Cattle Chute with Sunflowers

I had the pleasure of spending a few hours in the trees near Flagstaff recently. It was lovely and refreshing. The outting was in conjunction with a conservation group in Coconino county, the Diablo Trust which regularly invites artists, musicians, Cowboys and other enthusiasts to gather and to camp out under the stars, if those participants are inclined - in my case I wasn't. I could have joined in the Cowboy cookout at night and a Cowboy breakfast AND to bring an instrument and join the Cowboy jam session. I opted to go shopping in Flagstaff and then head home. WalMart has more allure for me than Cowboy music and cooking.

The landscape was very similar to trees in the White Mountains. I have taken many photographs of trees and sunsets in the mountains. There were a couple of aesthetically interesting dead trees. The other item of interest was a Cattle chute. It was quite large and dominating in the meadow area called Sawmill Springs. There was no sawmill in sight and the rumor was that it is out there somewhere if a photographer wanted to go looking for it. I didn't. The chute was attached to a corral which was in pretty good shape, assuming that it is actually used by cowboys who actually run herds of cows through there. The chute itself is quite imposing made up of plates of rusted metal. I prefer old wood chutes, old wood anything.... but it was charming in its own way. I enjoyed taking photographs of it as the sun moved from morning into the afternoon, changing the shape of shadows on the rigid lines of panels and pipes.

As the mid-day came about, the clouds started moving in and it seemed like it would sprinkle. Since WalMart was calling my name, I didn't stay long enough to see if the rain clouds were serious. Putting the threatening mass of rain clouds behind the chute added great drama to the setting.

There were no sunflowers near the chute. They happened to be growing along the road between Flagstaff and Sawmill Springs. Aesthetically speaking, the imposing still life of the rusted chute was not that interest grabbing. Adding a few sunflowers made a big difference, softening an otherwise mostly ugly subject.

The other diversion in the day was a 5 year old boy that was camping with his parents. It was easy to make conversation with him and interesting to hear his assessment of "strangers" in the area. Apparently he considered me safe since I was talking to him, therefore not a stranger. He was dressed in a "Transformer" outfit and insisted that he show me the whole outfit and not just his little boy hair and face. The chatter with him was a fun part of my art musings until he was distracted by a horse that had been brought to the meadow. Notice the 20 gallon hat on that Cowgirl leading the horse. It was almost as big as the chute!