Picture of the Day - 8/31/08

After six weeks on the road, covering two photo assignments, finalizing an engineering article for Test & Measurement World, outlining and completing an article for Backpacker Magazine, creating a front cover design for our engineering society magazine, visiting friends & family and most importantly, HAVING A LOT OF FUN in between, it's time to head on home to Colorado.

After attending church with Mike & Wanda, we headed for Hutchinson, Kansas, home of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center - an amazing collection of early German, U.S. and Soviet space program artifacts. On display are early V1 and V2 rockets designed by Werner Von Braun, who (with his design team) later surrendered to U.S. forces near the end of WW2, to become one  of the major rocket designers for the U.S. space program. The museum steps through rocket design history in Germany through the early satellite experiments by the U.S./Soviet teams, and all the way to the manned space programs and eventual moon landings. They managed to collect a real lunar module, lunar rovers (both U.S. and Soviet), actual V1 and V2 rockets, the Apollo 13 capsule and much more. Pictured is an actual space suit used during one of the moon landings. Highly recommended!

Picture of the Day - 8/30/08

Our last day with cousin Mike and Wanda found us in Tulsa at the Tulsa Gardening Association's greenhouse and garden. It includes a nicely landscaped garden area with nearby greenhouse with central fountain and four wings. One wing included cacti and other succulents. While I photographed many of the flowering plants, my favorite shot was of this barrel cactus. I liked the fact the larger two framed the central cluster. Using my Tamron 28-300mm lens, I focused on the central subject allowing the framing elements to go slightly out of focus. What really caught my eye were the orange/green color banding. Image data: 1/200th second at f8 (at 135mm).

The remaining day was spent shopping at an antique mall. Tomorrow, he head to Hutchinson, Kansas to visit the aerospace museum there - then it's back to Colorado to finish off the trip!

PIcture of the Day - 8/29/08

We spent the morning at the Tulsa Air & Space Museum. Although small compared to some of the larger air museums, I was impressed with the many operational simulators they had collected. These included an F-14 video-based flight simulator, a wind tunnel flight simulator and a simulator for the remote arm on the space shuttle. I got to play with all these and, although my flight skills were very rusty, I never crashed! The remote arm had me picking up a round cylinder and placing it in a round hole. Similarly with a square shaped block. The controls were a couple of joysticks and the only feedback I had was a couple of small video monitors. The control panel was a duplicate of that on the shuttle. The two docents were quite impressed with my skills - space shuttle, here I come! At least they didn't have me try placing the square peg in the round hole!  : )

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and chatting with cousin Mike and wife Wanda. They are such a fascinating couple! Mike buys items at local auctions and resells them on the EBay auction site. I love to take portraits of people using natural lighting, but I liked this silhouette the best as he's working at the computer. I also converted the remaining color portions to B&W. Not enough people smoke pipes these days!

Picture of the Day - 8/28/08

We left Bob & Mary's house and headed to Claremore, Oklahoma to visit my cousin Mike and wife Wanda. On the way, there wasn't too much to inspire, however, once we arrived at Claremore and became a little lost trying to find our RV park, I noticed this amazing sunset display. Had we not been turned around, ending up on a narrow country road, I'd have not had a clean foreground for this image! I'm amazed how often God places me at the right spot and all I have to do is press the shutter. I believe Ansel Adams was quoted similarly. I'm sure this phenomenon has a name, but I'm at a loss...

Claremore is located just NE of Tulsa and is the location where Will Rogers grew up and worked his ranch. There is now a fantastic museum with countless artifacts and mementos from his life. What a fascinating man!

Picture of the Day - 8/27/08

This may be a long posting. Sheila and I visited the Creation Museum near Cincinnati, OH today with friend Bob. The museum is the brainchild of Ken Ham, originally a Christian missionary to the U.S. (imagine that!). Ham is originally from Australia and has been speaking to churches and engaging in public debate on evolution, and related topics, for several years. The museum contains a collection of scientific evidence that supports a "young" earth (~6000 years old), a worldwide flood (Noah and the ark) and that the earth was, indeed, formed in a literal six days as described in the Book of Genesis by the God of the Bible.

