Take This Christine Kronengold

Several years ago Kathi (my wife) and I took a beginners Black and White photography class at Phoenix College, the "instructors" name was Chris Kronengold. In the past I had taken two other "beginners" photography classes. Once in fifth grade and again in College. Kathi had wanted to learn how to take pictures so I suggested the class. The class was interesting in that the teacher was technically good but lacked one on one teaching skills. Consequently many of the students expressed to me that they weren't learning as much as they thought they should. To make matters worse on Thursday's it was next to impossible to get her help as she "had" to watch survivor. On one occasion a girl in the class developed a picture and showed it to Christine, who made suggestions and told her to reprint the picture, this repeated several times until the girl got fed up and showed the teacher the original picture, of which the instructor declared to be perfect. This teacher was constantly harping on dodging and burning to get perfect pictures. That's all fine and dandy but most of the people in the class were just happy that they could get anything to come out at all. In fact she was so insitent about it that even one of her favorite photographers Ansel Adams would have failed her class because the detail is lost in the shadows on some of his pictures. Having attended two other beginners classes I would rank Photography I at F.K. (Foenix Kollege) as taught by Mrs. Kronengold as an intermediate to slightly advanced class. Since access to the lab was always crowded and to make things easier for Kathi, I also purchased over time a complete darkroom costing me approximately $1200.00. What does "ALL" this have to do with the Guildig brothers... Well after having discovered HDR photography I/we can take those "perfect" pictures. So on Saturday the 7th we went out to Tortilla flats and started working our way back to Apache Junction stopping to take picture anywhere we could. I got some really dramatic pics made better with HDR so Take This Chris Kronengold:



Here are some from Mike:

Night Fishing

Last night we went fishing at Chaparral park in Scottsdale. Our aim was to catch some Catfish as we have never caught them before. We were there from about 18:00 to 22:30.



We started by catching several Bluegills to use as bait. We cut the Bluegills up and put large chunks of meat on the hooks. The first person to catch a fish was Amanda she caught a three pounder. Chris then caught a two and a half pounder, later on Amanda caught a four pounder. On this trip I caught only a couple of the Bluegills used for Bait. Two of the Catfish swallowed their hooks, one later coughed up his hook and we were able to remove the hook from the third without hurting it.



When we were done fishing we released the two smaller Catfish and the remaining Bluegills. We kept the four pounder as Chris has a co-worker who would be quite happy to have one.

Fish or Take Pics

On Saturday March 24th Mike, Jamie (Mike's wife), Sean (Mike's issue), Chris (has issues), and I went up to Canyon Lake to do some fishing and later take some more HDR Pictures. We left at 07:30 and arrived about an Hour Later. We spent about 8 hours fishing, and barely got even a nibble. In fact the entire time we were there we saw one guy catch a half pound Sunfish. We also setup a Crawfish trap and caught nothing. So around 17:00 we packed up and took advantage of the light from the Sun going down to get some more good pics of the lake and surrounding area. Here's a whole mess of the HDR Pictures I took:


Here are some of Mike's:

The Incident

On 11-13-05 my 2 brothers and I set out on a hunting trip 8.5 miles Northeast of Florence, and 8 miles East of highway 79 just east of the Florence Military Reservation.

We parked at a location we have used before, started suiting up, and loading our shotguns. We started walking into the desert heading in a North Westerly direction.


We had barely walked 300 feet when as I was walking down into a small gully my feet slipped on the gravel and rocks that are prevalent in this area. I was worried that my shotgun would go off and hit one of my brother’s close by. Somehow my feet got tangled up and as I fell backwards I felt and heard my leg go CRACK.
I started yelling in pain and my brothers ran over to where I was. As soon as I untangled my feet I laid my right foot down sideways on the ground. I laid there until the pain went down and I was no longer in shock (20 to 30 minutes). Chris started taking the guns and other equipment back to the trucks while Mike and I tried to figure out how to make a splint. We had Chris get 2 Golf Club shafts, 2 Tie down straps and a Shotgun shell Belt from Mike’s Isuzu Rodeo.

We placed the Golf club shafts on either side of my leg and secured them with the tie down straps (cutting off the excess strap) then in the middle we wrapped Chris’s Shotgun belt. Mike cut off the upper 1/3 of the inside golf club with his leatherman so I wouldn’t poke my self trying to move around. Once I was able to get up I used both of my brothers as support and we slowly started moving towards the dirt road about 100 yards away. This took 20 to 30 minutes and was extremely painful and tiring. Once we got to the dirt road Mike got his Rodeo, Chris got my Truck and we headed slowly back to the highway (45 minutes). Once at the highway we called information to see if and where there was a hospital in Florence. Information could not find one and suggested we call 9-1-1. We called 9-1-1, and they could not find one in Florence. So we drove the 35 miles to Mesa’s Banner Baywood Hospital. As I had a broken leg I got right in.

