Bicycle Photography: The Pedaling Arborist
December 9th, 2011Being the owner of a middle-aged house that I'm slowly fixing up, I've had the need for more than a few tradesmen and women. Many of them have arrived in huge pickup trucks.
Imagine my surprise when I heard about a local arborist who plies his trade by bicycle. Time to do something about that mesquite tree in the front yard. Thing's developed a much too cozy relationship with the house. Whenever the wind blows, the tree branches lovingly caress my roof. Sounds like a haunted house in here.
An e-mail to Aleck MacKinnon, The Pedaling Arborist, resulted in a on-site consultation and a very reasonable estimate. So, we scheduled a haircut date for the mesquite tree.
Aleck's company bicycle is a sturdy tandem that he and his wife have ridden from Tucson to Vancouver, British Columbia...
Here's Aleck, taming my unruly mesquite. This tree has huge thorns, which makes a tree trimming job all the more challenging. And I speak from personal experience when I say that wearing a hard hat is a very good idea. I've been poked in the head by this tree...
After the excess branches were removed, I had Aleck pile them in one of my water harvesting basins. This basin could use a bit more mulch, and the leaves from those branches will more than suffice.
The branch pile will serve as a winter refuge for birds and lizards. In the spring, I'll use those branches for other projects around the yard...
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Bicycle Photography: El Tour de Tucson 2011
November 22nd, 2011This past Saturday was one of those gray, windy days that offered more than a hint of rain. By Tucson standards, it has been a wet month -- almost an inch of rain so far -- so looking for more wasn't out of the question.
Fortunately, the rain held off until after the weekend. And that was a good thing, because more than 6,300 bicyclists were riding all or part of the way around the perimeter of Tucson. The occasion? The 28th annual El Tour de Tucson.
As I have for the past three years, I headed down to the finish to catch the action. Here's a photographic roundup...
El Tour de Tucson 2011 - Images by Martha Retallick
Tip: You can view more event photography in my portfolio and on this blog. I am also available for event photography assignments in Tucson, Arizona, and elsewhere. I specialize in concerts, festivals, parades, political rallies, and sporting events. To check availability and to request a proposal, please e-mail me or call 520-690-1888.
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Event Photography: Fall 2011 Bicycle Swap Meet
November 13th, 2011Well, it's mid-November in Tucson, and that means it's time for another bike swap meet. Yesterday, thousands of bicycle enthusiasts converged on 4th Avenue for a day of buying, selling, and trading bikes and accessories...
Does your bike need a crankset? Plenty to choose from at the swap...
Or maybe your taste runs more toward vintage bicycles...
Perhaps bicycle-themed jewelry is on your holiday shopping list...
Can't have new jewelry without a new bicycling outfit...
Although many people set up shop along 4th Avenue, there are plenty of bike sellers who prefer a more mobile approach...
A lot of people come to sell at the bike swap because they need to clear out the garage. Or they just plain need the money...
Of course, there are some items that just aren't for sale. Like this vintage Russian spaceman's jacket...
Another roving bike seller encountering a human and canine friend...
Looks like Elmer the Bassett Hound is getting a bit bored with the bicycle swap meet. Guy appears ready to go home...
Tip: You can view more event photography in my portfolio and on this blog. I am also available for event photography assignments in Tucson, Arizona, and elsewhere. I specialize in concerts, festivals, parades, political rallies, and sporting events. To check availability and to request a proposal, please e-mail me or call 520-690-1888.
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Event Photography: All Souls Procession 2011
November 7th, 2011Yesterday was one of those cool, breezy days that offered a hint of the Tucson winter to come. And since it was the first Sunday of November, it was time for Tucson's annual All Souls Procession.
This year's edition featured a new route: From 4th Avenue and University Boulevard, go straight down Fourth to Congress Street, then head west to Mercado San Augustin. Couldn't be any easier than that.
Since All Souls is a high-energy commemoration of those who have passed, it brings forth a lot of creativity. Here's Max Morris with his rolling memorial to Tucson bicyclists who have died after being hit by cars...
Each of the 20 crosses shows the rider's name, crash location, and date of death...
Since All Souls is such a colorful event, it draws more than a few photographers. Here's a multi-skulled marcher getting the full paparazzi treatment...
Tip: You can view more event photography in my portfolio and on this blog. I am also available for event photography assignments in Tucson, Arizona, and elsewhere. I specialize in concerts, festivals, parades, political rallies, and sporting events. To check availability and to request a proposal, please e-mail me or call 520-690-1888.
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Nature Photography: White Tank Mountains
November 1st, 2011My recent visit to the Phoenix area included a hike at White Tank Mountain Regional Park. My hiking host, Judy Vorfeld, selected the Waterfall Trail, a two-miler.
Being an Arizonan who's quite concerned about our state's long-term drought, I was curious to see how the native desert plants have been holding up. Sorry to say, the answer is not very well.
One of the more pernicious effects of drought is the stress that it inflicts on plants. This stress makes them more vulnerable to infestations like mistletoe. See the big, dark clumps in the middle branches of these two trees? That's mistletoe. Over time, mistletoe kills its host.
