Cavaz Photoblog

Good News and Bad News

2006-01-04T21:51:00.000-07:00

The bad news is I won't be updating this photoblog anymore. The good news is it's only because I've finally created my own which is now incorporated into my web site at www.cavaroc.com/plog/. Please update your bookmarks and links.

Thanks!

Panorama from Tom's Thumb

2006-01-01T19:40:00.000-07:00

Tom's Thumb is a rather adventurous hike located in the McDowell Mountains northeast of Scottsdale. The hike is on the other side of the mountains it's a pretty rough road to get to the trailhead. Once on the trail there are boulders to climb, bushes to avoid getting scratched by and a trail that seems to disappear a lot. The trail is actually very makeshift in places especially once you get to the top of the mountains and are making your way toward Tom's Thumb. The view however is amazing and makes it all worth it. There's also a couple of neat little caves where large boulders hang or are supported up by other boulders. This is taken looking northeast from the Tom's Thumb which is the large boulder extending out of the left of the photo. It's stitched together from 9 photos originally.

Our House in New Orleans - Post-Katrina

2005-12-27T08:26:00.000-07:00

These photos are of my parents house in New Orleans and a couple others are a couple of houses away. This is what my parents house and neighborhood looks like four months after Hurricane Katrina. These are all in uptown New Orleans and no post-processing has been done on them just yet. Plenty more are on the way of other areas of uptown.

Phoenix From the Top of Camelback Mountain

2005-12-18T22:17:00.000-07:00

I was a little disappointed in the weather when we started our ascent up the Echo Trail of Camelback Mountain. From there it only got drearier and the brown cloud of pollution that sometimes comes out was making a pretty prominent appearance. I wasn't really too excited about the conditions until I started playing with a couple of the photos when I got home and wound up with these two. It makes me wish that I had taken more.

Out of Africa Safari

2005-12-17T12:29:00.000-07:00

Last weekend a couple of friends and I headed up to Camp Verde to visit the Out of Africa Safari Park. It's a really neat park with a lot of expansion in the works. We also discovered while we there on that Sunday that on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays they let people watch them feed the carnivores. I unfortunately didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked because my battery was only half-charged and went to low after ony a few minutes there. So I only got one or two shots of each area. Luckily there were lots of tigers.

Leftover Plants From a Fire

2005-12-03T20:59:00.000-07:00

The fire in this area this past summer took out a lot of the plant life that lived here. I hadn't been back here since before then and it looked entirely different. This was taken on my out as I was coming up over the hill.

Verde River

2005-12-03T20:37:00.000-07:00

Well my First Friday show has come and gone after having an insane last week involving lost sleep, stress, 3 stitches in my right index finger and all sorts of last minute shenanigans, I decided to take a small road trip into one of my favorite areas: Tonto National Forest. It wouldn't be a long one though, the last gas station along the way wouldn't take my debit card so i was stuck with only about 1/4 of a tank. Oh well. I got some good shots anyway. More to come also!

Phoenix from Squaw Peak

2005-11-20T19:20:00.000-07:00

This is a 14 photo panorama taken of Phoenix at night on top of Squaw Peak in the Phoenix Mountains. For those familiar with the area, or wanting to learn, the big highway running across the middle is highway 51. To the left is South, straight ahead is West and to the right is North. The two main roads coming toward the camera are Glendale Ave and Northern, respectively. The small red light floating in the left of the image are actually the towers on the South Mountains. In the hi-res version you can also see the 101 and I-17 north of the 101 in the distance.

First Friday

2005-11-14T19:06:00.000-07:00

I was just informed today that my work will be on show in a gallery for First Friday. If you're interested in stopping by on December 2nd, it will be at Holy Click located at:

1326 W. Roosevelt
Phoenix, AZ 85007

For those that don't know, First Friday is a monthly event in downtown Phoenix where galleries, houses, shops, etc all open their doors and expose as many artists as possible to the public in one night. Thus, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity they're giving me. Hope to see you there!

Sunset from My Driveway

2005-11-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

This was sunset this past Thursday taken from my driveway in Scottsdale, Arizona. They were taken right when I got home from work. Had I caught longer red lights on the way home on Hayden, I would have taken more. But the lights weren't long enough. I probably should've taken the 101 that day since that always seems to crawl.