The Emergency room staff were quite interested in the splint since most people who bring themselves in do not attempt to stabilize the injury. They took X-rays, put a temporary splint on my leg, and sent me home.


On Monday I called around and the nearest Doctor who could see me the next day is in Sun City West. On Tuesday I went in and after the Doctor looked at the X-rays he recommended an operation to correctly set the bone. That would take place on Monday 11-21-05. The day of the surgery came and they put me under. When I woke up they told me I had not had the surgery because I had developed a fungal infection on the foot and leg under the cast (I still do not believe this). I saw the doctor on 11-23-05 and there was no infection. When I saw the Doctor he recommended I go in for surgery on 11-25-05. They did not set the Leg during surgery as the Doctor reported the bones were stable. I did get 2 screws in my ankle because when I twisted my ankle I tore the ligaments that hold the 2 bones together. I received a permanent cast.

On 1-4-06 The cast was removed. I then got a “Cam-Walker” and 5 weeks later I had the screws removed from my ankles. I then spent the next 3 months in rehab and was able to get the ankle about 90 to 95 percent back to normal.

Of course my Brothers were very supportive and made sure I knew that their entire Hunting/Fishing season was ruined.

High Dynamic Range

Today we tried out a new photography technique called "HDR" or "High Dynamic Range". We got up early and went out to Tempe town lake, Downtown Phoenix, and South Mountain. The great thing about HDR is that with the right camera (and special software) anyone can take really incredible pictures. Here are some of the pics I took:

Here are some Mike took:

Chris's camera is not quite designed to do this so he only got 2 good pics:

We also went down to the river bottom south of Sky Harbor to see if we could get some decent pics of the planes taking off (we didn't take any that were really interesting) but we caught and then released a small snake. Possibly a baby Sonora Semiannulata (we always called them Red Racers when I was little). Anyone know for sure what this is?

Catch of the Day

We went fishing on Sunday March 4th at Vista Del Camino park There's a lot of Bass in the "lake" there, Some Catfish, and Misc. Sunfish. I have caught several Bass there in the past ranging from 1 to 3 pounds. Mike caught one weighing 4 pounds. This time I was fishing for Bass and Catfish. I was using raw shrimp for bait (for the Catfish). I didn't catch any Bass or Catfish but I did catch a turtle on a treble hook baited with shrimp. While Chris and I tried to get the hook out of it's mouth without hurting it, some little girl about 3 or 4 came over all excited about the Turtle. She kept saying she wanted it. I wasn't paying much attention at the time, so when we got the hook out we threw the turtle back in the water (not that I would have given it to her anyways). Well... this little girl had a fit that lasted almost an hour, because she didn't get the turtle. I believe this was probably the first time in her little (spoiled brat) life she hadn't got her way.

The Follies of Fire chasing

From time to time my brothers and I go fire chasing. For those not in the know that means you listen to you scanner and if you hear about a fire nearby you go to it and take pictures or just watch. On occasion we actually get to a fire before the Fire department does, usually we don't. So for anyone else out there thinking of doing the same, here is a list of "The Folly of Fire Chasing".



1. - Nothing interesting happens in your immediate vicinity.
2. - When an interesting call comes in it will be on the opposite side of town.
3. - If an interesting call comes in and it "IS" nearby you will not be able to go to it due to: traffic, job, or the scanner is not on.
4. - Any attempts to reach the site of a call will result in failure due to: unintelligible address given by the fire department, address not found in your map software, overly efficient fire fighters get there before you and extinguish the blaze, traffic congestion blocks your progress, or the police get there first, and will allow anyone else access except you (because you have a camera).
5. - On the rare occasion that you reach the scene it will turn out to "NOT" be worth seeing, you will forget to un-pause your camcorder, or you don't have your camera .
6. - If you have your map, GPS, someone to help navigate, all your camera equipment, it's the weekend, and traffic is sparse there will be no calls of interest whatsoever.
7 - You are more likely to stumble upon a fire than hear the call and be able to get to it.
8 - If you do manage to get to the scene of a working fire and take lots of pictures, many of your pictures will not turn out well for whatever reasons.