Fountain Hills – Page 3 – buettner.to blog

December 9, 2013 / 4 Comments

Avenue of the Fountains – Holiday Lights

The Christmas / Holiday lights are up now on the Avenue of the Fountains.

The photo below is a quick edit of a photo that I took at a high ISO. I used ISO 100 to 400 for the rest of them. I only bumped the ISO up above 100 when I couldn’t get my exposures within the 30 second limit. (I didn’t want to go to bulb mode.)

I’m holding up an 18% gray card so that I’d have something of a clue about how to set the color temperature while developing the images. This is a quick edit in Lightroom. Note that although the white balance is correct for me and perhaps some of the immediate foreground, it’s definitely not correct for the storefronts. This is a problem with such scenes; there are a bunch of different light sources with different color temperatures.

I used the this color temperature found in this photo as starting point for several others. I wasn’t happy with it, however, for some of the later ones that I developed. (The order that I present them here are the order in which they were shot, not developed.) For some of the images, I processed some of the layers twice with a different color temperature (and tint). I combined them after the fact to try to get the white balance correct (or at least not wildly incorrect) for various parts of the scene. The photo above is a good example; I used one color temperature for the store front and another for most of the rest of the scene.

November 30, 2013 / 0 Comments

Friday Fitness Hike

Friday’s hike was nearly ten miles in length with over 2,000 feet of total ascent. Eight of us hiked Dixie Mine out to the Sonoran Trail, followed the Sonoran Trail to its end, and then hiked a short ways out on the Promenade Trail. From there we hiked up the Western Loop Trail, stopped briefly at the overlook at the top, and then continued on the Western Loop Trail until it intersected with Promenade. We then hiked back along the shortest route using the Promenade, Sonoran, and Dixie Mine Trails.

Marilyn and Linda wait for everyone to pay up at the iron ranger at the start of the Dixie Mine Trail.

Marilyn and Linda lead the way on the Dixie Mine Trail.

Linda, Marilyn, Vinnie, Renee, Janet, Rob, and Michael on the Sonoran Trail. (Someone correct me if I have any of the names wrong.)

A view from the Sonoran Trail.

Another view from the Sonoran Trail. I did this one in Photomatix, but did not like it, so I redid it in Lightroom and Photoshop.

I think this is still the Sonoran Trail.

A view of Tom’s Thumb in the distance.

This was supposed to be another view of Tom’s Thumb. Unfortunately, I shot everything on Friday at f/4, so there was a significant amount of background blurring due to the focus being on the tree.

A view of Fountain Hills from the top of the Western Loop Trail.

Taking photos from the Western Loop Overlook…

Several views while descending the Western Loop Trail:

I think this was taken from the Promenade Trail.

Taking a break on the Sonoran Trail…The rain that we got last week is starting to make things green again:

November 20, 2013 / 2 Comments

Lincoln

This sculpture of Lincoln was created by Mark Lundeen. It was donated in 2012; see photo of plaque below for a complete donor list.

November 14, 2013 / 0 Comments

Ronald Reagan

Sculptor Mark Lundeen created this likeness of Ronald Reagan. It was donated in 2013 in the memory of Fred Potenza Jr. by his family.

(Marie appears twice in this photo!)

November 13, 2013 / 1 Comment

Quackers

This sculpture, created by Mike Dwyer, is called Quackers. It was donated in 2009 by Michael and Jeannie McGonigle with their families, Hammerstone, Kreidel, and McGonigle.

November 12, 2013 / 4 Comments

Fountain Park Wall Mural

Student artists from the Fountain Hills High School assisted professional artist Hugo Medina in creating a mural on a wall in the Fountain Park. This wall is located between the playground area and the Veteran’s Memorial.

October 10, 2013 / 0 Comments

Bob, the Frog

Bob, the Frog is another creation of sculptor Randy Hand. It was donated by the Rotary Club of Fountain Hills, Randy & Mary Hand, Mary & Joe Cavinato, Jackie & Jerry Miles, Mardelle Willson, and by The Sunridge Foundation.

October 10, 2013 / 0 Comments

George, the Tortoise

Sculptor Randy Hand created this piece, titled George, the Tortoise. It’s located near the playground in the Fountain Park. The plaques affixed to a nearby wall show an impressive number of donors, many of whom are grandparents honoring their grandchildren.

October 7, 2013 / 0 Comments

America

This sculpture of an eagle, by Doug Hyde, is titled America. It was donated to the town of Fountain HIlls in 2012 by Jean and Rolland Lorenz.

October 6, 2013 / 0 Comments

Precious Cargo

Jason Napier created this sculpture, titled Precious Cargo, of a large cat carrying one of her kittens. It was donated in 2001 in memory of Corinne Miles by Jackie and Jerry Miles.

I had tried photographing this sculpture on at least three other occasions but, whether shooting at night or during the day, I kept getting an unacceptable amount of glare from the surface of the sculpture, which is polished and shiny. The color of the stone is really quite beautiful; I didn’t want to settle for a shot that had a lot of glare in it. I finally employed some lighting techniques which made it possible to get this shot with minimal glare.

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