along Highway 60 near Superior, Arizona.

I have linked here to Carol Leigh California Wildflower Hotsheet a number of times over the years and have always found the hot-sheet and her forum to be an extremely valuable resource.  Yesterday it was brought to my attention that Carol stopped maintaining the hot sheet, a decision that may become permanent.   She writes:

Right now I cannot in good conscience continue to distribute “where-to-go” wildflower information. Private property is being destroyed. Flowers are being trampled. Rude and inconsiderate behavior abounds.

I don’t know Carol, but it is clear she has a real love and passion for wildflowers.  Although I will miss her updates, I respect her decision to put the wildflowers first.  But it does raise a larger question;  how much should we share, and as photographers, are we helping to destroy  special places by publicizing them?

I have had this discussion with many photographers over the years, and have some photographer friends who keep everything close to the proverbial  (photo) vest, and others who share most anything.  I personally tend to share far more then most, and I think it is a big reason why my photo blog has become popular.  Not just locations, but techniques and most anything I know.  There are topics in which I have drawn a distinct line, the main one that comes to mind is the location of winter animal sightings for animals like lynx – because I know a trappers love of animals directly competes with my own.

But in recent years I have decided to keep some physical locations private.  This amazing spot in Valley of the Fire is one that immediately comes to mind.  I would like to say I have some noble motivation to keep the location secret to help protect it, but frankly, often motivation is largely selfish.  I like the idea of having an amazing location all to myself.  To have a spot like that crawling with people, muting the colors with their footsteps would “ruin” it a bit for me, and could ruin it for generations to come.

But there is more to my motivation.  I like to think of myself as a photographer, and tend to avoid the label businessman, but truth be told I am in business and this is our sole source of income, and frankly the fewer people who have photographs of an area I have found,  the better it is for me.  Certainly Ford would never share a discovery with Chevy, and no one would expect them to, but the same expectation isn’t always applied to photographers.  I have been surprised at the questions other photographers have asked me over the years, and disappointed in how few take the time to email a quick “thanks” in response – more often then not I end up asking myself why did I just share that information?

I know there isn’t a right or wrong answer, and my opinion will likely continue to ebb and flow over the years, but I’m interested in how much others are willing to share and why?

Bartlett Lake, Tonto National Forest near Phoenix, Arizona.

Bartlett Lake has some of the best wildflowers of any place we have visited so far this spring.

Tonto National Forest, Arizona.

This was a cloudy evening late last week – I thought chances were good for a sunset, but it didn’t happen.   I intend to explore this area some more this week – I love the rocks!

Mountains along the Apache Trail, East of Phoenix, Arizona.

Yesterday, photo blog reader Joni reiterated a prior recommendation for the Apache Trail – I figured I better heed her advice, so we drove out that way yesterday evening.  I wasn’t disappointed!  It is a beautiful area.  I’m looking forward to returning and driving a bit further, we didn’t make it too far past Tortilla Flat.  There are a few places with nice flowers, and lots of places that are very green!  I think the wildflowers should start looking nice in about a week.

Tonto National Forest, outside of Phoenix, Arizona.

Wildflowers are beginning to come along nicely around Phoenix, there are even some nice patches of poppies and lupine to be found – not the widespread fields yet, but it is looking promising!

Pink-Flower Hedgehog Cactus, McDowell Sonoran Preserve, Scottsdale, Arizona.

During my photo workshops a few weeks ago I was reminded just how rich and colorful the desert looks during a rain storm.  So yesterday morning as I heard the rain pouring down – I couldn’t wait to get out with my camera.  I had my eye on a stunning Graham’s Nipple Cactus bloom that I spotted while running the day before, but evidently they don’t open on cloudy days.  So I had to “settle” for this Hedgehog cactus.

I find it fascinating that such a sharp, potentially painful plant can produce such a beautiful bloom!

Speaking of my workshop – as much fun as I had hosting them, I think the follow up emails and photo attachments from the participants may have been even more rewarding!

Most participants don’t have websites that I’m aware of, but a couple do and I would like to share them here.

First is Samatha – on this website of Samatha’s photos she writes about the workshop, some of the things we talked about and places we visited during the second weekend – it was a fun to relive the weekend through her images.

Greg Lato posted a couple photos of our group during the first weekend on his photo blog.  And be sure to check out his photo from Anza-Borrego.  It is fun to see the different interpretations of the the same area.

I have more photo tours coming up including one where we will be up close to grizzly bears all day!

