A desert stroll

For the past 2 or 3 years, the air was looking noticeably more polluted than it did when I first moved out here (which was only 5.5 years ago). There were times I wouldn't go hiking because the air looked too bad to get any good pictures. I started to think it might be bad for my lungs, too. Either that or the cold I had was taking months to completely go away. This past summer, though, it's looked clearer than it has for a long time. I read in the paper that it's because of the economic slowdown. Construction in the valley has dropped off almost to nothing, and it must be construction that stirs up most of the dust. Without all the construction, we can see a lot better. So as we head into the worst recession since the seventies, at least we have a better view of the mountains now. Gosh, when will I ever get to have my cake and eat it, too?

It was a pretty day and I didn't have anything else (much) that I had to do, and I was missing the quiet of the desert, so I went out to the middle of Bulldog Canyon. It was very nice. No mosquitoes or little green bugs; just the usual flies and gnats. (I thumped a few flies.) The sun sets pretty early these days, so I didn't wander far or take many pictures.

Lately when I hike, I carry both cameras with me. They each have features that I like, or capabilities that the other doesn't have. I don't want to be out on a trail and wish I had the camera I didn't have so I could get a picture that I couldn't without it. It's that cake thing again, but in this case I can have them both. I just look like a dork. Oh, well, there's usually nobody there to see me, and I don't give a hoot anyway. But I digress. Back to the cameras. There have been times (usually just before sunset) when I just didn't like the way the pictures I took of the mountains with my S3 IS looked. Here's an example:

From BC_2008_10_17

I wasn't thinking about comparing results, so these pictures aren't of exactly the same thing, but they're pretty close. Here's the picture taken by the Rebel:

From BC_2008_10_17

I think it looks a LOT better. The bright spots aren't washed out, and in general the color is much better. The main reason I got the Rebel was so I could get better landscape pictures. Looks like that will pan out.

I made a couple of HDRIs. This first one is an example of trying to make a picture look good that just shouldn't be taken in the first place. It just turns out looking bizarre.

From BC_2008_10_17

The moral of the picture is that HDRI cannot make everything look good or interesting.

Speaking of interesting, I was talking about small particulate matter in the valley atmosphere a little while ago, which is not interesting but I used to take pictures of it. It's called the "brown cloud". I haven't seen it much this summer. I did see it today, though, as it blew north over Fountain Hills. Here's the best plain vanilla picture I could get of it with my best (depending on what you want to do) camera.

From BC_2008_10_17

Here is an HDRI of the same view. It isn't black on the bottom and white on the top. It's still a bad picture, but it shows what I wanted to show and you can see other stuff (like, uh, power lines...), too.

From BC_2008_10_17

OK, maybe that wasn't very interesting, but the tarantula was. It was not moving (I think it might have been hoping I hadn't seen it). I was wondering what a tarantula feels like, so I was moving my finger very slowly towards it. I was thinking that maybe I should be making a video and I wish I had, because it hissed at me. At least I think it did. A gnat was buzzing in my left ear at the time so it was hard to hear. Anyway, it started walking away and I did not touch it. I don't think it's a good idea to touch things that hiss at you. Cats taught me that at a tender age. And that reminds me of an article I read the other day that said that until they are in their late teens, people do not learn from negative experiences. Based on personal experience, I find that hard to believe, though it would explain why there are so many videos on YouTube of teenagers grinding down hand rails and then smashing their faces on concrete, even though their previous 20 attempts resulted in numerous small abrasions, contusions, and torn clothes. But, once again, I digress. It's the beer (not the cake). Click below to see all of the pictures, unless you can't stand tarantulas, in which case you'll just have to wonder what you are missing.

BC_2008_10_17