Thanks JustJill, I tried waiting them out, but they insisted on getting into my shot.

Jack Olson

Thanks NMGal, glad you liked them.

Jack Olson

Thanks terryMc, too bad you missed the light show, but it's still a good time to visit the Ghost Town.

Jack Olson

One of my favorite go-to places in Apache Junction is the Goldfield Ghost Town. Usually I'm there to photograph the gunfights in the streets on weekends, but as the Christmas season dominates our thought process, they decorated the Ghost Town with an untold number of colorful light strings and some wood fired bonfires scattered around the street.

All of the businesses along the main street got into the spirit of the season and are staying open until 9:00pm to show off their handiwork and enjoying the comments of the visitors. This is the first year that the Ghost Town has tried a Christmas lights event, so everyone was nervous about the outcome.

I brought my camera and tripod along and spent a little more than an hour shooting the lights. I started early enough that most of the people hadn't arrived yet so there were very few spoilers for my long duration photo shots with people straggling through the shot, creating ghostly images. The Ghost Town has an old train system with rails that circle the town and it too was decorated with colorful lights to set the mood for the riders.

My camera is the Canon M6 mark ll shooting with ISO 2,000. f/8. Aperture Priority so the camera set the shutter duration. Editing was done using Affinity Photo ver. 2.3. The final shot, of the train returning to the station, was taken with my Pixel 7 cellphone.

I hope everyone has an enjoyable Christmas season.
Jack Olson

Train at the station

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Looking up the main street

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The coffee shop was open

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The Chapel on the Mount

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Looking down the main street

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The Gallery

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The Bordello

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Overall shot of the Ghost Town

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Train returning to the station

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It must be one of those rare occasions when the camera takes a photo on its own.

Jack Olson

Nice photos Mojaveflyer, I especially like the KC135 coming in for a landing with the mountains in the background. Many years ago, the Air Force stationed me at Wendover during their annual "Operation Red Flag" to keep a Vortac operational during the operation, just in case a flyer needed to land at the remote base.

Lots of interesting history at Wendover. Both of the original B-29's were stationed there as they flew practice runs while seeing just how much weight they could eliminate and still fly with the bomb load. The planes and crew were stationed at the far side of the old strip and the crews could not mix with the rest of the base personnel for security reasons.

While I was there, I explored the old WWll base and found the old power generating plant in a remote building. The plant was locked, but I looked through the windows and saw a couple of huge gas/diesel generators. One of the generators was large enough that it had a doorway into the crankshaft pan. There was also an old car museum just across the border in Nevada with several cars from the land-speed course in the Bonneville Salt Flats. I've always wanted to re-visit the old base.

Jack Olson

My biggest question would be how to get back on my feet 😒

Maybe you weren't a customer of Costco. I'm basing my disappointment with Shutterfly with my Costco experience. Great pricing (that Shutterfly can't match), great service, quality products (that Shutterfly won't match). NOPE, I stand by my initial comments.

Jack Olson

Thanks Curmudgeon, another reason to pass on the float trip through the canyon.

Jack Olson

Thanks SlHillGuy, I guess this could have made for a scene in Jurassic World.

Jack Olson

Thanks hannaco, the dangers of rafting the Colorado never end.

Jack Olson

Thanks for the reply dpullum, I remember that movie well, wonder what ever happened to that banjo player? Maybe Bing has some answers.

Jack Olson

I was asked recently if there ever were any Dinosaurs in the Grand Canyon, so I asked Microsoft Bing that very question and what do you think it found?

Bing is a nice tool for fooling around and it's free, and with no commercials popping up all over the place.

Jack Olson

T-Rex waiting for lunch to pass by.

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Great set of photos, just goes to prove that your time wasn't completely wasted.

Call that the pterodactyl view? Time well spent getting the drone into action. Great shot too.

Jack Olson