Two Hotels

Here are two more partially-restored slides from the collection of my aunt and uncle. I quite like the graphic design of the signs, particularly the Safari. I wonder if either hotel exists anymore. 

Saving Some Slides

Most of the family slides I've been scanning over the last couple of years are in pretty good shape considering their age, but a few of the oldest slides have started to fade or lose their colour. This slide depicts a sheep herd in Monument Valley sometime in the 1960s. Unlike most of our slides, it wasn't taken by a family member; it was purchased as a keepsake. I think it's a pretty cool image, so I was disappointed to see that most of its colour had faded to bright red. Thankfully I was able to use a number of Photoshop tools to restore some of its original colour, though without knowing how the original looked it's hard to measure the degree of my success. It still looks a bit washed out, but it's better than the pinkish-red hue that once filled the entire frame.

This shot from the same set of slides shows how badly the images have degraded over the years.

Monorail to Monument Valley

Last night I dreamed that I was a student at the U of A again, and that some of my classes took place at the new Strathcona University annex, located in Monument Valley, Utah/Arizona. Luckily Edmonton's LRT system extended all the way to Strathcona U. in the world of the dream, and though the trip took many hours, the scenery was spectacular. I arrived at dawn, a spectacular sunrise throwing the stone monoliths into silhouette as the LRT cars glided into the station.

It was an appealing vision, but when I awoke I realized that winding many kilometres of rail through Monument Valley would probably ruin the landscape. Still, progress, always progress!

Heck of a View, Pilgrim

I find it astounding that even the least gifted photographers (people like me) can now take half-decent photographs thanks to today's superior lenses and digital technology. With this shot of Arizona's Grand Canyon, I was trying to capture the idea of layers - layers of stone, layers of sky. It looked like a giant cake to me at the time. Grand Canyon Nature Cake!

Dark Sentinel

This gnarled old tree overlooking the south rim of the Grand Canyon really caught my attention on New Year's Day, so I tried to snap a reasonably artistic photo. I'm not sure if I succeeded or not. It probably would have turned out better had I mounted a stepladder and shot from a higher angle to show more of the canyon itself. Alas...

The South Rim

My computer is still inoperable, so I'm reduced to blogging from my phone; convenient, but cumbersome. Posts will be short and sweet until I'm up and running again.

The Grand Canyon

Hoover Dam

Constructed in the 1930s, the Hoover Dam is an engineering marvel that must be seen with the naked eye to be fully appreciated. The dam has earned a prominent place in popular culture, tripling the thrill of seeing it close up; I watched Superman save it on film in 1978, built it as a virtual dictator in the Civilization games, and most recently visited it in Fallout: New Vegas. (The Fallout Hoover Dam is more accurate than I would have imagined!)

Here are some photos (pending):