This picture from one museum display is a fossil of the "last meal of a perch" (Mioplosus) collected from the well-known Green River Formation in SW Wyoming. It is on loan from William and Agnes Minnich, Wayne, NJ. There are many other examples of vertebrates (such as this perch, birds and dinosaurs) and invertebrates (such as jellyfish) and insects that were basically "frozen" within seconds by some cataclysmic event. I've also seen pictures of fossilized fish in the middle of giving birth! The theory of evolution says these creatures were buried over millions of years and fossilized. But the question in my mind is "wouldn't flesh and bone rot or get eaten long before they were covered and fossilized over millions of years?" I suspect "millions of years" is an incorrect interpretation of the physical evidence. If interested, there are more interesting questions below. We had a great time at the museum and if you're in the Cincinati area, be sure to check it out!

______________________

Following is a reply I made to a recent posting in my good friend, Jere Joiner's blog (http://pikespeakpolitics.blogspot.com/):

Jere states, in part: "Setting aside the seven days, today's scientific explanation of how the universe was formed (Big Bang, etc.) follows precisely the way it’s described in the book of Genesis. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Science and religion used to be on the same page. They will be again some day."

My reply (basically in agreement with Jere's posting):

I believe science and religion ARE on the same page, and always have been. It's just man's interpretation of the evidence through the years and liberal society's suppression of a Supreme Being and Creator that's dismissed this evidence.

There's a huge amount of recent scientific evidence - primarily geological and astronomical - that only makes sense if you are open to considering a "young earth" (~6,000 years), a worldwide flood and creation occurring over six days. Unfortunately, this evidence (of course) remains unpublished in the popular media. Many stalwart scientists are starting to admit there must have been a Supreme Creator of the universe.

Check out the following link for more info. Their store sells several scholarly books on this subject. 

http://www.answersingenesis.com

By the way, the Big Bang Theory has largely been dismissed by most scientists; both creationists and evolutionists. However, this has also not been published in the media.

To whet your curiosity (and those of your readers) here are a few items that can't be easily explained by "millions of years" or evolution.

1. Fossilized fish in the middle of a bite (fish in fish's mouth) - something occurred rapidly to kill them (flood?)

2. Fossilized fish in the midst of giving birth - ditto above.

3. Fossilized tree trunks clearly cutting across distinct geologic strata - like that could happen through millions of years!

4. Fossilized cone shells in the Grand Canyon strata all pointing the same way - a fast occurring flood? Normally, they point in random directions.

5. Human footprints along with dinosaur prints in the sandstone formation of an ancient creek bottom in Texas.

6. Fossilized jellyfish? Wouldn't they have decomposed long before pressure through "millions of years" would have fossilized them? Ditto with the fish examples above.

There are many other biological examples that are difficult to explain via evolution that I won't go into right now. However, the Second Law of Thermodynamics (systems degrade over time) is a biggie.

Picture of the Day - 8/26/08

Many states in the midwest, northeast, and northwest have collections of covered bridges built between the mid-1800s through about the 1920s. Parke County (with the city of Rockville as the central hub) in Western Indiana claims to be the "Covered Bridge Capital of the World" with 40 local bridges. Many of these are still in use. Usually, they are named after the builder - in this case, McAllister's Bridge, which was built in 1914 and crosses the Little Raccoon Creek. It spans 126 feet and continues to be used today. This image was created from a composite of five separate images spaced apart by 1 stop of light each (one "stop" being equivalent to half or double the amount of light). This allows reproduction of detail in both the highlights and shadow areas - something a single frame is unable to capture due to limited dynamic range of the imager chip. This more closely simulates what the human eye is able to capture.

We photographed 12 bridges today!