Back in "civilization," trees like these would probably be considered too far gone to be saved. They'd be cut down. With mistletoe, the best thing to do is to remove branches as soon as they show signs of infestation.
Then there are the various species of cactus. Although these staghorn cholla don't have that tumble-down, severely shriveled look, they're way too pale for plants that are just coming out of the summer monsoon season...
But, then again, we didn't have the best of monsoon seasons this year. It was more like a non-soon that was gone too soon.
You can't hike the Waterfall Trail without stopping at Petroglyph Plaza. Here the stress is man-made. Note the chipped off parts of this rock. That wasn't done by nature -- it was done by thieves...
Our hike was cut short by the heat, so back to Judy's car we went.
At the eastern edge of White Tank Mountain Regional Park is a LEED-certified public library and nature center. According to an Arizona Republic story written before the facility opened, "LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is a nationally recognized rating of the environmental friendliness, or sustainability, of a building."
The sustainabilty extends to the parking lot. Nice to see that it isn't another sea of asphalt that aggravates the urban heat island effect...
If you're going to have a sustainable parking lot in the desert, what better plant to have than Arizona's state cactus, the saguaro? This transplanted specimen is being supported while it adapts to its new home...
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Travel Photography: Visiting the Phoenix Zoo
October 28th, 2011There's something about visiting the zoo. You can't help but wonder who's being more closely scrutinized, the animals or the humans.
Let's begin our tour at the pelican beauty parlor. Nothing like preening with a whole crowd watching. Not that this pelican cares...
If you're a giant iguana, you can pretty well forget about having privacy with your lunch...
A human audience sure doesn't stop this pair from, ahem, doing what they're doing...
The positioning of this feeding basket is of great concern to any creature that isn't a giraffe. But, hey, the short one is in a perfect position to get whatever falls to the ground...
Of all the animals I saw, the primates seemed to be most interested in watching the zoo's human visitors...
On the other side of the "interest in human visitors" spectrum, we have the carp in the pool near the zoo entrance. They couldn't care less about the human photographers catching their swimming moves...
Okay, I'll admit it: The Phoenix Zoo offers some of the best people-watching opportunities in the state of Arizona. Take, for example, the humans crowding into the orangutan pavilion. The creatures are in hiding, but we flock to see them anyway...
And a shout out to my Phoenix Zoo guides: The wonderful brother-sister team of Judy Vorfeld and David Crook (below)...
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Travel Photography: Vermont Ramblings
October 27th, 2011My two previous posts covered Vermont's annual fall color extravaganza and the impact of a (we hope) once-in-a-lifetime disaster. Time to look at some other aspects of the Green Mountain State.
My visit to Vermont coincided with the peak of the fall colors. It also rained just about every day that I was in the state.
Any kind of rainfall acts like a natural tree-shaker. Meaning that all those pretty leaves end up on the ground, as they did at the Vermont State House in Montpelier...
I guess it was the recency of Tropical Storm Irene, but just about every visitor to the State House grounds had to stop and read this plaque. I stretched my arm as far as it would go, but I still couldn't touch the high water mark. That's about six feet of stretching...
On to Middlebury, home of one of the finest liberal arts colleges in the country. My Aunt Jean is a proud graduate of Middlebury College and she just had to show the place off. We took an all-day trip just to see the campus...
Yes, those are rain clouds (again), and no, they didn't hold off until the afternoon. My Middlebury photo shoot was a short one...
Did you build forts when you were a kid? So did I. But I'll bet our forts weren't as stylish as these natural branch sculptures on the Middlebury campus...
One of the cool things about visiting family is that you get to do everything with them. And I do mean everything.
My arrival coincided with Aunt Jean's weekly trip to the dump. So that's what we did. Welcome to Dump Street in Stowe, Vermont...
Not only is the Stowe dump the proper place to leave trash and recyclables (see below), it's a wonderful place to find free stuff. According to Jean, it's a great source of housewares and "good clothes -- amazing clothes."
Vermont Cultural Tip: Broadcasting from Jean's home town of Waterbury, radio station WDEV offers a Saturday morning program called "Music to Go to the Dump By." You can listen online.
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Photo Essay: Vermont Recovers from Irene
October 26th, 2011During the final weekend of August, Hurricane Irene was approaching the eastern United States. Since I have family back there, I called to make sure that everyone was all right.
The phone conversation with my Aunt Jean in Vermont had a very worried tone. About Hurricane Irene, she said, "It's as big as Europe!"
After it came ashore and became a (very wet) tropical storm, Irene aimed straight for Vermont. Which had already experienced a week of rain -- and serious flooding back in May. The ground was already saturated.
On Sunday, August 28, Irene dumped seven inches of rain on Vermont, a state of steep mountains and narrow valleys. Those picturesque brooks you see in tourism brochures became raging torrents that wiped out roads, pushed covered bridges downstream, and flooded homes and businesses.
That big-as-Europe storm packed quite a punch, one that Vermont is still recovering from. This photo essay documents recovery efforts in two towns along hard-hit Route 100, one of Vermont's primary north-south highways.
