From the south side

Thursday was a beautiful, cloud-free day. After work I headed out to Peralta road. I went to the top of a small hill south of the Superstition Mountains. I set up the tripod on the side of the hill and tried to get it level. I thought it was but for some reason I looked through the viewfinder with my left eye, and then it looked very crooked. One of my eyeballs must not be screwed in right. Anyway, I actually used the bubble level app in my new Droid phone to get the tripod level. Who woulda thought it could actually be useful?

I took pictures of stuff like this.

It was uncomfortable bending over to take pictures, so I didn't zoom in much so I wouldn't have to take a lot of pictures. Still, you can zoom into this picture quite a bit.

Photosynth panorama of the south side of the Superstition Mountains.

I had the camera set up correctly this time, so I think that helped it stitch together a little better. I took the pictures in RAW mode so I could correct for the darkening in the corners. As usual, I was hurrying to get the pictures taken before the sun got too low. When I was done taking the pictures I wanted, I grabbed a water bottle and stood there and finally looked around me. It was wonderfully quiet and the lighting was perfect and the temperature was perfect and there were no bugs buzzing around my ears. I'm glad I stopped and looked around before I hurried home to see the pictures.

I've been seeing a bunch of animals recently that I keep forgetting to mention, so I'll catch up now. On the way home from the hike along the top of Ittindi Rock I almost hit a deer that ran across the road in front of me. Something else ran across the freeway in front of me later, but I think that was my imagination. When I was taking pictures on Sunday for my first panorama of the Superstitions, there were a few bats flitting around near sunset. That's the first bats I've seen this summer. They were thick last summer but ominously missing this summer. Maybe that's why there have been so many bugs this year. Then, on the way home yesterday, I saw something that I've been trying to get a decent picture of ever since I moved out here. A roadrunner ran across Peralta road in front of me. I knew it would be long gone but I stopped where it crossed and it was still standing there. I knew it would be a wasted effort but I got my camera out to take a picture, and the roadrunner just stood there. It stayed there while I took several pictures. There was barely enough light, so the pictures are grainy but I think they are pretty good, considering.

Finally, a picture of a roadrunner!

I saw some cows, too.

Click below to see all of the pictures.

2010_09_23