Picture of the Day - 8/25/08

"The American Farmer" - We're driving from the Detroit area in Michigan through Ohio to visit with our good friends Bob & Mary in Indiana. This is a pretty typical farm in this part of the country. The crop pictured is soybeans, which are used in a variety of ways (oil, part of margarine, tofu and protein supplements). Feed corn is usually alternated with the crop of soybeans to keep the soil from "wearing out". I decided to emphasize the sky because the clouds were interesting and to give the farm a sense of place.

Picture of the Day - 8/24/08

We spent most of the day at the highly acclaimed Henry Ford Museum in Greenfield (near Dearborn), Michigan. Ford loved to collect the latest technology of his day and days past - and steam locomotives formed a major part of the exhibit. The engine pictured here is a 1941 Allegheny - among the largest and most powerful of their day. They were designed to haul freight; mainly coal and iron, in trains up to 1.25 miles long. The engine and tender weighed over 600 tons! A six-foot person would be about even with the C&O logo on the front. Top speed was 60 mph. Diesel-electric engines soon took over and all 60 locomotives in this class were retired after only 15 years of service.

I was born in 1951, just as steam engines were nearing the end of their era. I remember moving from the San Francisco to central Orange County, California in 1953 and taking the steamer to get there. I still have the small wooden suitcase my parents gave me to hold a few toys and books during the trip. As I was just two years old at the time, the engine must have made quite an impression to have remembered the trip so vividly.

Tomorrow, we turn homeward-bound...

Picture of the Day - 8/23/08

We decided to relax, reorganize the trailer and catch up on email and blog postings today. While I was busy photographing fellow geeks all week, Sheila took a few exploratory trips around the Detroit area. One of these trips included the Detroit Zoo, which features an underwater observation tube in the harbor seal tank. I loved the bright color and the ambient lighting. The people watching give the composition some perspective within an almost surreal abstract surrounding. Taken with a Canon PowerShot S3-IS.

Picture of the Day - 8/22/08

While Detroit's city center is impressive, times have been hard on the region's manufacturing industry. In our wanderings, we found several areas of crumbling tenements, gutted buildings fenced off and general squaller. The entire city is strewn with trash and it's obvious there's no pride among the citizenry who live there. There is much opportunity for urban redevelopment.

On a more upbeat note (get it?), Detroit remains a center for musical talent and there were several street concerts the week we were there. The "Motown" sound lives on here!

Picture of the Day - 8/21/08

OK, just one picture from the conference I was photographing - only my good friend and fellow photographer, Brent DeWitt from HP - obliged and took the photo for me. I'm posing with Hao An (technical editor) and Xie Hong (Chief Editor) with Safety & EMC Journal, China's largest product regulatory magazine at 500,000 circulation. I had recently written an article for their May 2008 English edition and it was a real pleasure to see them again.

Picture of the Day - 8/20/08

Here's one more architectural shot from yesterday, as the conference photos today wouldn't be of much interest. This is the General Motors world headquarters complex, which includes the Marriott (conference hotel). See what I gave up to live for the week in our trailer?  :)

It's located right on the riverfront across from Windsor, Ontario, and just down the street from Cobo Center. Since this angle was catching the sun's reflections, I decided to reduce my aperture down to a minimum (f28) and create these eye-catching sun-stars. I corrected the vertical tombstoning distortion using Photoshop's Edit > Transform > Perspective control. I wonder if they'd use this for the cover of their next annual report?  :)

Picture of the Day - 8/19/08

Well, you'll be getting another dose of architecture, because downtown Detroit has plenty worth capturing. This is the old Mariners' Church, next to GM's world headquarters. According to the nearby plaque, in 1842, according to the will of Julia Ann Anderson, Mariners' Church was organized to serve the spiritual needs of the Great Lakes seamen. The Gothic Revival church was built in 1849 on the northwest corner of Woodward Avenue and Woodbridge Street. In 1955 the church was moved to make room for the Civic Center plaza. Hauled 880 feet along steel rails to the present site, the 3000-ton limestone structure blocked Woodward Avenue traffic for 21 days. The church was immortalized in the 1975 ballad "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" as the "cathedral" where "the church bell chimed 'til it rang 29 times."

