Sunflower as High as an Elephant’s Eye

Posted on June 29, 2013 by azgilstrap

The legendary 1943 Broadway musical “Oklahoma” featured the magical Rodgers and Hammerstein hit song Oh What a Beautiful Morning, a tune later made famous by actor/singer Gordon MacRae when the play was adapted into a 1955 Academy Award winning movie.

Even though the play and movie soundtracks predate me by a number of years, they were still popular when I was a youngster. Some of the movie’s most famous song lyrics–“the corn is as high as an elephant’s eye”–keep coming to mind, ironically, when I step into my backyard this summer. That’s because a sunflower seed I tossed into the garden outside our master bedroom window in February has now grown into a plant that is roughly as high as an elephant’s eye.

Oddly enough, I planted the seed in an attempt to bring a bit of Kansas (the Sunflower State) to Arizona. Because of our family’s Kansas roots, most of the Arizona Gilstraps love sunflowers. The cover photo of our travel book, Being Amanda in Europe, even featured Amanda and a bushel of sunflowers.

I just didn’t anticipate this spectacularly beautiful annual would grow so exceptionally well in the Sororan Desert. Our sunflower plant is now roughly eight feet tall. If it keeps thriving, we’ll look for it to provide ongoing photoremedy, and even PhotoArt, opportunities.

PhotoArt by Greg

Note: The photoremedy mission is to encourage those fighting chronic pain and other afflictions to consider using photography as a powerful tool to move their focus away from the pain. In the process, we strive to enhance readers’ ability to see beauty and experience elevated joy in their lives. There are many gifts that can accompany health challenges; one of the greatest offerings is it frequently forces sufferers to set better priorities for their lives and assists them in seeing the world in new and more meaningful ways.

Butterfly Wonderland

Posted on June 18, 2013 by azgilstrap

Having our Grandson Emmett all to ourselves for a few hours last week proved to be a great opportunity to check out one of Arizona’s newest attractions – Scottsdale’s Butterfly Wonderland.

Butterfly Wonderland features America’s largest butterfly atrium. Butterflies from farmers–as far away as Costa Rica, Malaysia, Ecuador, Thailand and the Philippines–appear to be living the good life inside the 10,000 square foot facility.

The holometabolous insects are quite friendly. In fact some of them appeared to be quite interested in “dating” Mary, or at least her talking her out of her shirt!

Photo by Mary Gilstrap

A specially-edited 3D version of “Flight of the Butterflies” is a can’t miss part of the experience. I must admit I had a hard time following the narration because the 3D butterflyeffects were so captivating I had to keep turning to Mary and Emmett to say, “That is so cool!”

After the movie, 17-month old Emmett was enthralled the minute we hit the conservatory. It captured his attention for good reason. The butterflies were everywhere!

It didn’t take long for Emmett to decide he was ready to move on. Fortunately, he found other wonders to capture his attention.

That gave me just a bit more time to enjoy some fabulous photoremedy.

All in all, it was a great outing. We hope to be back soon. Perhaps next time we will be able to bring both of the grand kids. I cannot promise it will be twice as much fun, but at least there will be twice as many tiny toes!

Plunging Back to Earth

Posted on May 21, 2013 by azgilstrap

The opportunity to shoot a few photos of the picturesque Atlantic Ocean had me incredibly excited as we headed to South Carolina’s Folly Beach during our recent trip to the East Coast. Although it was a bit chilly, it was as beautiful as I imagined.

My sister, Kelley, and my wife, Mary, were brave enough to test the water. Kelley’s husband, Chris, then treated me to some of the most glorious photoremedy I have experienced. Chris showed me that by tossing tiny cheese crackers in the air one could lure shore birds to within arm’s reach.

As Chris threw the crackers to the birds, I snapped away rather joyfully.

Since the birds never seemed to get their fill, Chris soon tired of the activity and handed the crackers off to me. I tossed the crackers directly overhead with one hand and maneuvered my Canon with the other.

It was truly magical. At times, it almost seemed as if I was flying in formation with the birds.

My heart soared with my new found friends. When I ran out of crackers, I joyfully returned to my travel party. That’s when I noticed that while I was smiling, they were all laughing hysterically. My heart plunged back to earth as I realized I must have done something rather stupid. My family, my trusted friends, were clearly laughing at me and not with me. I thought to myself, “That’s odd what the heck did I do this time?” As it turns out, it wasn’t what I did as much as what was done TO me.

Damn birds crapped all over me.

Photo by Kelley Kimery

This only took a little wind out of my sails. When it comes to getting a few good photos and lots of photoremedy, I say it’s worth putting up with other’s crap!

Going to (South) Carolina

Posted on May 13, 2013 by azgilstrap

In early April, I was able to take my first road trip since my most recent (November 27, 2012) back surgery. The primary purpose of our trip was to visit my sister Kelley, her husband Chris, and my nephew Griffin. There was, however, considerable photoremedy involved.

Chris and Kelley were excellent tour guides, and appeared to be extremely tolerant of my limitations. They did a great job of showing Mary and me an impressive slice of South Carolina. In particular, we got to see a lot of the Columbia and Charleston areas. A sampling of our photographs from those areas and neighboring attractions is featured in the video slide show below. To view the video in high definition, just click the play button. Hover over the video, then click on the sprocket icon to the left of the clock and select 1080p HD.

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The Circle of Faith

Posted on April 25, 2013 by azgilstrap

This month, we were blessed with the opportunity to participate in our precious granddaughter’s baptism. The ceremony, of course, provided ample photoremedy. More importantly, it served as a great reminder of why I believe in the importance of giving our children the powerful gifts of faith, hope, joy, and love. These gifts can come in many different packages, and often take different delivery routes. The world, however, is always a better place when they are delivered.