Shaw Butte

Shaw Butte is a mountain very much like Camelback Mountain is to me. It dominates the skyline of my youth. I lived a few short miles away when I was a young teen. I would ride my BMX bike over to the field on the west side of 19th Avenue and hang out with the hang glider pilots. I was all of fourteen, very impressionable and the pilots there were sky g~ds. 

At fifteen, I began to ride up the mountain with them. They would set up their gliders and I would help them with their chores of getting ready to fly. Then I would pile back in the truck and ride back down while they would speck out into the sky. Soon I was driving their trucks down myself. Bruce Adams, Ricky D, Dave Smith, John Leslie, Hans Heydrich and there were more. I idolized these guys, soaring pilots.

I was going to be one of them.

In just a few years time, I joined them in the sky at Shaw Butte. I circled high above the mountain thinking about growing up, hanging out with the pilots there, now I was one of them.

I knew Shaw Butte had petroglyphs but not from my flying there. My first exposure was from Bill Nightwine, a very cool pilot friend. Bill flew differently, spiritual in that he loved flying for what it was. He was very well grounded in his view of being a foot launched soaring pilot. He was my first exposure to a person that chose to fly hang gliders for a different reason, because he was tuned into nature. Bill told me about the rock art of the indigenous peoples. I feigned interest because I respected Bill but I wasn’t mature enough to understand, it wasn’t my time.

I’m older now, I no longer fly. I have fond memories of it and Shaw Butte is indelibly etched into my mind as a very powerful spot that occupies a special place in my memories.

Bill is gone now and every time I look or find rock art anywhere, I am reminded of him. He was my first exposure to this archeological study.

Recently, I meet a couple at the Arizona Archeological Society monthly meeting. They were so nice. We talked of our interests and somehow the subject got directed to Shaw Butte. The woman produced a photo of a street sign and the “Spiral Man” circled beyond it. 

I knew exactly where that was. I jotted it down in my notes and memorized the angle past the stop sign.

I chose the AF VR Nikkor 80-400mm f4.5 - 5.6 D a long lens I could hunt with. I parked near the stop sign and turned the zoom ring to 400mm and in short order vectored in the Spiral Man. I gathered my things and hiked up to the area and began taking pictures.

Northwest Side

           

I hiked up finding figures here and there and photographing them. My head was down but my spirit literally soared. I was on Shaw Butte again! This is a very special place to me. I will be back several times photographing the rock art of Shaw Butte.

I drove over to the visitors center after finding the Spiral Man. If you are interested in the rock art of the area, this is a great place to start. They have an actual petroglyph that was rescued from a private land construction site. They also have maps and literature about the area.

North Mountain Visitor Center

Hang gliding Shaw Butte

           

AF Nikkor 24mm f2.8 D

AF Nikkor 24mm f2.8 D

s/n: 651550

   

Purchased from this table/vendor at the WPHS annual Camera Show & Sale

My first picture, on the way home from Tucson where I bought it

I really like a Nikkor 20mm f2.8 AIS and Nikon Series E 28mm f2.8 AIS is a nice lens too, really, not really but I kept it this last sweep to reduce my lens collection. Why not split the difference? I wanted a wide prime and I read that this lens is sharper than my AF-S Nikkor 14-24 f2.8 G ED FX, and I like Ken Rockwell’s reviews. 

I had gotten up this morning at 4:30a and drove down to Tucson to the WPHS annual Camera Show & Sale. The drive isn’t bad, it’s just fast and busy the whole way. The freeway had construction that completely blocked southbound traffic. I got re-routed through Sacaton, never been through there. I’ve flown over it in my hang glider but not through it. Southbound traffic at 5:45a was light.

Back on the freeway, I listened to music and it was sweet. Some old, some blues, none I borrowed but I married music and looking through the windshield.

I found this lens on a table filled with gems, crinkle finished shaft drive glass. I picked it up, I put it down and walked away and thought about it. I had about an hour total time and went back and closed the deal. 

I bought it for one hundred and twenty dollars and it is new, not a scratch on it. D lens goodness.

F mounting it on my digital camera, I brought it to work and took it out for a spin at the end of the day. 

These are my first few shots.

       

Ok ok, I’m really liking this lens. It’s on the normal end of an ultra wide angle lens. I don’t do post processing so it’s easy for me to see quickly just what I’m going to do with it. I do believe this will be picked more and more as I learn to use it. Above is my first whack at it. I drove through a neighborhood close to home. This is a planning mission every time I go here, looking for a lot for my new home when I win the lottery. 

But this lens…

I like it a lot.

Ken, below can tell you much more about what he likes about it.

Me? 

It reminds me how I see saw things when I was younger.

Resources

Ken Rockwell AF Nikon 24mm f2.8 D

MIR Nikon 24mm f2.8 Version History

Nikon 24mm f2.8 D

Alex Luyckx: OPTICAL REVIEW BLOG NO. 40 – AF NIKKOR 24MM 1:2.8

camera | lens | film | flash

Western Photographic Historical Society Annual Camera Show & Sale,

Western Photographic Historical Society Camera Show & Sale

——————————

65th Annual ~ 2025

                   

March 8, 2026

The ride down was interrupted by the I-10 being closed. I was GPS’d a bid D route around the closed off section going into Sacaton. Back on the highway, it was uneventful with no racing, just a lot of melancholy as the Gorillaz have a new album out with death as the overtone. It’s a pretty upbeat album with lots of eastern or Indian influences. A sitar, flutes, whistling and some Arabic rapping. I dig the album, it’s called, The Mountain.

