A day in Mexico

Took a ride from Yuma, AZ to Los Algodones, mx. There is a huge parking area on the Indian Reservation that borders mexico..Parking is $5 for the day...Then you walk across the border  to be greeted by this sign:

In the next few blocks are an abundance of Dentists, Optical and Pharmaceutical store fronts to serve you..Here are a few photographs of some of the colorful buildings:

To give you an idea of the cost of dental services...a crown costs between $175 and $195 dollars.. A set of upper false teeth $210..
Lots of Snowbirds go there to get all their dental, optical and pharmaceutical needs handled... There are lots of miscellaneous goods for sale such as:

I just wanted to show Yvonne what it was like in Los Algodones, mex.. We decided to have lunch in the plaza.. It was early in the day so it wasn't as full as usual but here are some photographs taken in the plaza: first a mural....

Some snowbirds eating breakfast and lunch in the plaza..

 A colorful taco stand:

An interesting place... great for people watching.

Yuma, AZ for great weather

Yuma, AZ is the winter home for thousands of snowbirds...mostly people from Canada and the Midwest states..where it snows..

They live for 6 months in  RV's. The rv's are stored in their site all year long. They get together to play cards, play pool , and have a daily coctail hour. ( or two)  There are three Super Walmart stores in yuma, AZ.. Canadians also like to dance to live music:

 Here are some photos I took in yuma.. Downtown there is a park that the Colorado River flows through..

 There are some interesting trees in the park.

Right near the park is a Catholic Church.It was built in 1922 and has three crosses on the front..

 An interesting door

 And Statue

Sunsets in Yuma, AZ are beautiful:

Flea markets are plentiful in Yuma..Usually they have live music playing and plenty to eat:

I noticed and elderly gentlemen with a big mustache..I asked him if it was alright to take his photo..He said "sure".

Our last day in Yuma we woke up to the the moon setting in the horizon.. I grabbed my camera and took a few photos:

Flea market day

Quartzsite, Az has many places to look at rocks and various rv accessories ..It is one of the favorite spots for snowbirds to congregate..Here are a few photos of the various activities: 

If you get tired  you can rest here:

If you are disabled you can ride around on a cart:

Standing in line for lunch:

Shop until you drop:

There was a fantastic sunrise the day we left for Yuma:

Quartzite, Az winter haven

I arrived at my friend Ed's on the 20th of January..The first night we had a beautiful sunset:

The next day we went to the Big Tent...It is a tent about the size of a football field, filled with Items to sell Rv'ers. I had a lot of fun taking photographs with my cameras...trying not to be noticed., without being noticed. Here are a few samples:

Get a back rub here:

Dog Lovers in the big tent:

Anybody need a wallet?

The most popular area for men was the helicopter model dealer:

I didn't want to leave this booth..Georgeous hat!!!

Tomorrow we go to the flea market..

A trip to Santa Cruz, Ca

Yesterday we took a ride over to Santa Cruz to watch the surfers

riding the waves. It was a cold beautiful day with lots of sunshine...It's lots of fun trying to capture good photographs with my panasonic fz35 point and shoot camera. My panasonic has a feature called "burst shooting" that works pretty good.. it takes three shots in succession..I am pretty happy with the results but next time I will take my Dslr and see if it is easier..Here are three photographs:  (Click to enlarge)

Happy New Year Everybody.

Combining two photographs

Last week I was looking at some photographs on Flickr..I noticed  some beautiful photographs that were made in Photoshop by combining  a flower photograph with a textured background effect..So I decided to try doing it myself in photoshop...  I also applied a canvas texture to the finished photograph. ..I think it turned out pretty good.. Hope you like it...(Click to enlarge)

San Francisco at Christmas time

On december 12th our Morgan Hill camera club took a field trip to
San Francisco... First Stop was Treasure Island so we could take photographs of the San Francisco Skyline... When we arrived the clouds opened up to provide us a gorgeous sunset. (click to enlarge)

After the sun finished setting we took photographs of the San Francisco skyline skyscrapers all lite up with christmas lights. I used a painterly technique for the following images.(Click to enlarge)

When we were through on Treasure Island we went to the Hyatt in San Francisco to see their xmas decorations..what a sight!