Bob

Desiccated Cholla Remnants in 3D

A large portion of the lot here in the High Sonoran Desert is still natural desert vegetation which we chose to leave as it was before we built the house here. Some of the natural fauna will eventually wither and die as was the case for the remnants of a Buckhorn Cholla Cactus depicted in the anaglyphic photo above. I photographed a pair of images in January of 2021 to finally combine into this interesting 3D image. Click on the image to enlarge.

If you don’t happen to have a pair of red/cyan 3D glasses handy, you can view the 2D image here, although you will miss the perspective of the desiccated wood twisting and turning up out of the page.

Accidental Stereoscopic Photos

We were cruising through a parking lot after dropping off some mail when Verna snapped a pair of photos of a couple of saguaro cacti with some mesquite trees and a strip mall across the highway in the background. I recognized that there was a possible 3D image in those so I combined them into the anaglyph above (click to enlarge). If you don’t have a pair of red/cyan 3D glasses, you can see the 2D version here.

There have been a number of times when Verna managed to get a 3D image unintentionally, usually by clicking a pair of images while the truck is in motion. The image above is an example of that. There are more such images we logged in our 3D Stuff category:

Click on items above to open in a new tab or window.

Charity Car Wash

Yesterday, the 6th and 7th graders who attend the Wickenburg Christian Academy (WCA) participated in a car wash event to raise funds for a trip to Catalina Island. I spoke with one of the teachers who said they were going to learn about ocean biology when they get there. Of course, there is much else to see and do on the island.

Verna and I were married over 20 years ago in Avalon. We’ve been there many times together, and visited the island in our earlier lives as well, so that sort of makes us SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) on Catalina. We celebrated our anniversary by going back to the island for several years, but the combination of increased expenses (transportation, lodging, souvenirs and food) and an uptick in crime in the area eased us out of our annual pilgrimage.

As for the car wash, the kids and their teachers did a very good job on the truck (clickable image above); we made a reasonable donation to their cause. We support WCH and make annual contributions to their scholarship fund, which is adequate as a federal write-off and gets us out of Arizona Income Tax altogether.

A Decade of Feeding the Birds

Actually, we’ve been feeding the birds for longer than a decade. We used to have feeders in our California home for years before we moved to Arizona. It’s more like two and a half decades we’ve fed the birds.

We took these two images ten years apart to the day in our Arizona back yard. Above is a cardinal snacking on a seed bell, the image taken on 10/24/2012. Below is a cactus wren pecking at a seed block, the image was taken the afternoon of 10/24/2022.

I took he top image with my old Canon A710 IS compact camera which I still have and use regularly. I took the image of the cactus wren with my Canon EOS Rebel SL1. I took the cardinal photo early afternoon and the cactus wren late afternoon when the sun was behind the mesquite tree so the lighting is not as good. Click on either image to enlarge.

Wickenburg Town Founder in 3D

We posted about our Town’s Namesake, Henry Wickenburg, back in June of 2014. At some later date, I made a 3D image of the Henry Wickenburg Bust at the civic center and just am now getting around to posting it. Click on the image to enlarge.

More about Henry Wickenburg from Wikipedia:

In 1862 a gold strike on the Colorado River near present-day Yuma brought American prospectors, who searched for minerals throughout central Arizona. Many of the geographic landmarks now bear the names of these pioneers, including the Weaver Mountains, named after mountain man Pauline Weaver, and Peeples Valley, named after a settler.

An Austrian named Henry Wickenburg was one of the first prospectors. His efforts were rewarded with the discovery of the Vulture Mine, from which more than $30 million worth of gold has been dug.

If you don’t yet have your pair of red/cyan 3D glasses, you can see the 2D image here.