Bragging Again

Back here I bragged that one of my Flickr photos was picked up for a poster. Just today, the Trazzler website notified me that they were using a photo that I took at Canyon de Chelly (pronounced de Shay) in Arizona. Here's the link to the photo on Trazzler although I had to look hard for the credit which I eventually found below the write-up which is below the photo.



There have been one or two other photos that have been picked up here and there, but I can't remember which or where, which is one reason that I'm making mention of this now: aside from the fact that I crave attention, validation, and affirmation.

The Canyon, with it's ruins, which you can barely make out in the photo (look about an inch over the walkers' head and somewhat to the left), was the last stop stop on our week long Arizona trip several years ago. Since we ended up on a walking tour, we didn't see a huge portion of the canyon, but we did enjoy several pleasant hours, and I suppose that one ruin must be much the same as another. I think that quality over quantity can be a decent trade off after all.

The little guy on the right was our Navajo guide: old in years, but he was certainly fit enough and spry enough to leave me in the dust. The couple in the photo was one that seemed to be making a tour somewhat parallel to ours. Cuppa met them in Flagstaff where we were both staying as a jumping off point for our Grand Canyon visits. He was an Aussie who had been staying in England, and she was English. They were taking their time touring much of the USA before heading to and settling in Australia. A day or two later, they stayed at the same motel as us near Monument Valley. Finally, we met up at the visitor centre in the canyon. They asked us to join them on the walking tour that they had just signed up for, so we did although Cuppa hadn't understood that it was to be a walking tour. I thought she had agreed very quickly, and that was the reason. But it was all good.

Below is a closer photo of the ruins, and below that a short slideshow of these and a few other photos.

Cuppa and I Collaborate

... in publishing a photo ... sort of ...

How's everyone doing out there? While I remain on a bit of a Blogger holiday, I am still keeping loose track of you guys through Google Reader and may post on occasion — such as now. One doesn't want to lose touch completely, eh.

I hadn't heard of Schmap until recently, but the site describes itself this way: "Exploring a Schmap Guide is a uniquely interactive experience: maps and guide content are dynamically integrated, allowing intuitive, real-time access to reviews and photo slideshows for places of interest."

The Schmap people wrote me some time ago to tell me that one of my Flickr pictures taken at the Desert Botanical Garden was being considered for their Phoenix Schmap site. Actually while I was the one who posted it on Flickr, I must confess that it was Cuppa who took the photo, which makes sense since that's me who you see staring up in wonder. But since I usually adjust my Flickr pictures even slightly, I'll, being the needy and immodest person that I am, still plump for some of the credit. Nonsense aside, here is the site where the picture is supposed to show up on the slideshow to the right. However, in case the slide changes faster than you can spot it (although it's supposed to stick), here is the photo. The Schmap version is also pretty tiny, so here's a version that is large enough to actually see.



The Phoenix Botanical Garden was the very first stop on our Arizona trip two years ago. We had the evening to spend in Phoenix before driving to Flagstaff the next day, so we followed Frommer's advice and visited these wonderful gardens near sunset, and that began a very wonderful week seeing the sights of Arizona. Here are a few more snaps from that evening. I'm sure that I posted most right after the trip, but what the heck!

More Arizona Memories

These photos are all from Monument Valley. We took a three hour jeep tour near sunset with a native guide (whom you see in a few photos), and it was marvellous. This was the single best thing we did in Arizona, better than the Grand Canyon in a very real way. The tour guide (Frommers)that we followed suggested doing four main things if one had only one week to spend in Arizona: The Grand Canyon, Sedona, Monument Valley, and Canyon de Chelly. Due to distance, I had some doubts about the latter two, but I decided to follow the suggestions and was very glad that I did.

About the slideshow: I do know that Flickr and Picassa support slideshows and have used both. But AFAIK Flickr will only generate a show based on a whole set, but I didn't wish to display a whole set or to create another set. For Picassa, I would need to re-upload photos that are already on the web, which seems to be a waste. This site, Slide, allows me to import whatever pictures that I have already posted in Flickr, and it does so fairly easily. I tried several sites, and this one seems to work most efficiently for me. Also note that I've gotten rid of the butterflies in this display. :)

A Few Photos ...

... from Sedona and the Grand Canyon two years ago. Partly, I just wanted to experiment with this slideshow. I could do with a plainer, non-butterfly version. There are lots of options, but most are somewhat fancified for this plain old guy. You do get a plainer and somewhat better rendition by selecting View All Images below.Maybe I'll do another show of other parts of the trip tomorrow.

Arizona Bling

Well, what blogger doesn't like to make the most out of a bit of a predicament. Of course, that's partly what I did yesterday with the ... er ... em post. However, most of Valentine's Day was actually fine. We had wanted to splurge on a breakfast sandwich at Tims after the procedure; in fact, being mindful of our waistlines lately, we had planned on it as sort of a break-diet breakfast for about a month. But, we got out of the hospital a little too late. However, on the drive home I remembered the Thruway restaurant and was pretty sure we could get breakfast there even though it was close to lunch time. It turns out that we could, and it also turns out that it was very good and satisfying.

Once we got home, I gave Cuppa the card that I had prepared for her featuring the photo below. It was just over a year ago that I took the photo at Monument Valley, Arizona. She has climbed a bit of a ridge to look out over the vast view of monuments (buttes and mesas). Monument Valley was the highlight of our wonderful trip to Arizona. I superimposed the portrait of Cuppa with those earrings which she also purchased somewhere in Arizona. Not one to normally notice such things, I really like
those earring — find them very hot, eh? You should see the heavy metal necklace she's wearing today though. I also notice that!