The Cleansing of American History

I was reading Nick Coleman's column in the Star Tribune today about some pieces of history from the 1862 Uprising that was intentionally not on display at Fort Snelling in St. Paul and it got me thinking. Why are we reluctant to teach our children what really happened in our expansion west?

We teach them about honesty and always telling the truth, but we are less than truthful when we explain our past. When it comes to some of the more unsavory events, we get out the scrub bucket and soapy water, and cleanse the data. In the end after it is nice and clean, we end up riding in on our white horses and save the day. Why not teach our children what REALLY happened - the good, the bad and the ugly. Heaven knows we have enough ugly in our past.

We all know that several thousand Indians died as a result of several white man's diseases. Were all those deaths unintentional? After all from a media standpoint, wouldn't it look better to report a thousand Indians died from disease rather than from gunshot wounds? The result is the same - a thousand dead Indians. It would have been nothing more than an old form of biological warfare.

And why was it when the Indians attacked our settlers, everyone was appalled - massacre! It was the white man who was invading the Indians' territory. They were just protecting their land.

The Battle of the Little Bighorn is another example. Why was it O.K. for Custer to kill Indians, but it was not O.K. for the Indians to kill him and his soldiers? He was taking their land away from them, right?

Now turn the tables. When terrorists try to invade and kill our people, it creates a national outcry, but we are doing just what the Indians were doing - protecting our land.

We did the same thing in Vietnam. The number of American casualties were routinely underestimated while the number of Viet Cong killed exaggerated. Why did we do that?

Maybe it depends on which end of the gun you are on - if you are the one catching the lead or throwing the lead.

I think we should educate our children with the facts and explanation, so they have a broader (and more accurate) picture of the past. Just my thoughts. Now back to the washing of data.

Crosscut Trail Hike

It was such a beautiful day here in Arizona's East Valley that Sue and I had to do a hike. Originally, we were going to start our hike at the First Water Trailhead, but then we decided to do the Crosscut instead. The path is very good with few rocks. Most of the surface is packed sand.

This is one of the most beautiful hikes we have done since we have been here. Very little elevation change. The crosscut intertwines with some other trails, but basically starting at the trailhead, the trail heads toward the Superstition mountains. One trail runs along a ridge and eventually intersects another trail which brings you back along a parallel ridge with a ravine in between. The foliage is higher than a man is tall, so it is almost like walking in a forest. Fantastic!

It took us 1 hour and 10 minutes to hike up one ridge and back down the other. A couple of photographs are posted to give you an idea of what the scenery is like. Sue commented that this is one hike she would like to do again.

Heiroglyphic Canyon Trail

Sue and I went on on a hike on the subject trail based off of a recommendation from one of our friends. The hike was great. Around 3 1/2 miles round-trip. The best part was at the far end.


The trail terminates into a box canyon with a stream coming out of the mountain. With all the rain we have had in the recent past, there was much water flowing.

On the rock wall next to the stream is a great collection of Hohokam petroglphics. These native people scratched these drawings into the rock around 700-800 years ago as a way to document what life was around them. We spent around 45 minutes taking photos of the rock art and scenery and just enjoying the sights and sounds of the area.

The hike takes about an hour to get back into the box canyon. As always, be sure to take water and wear hiking boots for ankle support. The trail is rocky, but the elevation does not change much.

Definately a hike I would advise taking.

Directions: From Apache Junction, AZ, go east on Hwy 60 to Kings Ranch Road. Turn left on Kings Ranch Road and proceed for 2.8 miles to Baseline. Turn right on Baseline for 0.2 miles to Mohican. Turn left on Mohican and proceed for 0.4 miles to Valleyview Road. Turn left on Valleyview Road and proceed for 1.4 miles to Cloudview Road. Turn right on Cloudview and proceed for 0.4 miles to the parking lot. You can also look for the brown and white signs showing the 2 persons hiking and the signs saying "Trailhead" and an arrow pointing in the appropriate direction.

Sedona's Red Rock Country

One day this past winter, we decided to drive up to Sedona to shoot some red rock photos. We left Gold Canyon at 7:10 in the morning so that we could get up there early as it is about an hour and a half drive. We did get up there early - too early - as the sun was on the wrong side of the mountains that I wanted to shoot. Probably poor planning on my part. If you go to shoot photos, there isn't any reason to get up there before noon.

