Web Server Blues

Ron Niebrugge Arizona, Phoenix, Photos, Travel 15 Comments

Owl’s Clover

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.  Read More

Cholla

Ron Niebrugge Arizona, Phoenix, Photos, Travel 2 Comments

Cholla

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.

Many Me’s

Ron Niebrugge Arizona, Phoenix, Photos, Travel 17 Comments

Many Me’s

I stuck my head into this sculpture in Scottsdale, Arizona near the Fashion Square, thinking I could use it to frame a composition.  I was surprised to find the inside to be nothing but mirrors.  So I stepped inside to see if there was a photo, and music began to play!  There must be some kind of motion detector – I thought that was kinda cool.

I tried, but couldn’t come up with a composition in which I didn’t appear in at least one of the mirrors, so I decided to do this multi-portrait.

Tempe Arizona Ironman

Ron Niebrugge Arizona, Phoenix, Photos, Travel 4 Comments

Tempe Arizona Ironman

We watched a photographed some of the Ford Ironman in Tempe Arizona yesterday.  What amazing athletes!  They swim 2.4 miles, then bike a 112 miles, and finish with a marathon – 26.2 miles of running.  All this with afternoon temperatures in the mid 90’s.  Wow!

The athletes had to qualify to enter this race, and from here, 80 participants will qualify for the Hawaiian Ironman.  Every state and a 30 countries were represented at this event.Read More

Camelback Mountain Hike

Ron Niebrugge Arizona, Phoenix, Photos, Travel 10 Comments

Camelback Mountain Hike

This is looking down from the summit at a hiker making her way down the ridge on the Cholla Trail on Camelback Mountain.  I liked how the last light of day was lighting just the sharp ridge line, leaving a dark shadow behind the ridge. 

It is awesome to find such a great mountain trail in the middle of a giant city like Phoenix!  If I lived here, I would do it all the time.  As you can see, it isn’t just a walk in the park, it is fairly steep, with places that have sharp drops on either side.  I can see why there are lots of rescues – when we hiked up, there were definitely some people up there who were completely out of place and really didn’t belong.  Read More

Snakes Alive!

Ron Niebrugge Arizona, Phoenix, Photos, Travel, Wildlife 22 Comments

snakes

At least for one of them.  This is a Common King Snake attacking what I think is a Western Shovel-Nosed Snake.  It might be a Sonoran Coralsnake.  This was really something to see.  They were still battling when it got dark, but clearly the much larger King Snake was winning.  It will be interesting to see if there is any sign of them in the morning.

I had been wanting to explore along the Verde River, and choose tonight to venture into the thick brush because it was cool, and I didn’t think I would have to worry about any snakes – so much for that thinking!