In mid-October, I'm in Vermont, in Aunt Jean's car, and we're stopping for a Route 100 reconstruction project in Waitsfield. During the storm, the Mad River got angry and took out the road...
Aunt Jean lives on a high hill north of the town of Waterbury. So, she wasn't directly affected by the Winooski River flood waters. But the town certainly was.
Note the flood water line on this empty store window. That's about four feet high and the river is almost a half mile away...
The Winooski River is nice and peaceful again. It's just beyond the Waterbury public park, where storm debris is still visible...
Time for a walk down Waterbury's historic Randall Street, which was devastated by Irene...
Some Randall Streeters are staying with friends and relatives in Waterbury while their houses are being repaired. Others have had to find temporary housing elsewhere.
Right now, the busiest people on Randall Street are the cleanup and construction crews. This is but one of the many debris piles I saw...
These signs are awaiting official highway posts. In the meantime, the Randall Street trees will have to stand in as sign props...
I was struck by the fact that, no matter how severe the storm damage, almost every Randall Street house is flying an American flag...
Randall Street ends at the State of Vermont Waterbury Office Complex, which was severely damaged by flood waters. Most of the complex's 1,500 employees are now working elsewhere.
The Randall Street entrance to the complex was guarded by a security officer who told me in no uncertain terms that I could go no further. So, this photo was taken while I walked along Main Street...
After Hurricane Katrina, the federal government response was scandalously slow. Not so for Irene. Locals told me that FEMA was in Waterbury the next day...
Before FEMA could open for business, the fire station needed a bit of tidying up. Flood waters came here too...
Waterbury's private and non-profit sectors are vigorously engaged in the recovery effort. Here's a sampling of signs from around town.
Sorry to say, but I think that a lot of rug owners will find out that their floor coverings aren't salvagable. But it never hurts to ask...
Flood relief benefits abound. And they'll continue to do so for quite some time...
The flooded Methodist church had to find a new location for its chicken pie supper. The St. Leo's Catholic parish stepped up to help their neighbors...
Even though it's been flooded out of its Waterbury building, the Northfield Savings Bank is still sporting that "pigs fly" logo. The Vermont branch of the Retallick family is quite happy to bank with Northfield...
The Alchemist is another family favorite. Especially with Cousin Tom, a remodeling contractor who has yet to see a surge of post-Irene business. Given Tom's attention to detail and fine craftsmanship, it's only a matter of time. Right now, he's busy with other projects...
If you're open for business, you have to let people know. Otherwise, they'll assume that you're closed for repairs and keep on driving. With so many state workers missing from town, Waterbury businesses need customers any way they can get 'em...
Gratitude on Main Street...
And a farewell to a very unwelcome Vermont visitor...
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Travel Photography: Vermont Fall Foliage
October 25th, 2011Just got back from visiting family in Waterbury, Vermont.
October in the state of Vermont means one thing: Fall Foliage. The aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene was very much in evidence, but it didn't stop the annual party thrown by the trees.
Let's start our fall foliage tour at the Waterbury Public Library...
The library was on high enough ground to avoid the overflow from the Winooski River, which flows through Waterbury. Even so, the front door has a sign asking patrons not to return flood-damaged materials.
The story of my trip to Vermont was the rain. It rained almost every day during my week-long visit. The wet weather created a lot of fall color vistas like this one...
The rain made it difficult to pursue one of my favorite activities, going for a walk. But I managed to take a stroll through Waterbury's Hope Cemetery before the skies really opened up...
My Aunt Jean hosted me during my Vermont visit. Jean's lived in Vermont for a couple of decades, and she loves to show the state to visitors. From an afternoon trip to Stowe...
Shhhh, don't tell anyone, but this pumpkin was on the edge of one of those gated properties with all sorts of "keep out" signs...
From the St. John’s in the Mountains Episcopal Church parking lot in the village of Stowe...
Post-Irene Vermont is a place on the mend. You won't be in the state very long before you hear of at least one benefit to help flood victims.
Since I'm an avid walker, the 5k walkathon in Waterbury Center's Hope Davey Park was like a magnet. I was hoping to meet some local people to walk with, but I didn't find any on the park's nature trail. So, I took a solitary walk with camera...
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Nature Photography: Sudden Storm
September 30th, 2011This past Tuesday, the 2011 monsoon season busted loose with its last hurrah. Which prompted a photographic frenzy around here.
First stop on the frenetic home front picture tour: The garden. Is it raining out there? Yes!!!
I'm looking forward to the day when the seedlings (which are still too small to see in the above photo) start peeking through the straw.
The photographic frenzy continues in the front yard, where the pot in which I've planted all sorts of seeds is getting a good drink...
Looks like I may be successful at front yard container gardening after all. It's been kind of a bust so far.
Time for a check of the front yard drainage. I had a problem with water pooling near the porch.
When I was creating my garden basins, I put some of the excess dirt in the front yard low spots. From the looks of things during this storm, those low spots are a thing of the past...
Here's another experiment that appears to be working. My home-made compost bins are staying upright during the storm...
Hey, look! Now it's really coming down! Look at that rain gauge filling up! Wonder how much rain we're getting...
My official side yard rain gauge reading: .30" of the wet stuff.
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