Random, Arizona

Theres no story to be told this time, just a few photos of things i thought you might like to see. Well, maybe one little story… Some of you, my most perceptive and tasteful of readers, have said nice things about a few of my photos. That got me thinking.

by Steve
• 4 min read
Random, Arizona

Theres no story to be told this time, just a few photos of things i thought you might like to see.

Well, maybe one little story…

Some of you, my most perceptive and tasteful of readers, have said nice things about a few of my photos. That got me thinking. Years ago, I trooped around half the planet lugging a camera bag filled with an Olympus OM-1 and a half dozen lenses. The camera was completely manual: pick the aperture, the exposure speed, and focus. I loved it: the complete control and the feeling that I had created something rather than simply pushed a button.

Jump forward a few years and the bag and everything in it were stolen. Since Olympus was out of the SLR business by then, State Farm generously replaced everything with the latest Nikon gear. Later, I sold the camera body via eBay to a guy in Poland.

I gave no thought to the collection of top-notch Nikor autofocus lenses sitting quietly in a rarely visited closet. Until, that is, you lot started saying nice things about the odd photo and I got to missing the joy of creating a photo rather than taking one.

So on a recent trip to Portland (motto: we have no idea what to do with the homeless, but we have no sales tax) I visited the excellent Pro Photo and told them my tale. i left with a used Nikon D750 DSLR fully compatible with my lens collection.

Expect good things. But not in this post because I didn’t bring the Nikon to Arizona. We’ve plowed this field before, I thought. Turns out, I could have used it.

Above is an amusing sign that asks cars crawling along the narrow road to the “best” (and only) hotel in Jerome, Arizona to take it easy.

I felt like an ant under some mean kid’s magnifying glass. Fortunately, it’s a mirror in the Phoenix convention center.
Surprise! i thought we’d be too late for flowers, but everything was in bloom, including this otherwise uninteresting plant by our front door.
Mary Anne outside the Jerome mining museum. Those are ”tailings” (a.k.a. rubbish) from the mine in the background.
I like old doors. This one is in the old mine Administration building.
Hats at the leather shop in Jerome. I bought a belt from them years ago that will certainly last longer than i will.
How many parts can you identify? The bicycle gear cluster is easy.
A selection of homemade sauces from a barbecue restaurant in Jerome.
The Mining Museum in Jerome.
It’s worth noting that Jerome is about a mile in elevation and is on such a steep hillside that there is only one main street. It weaves up the hill in a series of switchbacks.
We are rather fond of roosters. We have a rooster oil painting, a metal rooster, a ceramic one, maybe others. i would have bought this guy in a second except that he’s too big for our Scottsdale condo and too heavy to transport easily to Seattle.
Condo neighbors Sue and Pete joined us for dinner at Lon’s restaurant at the Hermosa Inn resort in Phoenix.
Sue provides a backdrop to my mezcal-based cocktail while dining on the patio at Lon’s.
The Hermosa Inn is a really nice place.
Ta Dah! Our new Pickleball gear. We are now officially old.
Mary Anne seems pleased with her margarita at Cien Agaves in Old Town Scottsdale.

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