Picture of the Day - 8/18/08

The engineering conference venue is in Detroit's Cobo Center - a very large conference building located downtown near the riverfront. Looking out across the Detroit River lies Windsor, Ontario. Detroit is Joe Louis' hometown and he's immortalized here in the main lobby of the Cobo Center.

Picture of the Day - 8/17/08

We finally arrived at our KOA Camp near Detroit, where I'll be photographing a large engineering conference this week. I'll try to find some non-conference pictures to share, but no promises, as the job will keep me fairly busy.

Here's a picture of one happy dog! Foxie loves to travel with us and has adapted well to the gypsy life we're living. As she caught sight of me checking out the campground, I caught her with my Tamron 28-300mm travel lens looking out the screen door of our trailer. This KOA is a large RV park located near Ypsilanti, about 20 miles SW of Detroit.

Picture of the Day - 8/16/08

Today, we spent the entire time trying to get close to Detroit, driving through Wisconsin, Illinois and ending just east of Gary, Indiana. There were no pictures worth sharing today, so how about one more - a 180 degree panoramic - from Roosevelt NP. This was taken at one of the higher viewpoints in the loop drive of the South Unit. I used Panorama Maker 4.0 to stitch five individual images together.

We plan to stay at a nearby KOA camp near Detroit for the entire next week. I'll try to continue sending non-conference pictures, if I can.

Picture of the Day - 8/15/08

This morning, we drove the scenic loop at Theodore Roosevelt NP (South Unit) - a little-known park in western North Dakota. A couple white-tailed deer posed willingly for us. The park lies along the Little Missouri River and is the general area where Roosevelt spent his time hunting. He also bought into a ranch just south of the park, later moving to the North Unit a few miles from where we were. The Civilian Conservation Corps (created under Roosevelt's "New Deal"), created several improvements around the park in later years.

Picture of the Day - 8/14/08

We need to make tracks towards Detroit, where I'll be photographing an engineering conference all next week. So, we left the campground, crossed into the U.S. and headed across Montana via Highway 2; cutting south at Highway 13. Montana's "tagline" is "Big Sky Country" and I now understand fully what that means. No matter which way one looks, the sky is always 4/5ths of the view!

Sheila captured this newborn deer in the Waterton Townsite yesterday (Waterton Lakes NP) and I couldn't help but award it the picture of the day! The deer was munching away at the leaves and turned just as she snapped the shutter - perfect highlights in the eyes! Today we're including a bonus picture! "Lone Tree at Sunset" was taken late in the day today of some typical Montana skyline. The wheat field had just been freshly cut and the sun was casting a golden glow. The dark storm clouds in the back make the scene visually striking.

Tonight, we're camped at Glendive, just short of the North Dakota border. Tomorrow, we take an early drive through the Theodore Roosevelt NP and continue on towards Detroit.

Picture of the Day - 8/13/08

After spending the last night at Johnston Canyon Camp in Banff NP, we headed south through the southern part of the park, through Calgary and further south to Waterton Lakes NP, where we explored some of the interior roads and viewpoints. As it started getting late in the afternoon, we started to head on out of the park. On the way, we saw deer, elk, brown bear, bighorn sheep, beaver, pheasants, various ducks, Columbian ground squirrel and several very hungry mosquitos! The view below is shot from the bridge over the Waterton River on Highway 6, looking back into the valley. Waterton Lakes NP is actually the northern extension of the U.S. Glacier NP. Together, they form the Waterton - Glacier International Peace Park. One of the ranger-led walks is done with both U.S and Canadian park rangers to symbolize this peace agreement between our two countries.

Picture of the Day - 8/12/08

It's hard for one to take in the whole of what the Canadian Rockies has to offer. While the mountain peaks are as high as 11,000 feet, they are, on average, steeper than our own Rocky Mountains. This is just a small portion of the Columbia Ice Field in Jasper NP, showing the Athabasca Glacier. There are trails out to it and some of the small specks on top are people. The ice field includes several more glaciers as you can see here.

