Tag Archives: photography

Snowbirding 2018 Postcards: The Blythe Intaglios

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Out in the desert north of Blythe, CA, not far from the Colorado River, ancient native people cleared away the dark colored rock on the surface of flat plateaus to reveal the light colored gravel beneath it. In doing this, they “drew” a number of figures and designs. These are the Blythe Intaglios.

I’m staying in Quartzsite, AZ this month, about 35 minutes from the site. I’ve flown over it with my helicopter a handful of times starting at least 15 years ago. This time, I had a different aircraft with me, my Mavic Pro drone. I headed out about an hour before dawn to capture the site in first light.

As you might imagine, at 6:30 AM local time on a Monday morning, there wasn’t a crowd. In fact, other than a motor home that had obviously been parked overnight near the main road, I was the only one there. I got out with Penny and moved to the back of the truck to set up the drone with my iPad. I tried in vain to set up the Mavic for a live broadcast via Periscope, but the lowest quality image setting on the Mavic are still too high for Periscope and it just didn’t work. So I reset the video camera to 1080p — I seldom bother with 4K because my computer is too old and feeble to handle it — and launched.

In the east, the sun was struggling to get through some low, thin clouds. I should have waited, but I know from experience that sometimes waiting yields worse light. There was enough to see so I shot several flyby videos of all three fenced-in Intaglio areas. I think I flew for about 12-15 minutes before landing in the truck bed and downloading two of the videos to my iPad.

That’s when the light got good. I shut off the drone, popped out the battery, and snapped in a fresh one, then started up again I launched quickly and got the two shots you see here, along with a few others and some more flybys. This is exactly what I wanted: the figures in the foreground with the rugged desert mountains illuminated by the rising sun off in the distance. I flew for another 15 minutes or so.

The lower site has two fenced-off areas protecting three Intaglios. Can you see my truck in the photo?

Blythe Intaglios at first light.

The upper site has just one figure inside a fence. I suspect that due to the condition of the road (bumpy) and the fact that you really can’t see the figures from the ground, it has fewer visitors.

Blythe Intaglios with mountains in the distance.

The site is protected now, but should have been protected earlier, like in the 1970s when vandals added the tire tracks. The fences were added in the 1980s.

The site is on BLM land and is free to visit 24/7/365.

Snowbirding 2018 Postcards: More Aerial Views of Quartzsite

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I know this is getting monotonous, but I’m kind of stuck here now.

Someone who lives here asked if I was going to sell posters or postcards of Quartzsite from the air. This was a very popular item in past years and I have been thinking about it. So this morning, while sitting at my booth, I sent my Mavic up to see (1) how high I needed to be to capture a good shot of the whole area and (2) how “filled in” the desert camping areas are. The answers: (1) very high and (2) not enough yet.

Of course, I took a few photos while I was up there. This first one is from the southwest corner of the area. The big RV tent went up the other day; the area beside it will soon be full of RVs for sale and vendors living in their RVs. In this shot, I’m set up in the show area near the freeway overpass.

Just for fun on the way back, I pointed the camera straight down and centered it over the Tyson Wells Rock and Gem Show. The resulting image looks like Google Earth on steroids.

More to come.

Snowbirding 2018 Postcards: Dawn at Tyson Wells

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As discussed in the previous post, I’m currently camped out at the Tyson Wells Rock and Gem Show in Quartzsite, AZ. This morning dawned perfectly clear and calm — a typical desert morning. I sent my Mavic up to take some photos. Here are two of the best.

Here’s the show area from the northeast corner. The area in the upper left will soon have an enormous tent for the RV show that starts around mid-month. That’s the show that brings in tens of thousands of RVers every January. Don’t you just love the way the mountains look in the early light?

Here’s the same area, but from the southeast. Beyond the freeway, you can see most of the town of Quartzsite. Beyond that, a lot of open desert.

Snowbirding 2018: At Tyson Wells Rock and Gem Show

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A quick aerial video and an explanation of what I’m doing here.

After about three weeks of off-the-grid camping out in the desert with and without friends, I’ve settled into a vendor campsite at the Tyson Wells Rock and Gem Show.

I’ve been having some trouble with the batteries in my RV or possibly the solar panels or maybe the charge controller. That’s the problem: we don’t really know where the problem lies. Or even if there’s a real problem. I could go into detail here, but it isn’t really worth it. Although my batteries are now fully charged and my solar setup seems to be working fine, I decided to take a break from being off-the-grid and spend some time with at least a partial hookup. And that’s the main reason why I’m here now.

