Holga, Holga, Holga...

Here are some more photos taken with my Holga and Holga Pinhole Cameras.

This is a photo taken at the VLA this past summer.

This was an accident, I forgot to advance the film but I kind of like the way it came out. It is a double exposure, but I seem to have changed the orientation of the camera. This is taken with the Fish Eye lense attachment to my Holga.

 This is the alter at San Xavier outside of Tucson, AZ. This is also taken with the Fish Eye attachment on my Holga but I have cropped out some of the black around the outside.

 This is the side chapel at San Xavier with its cactus garden, a very cool place. This is taken with my Pinhole Holga camera.

And another Pinhole photo of the courtyard adjacent to San Xavier, the curch itself is on the left side.

Back Yard Memories...

When I moved into my apartment at 308 N. Mesquite there was this very nice Mexican Elder tree in the back yard, just outside my kitchen window. The year before last when we had the really hard freeze down here most of the tree died (all the top branches), it is growing from all the lower branches now.

The tree has been one of my favorite things here, even the dead parts of it are interesting and I have enjoyed photographing it. About a week ago, the top branches were cut down due to concerns of them breaking and falling down in strong winds (they have been slowly falling off for some time). But, I miss the top of the tree, I guess I will have to wait for it to grow back now.

Both of these images were taken on Black and White 120 Film with a Holga plastic camera, one of my favorite cameras that I do not use enough, but I am starting to use some more.

Tucson, AZ - WMR Conference

I was in Tucson, AZ late last week for the Western Mountain Region (WMR) Conference for the AIA. Late in 2011 I was awarded the AIA WMR Jason Pettigrew Scholarship which paid for my trip to Grassroots in Washington, DC this past March and then for my trip to the WMR this year in Tucson.

I decided to drive out and left very early on Wednesday morning so that I could arrive in time for a business meeting at the conference that started at 9:00am. I then did a half day drawing class on Wednesday before two full days of conference seminars and meetings. I had a really great time and got to visit with a lot of great people and even see some friends I have not seen in some time.

The conference ended on Friday, but I had the room for another evening so I went out to dinner with some architects from Las Cruces on Friday evening then had a drink with them back at the hotel before turning in for the evening. Since I had been getting up pretty early all week I decided to relax a little and sleep in on Saturday then headed out to explore a little of Tucson before heading home.

I decided to go and visit the Mission Church called San Xavier that is just south of Tucson and I am very glad I did. This is now one of my favorite places, it is a beautiful church and the paintings and carvings on the interior are amazing. Here are a couple photos that I took, I will be posting more in the future and I will be visiting this place again next time I am in Tucson.

The exterior of San Xavier del Bac also called the "White Dove of the Desert" construction began in 1783 and was completed in 1797, Franciscan missionary Fr. Juan Bautista Velerrain hired architect  Ignacio Goana to design and build the church.

The alter and just a small amount of the painting and sculpture that are inside the church. Little is know about the artists but some of the original sculptures still exist int he church. The dome is a masonry dome, and it is amazing.