13th and Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA in USA

This is a 360 degree panorama I took at the corner of 13th Street and Market Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania recently. The one thing I found interesting is that the temperature was relatively mild, I had on a short sleeve Hawaiian shirt and no coat. But most of the people in Philadelphia were bundled up with dark black coats. Almost no one had on anything other than black. I would guess that the temperature was between 65 and 70 degrees because otherwise I would have been uncomfortable. I didn't do too well in the cold until I lived in the snow country for a few years. I found that unless the temperature got below freezing, it did not bother me too much. Anyway, after living in Mesa for so long, I have forgotten to wear a coat and most winters I can get by without wearing a coat more than a few times all year. Back to Philadelphia, across the street is Macy's and at the end of Market Street is the City Hall. Philadelphia is slightly larger in population than Phoenix, but Phoenix doesn't have anything that remotely resembles a downtown areas with taxi cabs and people walking on the sidewalks.

Snowy Egret

 The snowy egret is a small white heron (Egretta thula). See Wikiepedia:Snowy Egret. I had never seen either a heron or an egret in Arizona during my childhood. The first heron I saw was on Saguaro Lake, east of Mesa, Arizona about 1985 or so. Since that time, both Great Blue Herons and smaller white egrets have become relatively common throughout the state. I have seen them up on the Colorado Plateau in swampy areas and they are frequent along the Salt River lakes and where the river is still running such as the area below Stewart Mountain Dam. They have been seen as far north as Maine and are common in Central America. Their relatives the cattle egrets (or cow birds) have spread around the world. This particular egret was in Florida.

Leafy Seadragon

This is called a leafy seadragon, Phycodurus eques, and is a marine fish in the family Syngnathidae, which also includes the seahorses. There are a number of particular challenges in taking pictures in a large aquarium. Flash photography is out because of the possible reflections from the glass. It is also difficult because fish don't usually sit still so their photo can be taken. The low light conditions make it hard to stop movement with a slow shutter speed. I don't usually even try to take pictures under these conditions, but this one seemed to work.

Christmas Lights at Mesa Arizona Temple

Christmas Lights, Mesa Arizona Temple, Mesa, Arizona USA in Arizona 
I have been putting these pictures onto 360Cities.net for some time now and the link is here on the blog, but I get the impression that many people who read Walking Arizona, don't know about these 360 degree virtual reality photos. I have well over 100 virtual reality photos, most of which are also shown on Google Earth. 360Cities.net is a standard overlay on Google Earth when you download the program. On Google Earth, the photos appear as a round red marker with a 360 on it. There are hundreds of photographers that contribute photos, so you would need to go to my page to see all my photos. My virtual reality blog is PhotoArizona360.blogspot.com. Yes, the photos are difficult to do.

Underground

In addition to climbing outside on cliffs, I spent a considerable time exploring caves. Although Arizona is not know for its caves, there are still some interesting and remarkable caves to explore. Unfortunately, there is one major problem, caves are dark. You can usually only take pictures when it is light. You would wait a long time for enough light to take a picture in a cave. So you have to bring in your own light source or use a light source installed in the cave. This happens to be what is called a "show cave" in California. A show cave is one where trails and lights have been installed for visitors. Only a small percentage of all the caves in the world are open to the public. Most caves are known only to a very few persistent and experienced cavers (sometimes called spelunkers). I have been in both types. Every time I see a cave open to the public, I try to take a tour. Some like Carlsbad Caverns National Park are spectacular, others are pretty but not so nice. Some of the caves that are "open" to the public have been entirely trashed and all the formations removed by vandals. All in all it is much more difficult to explore a cave than climb a cliff. Imagine climbing a cliff when it is dark and very wet outside, that is what most caves are like.

On Snow

Despite the many references to snow and cold weather associated with the Christmas season, I have lived most of my life in the desert Southwest and I have little or no association with Christmas and snow. When I lived in Argentina, Christmas came in the middle of the summer. In Panama, there is no "winter" or "summer" either for that matter. The few years I spent in colder climates do not leave me with any particular memories associating snow with Christmas. In fact, the average temperature this time of year in Bethlehem is only slightly cooler than her in Arizona (but a whole lot wetter). So the evergreen tree association just doesn't fit.

Winter in the Arizona Sonora Desert is a time to be outside, hiking, camping, biking, or just taking a walk. Some days the air is clear and cool and the days are bright and sunny and you realize the heat is the summer isn't all that bad of a trade off.

Granite Cliffs

These cliffs in Yosemite are really not at such an angle. But when you take multiple photographs, you often get parallax errors. Your eyes automatically correct for the change in perspective, but the camera records each frame as you see it and then, when you put the frames together, you get a slightly strange looking photo. Here, the waterfall is not falling straight down. This seems to be the case because, when the picture was taken, I was standing way below the cliffs. If I had taken the picture from approximately the level of the middle of cliffs, the perspective would have been more normal looking.