SEEING WITH A PHOTOGRAPHER'S EYE

WHITE SANDS....ALAMOGORDO, NEW MEXICO

If you have a keen interest in photography you may see things a little differently than other people. FISHING ON MITRY LAKE.....YUMA, ARIZONA

I first noticed that years ago in the old 35mm film days when I developed an interest in photography. It didn't happen right away but after a few years I began to notice things that I had never paid much attention to before. I think it is just something that slowly works it's way into the subconscious mind. I became aware of colors & shapes & how they interacted with the environment. Maybe it's how an old fencepost leans into it's background or how the rusted color of an old hubcap stands out against the graying fender of an aging derelict car in an overgrown junk yard. Maybe it's big billowing cloud formations on a bright sunny day. Gathering storms take on a new beauty if you have a photographic eye. Bird formations overhead take on meaningful shapes & a cactus bloom backlit by the morning sun suddenly becomes an object of wonder. Long shadows stretch across landscapes as gentle winds ripple across resting ponds. It's a world of beauty we live in & we just have to open our eyes & minds to see. An interest in photography will greatly enhance that world for you. Let it become an unending source of inspiration as you scan the vistas around you in a subconscious or deliberate search for nature's bounties. AJO MOUNTAIN RANGE....ORGAN PIPE CACTUS NATIONAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA

Some folks are able to take their photographic skills to a higher level than the rest of us & a fellow comes to mind that we met 2 years ago while boondocking near Why, Arizona. He is one of those dedicated photographers who is up before the sun most mornings & out there in the landscape with his equipment & photographic eye waiting for those first sleepy shades of sunlight to spill soft hues of pastel colors into the morning shadows. His name is Gordon Wolford & you can find his fine photographer's eye here.......... http://www.pbase.com/merriwolf/root Gordon also has his own website at....http://www.gordonwolford.com/home.htm & Gordon's wife Sandra chronicles their daily RV adventures here...... http://srmerrikinblog.blogspot.com/

GRAND CANYON'S NORTH RIM.....ARIZONA

Well, better go charge up my cameras because I'm off to Grand Bend to-morrow with the mobility van & while I have a 2 hour stop-over there maybe I can take my photographer's eye down to the new beach complex they are constructing & see what I can find...............................:))IN THE DEVIL'S GARDEN AT ARCHES NATIONAL PARK.......MOAB, UTAH

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

FROM THE SHORELINE TO THE DUST BOWL

SUNRISE ON MITRY LAKE, ARIZONA

The early bird gets the worm probably means the same thing as the early fisherman gets the fish. And so it was about 5 o'clock this morning as pick-up trucks towing clanking old boat trailers started rolling in to Mitry Lake on the bump infested & dusty road right beside us 20 feet away from our motorhome!!

Beautiful sunrise over the peaceful lake as the squawking sounds of the duck like coots rippled through the air. The splash of solitary fish & the flocks of snowy egrets across the lake reminded me I was standing out there on the shoreline.......... in my pajamas. In my rush to get some snowy egret photos I had rushed out the door & hadn't bothered to get dressed. To add insult to embarrassment, I didn't get any snowy egret photos either:((

Took the dogs for a walk around the area & climbed a nearby rocky hill for a few overlook photos. It's a very scenic area but I wonder what it will look like after they kill the vegetation along the shoreline road. EARLY MORNING FISHERMEN ON MITRY LAKE

Because of the car & people traffic going by on the road we decided to head out of the area & find us a new site west of Yuma. Checked our maps & boondocking books plus some boondocking info on the computer & headed off for a place called, Pilot Knob. Sunday morning meant light traffic going through Yuma & before long we were about 15 miles west of the city & exiting the Interstate as Sidewinder Road for a look at Pilot Knob. A paved road ran parallel to the interstate on the south side & a number of RV's were scattered about on the south side of the road. We headed west down that road until we saw a few more RV's & pulled off onto the sandy & hopefully hard packed desert floor. Found us an ok spot with nobody close by. Lots of room for the furry guys to run around & not bother anybody. It's kind of an unwritten rule amongst boondockers that you don't bother or crowd other people by pulling in close to them & we always respect that. Boondockers are a different breed of people from other RV'ers who prefer the more crowded RV Parks. We just prefer to go our own way, do our own thing, & not bother anyone else along the way.