So we drove around for awhile, stopped in Sedona to do some shopping and by that time the sun had moved around so that it was shining on the side we wanted to shoot.

We started about halfway up Oak Creek Canyon and started to work our way back down into Sedona, and then on past the town to Red Rock Crossing. We were lucky in that Sedona had gotten a light coating of snow in the higher elevations the night before, so we were greeted with white on the red rock which was a pleasant surprise as it always adds to these types of photos. The red rock with snow, the bright blue sky and the green scrub shrubbery makes for some awesome landscape photos.

If you wish you could take photos like these, you can. Improve your photography skills for $14.95 and order my ebook "The No Nonsense Guide To Digital Photography".

We found an overlook of Cathedral Rock at the end of Chavez Ranch Road as a great place to eat lunch and the Bell Rock Visitor Parking lot in Oak Creek Village made a great place to take some of the final photos before we decided to head back to Gold Canyon.

This was one of many trips I have made to Sedona, but I'm always in awe with each trip and always come back recharged - maybe it is the energy vortexes in that area. But that is another blog at another time as that is our focus for the next trip to Sedona.

Massacre Grounds Hike

This is the second time we went on this hike. The first time, about two weeks ago, we had a slight technical error with my camera - I forgot to put a media card in it, so we took the hike with the camera equipment, but was unable to take any pictures.

The history behind Massacre Grounds is that the Peralta Family was mining gold in the area and their burro train was moving the gold down into Mexico. All this land at the time was land of Mexico, but that was about to change. Once the Gadsen Purchase was signed, this land would then become part of the United States. They were trying to move as much gold out of here as possible before that land deal went through. Back in that valley along the trail somewhere, the Apaches attacked and killed almost all of the miners.

One account has the two surviving miners, one of which was from the Peralta family eventually making their way back to Mexico. Through a twist of fate, the Peralta miner met a Dutchman named Jacob Walz. Walz asked Peralta to take him to the mine. Peralta agreed and they started back up here.

After getting to the location of the mine, a short time later, Peralta died mysteriously. Some say Waltz killed him after getting the location of the mine - some say someone else killed Peralta. We will never know the real truth.

Fast forward in time. Jacob Waltz eventually died and the mine location, which became the legend of the Lost Dutchman Mine, has never been found. Legend has it that the entrance to the Lost Dutchman Mine lies in the shadow of Weaver's Needle. From the Massacre Grounds Trail, you can see the the tip of Weaver's Needle, so the mine could be in that area. We do not know which way the burro train was heading when they were attacked. were they coming from the direction of Weaver's Needle? The pieces of the two stories fit together and are what makes this whole story so intriguing.

To validate this story, a couple of miners found $15,000.00 worth of gold in a pile in this area back in the early 1900s. It could have been gold the Apaches dumped from one of the saddlebags. At today's gold prices of $1,000.00 per ounce, can you imagine what that $15,000.00 pile of gold is worth today?

Today, the weather was just too good to pass up. It was sunny, of course, and in the low 80s, so we decided to try it again - this time with a media card installed.

To get to the trail head, take Arizona Highway 88 east out of Apache Junction. After you go past the turnoff for the Lost Dutchman State Park, look for the First Water Trail head sign which is the next road to the right.

Turn right at the sign onto the gravel road. Now you may think this road is bad in terms of the roughness of the surface and washouts requiring one to just move along at a snail's pace in places, but it will seem like an interstate compared to the road leading back to the trail head. After turning onto the First Water Trail head Road, proceed for about a mile.

Turn right onto the only road you will see up to that point. There are some turnoffs where people park their cars to take other trails, but these are not roads. Once you make that right, the road ceases to be a road and is classified more as a trail.

I put the transmission selector in "1" and just let the pickup crawl along and at times that crawl is even too fast. Take your time getting back to the trail head and you will be rewarded with some of the most gorgeous scenery in the area. Once at the trail head, park in the parking area and proceed through the opening in the fence and onto the trail. Be sure to have drinking water with you.