Tomorrow, we need to start heading for Detroit, where I will be photographing an engineering conference.

picture of the Day - 8/11/08

Well, who would have thought another abstract would have made the picture of the day! This one was purely an accident. I was trying to go for a "drive by shooting" of a bunch of aspen trees in Revelstoke NP and the angle was such I had to shoot more out the side of the car, rather than forward. Sheila was driving and I had a very narrow window of opportunity in order to avoid Sheila's head and the structure of the vehicle. The shutter speed was also just a 13th of a second. I ended up increasing the contrast slightly and boosting the saturation a bit. It almost has a "Monet-like" feel to it.

What really caught my eye was the fact the right-hand portion is relatively sharp, while the left 3/4 is increasingly blurry. I'm not sure I could ever duplicate this shot! Obviously, the three aspens on the right were stationary relative to the panning of the lens and movement of the vehicle.

We're camped tonight at (Canada's) Glacier NP, just short of Jasper and Banff NPs. While this is high-season, there were plenty of camp spots left. It was a little overcast and rainy as we entered the the mountains, but the rest of the week is supposed to be sunny. One other thing that struck me as odd was that despite the fact we're literally in the middle of nowhere at the edge of the Canadian Rockies, I'm getting enough of a telephone signal to hook into the Internet and send these emails!

Picture of the Day - 8/10/08

This day was another layover day at the RV park north of Seattle, where we had been staying most of the week. We were pretty tired from all the wedding activities and wanted to reorganize the trailer and catch up on a few tasks. So, here's one more picture from our walk through Seattle Center. I really enjoy architecture, as well as sculpture, so was busy in this section. This is a "bamboo forest", according to our (amphibious) Duck driver. I don't know whether he was just pulling our leg, but I guess it -does- sort of look like that. While I took several shots of this sculpture, I like the abstractness and balance of this angle.

Tomorrow, we head to Canada!

Picture of the Day - 8/9/08

The day after the wedding, we watched Jolie and Derek open gifts during a family brunch. Then, while Sheila drove her mom, Jackie, back home, my younger sister, Karen (from New Zealand), Chris, Linda and I had a chance to take in the town. We started in the Seattle Center (site of the 1962 World's Fair), where we walked around the grounds enjoying the various art sculptures. Then it was off for a "Duck" (amphibious vehicle) ride around downtown Seattle and then around Lake Union - after-which, we strolled along the waterfront and had a bite to eat at Ivar's while we watched another fabulous sunset.

While in Seattle Center, I saw this boy playing in the International Fountain.

Picture of the Day - 8/8/08

Wedding bells today for niece, Jolie, and husband Derek Cox. My son, Chris, assisted with the photography and ended up shooting the picture of the day aboard the Royal Argosy during the sunset cruise around Puget Sound. That's the Seattle skyline in the background. The wedding ceremony was attended by several close friends and family, followed by dinner and dance. The happy couple will be honeymooning along the Oregon coast - no pictures of the day there!

Picture of the Day - 8/7/08

Probably the top attraction in Seattle is the Pike Place Market - one of the larger farmer's markets in the US. The vendor stalls go on for several blocks and in two main levels. One can buy anything from tourist trinkets to fresh fish to flowers; and oh! do the flowers smell good! Flowers were definitely the hot seller.

Picture of the Day - 8/6/08

Today, we photographed the last lighthouse in the immediate Seattle area - that's a total of 17 sighted and photographed this trip! The remaining day was spent scouting out locations for the various wedding events for niece, Jolie. We met together as an extended family at Maggie Bluff's - a nice eatery at the Seattle Yacht Club. While there, I captured the Seattle skyline below; cropping out the top and bottom to create this panoramic shot.

Parts of Seattle are very confusing. Sheila normally pilots while I serve as navigator.  I had to chuckle when Sheila remarked that between operating the GPS and with the map spread out on my knees, we still managed to get lost several times!

