Daylight Moon

Daylight Moon
Originally uploaded by DianaGeraghty

Grabbed this shot while driving into the neighborhood. This month's full moon just won't stop. It's beautiful and vibrant even at 2 in the afternoon!

Tired of pictures of the moon?

Not me. I will always be drawn to the moon, I love it! This is my best picture yet. We were coming back from dinner and saw the gorgeous harvest moon rising. I made PJ put the kids to bed tonight so I could go out and shoot pictures. Luckily he humors me. I have about 5 other pictures to post of the moon over the past few days, so beware, this will be a mooney week!

Sun Worshipping Cacti

Sun Worshipping Cacti
Originally uploaded by DianaGeraghty

We took Joe and Brenda on a drive through the Apache Trail and Tonto
National Forest. The sun was so bright that it was lending a glow to all
the cacti at the right angles. I'm still going through my pictures, but these two looked like they were raising their arms and praising the sun. It made me laugh a little.

Necklace for a Tiny Dancer

Necklace for a Tiny Dancer
Originally uploaded by DianaGeraghty

A gift for Molly lying on the counter. I thought the detail on the shoes and
bow were pretty.

Harvest Time

Harvest Time
Originally uploaded by DianaGeraghty

Our Orange harvest for January.

End of the Break

IMG_1200
Originally uploaded by DianaGeraghty

The lazy days of pajamas and video games ends tomorrow when they go back to school. It was a relaxing two weeks and everyone is sort of sad to see it end.

365 blog: new day, new year, new resolution

IMG_1083
Originally uploaded by DianaGeraghty

Here's my second attempt at keeping this blog. I'm trying a 365 project. One picture a day....again. :)

Creative Imagery

I live in the desert southwest, but if you go to a park, lie down and look up:

I could be on a tropical island in the middle of the Pacific

Then head 1 mile south to another park,

lie down and look up:

and I'm back home on the east coast amongst towering trees and foliage.

It's all in your perspective....

Silhouette

This is a tree from the Hummingbird park that I took pictures at a few months ago. The other day I was sitting with the kids at the park and shooting random pictures. I loved the composition on this one with the sun behind the tree throwing the tree into silhouette. I wish I could say this shot was planned, but it was more of a discovery than a well executed composition.

Headed for Trouble

This railroad bridge is for the small miniature train that gives rides around the park on the weekends. During the weekday, while the train is not running, the favorite activity of the kids is to walk the train tracks all around the park pretending to be trains. One of the thrills is going across the bridge labeled "keep off." I should not condone such rule-breaking behavior, but isn't getting away with small transgressions what childhood is all about? The delinquents: Molly, Sean, and Sean's friend, Timmy

Desert Spring

It's been warm in Arizona for a while, and we've had a relatively wet winter. Warmth and wet add together for beautiful wildflowers on the mountains. I took these pictures while doing my favorite hike on Tempe Butte, otherwise known as "A" Mountain. They were taken with my cell phone camera, so only about 3 came out post-worthy. Most of the pictures were not nearly as crisp or well focused as they would have been with my Canon. It was so bright, I could hardly see what I was shooting on the display and the cell phone camera has no focus, so backgrounds were in focus, but flowers were blurry. I'll have to get up there with my real camera, but won't be free again until next Wednesday! But for now, here's some of the desert beauty.

This one is not crisp and very pixillated, but I love the composition and will try to reshoot this one with the good camera next week. (if the flowers are still there)

Happy Belated St. Patrick's Day!

Happy Belated St. Patrick's Day! A sunset captured on the side of a Guinness bottle seemed an appropriate way to mark the day. I have been super lax on this blog, but as with all resolutions, I can just apologize and resolve to do better!

The Road Less Taken

This path appears to ascend heavenward. Next time I will take it and see where I end up.

A postcard from Phoenix

to all my suffering friends and relations in the midwest and east coast:

A drop of sun to get you through the day!

Howling at the Moon

Last Friday's full moon was the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. It was also known as the wolf moon since it was the first full moon of the year. As a bonus in the first picture, Mars was just to the left of the moon; look for the reddish, star-like object. According to Spaceweather.com this full moon was about 14 percent wider and 30 percent brighter than the full Moons of the previous year.

The brightness of this moon made shooting directly at it very difficult and it turns out looking like the sun in the photograph. in order to catch the detail of the full moon, had to narrow the aperture and decrease the shutter speed, which made everything else in the photo (including Mars) black.

The muted grays of a rainy morning contrasted with the bright blue sky and puffy clouds as the rain disappears for the day. Arizona winters at their finest.

Cracklin' Fire

We had a truly Arizona winter tradition of marshmallows over the fire pit tonight. I built up a fun size fire and the kids gorged on fat white marshmallows until they were quite ill. After they ran off to expend the sugar energy, I got some peaceful time by the fire to enjoy it's warmth and beauty. I miss fireplaces, but I do not miss cold and snow!

Capturing Cats

These are some picture of my sister Lucy's kitties. They were patient enough to let me shove a big black camera in their faces and try to capture a bit of their souls. Mine won't let me near them with the camera!

Smurf was all into having his picture taken

Socks was a bit hesitant and shy

Catching those wide eyes without a flash on a moving kitty was tricky business

After a couple of shots, she was shooting daggers at me!

I'm still culling through my photos and editing, but here are some of the good ones.

Port of San Francisco as seen from the water.

The "Painted Ladies" juxtaposed with the modern financial district in the background

A common Golden Gate Bridge tourist shot

A Moody Skyline

San Francisco

A few standard tourist shots until I get a chance to load up some more! It's cold and foggy/rainy today, plus we were running around a lot today, so not as many pictures. Tomorrow promises to be a touristy (and rainy) day, it'll be fun to see what I can shoot pictures of.

Golden Gate Bridge taken from Vista Point north of the Bridge.

No lights on the bridge. boo.

But it made for a more dramatic view of the bridge architecture.

Looking at the Bay Bridge and the downtown S.F. skyline.