12 February 2015

Winter Scenes

I won Visit Arizona's January photo contest with this submission to the theme "winter." This was one of the first photos that I took with my new DSLR, which I purchased less than a week before I snapped this photo. The following is the blog post I wrote for the Visit Arizona website.


Last October I left the great state of Texas and moved to Flagstaff. I must confess, I knew almost nothing about Flagstaff. Like many people, when I thought of Arizona I thought of the Arizona desert – the blistering heat, desert sand and tall saguaro cacti.
But this state has a breathtaking array of climates and landscapes. Perhaps nowhere in Arizona is this more evident than in Flagstaff. At 7,000 feet and in the middle of a huge Ponderosa Pine forest, Flagstaff’s climate is not what one expects to find in Arizona.
Flagstaff is a laid-back, eclectic mountain town. It is perfect for nature lovers and the San Francisco Peaks to the north provide picturesque views throughout Flagstaff. I love mountains and am constantly on the lookout for good photo opportunities.
One evening in early December, this opportunity arose. The view of the peaks from the Museum of Northern Arizona’s research center, where I work, is fantastic. As I leave work each day, I look up at the mountains and soak in the beauty.
On this particular day, the mountains had been shrouded in heavy clouds. After several rainy days I was looking forward to a covering of snow at the higher elevations. I headed outside after work and noticed that the clouds were parting. Hoping to capture fresh snow on the peaks, I grabbed my camera, found a good spot and began shooting. As the sun dipped below the horizon behind me, the last beams of sunlight glinted off the snow and cast a pink glow on the mountain.
This photo captures the majestic peaks, the fresh coat of snow and the wispy, low-lying clouds. This is the beauty of Flagstaff.

28 January 2015

2014

2014 was an interesting year. A good year.

The close of one year and the opening of another is often bittersweet, but now that we're almost one full month into 2015, these emotions have mostly passed.

Do You Want to be a Korean?
The customary Childers' kid pose. Though usually Joel doesn't look high.
In 2014 I graduated with my Master's degree. Am I even old enough to have a graduate degree? Somehow it doesn't seem possible. I made some wonderful friends at Baylor, and completed a degree in Museum Studies.

In a conversation about my degree, I once had someone ask if I was planning to be a Korean. After some initial confusion on my part, I realized what they were asking. "Oh, a curator?" I responded, barely holding back my snickers. "I actually want to work in collections." Confusion regarding my career path is not uncommon. People usually don't know much about what museum staff do, though they often know the term 'curator.' Either that or they say, "Oh, like Night at the Museum." Well, no, not really. As of yet nothing has come to life in my museums.

But there's a first time for everything.

Thankfully, my career working with old stuff seems to be off to a great start. I spent 2014 working with a variety of collections - from Mark Twain letters and women red cross uniforms to Torah scrolls and beaded deer skulls.

My cohort at Baylor and one of our professors. Love these ladies.

Horse Capital of the World
In 2014 I took a trip to Kentucky, the horse capital of the world. Everyone knows my passion for horses, and all things horse-related. Mom and I spent almost a week in Kentucky, touring horse farms, horse museums, horse parks and horse racetracks. We threw in a bourbon distillery along the way (because Kentucky is famous for bourbon and horses), a tour of the Mary Todd Lincoln house and a visit to Cane Ridge. Other than that we kept to horses and we saw more horses than most people probably care to see in a lifetime.

Not me of course. I'm still nowhere near to getting my fill of horses, but Kentucky certainly made this girl happy.

I watched the top female jockey in the world win a race under the iconic twin spires at Churchill Downs. I ate a hot brown in Louisville, where the tasty dish was created. I met the jockey who rode Seattle Slew to the Triple Crown. I stood at Secretariat's grave after petting a horse that won the Kentucky Derby and one who is insured for over 55 million dollars. Horse lovers heaven, ya'll.
War Front - the leading sire in North America. Stands for $150,000!

Jean Cruguet, Seattle Slew's jockey. I'm taller than him!
Biblical Proportions
In 2014 I spent several months interning at the Museum of the Bible in Oklahoma City. I am still a bit in awe that I worked at a museum that has fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Seriously, how cool is that? I sat in on planning meetings for the large museum that will open in DC in 2017. I met some wonderful people while in Oklahoma, and was blessed with two wonderful places to live for the summer.

City of Seven Wonders
In 2014 I began my first "real" job in a museum. I began a new adventure and moved to Flagstaff, Arizona for a year. I'll be here in Flag until September, at which point I will likely find a new adventure. Flagstaff is a fascinating city. It's small, but due to its arrangement on a mountainside and along the railroad it is fairly spread out.

Flagstaff is beautiful. It sits in the middle of a large pine forest and at the foot of the San Francisco Peaks. The Grand Canyon is 70 miles away and the red rocks of Sedona are just over 30 miles away. I see deer a few times every week, though I have yet to see any elk or bald eagles.

I work with archaeology objects, which I think is pretty neat. Because the Museum of Northern Arizona interprets the history of  the Colorado Plateau, much of the collections are Native American. I am loving this opportunity to explore an era of history that I find fascinating and and to experience the natural wonders of the Colorado Plateau.

And that's what I did in 2014. Not a bad year, I must say. What's in store for me in 2015? I can't wait to find out!