Picture of the Day - 8/5/08

Family activities today, so I thought I'd send out another wildflower picture from the alpine area of Olympic NP. These are broadleaf lupines (with frost still on the leaves), and are widespread at Hurricane Ridge. Interestingly, the mountains have permanent glaciers, yet the highest elevation (Mt. Olympus) is only 7,965 feet. Our house in Woodland Park is at 8,800 feet!

Picture of the Day - 8/4/08

Today was more lighthouse hunting - from Gig Harbor all the way to Seattle. We gave the GPS a good workout! The driver, as well - in maneuvering the trailer (24 ft) around some pretty narrow roads and tight - or non-existent - turnarounds! One spot we stopped at (but were unable to locate the lighthouse where we thought) was Boston Harbor. Now this one is definitely in the Northwest! We didn't seemingly stray to the east coast by mistake. I loved the reflections!

This week finds us in a neat RV park just north of Seattle - right by a small lake. This Friday is niece, Jolie's, wedding, so we'll be more occupied with family than photography. The pictures may reflect that!

Picture of the Day - 8/3/08

We got up early today and spent the morning up on Hurricane Ridge - the alpine area of Olympic NP. The road starts out in Port Angeles in the north part of the Olympic Peninsula. The wildflowers were perfuse, but since the majority of the day was spent searching out lighthouses, the Point Wilson Light won out for the picture of the day. It was originally constructed Dec. 15, 1879 and rebuilt in 1913. It's located at Ft. Worden (now a state park) near Port Townsend, WA.

Picture of the Day - 8/2/08

We laid over again today to recuperate from all the hiking from the last two days. I was able to catch up on some work (yes, I still work on occasion!) and Sheila rested and cut triangles for a new quilt she's designing. Also, our dog, Foxie, came down with something and is recuperating.

We're camped out at Sequim Bay "Resort", a rather plain RV campground, but with a beautiful view! This is basically the scene we got tonight from our living room window just after sunset - and was the only picture taken today! Coincidentally, the flowers in the foreground were the same color tone as the sky, which I thought was cool!

Picture of the Day - 8/1/08

Here's another bonus day with two pictures for the price of one! We picked up camp and moved near Sequim (pronounce "squeem") and spent the afternoon hiking up to Sol Duc Falls - about 0.8 miles. Here's a view looking down river toward the foot bridge. Another rainy day on and off, which made for perfect lighting conditions - but necessitated using the tripod. Exposures were running up to a couple seconds.

What a delightful trail - one of the finest I've ever taken! It's relatively flat with gradual up and down sections. It reminded me a lot of some of the rainforest trails in Hawaii. The scent of cedar and spruce was in the air and the temperature was a comfortable 68 degrees. The tall trees were similar in size to the redwoods in northern California. The rain was more of a mist in your face, rather than a downpour and I used the old shower cap trick to keep the camera dry.

The lower photo shows Sheila hiking back to the trailhead and is pretty typical of the trail conditions.

Picture of the Day - 7/31/08

Today it rained all day! So I thought it apropos to hike through the Hoh Rainforest. Olympic NP is quite unique in that it includes three distinct ecosystems - seashore, rainforest and alpine. The Hoh has two short loop trails and one trail that leads several miles up the valley. I took the two loops - part of which you see here. Forest photography is best done in overcast weather and God obliged nicely, leaving me pretty well soaked, but with a set of nice images. Who was it that said nature photography was a glamorous job?  :)

Picture of the Day - 7/30/08

Somedays, you'll just have to accept a bonus picture! We spent much of the day at the Makah Indian Reservation in the NW part of the Olympic Peninsula - in fact, we ended up on the MOST NW corner of the continental US! Most of the coastal region of Olympic NP is a temperate rain-forest and reminds me a lot of some of the areas on Hawaii around Hilo. The Makah tribe has been living in this NW corner of the peninsula for generations and fortunately, they were not too badly displaced during the "Americanization" period in the late 1800's to early 1900's. Their early culture revolved around whale-hunting and the people lived in long-houses of cedar. The museum/cultural and research center is world-class and is considered by the Smithsonian as one of the top ten natural history museums in the country. Unfortunately, no photography is allowed inside, but there have been hundreds of artifacts unearthed very recently from a long-house village that was covered by a mud-slide (I believe) in the 1930's. The displays are top-notch!

