Is it Week 6 Already? 365 Photo a Day

Another week has flown by so quickly.  Such a busy month as a mother with long President's Day weekends, science fairs, and Valentine's Day parties. I still manage do post a photo for each day of this week, unfortunately not each day. But no one is perfect.

So this last week was a view back over the last few years.  This photo of a tree trying to survive at White Sands was taken in spring of 2012. I've always loved it, but thought it might not appeal to everyone so I just left it untouched until now.

White Sands Evening 37/365

These beautiful boats can be found in Tarpon Springs, FL.  Oh how I miss the warm weather and the water. I wish I could be a snowbird.

Sponge Dock Evening 38/365

This billboard was along the road in New Mexico at the edge of a Ghost Town.  It doesn't say much but I love the clouds and the light.

Ghost Town Billboard 39/365

This is from a photo shoot a few years ago.  Pressed for time and in an unfamiliar location requested by the client I always wondered if it could have been better.  The clients loved the photos, so it was me not them.  I do think that I have defiantly improved my editing skills since then and like this image much better now.

S with her dog 40/365

I wish I could find the time to travel Route 66 again.  This photo if nearly 5 years old and taken with an older digital camera so enlarging beyond 11x14 might show some digital grain. Oh well, still a great photo.

Soulsby's Shell Station IL 41/365

I love the Folk Art of the Southwest.  These bunnies are so fun.  I have a flying pig in a similar style, and if my cats wouldn't chew on everything I would have more.

Bright Bunnies 42/365

In early summer these trees bloom in my yard.  The provide berries for the birds in fall, but this past spring we had an abundance of moths and they seemed to love these blossoms. 

Summer Moth 43/365

I hope you like them.  Not sure what next week has in store.  If the weather ever warms I have a few things my daughter and I would like to try. One of these days.


Have a wonderful week. And thanks for visiting!
Lorissa

Village of the Past

Each time I wander the southwest I seem to be called back to a small group of prehistoric, Puebloan-era villages located in the southeastern corner of Utah. Hovenweep National Monument, a landscape of canyons and mesa tops, is a small but captivating part of our National Park System. I don't know if it is the beautiful ruins, the natural, undeveloped nature, or just the its solitude of that draws me, but I find each time it is worth the drive.


There are 6 villages in the area, but the Square Tower Group is the easiest to access and was the largest of the villages. Here is a view of some of its ruins from inside the canyon in the late morning. (I had hope to get out at sunrise, but it was raining and I was not prepared for rain.) You can see how the rocks have shifted over time and part of the ruins have fallen into the canyon. Still the towers that are still standing are very interesting. As I walk the trail I find it difficlut to believe that 500 people lived in this village. The historians base this figure on the nearly 30 kivas that they have found hidden around the village.
Of course I have more photos to share and hope to get to them soon.
Have a wonderful day!
Lorissa

Family Hiking in Canyonlands - Needles District

This past fall my husband, daughter, and I went on a little RV adventure to Canyonlands National Park in the Needles District. There is nothing much to do there except enjoy the beauty of the the area. Really, in the needles district there are no cell phone service, no showers, but a lot of trails. Backpacking, hiking, and some truly 4 wheel driving roads are the only way to explore this beauty. There are easy trails like one to an ancestral Puebloan granary and another takes you a historic cowboy line camp and prehistoric pictographs. Then there are long trails (about 60 miles of interconnected trails) to fantastic views, colorful sandstone spires, arches, and archaeological sites. The best way to explore these long trails is to go backpacking overnight with lots of water. Basically there is something in Canyonlands for every skill level and it makes a wonderful place to visit with the family.

During our visit we hiked a few of the shorter trails, along with a small section of the larger trail called the Squaw Flat Loop that was near the campgrounds. They do tell you that the longer trails are especially rough and require negotiating steep passes with drop-offs, narrow spots, or ladders, but we thought we would be safe close to the campground on a short loop between the two. LOL - We were so wrong. I didn't take my camera, because we thought we were going on a flat trail with not much to spot but cactus and lizards. The trail looped around and up and over the formation that sat right behind our campsite. It was amazingly beautiful, but I was a little worried as we were walking on the top of the sandstone structure with only five feet of rock between drops off on each side. The rock rose in a way that made it difficlut to judge what might come next and we kept just pushing ahead thinking it would be easier then turning back. We "scrambled" a lot and I even tore a large hole in my jeans from shuffling over the rock with my daughter in my arms. The photo above shows the formation we hiked over. It was just the lower part on the left, but we walked on the top of that and came down the steep slopes and sandstone rims to get back to the campground with a 4 year old in tow. Looking back it was beautiful, but I don't think I would have taken a 4 year old up there to hike if I had known. She did wonderfully though and it is a memory and accomplishment I don't' think she will ever forget.

The next day we hiked the Slickrock Trail. This is the longest of the short trails and is about 2.4 miles round trip. It was listed as having uneven surfaces, viewpoints, and sometimes bighorn sheep. We didn't see many sheep that day, but lots of beautiful views. This is actually a great trail for kids. Enough "scrambling" over the rocks to satisfy them (really very little for those who have long adult legs) and a few shady places to stop and rest when needed.

The panoramas from my blog post Hiking at Canyonlands National Park were taken while we were on this hike, but I thought I would share some more personal photos that show my hubby and daughter actually hiking.





