Ann-alog, a Pixel Remix, where Ann Torrence blogs about photographing for a book on U.S. Highway 89, the greatest road trip route in America. Photography tips, locations, trip reports, and real life.

Perfect for frittering the day away

What I'm reading:

• Photo Business News & Forum,
• Hackszine a new venture by the folks behind Craft Magazine's blog,
• Last of the Donkey Pilgrims by Kevin O'Hara, which is responsible for my intense longing for a donkey of my own,
• Rocket Studio's site is chock-full of inspired PS work,
• American Sign Museum: Data points on the neon ranch project hatched earlier this week,
• 43 folders home of the Hipster PDA, which is working better than ever anything I've tried to get organized.
• Paul Theroux's The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific because I couldn't find his book on Patagonia

What I'm knitting:

• Durrow in a spring green
• Blanket Coat from Sally Melville's The Knitting Experience: Color in Knit Picks' Wool of the Andes hand-dye bulky yarn, Redwood Forest
• Socks for me, a turquoise, brown, orange variegated Opal with some Knit Picks turquoise solid for toes, heel, cuffs (almost done)
• Socks for R, Knit Picks Essential Sock Yarn in cocoa (ripped back and in a pile of string)

What I'm working on when not frittering time away on above:

• revising the book proposal
• training materials for VisualShare
• Printing and matting a full set of the Remix Series so I can carry it around town
• Filing taxes for me and the company
• Sending out queries and promo materials
• Scheming and scheduling the spring and summer shooting I want to do for all my projects

I don't think Nile Tiles counts as working. The Geoff Show counts so long as I listen while I work. But I'm the only one counting, and it's my opinion that counts.

Look at the potential in that faded beauty

All that's left of the North Star Twin theater in Ogden, Utah is the marquee, and that doesn't look like it'll last much longer. The new houses on the lot are already roofed, sheathed, and the curbs for the new street look very new. In fact, I couldn't quite figure why the sign is still there at all. Peeling paint, dangling neon tubes, broken bulbs. A minor tragedy in the scheme of things, but it makes me sad nonetheless.

I want it. I want to rescue it, and all the others. I love neon. I want to ranch neon. Neon is compatible with my other dream - keeping donkeys. A small herd, to carry my gear. Because donkeys are social creatures, I wouldn't dream of having just one. Same with neon - it needs like companions. The donkeys can graze under the neon. The neon can be restored to its former glory - just look at what they did in Albuqurque.

In the 21st century, audacious plans begin with "can I get the URL?" And the answer is YES, I now own neonranch.com and neonranch.org.

The divers light up in a three-blink sequence, finishing with a splash

I spotted this sign on my first December trip to AZ, nabbed the photo on New Year's Day during the second trip. I've been smiling about it ever since. When I found it (in the daylight) on my way back from the Biosphere, I had no idea that there would be so many neon colors. Or if it even still lit up.

I've started planning the next trip south, sometime in March. Have another neon sign on my mind, along with wildflowers (if it rains), and mariachi bands. A kaleidoscope of spring color, which I'm looking forward to while I'm huddled up next to my space heater, sending out proposals and writing sentences. The book project has progressed from preliminary to production. It's fun to say I'm working on one. Then I have to go work on it. And make my own splash. Blink, blink, blink.

Snow-kiting at Skyline Drive - Sanpete County, Utah

16 days, that's as long as I let R have the peace of his home before I organized a daytrip. In my defense, let me say that I wanted to breathe some clear air; the air pollution in SLC has been abysmal. Any excuseTime for an outing. From our place it's exactly 100 miles to Mt. Pleasant and just a bit more up to Skyline Drive. I dropped off some prints in Fairview from the live nativity and we headed up the hill.

Vodka party beverages

I got up to Chester's Blacksmith Shop in Park City on Friday, photographing an art show opening again this year. See the on-line gallery.

This year, I arrived early enough to poke around the Sundance scene on Main Street before the party started. I counted three tv satellite trucks in two blocks, and the night was young. Not clear to me why ESPN and MySpace have a presence on Main Street.

At Chester's, I met five of the artists in the of the Hang'm High exhibit, all doing some pretty cool stuff. I met more interesting people, like David Choe, who did the recent cover of Juxtapoz, and animated filmmaker M dot Strange, who was killing time before the Sundance (world) premier of his animated movie, "We are the Strange" at midnight that night.

I would be a useless paparazzi, in that I don't recognize celebrities. If I ever looked at tv, I might not have been surprised that:

1. People are wearing fur again
2. poor-boy caps are back (for women at least), and
3. vodka comes in red, orange, green, blue and purple.

Same infrared image, 6 color maps.

I spent the better part of this week on digital house-keeping, and found this stop sign picture. I took it on a walk when I first got my IR filter last summer and I remember thinking how cool it was that the paint seemed to disappear. Yesterday, I started goofing around with different color maps, when I "should" have been doing something more productive. Pretty soon, this is what happened. I'm not sure where I'll go with it next, but I'm glad I didn't stop when my "better" judgment told me to get back to work.

Mohave Point, Grand Canyon National Park

The big snow storm before Christmas spread from SLC all the way to middle Arizona, so we accelerated our departure by 24 hours. Two punctured tires, a stop at Cabela's for hand-warmers, a motel door in Cameron AZ that couldn't be opened except by brute force, and we made it to the Grand Canyon for sunrise.

I hadn't been to the south rim since I was 13 years old - this was not the kind of properly scouted photo-op I like for my best work. R and I drove along the rim that morning, checking out all the overlooks, and I was disappointed to see a little haze already building up in the canyon. A ranger told us that the canyon itself sometimes had a inversion pattern, and what we were seeing wasn't pollution, just fog.

I watched some clouds floating up out of the canyon as we left the visitor center at Mather Point. Riding shotgun, I called for a stop at Mohave Point, where rising warm air lifted fleeting clouds from below the rim. The updraft also brought flocks of ravens. R stopped counting individuals after 202. We've never before seen ravens by the dozen--as many as 50 would stream by in the air currents. We watched them land just below the rim, picking for something (fallen pinons?) on the margins of shady, snow-covered ledges. The next day, the clouds were gone, the canyon got pretty hazy and the ravens cruised along in ones and twos again.

We were lucky, and guessed right on the weather. I would will drive through another snowstorm to see the ravens and the mist rising to meet the canyon's rim.

Lomaki ruins, Wupatki National Monument

One thing I love about my book project is the unending list of destinations to explore. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with the amount of work to do, but then I have a day like January 3.

Traditional haystack in Jackson Hole Wyoming

I've been meaning to show you this one for a while. I made it last fall on the last day of our annual sea kayaking trip to Grand Tetons. I'll remember for a long time how amazing it was to watch the fog burn off as the sun climbed over the ridge.