As we started out on the trial, in the not-to-far distance, we saw a side of the Superstition Mountains we had not seen before. In the foreground we came face-to-face with a formidable rock spire. To the left is a high ridge of mountains and to the right the landscape gently drops off into a valley. The trail takes you up and around the left side of the rock spire and down the other side across a dry wash. From there, the trail climbs up out of the wash and turns left, following alongside another wash, which may or may not have water in it. The first time we went on the hike, it was after a rain and it had a small amount of flowing water in it.

From here the trail goes up and down along the way towards Massacre Grounds, but there isn't any great rise of fall in elevation. The trail is generally good, sandy in some spots and rocky in others until you come to the slickrock.

This gets alittle tricky getting up and over the slickrock. Sue attempted it, but decided not to go any further after she was about halfway up. She told me to go ahead and she would stay there.

I worked my way up and over the small mountain, along a ridge, down into a small valley and was starting up another rise when I met a couple on the trail coming back down.

I asked them how far it was ahead to the grounds and he said about 15 minutes to the waterfall. Then I ask them if they had seen the massacre grounds and the women told me she had read in her guidebook that the actual grounds are not marked and that they are somewhere in the valley over that next rise. Then I ask about the waterfall and she said it was about like a stream of water coming out of garden hose.

With that information, I decided to follow them back down the trail and hook back up with Sue.

Although it was somewhat disappointing that the actual grounds where the massacre happened isn't marked, the scenery and blooming wildflowers more than make up for the minor disappointment. If you have about two-hours of time and want to take a very rewarding hike, consider taking the Massacre Ground Trail hike - you won't be disappointed.

Digital Photography - Photographing Themes

Many of us fall into photographing themes of one sort or another. I love to photograph waterfalls and cascades, mountains, desert scenes, flower close-ups, lighthouses, water-powered mills, covered bridges, and sunrises and sunsets.


I find myself constantly looking for these themes wherever I go regardless of the purpose of the trip or photo shoot. Consequently, over many trips, I have built up a large stock file of these themes. Without really thinking about it, it created a good base for my stock photography.

With theme photography, you develop an eye for seeing theme topics. Along with the knack for seeing, you develop a procedure specific for photographing each type of theme. Digital photography tips one: photograph the subject of each theme the same way each time in different places.

For example, when I photograph water-powered mills, I photograph the device driving the main driveshaft whether it is an overshot wheel or vortex turbine. I also photograph the crown wheel coming off of the main driveshaft. Before I leave, I also photograph the mill race, mill pond and outside of the structure. By photographing these same subjects in each mill, I have built up a library of several different water powered mills each with photos of the aforementioned subjects. The various miscellaneous shots varying from mill to mill as I do not want to overlook the uniqueness of each mill as each one is unique in its own way.

With the photography also comes learning about each theme. The learning acquired through research, along with the photographs taken over a number of years, creates a knowledge base defining you as an expert of that theme which can result in a niche market for you. Eventually, through networking and other sources, you will be known as one of the go-to persons when someone has a photo need in one of your theme categories.

Themes can be general or more specific. For example, one of my themes is flower close-ups. One of my sub-themes within flower close-ups is orchids. Another sub-theme is wild cactus flower close-ups, so you can see you can get as specific as you want.

Themes can also be about the format of the photo. Some photographers have a theme titled panoramics. This theme is more about the format of the photo being long and narrow and not so much about the subject matter.

Still another theme category may be the format orientation of the photograph. Some photographers shoot certain themes as verticals. Some theme topics look better when shot in a horizontal format. Digital photography tips two: A flower photographed from the side at the level of the flower, including the stem of the flower, not only falls into the flower category, but also into the vertical format theme.

Some themes focus on photographs shot in black and white. Some photographers shoot only certain subjects in black and white and other subjects in color. Many of the subjects having texture look better when photographed in black and white as the lack of color focuses the eyes of the viewer on the texture of the subject without the interference of color.

Themes do not have to be of just the natural world. Some photographers shoot themes of subjects resulting from the hand of man. These themes range from architecture, to pottery, to machines in addition to many other subjects.Themes can also be of topics undesirable to look at, such as damage to the environment, air or water pollution, global warming, erosion, wrath of Nature and many others.

