The End is Nigh!

The end of my prolonged vacation is close. I go back to work on Thursday. I expect the first few weeks will be crazy!

What a great weekend. Kelly and I had a great evening dancing Friday evening. Saturday we had a tailgate at the Air Force/Army football game. Capping the weekend off we saw the Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood. Those cats are funny!

Here's a photo I took at Nicole and David's wedding. I was taking a few pictures as the REAL photographer was working. Can't wait to see his work.

Busy

I should be processing photos that I took during my sabbatical. But I'm not.

Earlier this week, I decided to brew some beer. I've not done that for a few years, so, I spent a lot of time cleaning, sterilizing, inventorying equipment, and replacing some. After digging around for awhile looking at recipes, I decided to make a clone of the Dogfish Head India Brown Ale. Currently, it fermenting away, filling my closet with that wonder yeasty/alcohol scent. Ahhh!

Also, we are having a tailgate at the Air Force/Army game tomorrow, so I decided to make some chili. From scratch. Old school! Sadly, I'm not really happy with it and need to do some doctoring on it.

I need a day at the beach!

Which brings me to today's photo. It was taken at Laguna Beach, CA.

Have a great weekend everyone...

Gourds

I'm back at home from my travels. I got a 'ginormous' number of photos to process as well as a multitude of other minor choirs to accomplish before returning to work.

I'll write a post (or a number of posts) summarizing the travels.

In the meantime, here's a photo of a gourd that my mother made. She made a number of gourds to be used as center pieces at Nicole and David's wedding. At the wedding, the gourds had beautiful orchids placed in them.

While I was visiting my parents, I help them make a simple DIY lightbox. Then I photographed a lot of my mom's gourds and my dad's carvings. I'm really happy with the photos of the gourds, but didn't like the photos of the carvings. I think the the carvings should be captured with a black background and directional light.

Click on the image to view a slide show of the centerpiece gourds. 

Click here to see a slide show of all the photos I've taken of family art.

Pelican

A Pelican coming in for a landing at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve near Long Beach, CA.

Be sure to visit Camera Critters..

Happy Halloween!

Hot and Cold

I've been in Arches National Park for the last few days. After leaving Bryce and Kodachrome Basin, I decided to skip the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I wasn't ready to having winter weather.

Ironically, this morning, I woke to cold, windy and overcast skies. As there was no visible sunrise, I turned off my alarm, rolled over and slept for a few more hours. It's amazing how much easier it is to get out of bed on a cold day when you're in a warm room as opposed being bundled up in a sleeping bag to a cold tent!

I'm now sitting in Moab's wonderful Red Rock Bakery checking the weather forecast. Looks like a snow storm is predicted to move through the area. Too bad I don't have my four season tent with me!

Hopefully, some of the snow sticks to the red rocks and the clouds move off. What a sunrise that'll make!

Here's another shot from my time in Joshua National Park. It was taken in the middle of the Fortynine Palms oasis.

The oasis is very soothing after a very hot hike through the desert mountains. If you find yourself in Joshua, don't forget to visit this beautiful oasis.

Joshua Tree

I arrived in Bryce National Park yesterday and spent the day washing clothes and processing pictures. I've run out of space on my CF cards, so, I really needed to free up some space.

Today I got some sunrise shots from Bryce point and did a number of hikes. Bryce Canyon is incredible. I've been in a number of places that have hoodoos, but Bryce takes the prize.

Since I was able to get some pictures processed, here is a silhouette shot of a Joshua Tree taken a few weeks ago.

Be sure to visit Skywatch Fridays!

Angel's Landing

This morning I did the Angel's Landing hike. What a beautiful trail. It goes 2.5mi from the valley floor up 1488 ft to the top of a knife edge ridge. What a view!!

As I was descending, I came across a number of people crawling up on their hand and knees. At least they are trying.



iPhone photo from the top. See the stretch of road 1200ft below? The prominent shadow at 10:30AM gives a good idea of the depth of the canyon.

Tomorrow I'll tour around the area by car and do a little bike riding. Then on Wednesday, I'll hike the Narrows to the famous "Wall Street" - a place in the canyon that is 22ft wide and 1500ft deep.


-- Post From My iPhone