After visiting the museum, we headed out the road to Cape Flattery - the furthest NW point in the US - and took the 0.75-mile trail to the viewpoint. The picture above shows a portion of the trail with slices of cedar tree trunks as "stepping stones". Other parts of the trail were rough-hewn cedar wooden walkways. It was a lovely walk downhill to the cliffs. The bonus picture shows Sheila, me and Foxie at the viewpoint, where you can also see the lighthouse on Taboosh Island. Tomorrow, we tackle some of the rain-forest trails. Rain is expected!  :)

Picture of the Day - 7/29/08

We left Camas, WA, this morning and proceeded towards the west side of Olympic NP. There were numerous clear-cut logged areas en-route with occasional patches of fireweed along the roadside. We pulled off and shot for a few photos. It had been raining much of the day and the drops added a nice touch to the composition. Of course, the photographer became completely drenched from the waist, down, following this session! Fireweed is so named because it tends to spring up first following fires (or also in disturbed earth along roadsides).

Picture of the Day - 7/28/08

No photography today, as we're still laying over at Sheila's mom's place. So, here's a bonus image from the next day - 7/29.

This is a picture of Foxglove with raindrops. This was found in combination with the fireweed from the picture of the Day - 7/29. The leaves of Foxglove (genus digitalis) is used as an ingredient in various heart stimulants. Foxglove in this area is basically a displaced crop grown elsewhere, but it loves the disturbed earth near roadsides.

Picture of the Day - 7/27/08

No pictures taken today, as we're "laying over" a few days at Sheila's Mom's place in Camas, WA. I did manage to work on another of those "impossible to capture in one frame" images from Silver Falls SP (OR), by combining the best of five images within Photomatix Pro. This is a shot of South Falls within a short walk of the lodge. To give you some perspective, observe the people along the trail just behind the 177-foot tall falls!

What I like best about this picture is that, while waterfalls are mostly designed to be dominant in an image, in this case, the trees are the dominant element and the falls are secondary. This seems to enhance the depth  (or three-dimentionality) of the picture.

Picture of the Day - 7/26/08

Today, we spent the morning photographing in Oregon's largest state park, Silver Falls, located just east of Salem. There are several beautiful waterfalls along a five-mile loop trail. Pictured is Middle North Falls with the trail shown just behind it. Most of the falls around the loop are facing north or west, so photography is best done in the early morning before the sun shines directly on the water.

Picture of the Day - 7/25/08

After visiting Hells Canyon (the deepest canyon cut by a river in North America, at 8,000 feet, plus) yesterday, we spent the night in Baker City, OR. Today, we drove I-84 along the Columbia River to the town of Hood River. From there, we cut south on the Mt. Hood Highway, stopping at the Timberline Lodge at the southern foot of Mt. Hood. Lupine and several other wildflowers were in bloom and made for a nice foreground element.

If you recall, the Timberline Lodge was where the movie, "The Shining" was filmed. "Here's Johnny!"

Picture of the Day - 7/24/08

This morning, I got up early and rode the bike out to the dune area for sunrise. It was pretty hazy from the fires in California, but I was able to capture some decent pictures. i liked the simple composition of the dunescape in this shot. Apparently, Bruneau Dunes contain the "largest single dune structure" in North America. Now, I'm not entirely sure what that means or how they compare with the Great Sand Dunes near Alamosa, CO, but they are pretty impressive.

Picture of the Day - 7/23/08

Today, we drove from Provo to Bruneau Dunes State Park in Idaho (southeast of Boise). We arrived in late afternoon and rode the bikes from the campground out to the dune area in time for the sunset. I wasn't able to find a decent shot of the dunes, but am really partial to lone trees - one of which served as the subject for this shot. Tomorrow, I plan to be up before dawn to capture some dune images!