You see, I was supposed to be here later in the month for the Tyson Wells Sell-A-Rama. My friend Janet, who is an artist, has been doing the show for years. I always wanted to try having a booth here. But what could I sell? My photos? My glass work? Honey from my bees? None of it was either interesting or likely to succeed. And then I thought of my Mavic Pro and all those folks camped out in the desert. Aerial photos of their sites? Why not? So I signed up for the Sell-A-Rama and got a site right next to Janet’s.

But that doesn’t start until January 17. It’s January 3.

Tyson wells has two other shows here. The first, which starts on January 5, is the Rock and Gem show. Quartzsite is famous for its rock and mineral shows — almost as famous as Tucson. (In fact, most of the rock vendors start here in January and go to the big show in Tucson and then come back.) Tyson Wells joins in the fun at the beginning of the month.

If you’ve never been to a rock and mineral show, you have no idea what it’s like. There are rocks every every type imaginable, many of them cut and polished into jewelry quality. And yes, people do buy rocks. If you saw these rocks, you’d know why. Heck, even I bought rocks last year.

Of course, it’s not just rocks. It’s the usual collection of tools and clothes and dog stuff and food and … well, anything goes.

When I went in to ask about a spot, I was told there were only a few left but was offered a double sized spot for the price of a single. Because I signed up late, however, I got stuck in a spot in the rock area. I’m at the end of a row, which is good because I can get in and out easily, but also bad because, well, I’m with the rock people. My neighbors are hippies of every age, some with dreadlocks and others with what look like painful facial piercings. They have countless dogs and live in an old motorhome. They cut and polish rocks and make jewelry. One of them polished a piece of what he called bacon agate for me. It’s about the size of the top joint on my pinky finger and very pretty. It actually sparkles. It might make a nice ring.

I spent most of the day putting together my booth. I have a tent-style shelter, standard 10×10 feet, that I bought years ago for helicopter rides events and I brought that along. Unfortunately, the side panels attach with velcro, which I think is a bit flimsy. So I spent most of the afternoon adding grommets. The finished tent looks good, although I still have work to do inside.

My camper and truck are parked in my booth space, which I’m pretty sure is 28×28 feet. There’s another 28×28 empty spot behind me (which might stay empty) and a 14×28 spot next to me (which should get a vendor). I have an electric and water hookup, which is nice. I dumped my holding tanks on the way over here so I shouldn’t need to dump. On January 15, I move to my other spot for Sell-A-Rama, which has a full hookup; I can dump again when I arrive there. In the meantime, I’m running my fridge on AC power (instead of propane) and don’t have to run my water pump.

When I got my booth buttoned up for the night, I had just enough light left to launch the Mavic for a quick tour of the area. I added some titles and a voiceover for the circuit around Tyson Wells. Just a quick thing thrown together in iMovie. I’ll try to make better videos later in the month.

I’m completely exhausted — perhaps because I’ve been up since 2 AM and have been working all day? — but might enjoy a movie on my RV’s little TV before I go to bed. Or, more likely, fall asleep with the TV on. If so, I probably won’t post this to my blog until the morning; I’m still waiting for the video to upload to YouTube.

Tyson Wells after Sunset
Here’s a photo from this evening’s flight. I circled my booth setup. If you look very hard, you can see the tent, my camper, and my truck parked perpendicular to the camper with the truck’s bed under the camper’s overhang. It looks weird, but it works.

More another day.

Snowbirding 2018 Postcards: Fireside at Camp

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Out in the desert, when the sun goes down, it’s like Mother Nature turned the heat off. It might have been in the 70s all day, but the temperature takes a plunge after sunset and a campfire is pretty much required if you want to hang out outdoors.

We spent about an hour gathering wood on Wednesday morning — mostly mesquite and salt cedar — and added that to the six aspen (or birch?) logs I’d brought south with me from a camp in Idaho back in October. While we were out boating in the afternoon, a friend stopped by looking for us. When he saw the large pieces of wood we’d gathered, he kindly used his chainsaw to cut them into manageable pieces. (Reminds me of a fairy tale where people put their damaged shoes out on the doorstep at night and elves repaired them. This elf’s name is Steve.)

As usual, my friend Janet got the fire going before it was dark and we sat around it to chat, eat dinner, and then chat some more.

It night was a great night for star gazing, too. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the area is very dark. With a meteor shower on the calendar, I took out my Nikon and set it up for night photography. We had a clear view of the horizon to the east and watched Orion rise. The meteors came soon afterward, averaging about one per minute as NASA had forecasted.

I tried (and failed) to get a photo of one, but I did make this photo of our campsite in the firelight, with Janet sitting by the fire. A car happened to drive by during the 30-second exposure, illuminating assorted bits and pieces of the scene. I have a darker shot, too, but I like this one better.

Fireside camp