Some photos cross into other theme topics. A desert sunrise or sunset not only falls into the sunrises/sunsets theme, but it also fall into landscapes or into the sub-theme of deserts within the landscape theme. It is all in how specific you want to get as a photographer. The larger number of specific themes can lead to a larger opportunity for niche marketing of your photos.

As you can see, the possibilities are endless. You are bound only by how much time you have to photograph your themes and then marketing them.

If you liked this article, visit our Sunlight Digital Photography website for more tips and techniques. To further your digital photography skills, consider purchasing our digital photography ebook at our Business Writing Resources website. It is instantly downloadable, so you can start reading right away.

Great Images Through Metering

Almost all of the newer Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras have multiple TTL (Through The Lens) metering modes. Each manufacturer calls their metering modes by different names, but basically, they all fall into four categories: spot, center-weighted, multi-pattern and matrix metering, the last one being proprietary to Nikon.

Spot Metering - Spot metering, as the name implies, reads the light from a very small spot or portion of the overall scene. This mode reads the light reflecting from what is inside the small circle or rectangle in the middle of your viewfinder. It will not be more than 9.5% of the overall scene. With spot metering, you can pinpoint the area you want metered for reflectance light. The disadvantage is you pinpoint the spot you want metered for reflectance light.

Now wait a minute, how can pinpointing be both an advantage and disadvantage? The advantage is you are free to choose where to take your meter reading from in a scene. Just put the circle or rectangle on the area you want metered and press the shutter button half-way down to see the shutter speed and aperture settings.

The disadvantage is the TTL meter in your camera sees everything as middle tone or 18% reflectance. If the spot you pick is not middle tone, the exposure of the whole scene could be either over or under exposed. To get an accurate exposure, choose something close to middle tone, such as green grass, tan tree bark, blue sky or light brown flesh tone. Or as an alternative, take the reading and manually dial in exposure compensation to achieve middle tone settings. The spot meter can be difficult to learn, but once you have mastered it, you will find it indispensable when you want your subject, the part in the spot, exposed correctly in a high contrast situation.

Center-Weighted Metering - Center-weighted metering is the most common of all the metering systems and the one used in all point-and-shoot cameras. Center-weighted metering reads light from about 75% of the center of the scene, weights it heavier, then reads the light from the remaining 25% of the scene and weighs it normally . This information is computed by the camera coming up with the final exposure reading. Remember, the overall area metered needs to average out to middle tone. Anything other than middle tone requires you to compensate by using the exposure compensation feature in your DSLR camera.

Multi-Pattern Metering - Multi-pattern metering is also known as evaluative metering. With this method, the viewfinder is broken down into several metering segments built around the auto-focus sensors. Once you choose the auto-focus sensor, a center-weighted metering pattern is built around that selected sensor. This system is basically the same as the center-weighted metering system except the center-weighted reading is taken from the selected auto-focus sensor instead of from the center of the viewfinder.

Matrix Metering - Proprietary to Nikon, matrix metering uses multiple metering segments arranged around the auto-focus segments in the viewfinder much like the multi-pattern metering system, but it also uses a database of actual photographic situations. This system works by each segment metered individually and assigned a light level. These light levels form a contrast pattern. The contrast patterns are then filtered through the database in the DSLR finding the proper exposure compensation for a given scene. With this system, no manual exposure compensation is needed because the metering system automatically does it for you.

When To Use Each Metering System - Each metering system has its own use in specific situations. Generally, center-weighted is best to use when learning how to take photos. As you master this metering system, you can move to spot metering. Here you will pinpoint a spot in the scene and manually apply exposure compensation. Use matrix or multi-pattern metering for rapidly changing light situations or when faced with highly complex lighting.

Now would be a good time to dust off your camera manual and read up on metering modes specific to your camera. Mastering metering modes takes your imagery to a whole new and higher level.

If you liked this article, visit our Sunlight Digital Photography website for more tips and techniques. To further your digital photography skills, consider purchasing one of our digital photography ebooks. All of them are instantly downloadable, so you can start reading right away.