At the event, I was actually the first one in! But the vendors were actually talking and shopping each others tables. I heard one gentleman complain, “I paid for an eight foot table but only got a seven foot table!”

Who makes a seven foot table?

Whatever…

But it was very cool to spy each table. There was very little in the way of Mamiya and 645 lenses or anything. I was after a 35 or 45mm Secor C or N lens, none found.

But I scored and I scored big! I got nearly everything else I was looking for super inexpensive and I bought some nice extras. I bought a AF Nikon 24mm f2.8 D, a Leki Photo monopod hiking pole, a Sekonic Studio Deluxe light meter, an Architectural photography book. The F3 hot flash fitting, the Optech camera strap and the Sekonic were $20. The book was $5 and the gorgeous mint 24mm f2.8 D lens was $120. That is a smoking deal, I scored and it made me happy! There was one vendor that had the D crinkle lenses I desired. I had to circle around thinking, we mocked a bit back and forth but it was good and it was a smokin deal.

The ride home was smooth and uneventful. No detour N bound. I had a brunch meeting to attend so I went straight there. I mounted the 24mm and grabbed one shot…

——————————

65th Annual ~ 2025

       

Tucson is about a two-hour drive south of the “evil empire” of Phoenix, so I’ve heard Tucson locals say. I could not agree more when comparing the vibe. Tucson is layed back and it’s well, it’s Tucson. Close proximity to proper mountains such as Mt. Lemmon, the US most southerly ski area. Another hour south and you are across the border and in Mexico. A little more than an hour to the southwest and you find yourself at Baboquivari and the cave where I’itoi lives. According to the O’odham, this is the creator of G~d and the cave is the exit of the underworld. This is Tohono O’odham territory…

Wait, I’ll get back on track.

I’m headed to Tucson for a camera swap meet by the 65th Western Photographic Historical Society held at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. I need a certain old Lowepro camera bag and I’m hoping to find one here. I’m in the formative stages of, “the Idea” and each component has importance. I’m also hunting down a Nikon D780, a particular digital camera seemingly suitable for my love of old manual focus Nikkor lenses.

My Forester is a comfortable ride and the drive to Tucson is flat and quite boring. I know just about every turn and area of the desert by memory. I’ll be passing by Picacho Peak where there is a petroglyph area, but this is not the time for that, I’m on another mission this time and I’m going to stay focused.

I had found the Nikkor 28-50mm f3.5 lens hood at eBay. I had been tracking one there for about $60 but it was bent and the set screw was too. In my head I had already thought how I was going to repair it but it SOLD! Yikes! I didn’t think it was that rare but when I saw one for sale for a few hundred dollars, I knew that the articles I had read about it being rare were probably true. I put in the search term in eBay and bam, there it was, the Nikon HK-12, $25 delivered.

Is it true?

I looked at my notes, and looked up a pick of it mounted on the lens, “yup, that’s it.” And I bought it right then and there. I’ll still drive to Tucson and look for one, I’m sure others don’t really know how rare they are and some don’t even care.

Who uses old manual focus lenses these days anyway? 

The drive went smooth, I know it well and I jockeyed with various people for position on the I-10. Traffic is like a chess game, you can take a defensive position, or you can just race towards the goal. I do not use traffic against the person, that would not be cool and lots of people that race are out of their league. There is the guy with the new car that doesn’t know it yet and the fender bent or sideswiped car that you know it’s not their first rodeo and they just don't care about their car, or you.

This morning it was a frumpy lady. Driving a Jeep Renegade she kept cutting me off and I decided to put some distance between us, long story short, the Forester has a quicker throttle response when using launch control (AVH - auto vehicle hold and Sport Mode which is a quicker throttle response) and I easily beat her off the line at the light, she took the right lane as we merged on to the Southbound I-10 and she got merge shut down a half car length behind me. She stood on her horn, and I just laughed as she passed me on the freeway going 95. About 2 miles later when she settled down to 80 and forgot about me, I was in cruise control at 85mph and got a good look at her as I passed. Looked like a old woman wearing a lace dress and had a tight bun, so not looking like an aggressive driver. She scolded me as I passed pointing a finger at me, it was super odd but that’s how life is on a busy freeway in a city of millions of people. 

An old lady driver speeding, it was surreal.

Tucson is beautiful, the mountains we bathed in good morning light and the Jewish Community Center was beautiful. I was there at 9a sharp, paid my $5 early entrance fee and started to walk around. There were all kinds of vintage cameras of all kinds. I saw lots of people with smiles clutching new acquisitions. I almost bought a Nikkor AI 24mm lens but a Quick Look at Ken Rockwell indicated to me that this was not the lens I was looking for. 

Do I want this or do I need this?

Long story short is I bought a Nikon EM for $5 that had a series E 50mm on it. That was my deal and I should have not purchased as I don’t need it. I did take it home and cleaned it and will sell it on eBay with the rest of my EM extras.

I found a small Nikon School reference book for my bag and a Nikon AS-1, I bought it by mistake, I thought it was for the F3, damn it.

My purchases from the 65 WPHS Annual Camera Sale was a Nikon School reference book for my photography bag.

The ride back was uneventful with no racing, just rocking to PWEI (Pop Will Eat Itself) and enjoying the lyrics.