The Alleyway: Downtown Phoenix
Saturday night was a bit of a first for me. I decided to do a little urban exploration (#UrbEx) of downtown Phoenix. I’ve been inspired lately by some really good photographers back east who do this on a regular basis: Brian Matiash, Bob Lussier and Jacques just to name a few. The few hours I spent walking up and down streets was amazingly fun. It also went by in a heartbeat. Along the way I met a fellow photog from Mumbai and really enjoyed the brief conversation we had. I forget his name, I’m horrible at that, so I hope he [...]
Highway 60 to Superior
Not too long ago I posted photos from our little visit to the area west of Superior, Arizona in search of the wildflowers. Along the way, as I was running back and forth across Highway 60 to snap some shots, I stopped in the middle and looked east…immensely enjoying the road curving off in the distance and the mountain on the horizon. I am in love with road photos…there is just something that connects me with seeing the way a line of striped pavement runs off into the horizon or bends to disappear around a hill. You can see a slideshow [...]
An Easter rose
Easter was a big day for my little family this year. We’ve made a big decision to help a church get started in the downtown Phoenix area, and not only that, but we’re up and moving there to be closer to the urban area and to my full-time job. The first meeting of Day 12 was down at the Phoenix Theater, which abuts the Phoenix Art Museum. It’s a beautiful area, and in-between both places is a courtyard with art, sculptures, towering juniper and rose bushes. I was photographing the event and couldn’t help but notice some of the other [...]
The Tempe Center for the Arts
Back in early January when we had some amazing storms blow through Arizona, I was out going nuts with trying to capture it all. I posted a shot of the Salt River Dam all deflated (You can see it here), which you see from the walkway between the Tempe Center for the Arts and the river itself. I drove to this spot just to capture the river, but after I had snapped all the photos I wanted, I turned around and realized what a fantastic piece of architecture the Tempe Center for the Arts actually was. Amazing angle and lines, [...]
Howl: Some full moon photography
One of the things that drives me when it comes to photography is trying new things. I may be especially good at something, but I definitely would love to give it a shot. Doing that gives me an opportunity to expand my skills, learn a different way of doing something and enhancing my abilities to provide quality work. For example, I’ve never been able to really photograph the moon very well. Mostly because I didn’t have a really good zoom lens to get up close and personal with it, which are the kind of moon photos I tend to enjoy. [...]
The Spring Wildflowers of the Arizona Desert
A good friend of ours named Ryann had been traveling along the US 60 through Superior in the last week and made sure to point out to me all the wildflowers blooming along the highways and mountains. Plus I’d been keeping up with DesertUSA.com and all their reader wildflower reports. They mentioned how the flowers had been going nuts on Silver King Mine road just west of Superior, so I packed the wife and kid in the car Sunday afternoon and we took off. The first thing we noticed was the highway. From when you leave the Apache Junction area [...]
Saguaro Sunset in the San Tan Mountains
A shot of a tall Saguaro cactus with the sun setting behind it. I drove out to the southeast side of the San Tan Mountains on Friday afternoon, hoping to find some flowers to photography at sunset. I didn’t find much, but I did like this shot. Beautiful, stunning mountains on that side of those mountains.
Weekend storms in Arizona
We had some nice storms roll through town this past weekend and I was lucky enough to get out and shoot a bit on Sunday. Here’s a couple of my favorites from that day. This one above is a two-shot panoramic stitched together. I enhanced the contrast and colors a bit to make it more vivid and exciting. Shots of the falling rain. Murky and ominous clouds approach. A black and white…rain falling on one end, low hanging clouds on the other… Just a creepy shot at the airport. A monstrous, low hanging storm. Love this shot…it’s gotten me an [...]
Memory of the Old West
I love the train tracks south of Hunt Highway, which is only a few miles from my house. I’ve taken a few pictures there, but this latest I really wanted to try and do something different with it. It’s made to look old, obviously, but the texture on it comes from a nearby desert park. I found an old rock that had some cool colors, swirls and textures to it. It’s overlayed on this photos to really give it an old look…maybe like faded parchment? Definitely reminds me of something from an old western photos. You can buy this print right [...]
The Green Arizona Desert
My buddy Jon who was in town with his family this past weekend joined me for a hike of the San Tan Mountains just southeast of the Chandler-Gilbert area. It’s a neat little regional park that I never really paid much attention to until I started getting into photography. The views were great, but one of the main reason I went out there was to capture the greenery that is now covering much of the desert floor here in Arizona. The incredible amount of rainfall has created greenish tints to all the mountains around town and when you examine them [...]
Mike is a Phoenix Wedding Photographer based in Arizona and can be contacted via all the normal methods and then some.