2010 left its mark

On December 30, 2010 the state was hit by a very big winter storm. My wife, my sons, and I, were excited about it, so on December 31st, we decided to take to the road and see if we could find some snow. By then, the storm was supposed to have left us, it was still cloudy and cold, but the forecast didn't say anything about more snow falling. We thought that it would be a good idea to travel east, since we had never gone that way, but I was secretly worried that we would be going a long way and we wouldn't find any snow... and I was not sure how I was going to make it up to the kids... I was in for a nice surprise.

We took Highway 79 towards Miami-Globe and found a beautiful Route 66 road that lead us into a snow storm. The snow was falling hard and continuously and we were only an hour and a half away from home!

(Click photos for full-size)

This is a desert palm tree, very unique to Arizona to have this type of contrasts.There was a very high cliff there. Yes, I could have taken a more dramatic photo, but it was very slippery
(I don't work for Nat-Geo, you know)

This was shot on the same spot looking on a different direction.

These are Nopal cactuses. Yes, they were covered in snow, and I shot this one almost by request.
Just one day before, someone said I had to "go out there and photograph the snowed-on cactuses.
I was excited to have found this one there.

This is a branch of an Ocotillo tree. In this close-up (original size)
you can spot some star-shaped snow crystals (at least I could ☺)

As I was looking for subjects, I saw this little bird jumping around in the snow. I stood still and started shooting. To add more drama, my battery was running out and I had left the spare in the car.
I kept shooting and it kept getting closer.

I was curious to see how close it would get. I kept shooting and I noticed it was looking back at me and hiding behind the sticks

(If his eye was behind the stick... How would I see it?☺)

It jumped its way to a more 'secure' location, still keeping an eye on me. I was standing still,
hoping my battery would last a little longer... and my feet were freezing,
but I was loving these photos. The busy and colorful branches turned out to be a nice frame!

Here, it actually left the branches and got even closer to me. On the top-right image you can see some snow splatter as it lands on its way to that stick.
The bottom-right photo shows it still in the air right before landing on it.

Finally, it got very close to me, and posed... Did it know that was the last photo I was going to be able to take? My battery died at that exact photo. I knew that as soon as I moved, it would fly away. I aimed, focused (manually to make sure I got it right,) and released the shutter. When I tried to review, my camera was dead. I am glad this was the last one, it turned out better than I could have hoped for.

Finally, one of my boys (Yes, Joab is a big Cradinals fan).

I am pretty sure they had almost as much fun as I did.

2010 left its mark in Arizona on that last day of the year, but it also left its mark on me. The smiles on my children's faces, the joy in my wife and the moments we lived that New-Years eve are something we will always remember.