Grand Canyon at Desert View Panorama

2005-11-03T23:21:00.000-07:00

This is a 10 photo panorama taken at the Desert View at the Grand Canyon during the golden hour.

Grand Canyon from the Desert View

2005-11-03T22:14:00.000-07:00

This is one of the 10 photos that I picked out of a panorama I just started of the Grand Canyon. This one seemed to stand out really well on its own so I decided to put it up here before making the panorama. It was taken during the golden hour at the Desert View area of the Grand Canyon which is about as far east of the Grand Canyon as you can get.

Dead Tree at Zion National Park

2005-11-01T21:21:00.000-07:00

This is a dead tree that was taken along a trail in Zion National Park. One of the few non-panorama shots that I like from there.

Grand Canyon North Rim

2005-11-01T21:11:00.000-07:00

This is a 12 photo panorama taken of the Grand Canyon North Rim when we stopped on our way back from Zion National Park. A few of us crawled up on top of a small rock above the main trail and enjoyed the view from there rather than the typical viewing areas. We preferred making our own viewing spots much more.

Zion Canyon

2005-10-20T20:36:00.000-07:00

This is a 4 photo panorama of Zion Canyon taken on the way down from the Angel's Landing Hike.

Angel's Landing at Zion National Point

2005-10-20T20:03:00.000-07:00

This is a 3 photo vertical panorama taken from about halfway up the last leg of the Angel's Landing Hike at Zion National Park. You can get a sense of how narrow the path up really is and how steep the drop on either side is with only a chain to hold on to.

Rocky Point Sunset

2005-10-20T18:30:00.000-07:00

This is a panorama of the sunset from the similar looking photo that was posted before this. It's a 5 photo panorama and was taken at sunset (obviously) on the beach of Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point), Mexico.

In case it's not blatantly obvious...I'm really anxious to get back.

Rocky Point, Mexico

2005-10-16T23:37:00.000-07:00

This weekend some friends and I headed south of the border to Puerto Penasco, Mexico, aka, Rocky Point. It was a great trip and an amazing getaway.

Zion National Park in Black and White

2005-10-04T22:53:00.000-07:00

Here's a previous post's panorama but in black and white. Something about this composition was screaming to made into a black and white and I'm glad I listened to it. This is the top of the Angel's Landing hike.

More from Grand Canyon and Zion National Park

2005-10-03T22:10:00.000-07:00

Here are some more quick shots taken from Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon. The two on the left are from Zion while the other three are from Grand Canyon South Rim. Also if you're in that area and you're only visiting one, I'd highly recommend visiting the other since they're so close.

Angel's Landing at Zion National Park - The Other Side

2005-10-03T20:22:00.000-07:00

This is what the view from the Angel's Landing hike looked like directly opposite of the previous one. It's a 5 photo panorama looking over the other side of Zion Canyon.

Angel's Landing at Zion National Park

2005-10-01T22:59:00.000-07:00

I threw together this quick 4 photo panorama while procrastinating from unpacking. So now that I've got internet and SNL on in the background, I don't think the tornado debris that is my room will change much in the coming weeks.

But about the panorama...it was taken at the top of a hike that takes you up a narrow cliff to the top of a mountain with only a chain to keep you from falling a thousand feet or two. Well worth it though. Quite an adventure.

Terry at the Grand Canyon South Rim

2005-09-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a 9 photo panorama of a friend of ours named Terry taking a break along the South Kaibab Trail in the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon South Rim

2005-09-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

Continuing on from my little moving/packing break, I went ahead and did a few from our trip last weekend to the Grand Canyon South Rim. As with the last post, there's still a lot more to come...mostly in panorama form.

Zion National Park and Grand Canyon North Rim

2005-09-28T07:22:00.000-07:00

So I decided to take a small break from packing and moving and put up a few photos. These are a few photos from two weekends ago when we went to Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon North Rim. There are many more to come though. This is just a small sampling of them. I'm probably going to make some black and white and there are several panoramas that I still have to put together. In fact the first one isn't even from Zion National Park. It's actually from the Marble Canyon and Painted Desert area. The other two don't really give you a good idea of what Zion is like, but that'll be the panoramas' job. The last one is a quick shot from the Grand Canyon North Rim. Again, more is on the way.