Buster Posey of the San Francisco Giants during Spring Training, Scottsdale, Arizona.

Some dear friends generously provided us with tickets to the San Francisco Giants Spring Training games – they are sure fun!  I love the relaxed, casual atmosphere where before the game the players work their way down the sidelines posing for photos and signing autographs.  We had such good seats to yesterday’s game that I decided to bring my camera and try to capture the action – that was a  blast as well!  I gotta admit, catching that moment the ball leaves the bat is much harder then it looks!

A wide throw lead to a successful stolen base in yesterday's Giants game against the Milwaukee Brewers.

McDowell Mountain Regional Park, Arizona.

We just moved to Arizona to a place just outside of Fountain Hills, which is just outside of Scottsdale, which is just outside of Phoenix – you get the idea. 

As you can see, things are really green out here right now and look very promising!  With temperatures predicted into the 80′s next week, I’m hopeful that things will really start blooming very soon – it should be a great year.  As we made our way across Arizona I10, the hills throughout the state were very green, but only the edge of the roadbed is blooming right now.  The road edges always look the best.

This area has received over 6 inches of rain since the beginning of this year, and signs of the wet year are everywhere.  We are camped on the edge of the Verde River and I can’t believe how much water is flowing in it right now – substantially more then our past two visits.  Many of the normally dry riverbeds around Phoenix are flowing right now, it is fun to see the transformation.

Here are some photos of the wildflowers of McDowell Regional Park from 2008 during our last visit to this area.

The Phoenician, Scottsdale Arizona.

We (Janine) are about done with our website updates from our winter / spring travels.  We now have a separate section just for Scottsdale Arizona.  This popular tourist destination certainly warrants it’s own section. 

In addition, we also have a separate section for Fountain Hills, Arizona.  Fountain Hills isn’t nearly as famous as the neighboring Scottsdale, but if you are like me and prefer to avoid the crowds, Fountain Hills is a good alternative.

McDowell Mountain Regional Park, near Phoenix, Arizona.

We had enough coverage of this little gem to warrant its own section on our website here:  McDowell Mountain Regional Park Photos.  I don’t think too many people have heard of this regional park, I bet most people living in Phoenix haven’t visited it, but they should!  This place has a lot of diversity – it is surprising to find such a place so close to a city like Phoenix.  And, it has some killer mountain biking trails!

These fireworks at the end of an Arizona Diamondback’s game in Phoenix this spring is about the closest thing I have to a 4th of July photo! 

Back-lit ocotillo against a shadowed hillside.   These guys were really getting bright red!

A Gila Woodpecker tends to a nest cavity in a Saguaro Cactus – McDowell Mountain Regional Park, Arizona.

Gila Woodpeckers sometimes reuse their nest cavity, but often build a new one.  This seems to be inefficient, but you know what is really cool; their old cavities are used by all kinds of birds and even snakes – animals that aren’t able to dig their own cavity.  It is just one of the millions of little things that constantly amazes me about nature.  Every creature plays a role in our world.

Saturday we returned to Anza Borrego.  Janine has some family business in OC, and I thought this seemed like a good place to spend a few more days before returning back to Alaska.

Here are more bird photos.

Owl’s Clover.

This Owl’s Clover really has nothing to do with our web server – we were adjusting a few photos from earlier in the trip for a customer, and I thought it was kinda purdy, so I went with it.

Our main photo website seems to grow in spurts, and lately it has really been spurting.  According to Webalizer, we had over 336,000 visitors last month!  This month is even busier.  I believe Webalizer counts spiders and repeat visitors, so that number is probably a bit overstated , but even if you reduce it by a third, it is still a lot of great activity.

That’s the good news, now the bad. 

We have been jumping back in forth between shared and dedicated servers the last few years, but it seems those days are over, and we will need to move to a fully dedicated server.  Our bandwidth is approaching 300 gb a month, and our search feature uses a lot of server resources.  It seems having a fancy computer in a high-tech data center in a large city isn’t cheap!  I could make payments on a very fancy car for what this thing will cost.  Fortunately, I really don’t have a need for a fancy car.

I must say, it is exciting to see how far we have come.  When we started our website almost 10 years ago it was just a couple of pages put together with Frontpage.  Unfortunately, our expertise hasn’t grown as fast as our bandwidth .  Well, these are good problems to have.

I think cholla cactus look great when back-lit.  I can speak from experience, these things are no fun to remove from an arm!  I now give them a wide berth.