Dirt. Dirt. and more Dirt.

Last weekend was a family reunion that happens annually on the Arizona Strip. It's about 70 miles from any civilization... yet 900+ people drag themselves and their camping gear out to the dust bowl we call the "Bundy Reunion."

It's huge... it's dirty... it's fun.

Although I'm always afraid of the dust vs. my camera... I take it every year because it's an amazing landscape, and I can always find a fun picture to take. Sure I could bring my husbands Point & Shoot. But what fun would that be?

For instance. The photograph above took awhile to get how I wanted. I wanted the mirror in focus and the background in motion. This would be pretty difficult in any moving situation. But throw in a primitive dirt road at 60+ MPH and you have serious bumpyness! I wanted the shutter speed fast enough that it could still the mirror (even though we were bouncing all over)... yet slow enough to blur the background. I think it took about 10 tries to get the right combination of shutter speed/aperture/and stretch of road. And I'm glad I was patient... because I love how it turned out.

Below, I was getting a picture of Katelyn watching the sunset on our first night there. I forgot to take the the settings off of black and white though.

I thought the picture was cool though, so I kept it. And then I changed the settings so that I could get this:

That was Thursday night.

After that, I lost all "creative photography" interest because Tess and I were sick. We had some sinus thing going on that we didn't have when we left home, so we chalked it up to allergies.

Friday night I couldn't sleep because there was someone snoring in the next tent over. Finally Jared made me a nice bed in the back seat of our truck. I know it doesn't count comfy... but it totally was. I slept soooo good, and felt GREAT the next day (other than having the sniffles and an occasional sneezing fit).

Saturday was a dream! The weather was perfect! Mostly overcast and cool... but not cold. Then it would drizzle rain off and on. Most people would think that it would suck to have rain while you were camping. But out here in the desert it's our idea of a good time. In fact, most of us were saying prayers that it WOULD rain while we were there. And when it started raining... we moved our chairs from under the tarps (that we used for shade) so that we could sit out and enjoy!

This was when Tess and I started feeling a lot better. I think that most of our sinus problems came from the dust in the air. So the rain would knock the dust down. And just when it would start to get dusty, it would rain again and knock the dust down. It was amazing!

So since i was feeling better... out came the camera again (although I made sure to keep it in it's weather resistant camera bag... zipped up tight when not using it).

I had to take a picture of my sister Erica. She participated in the Skeet Shoot competition. I thought that she was rockin' cool because she had never even shot a gun (other than a B.B. gun) before. And there she was rockin' out the skeet shoot with the red-necks. She didn't hit any clay pigeons... but she's a winner in my book!

 

Then it was nap time. I contemplated walking around camp and taking pictures of everyone snoozing. Some people were in some pretty embarrassing positions to photograph (which is why I probably wanted to take a picture of it)... But I didn't want to make anymore family enemies, so I just took one of cute Kate:

...and sweet little Dallie napping on her aunt Ivonna.

 Later, I caught Jocelyn during one of her rare visits to our campground. Since I never get a picture of her at this reunion because she's never around... I made quick work to take this:

look at that dirty face!

And then I got this one of her cooling off in a barrel full of water:

Kate was pretty proud of this jaw bone she found from some perished cattle.

And here is Tess doing what she does best. Smiling and looking cute.

...and then my creative side came back, and I wanted to take a picture of myself through Jared's sunglass lens. This was in-between rain showers. I just noticed that you can see Tess laying on the cot in the bottom corner of his glasses. Isn't she cute?!

 

Then a rain shower came through again, except it was raining and sunny at the same time. I really wanted to get a cool picture of the rain coming through the trees and reflecting the sun. But I didn't have a tri-pod which I would have needed to get the shot I wanted. I needed a slow shutter speed to show the rain falling. But instead I settled on this one with the rain drops frozen in place (which is still kind of cool). You have to look close to see them...

That was it for the Saturday pictures. Sunday morning we started to pack up because we needed to be home at a decent time. Jared needed to get ready for his 50 mile backpacking trip.

An uncle was walking around offering strawberries so that he didn't have to cart them home. Calvin quickly accepted and out came the camera because I needed to document his dirtiness.

Mmmm... look at those hands...

While Jared was busy loading the truck... I kept Calvin busy by helping him to play a little fetch with our dog. Our dog is a little ADHD when it comes to fetching things.

Here's the wind up... (look at the game face on Diode).

And the release:

And lastly... I had to take a picture of a flower that grows in this area called the "desert globemallow."

It has to be one of my favorite flowers ever... and if I could... I'd have a WHOLE YARD OF THEM!

Then, I handed over the camera to Erica, and she took a few. Here are the ones of Tess and I.

Notice the string of drool coming from Tess in the photo above?

How was your weekend?

Comments

[Shauna]

globemallows are my favorite flowers as well. they make me happy. i'm glad you guys had fun at the bundy reunion. i happened to be on the strip one year for the first night of the bundy reunion. my co-worker and i were perched in the darkness trying to blend into nature so we could count and catch bats. some bundies went out spot-lighting, so we left--we decided it was a bad night to try to blend into nature! :)

[Natasha]

I love the pictures of the dog and your little boy!

BTW- whenever you want to take pics... I am hoping they will be home in another week, we'll see... I'm sure they will still be so sleepy for quite awhile, so they will still seem like newborns for longer than a full term baby would be. Whatever you want to do, just let me know! I can't wait, you take such wonderful pics!!!

[Beka]

Not as fun as yours! Great pictures...all of them!

[Beka]

btw...and I forgot my whole purpose of commenting...I broke my little argus 75. I got 12 exposures and then my shutter-advancer broke. Mark was able to save my exposures in the darkroom, but I'm afraid It has taken its last photograph.

So I guess it's back to ebay:)

[Beka]

And how awesome is it that you found 620 film!

[Jessica Richards]

Yeah it was a good year! I actually did enjoy it. I love your pics, as always! And I actually don't have a new camera... I took it back. I decided I wanted the D80 instead of the D40 so now I have to save up a little more.. you know how that goes :) So I am stuck with the same old camera for now. Anyway, sorry I never got a chance to talk to ya at the reunion. I am super shy and kind of just stick to myself. Plus I know you were probably busy with your little one! ttys. Jess

[mckala hummel]

Im glad that you had lots of fun . but i am still glad that i didnt go. im glad that it was not to hot out their. that makes it so much peter

[mckala hummel]

i mean better