As you can see they have the trail marked with cairns (small rock piles) which really helps you not get lost when the trail is mostly sandstone. Though, we did get off trail a couple of times and had to go back to the last cairn we were at and then scout around for the next.

The viewpoints were well marked. One you had to go out on a long thin rock formation that had a major drop off on both sides. This was the one viewpoint we didn't go all the way out to (because we had enough of our heart popping out of our chests the day before with our four year old so close to the edge of drop offs). Then, once we thought we found the view point:

Only to find this sign at the bottom once we figure out the way down:


You can actually see the sign in the last photo. I thought it seemed kind of a funny place to have the sign laying, but it worked and we found our way.

While this isn't the Grand Canyon, it is just as beautiful and a lot less crowded. It is a place that everyone should try to visit at least once.

Thanks for letting me share this adventure with you.
Lorissa

PS. I thought about being Wordless today for "Wordless Wednesday" but decided I had to much to share with these photos. Maybe next week.

Hiking at Canyonlands National Park.

Canyonland National Park, originally uploaded by ljdesignphoto.

I just thought I would share with you a few panoramas from our hike in Canyonlands National Park, the Needles district. This is one of my most favorite of the National Parks. We visited in Fall and I can't wait to go back.

Canyonlands National Park, originally uploaded by ljdesignphoto.

In this last one you can see the spires that give the Needles district there name.

Canyonlands NP, originally uploaded by ljdesignphoto.

I'm thinking of offering these in one of my shops, maybe as a canvas print so they don't need to be framed. Any suggestions?

Thanks for stopping by,
Lorissa

Wordless Wedensday - Route 66 in the Mojave

Spiky but Sweet.

I love the Desert as much as I love laying on a sandy beach. Many of my friends who live near the ocean just don't understand.

The beauty of the Mojave Desert is why I moved west when my fiance, now husband suggested it. I love so much about it. You can see so far it is just amazing. So many mountains of different shapes and colors. And so many varieties of plants and wild life. I feel in love during my first visit.

Spring is one of the best times of year to visit, as long as you don't mind wind. First you get the wild flowers and later the cactus begin to bloom. Warm days and cool evenings. So much to enjoy.

I wanted to share one of these joys with you. Here is a new desert bloom that I just photographed this week.

Thanks for reading.

The Desert in Bloom, more to enjoy

I'm home and trying to catch up with everything. Cleaning the house, RV, and clothes, updating my etsy store, and catching up with friends and family. Not really doing well at it, but maybe I'll be caught up soon.
I did finally get more photos on Flickr. They are of the flowers that I took during our trip. The drive to California was beautiful and the last night we spent all by ourselves camped in an canyon on BLM land. It was so quite and peaceful, sometimes I wish I could live there.

I was disappointed to head home, but the necessity of getting things done came to be as it always does. The next day after arriving home we had snow in the high desert. I live at around 3000 ft and the snow didn't stick by the house, but it did in the surrounding mountains. It is strange how warm an beautiful it was one day and how cold it was the next. Luckily it is starting to warm up again and hopefully the wild flowers will be around my house soon.

Enjoy the flowers. Oh, and you can click on them to reach my flicker account to see more.

A Desert Full of Flowers

Many people think that the desert is a dry inhospitable place with very little life or color, but this is not true. The desert is always teaming with life and during spring it is alive with color. This week I took a trip to the Sonoran Desert to see the carpets of wildflowers. The Joshua Tree National Park rangers said that there were about 80 different types of flowers in bloom in the southern half of the park.

Because of the rough road and little chances to pull over safely in an RV most of my photos were taken at the Cottonwood Campground. Some were taken as we exited the park on the southern end and headed to the Salton Sea. It was a beautiful drive and a great way to spend some time with my family and getting new photos. Here is just a quick sample of some of the beautiful flowers.

New Year Resolution

My new year resolution was to start a blog. I have been thinking about it for months, but had not sat down and started working on it until now. So, today is the first day of the new year and a great time to get started.

Hello, my name is Lorissa J. Longfellow. I am a photographer and work at home mom who lives in the high desert in Northwestern Arizona. Before becoming a work at home mom, I lived in Florida and worked in the arts. My degree is in Humanities concentrating in Art History, but college seems like another life time. I love to travel, my husband and daughter, and photographing things that interest me.
I have loved photography since I was a young child with a brownie camera and basic basement darkroom. I purchased my first 35mm SLR when I was 14 and my love for photographing has always been a part of me even when I pursued other thing in my life.
Moving out west prompted me to give my love of photography a larger part of my life. It is Wonderful!!
Now that I am a mom and can't easily do art shows to promote my work, I am trying the internet. I have had a website at www.ljdesignphoto.com for a while, but did not have it set up to sell. Recently I changed that by adding a shopping cart and I also opened a shop on the site etsy, http://ljdesignphoto.etsy.com

My work up until this last year focused on Desert Landscapes, Ghost Towns, and Route 66. This last year I started a new series focusing on Motherhood. It is a celebrations of the joys, emotions and trials of being a mother.

In this blog I'm going to ramble about my influences, traveling, art and artist I love, and motherhood. I hope it will give my readers an unique perspective into my art, life, and something interesting to read once in a while when they sit down at the computer with their coffee in the morning.



Thank you for taking the time to visit and read. Please come back often for updates.