We left Tucson late yesterday and drove 2 hours North by Northwest (as it were) to get to Tempe, AZ, a city on the outskirts of Phoenix.

In addition to having a great time catching up with an old friend, we also had a chance to visit some museums in Tucson, all of which were interesting for a variety of reasons. Two highlights

• Arizona State Museum – Well-done exhibits on the history of native americans as well as a nifty “pottery vault” that is (they say) the world’s largest collection of Native American pottery.  Plus, I had a chance to talk with the photo curator there, a very friendly and helpful woman who was a pleasure to talk with, even if her collection of photos doesn’t tie neatly into my project.  But an enjoyable meeting none-the-less!
• Center for Creative Photography. One highlight to our visit to their public (and free!) gallery was seeing the original negative of a photo by Ansel Adams called Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, along with notes he made on how to produce one of the hundreds of printed versions of that photo. I’ve lectured about this photo a bunch, and I often use it in my workshops as an example of the notion of how “taking” a photo is different from “making” a photo, since the original negative of Adams’ photos do not translate to a final print without a lot of work in the darkroom (or, nowadays, digital darkroom).  In fact, it was reading about how Ansel Adams made this particular photo years ago that changed the way I approached my photography. So, it was fun to see the negative in person and see from his notes the dozen or more controlled changes he made to make one of his prints from that negative.

Anyway, those were just a few of the highlights from Tucson. Here in Tempe, we  have some more museums to target as well as a few relatives to visit with. One of the constants in Arizona no matter where you are, though, are the cacti. There are tons of cacti everywhere, including the ubiquitous giant Saguaros, with their distinctive shape:

Saguaros at Sunset, Arizona

Although I found the light in New Mexico more “enchanting” so far than the light in Tucson of Tempe, the combination of a few streaks of light at sunset behind a stunningly shaped cactus does inspire taking — and making — a photo in Arizona.