There is a large U.S. Marines Airborne base in Yuma & we can see Marine helicopters heading back & forth to their gunnery range in the Chocolate Mountains over to-wards Niland, California. It was last year around this time when we were in Slab City that I saw gunfire coming out of the night sky on that gunnery range. It was quite a light show.

IT'S THE CACTUS SHADOW MAN AT THE DUST BOWL

To-morrow we'll head west again & probably up into the Salton Sea area. Supposed to be lots of free BLM areas around there so we'll see what we can find. Would be nice to find a spot we like & just stay for awhile. We'll see.................................

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

WEST TO YUMA & NORTH TO MITRY LAKE

SOME DESERT CATTLE FENCING

Based on the weather reports last night & this morning we decided to pull up stakes & head for Yuma. Weatherman had wind warnings for northern Arizona so we knew that would filter down to our area for sure. Don't want to be out on the Interstate on big windy days. Chance of possible rain plus an unsettled weather week ahead too. Figured if bad weather was coming in we would be better off closer to Yuma where we could at least slip into town on boring rainy days & mix it up with the local shoppers if we had to. A GREAT BOONDOCKING SITE NEAR PAINTED ROCK, ARIZONA

We were on the road by 10 & climbed aboard Interstate 8 heading west about 15 minutes later. We immediately ran into some heavy wind gusts & some blowing dust so figured we were going to be in for it, but 20 minutes later the winds & dust were gone. Don't know where they went.....they just went!! OUR NUMBER ONE DESERT DOG BOY

Rolled into the eastern end of Yuma around 11:45 & headed for a mall on the south side that had a Fry's Grocery Store. Kelly slipped in for some stuff & I headed for a Subway Shop next door to do a little stuffing myself. We really noticed how much warmer it was in Yuma & I could feel a lot of humidity in the air compared to the desert we had just left on the other side of the Castle Dome Mountains to the east.

A fellow RV'er we had met at City of Rocks State Park awhile back had drawn us up a detailed map of where to find some free camping on BLM lands called Mitry Lake north of Yuma so we headed up that way & immediately got ourselves turned around heading for Quartzite. Finally figured out our mistake when we got to the road with the big military guns. Big U-turn & back to Yuma looking for the corner with two gas stations. Found it & got some gas while there. $1.53 a gallon. Most we had to pay so far was $2.03 a gallon back west of Deming, New Mexico.

Drove the 9 or 10 miles up to the Mitry Lake area & had us a look at some free boondocking sites. The nicer sites were up along a canal but the road going in was a bit rough & the drop into the canal was steep & we worried about the doggy guys falling into the water so we found a spot down along the water's edge of Mitry Lake itself. Nice area but there was a lot of garbage lying around from the many local fishermen who frequent the shore along the water's edge. Doesn't look like any attempt has ever been made to clean things up so we were disappointed. A sign near the boat launch stated that sometime in November or December the whole shoreline was going to be sprayed with some kind of poisonous chemicals to kill the heavy vegetation & make the lake more accessible to fishermen. Something is very, very, wrong here!! Can't imagine what this area will look like by next year at this time when more party animals & fisherman flock into the area leaving their litter behind. One site we stopped at had a large carp lying on the ground that they had hauled out of the water & just left there to die. I took my shovel, scooped it up & put it back into the lake but I think it was already dead. This was the kind of thing we noticed last year at a lot of our boondocking sites. Wherever Mother Nature is present, there is beauty & wherever man is present, there is generally a hell of a mess!!!! I am constantly appalled at how people have no regard for the environment. Smashed liquor bottles, garbage thrown on the ground, etc. etc. etc.

MITRY LAKE, NORTHEAST OF YUMA, ARIZONA

Finally found a sort of ok site but it was right beside a dusty dirt road with people roaring up & down so we'll only stay one night & head further west in the morning. There were a couple of older fellows here fishing when we got here but they were good enough to move their truck & we pulled the rig into the spot for the night.

OUR SITE AT MITRY LAKE

Checked the weather & they have scaled it back a bit so it doesn't look too bad now. Will probably just slip over to the west side of Yuma in the morning & see if we can find a better spot. And yes, our Verizon air card works great here at Mitry Lake & we have four reasonably clear TV channels too .................................

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/