Believe it or not, this state park has free Wi-Fi!! Am I blessed, or what?! I was able to continue working the last bits of some projects. I can tell this working holiday is going to work out slick! If we happen to be without power, I'm running the laptop off a 12V battery (that's kept trickle-charged) and AC power inverter. If the place we camp has no Wi-Fi (Colorado NM, for one), I can usually connect to the Sprint high-speed network via my Palm Treo phone/PDA. Ain't technology wonderful?

Picture of the Day - 7/22/08

Didn't do much photography today, as we simply drove from Grand Junction to Provo, UT. I had spent much of the day "working" at the campground and we didn't leave until 3 pm. I did finish proofing the final draft of an engineering article for Test & Measurement World Magazine and knocked out a pitch for a short article in Backpacker magazine. I also finished the first draft of a cover design for the EMC Newsletter (our professional IEEE society journal).

Here's Sheila hard at work on her new quilting project. We had installed this flip-up work table in the trailer, which is made from part of a TV stand (Lowe's) with fold-down shelf brackets. Works slick, as you can see!

By the way, most RV parks have free Wi-Fi, which is a real blessing when one has to WORK once in a while!  :)

Picture of the Day - 7/21/08

Today, we traveled north to Grand Junction to visit daughter, Linda and hubby Robb. They had just moved into their first home and we were looking forward  to seeing their new abode. After a nice pizza dinner, we all shared a few photos and caught up on family activities.

We camped at Colorado National Monument that night and pretty much had the place to ourselves! Of course, in July, the temperatures are in the 90's! Even so, the views were spectacular, with evening thunderstorms cooling things off a little.

This is a view towards northwest Grand Junction in late afternoon.

Picture of the Day - 7/20/08

Today was spent traveling on the Alpine Loop from Ouray to Silverton - stopping along the way to photograph fields of flowers, crystal clear waterfalls and the restored ghost town of Animas Forks. I couldn't help posing our Pomeranian, Foxie, amongst a group of dandelions. She sat there patiently while I took photo after photo - well, you know how photographers are!

Picture of the Day - 7/19/08

Today we led a tour through Yankee Boy Basin near Ouray, CO. We left before dawn so we could make use of the diffused light for a nice even lighting of the subject, in this case, a cluster of Blue Columbines. There were fields of flowers every way you looked and the challenge was to find the jewels hidden along the mountainsides.

Picture of the Day - 7/18/08

So far, the trip's going well. Gas is running $3.95 to $4.47,. depending on how isolated the station is and the state tax. Oregon is not too bad, considering - Utah and Idaho were pretty expensive. The bad news, of course, is that pulling a loaded trailer results in 8 to 10 mpg!  Ugh!

I'll try to send a picture a day - but no promises. The following picture is impossible to capture with any camera - film or digital. While the human eye can perceive dynamic range (bright to dark) of 8, or more, "stops", cameras can only capture 4-5 at most. The result is that a single image capture the highlights or the shadow details, but not both. I recently purchased Photomatix Pro, which takes the best exposure in three, or more, images and combines them into a single image. This shot Mt. Sneffels (the highest peak in the group) at sunset was a combination of four separate captures, 1 stop apart. This is very close to what the eye actually sees at dusk.

Two-month trip to the NW, Canada and Michigan!

Sheila and I started our two-month sojourn in our 24-foot travel trailer July 18th - the day before our weekend wildflower tour in the San Juan Mountains (SW Colorado). We're planning to head out towards Seattle in time for our niece's wedding (Jolie Cheatham) - then head towards Detroit for the IEEE EMC Symposium - via the Canadian Rockies, Glacier NP, Yellowstone NP, Tetons NP and Badlands NM. We'll stay in Michigan's Upper Peninsula for a few days, then get back to Boulder just in time for a travel writing/photography workshop in mid-September. Whew!

The following posts will include a "picture of the day" (or maybe two) as we travel.

Finally figured out how to get through the Google hoops!

As I haven't used this blog in a while, apparently, Google bought Blogger and the result was that I had to re-establish my account - no help to Google!

Anyway, we're back on line...