View of Hardy Bay and Queen Charlotte Strait

Go ahead have a seat, look around...

The last few days around here have been absolutely beautiful! So much so that I keep getting the feeling that we are going to get punished with a foot of snow or something drastic like that when it's over...

Dead Trees

This was taken in front of the court house in Ottawa, KS. The city needed to clear out some damaged trees after a storm and two of the big ones were left with their trunks in the ground so that a wood carver could carve the trees where they stood. I guess you can't make too many mistakes when you're carving something like that!

Disaster of another sort

fortunately though there was no loss of life!

For a number of years my little business was involved in marine oil spill response. This day found my Step Son and I onsite to contain any oil or fuel which escaped from this overturned Seiner during salvage operations.

After many hours of preparation the overturned Seiner was rolled gently upright and pumped out. From start to finish the salvage took almost exactly 24 hours.

Devastating Weather

These two photos were taken from a small airplane just after Hurricane Katrina. This area is Gulfport, MS and you can see the debris line from what use to be houses. The ocean is at the bottom of the photo.

If you look to the right side of the first photo I have put a red box around a home with a red roof. This is my fathers home. Although it was still standing after the storm his refrigerator had floated from the kitchen into the family room!

The second photo is the same area, just closer in.

Into the wind

What Seagulls do when it's too windy to fly... At least I think that's what they were all doing lined up on the cannery dock.

Ka'anapali Beach, Hawaii

I took this photo on evening while walking down the beach on Maui. I was just a little late or else I would have had some oranges and yellows from the sun setting. It still came out as a decent photo I thought.

Fawn Lilly

Some of the early wild flowers are starting around here. I took this picture down near the old dam out behind our house. This is taken with the Tamron lens so it's a little soft but it still looks not bad.

Spring has sprung

The weather has finally warmed up and the flowers are coming out. My wife likes to keep several hibiscus plants around to remind us of Hawaii and this one was blooming so I had to take a photo.

The Carnival comes to town

So I cranked up the saturation and the sharpness and went shooting! I can't think of a better place to go shooting, something happening everywhere you turn!

Another Kansas Sunset

Am I being self indulgent? I just love the colors produced by a sunset. The only thing better would be if I was on a beach in Hawaii taking this kind of photo!

Stellers Jay

I always told myself that I would know when I was getting old when I became interested in birds. Well I guess I must be getting old because here`s another stupid bird picture... and I even know what kind of bird it is!

I took this one through the living room window this morning from the comfort of my easy chair. Guess that makes me a armchair photographer... LOL

Warming up

I took this photo a few weeks ago when it was still cold here. I came out of the house one morning to find this very large turkey buzzard in the tree with his wings spread wide. He stayed that way for several minutes and I could only guess that he was soaking up the sun as it was coming up. Or maybe he was making shadow puppets on the ground! LOL

Vibration? What Vibration

One of the perils of operating a landing craft is that on a regular basis you take your boat into shallow water as you land vehicles or material at one beach or other. Needless to say the propellers see the odd rock and pleanty of sand and who knows what else! Eventually I get used to the slight extra vibration caused by the less than ballanced propellers but any one riding allong eventually asks the same question. "Do you feel a vibration?" Always my answer is the same "What vibration" then I smile...

Just about worn out

I found this ragged moth on my barn door this morning. It looks like the wind and time had taken the brightness out of his colors.

Long Beach Sunset

Here is a picture from my first digital camera a 2 mega pixel Kodak. Funny that old Kodak cost more then my latest Nikon did! Now I couldn't give the old thing away. LOL Nothing cheep about wanting the latest...

Where the buffalo roam

I took this shot in Oklahoma a couple of weeks ago while I was down there goofing off.

Sea Lions

Found these fellows sunbathing this afternoon near the canery in Port Hardy.

Busy Bees

Have you ever tried to photograph a bee in flight? Getting it in focus and with a good background is harder than you might think. I just couldn't get them to look at me and smile!

Stephens Creek Dam

Here's something a little different. Long exposure picture reworked with Photo shop.

A fixer-upper!

I came across this old homestead while traveling in central Kansas. Time has taken it's toll but the stone walls are still hanging in there.

Dear dear...

Found these two standing near the road. Neither one moved when I stoped the truck to look so I shot them both! (With my camera of course).

Speaking of rain......

I took this photo last summer. It was nice and sunny and raining buckets of of water at the same time.

Drowned but not out!

"April showers bring May flowers". OK the flowers are here... Now quit raining!

Playing with Fire

I was buring off some old branches from the yard and thought I would take a few photos of the flames. Don't ask me why, I just thought it might make a colorful photo.

Big tangled mess!

The bigger the boat the bigger the problems! The fellows off this large "dragger" had about 10 miles of tangled lines layed out on the wharf when I took this picture. It took them until the following morning to get it all straightened out!

Welcome??

I would love to have one of these in my front yard! I took this photo in Fort Scott, KS. The canon is located near the downtown area.

"Cob Webs"

So how many times have you heard the term "Cob Webs"? I know I've heard it before... Now ask yourself, have you ever seen a "Cob"? Just what is a "Cob" anyway and why do they make webs like spiders? One of life's little mysterys... LOL

The Dust Bowl?

I was driving back from Oklahoma about two weeks ago during a very strong wind. The winds were gusting up to 60 miles an hour and the farmers had just recently plowed their fields so the wind was kicking up a red dirt dust storm. The visibility was only about one quarter of a mile in some spots.

This "n" that

Here are several pictures (nothing particularly spectacular) that I have taken over the last two days. Still getting to know the abilities and limitations of this new camera. What I'm finding is that I will need to do little if any post processing with many of the pictures that come out of this camera. No changes have been made to any of these pictures other than resizing them.

Skunk cabbage in back yard

Seagate Hotel (Condemed)

Seagate Dock

Old Logging Locomotive

I'm thinking of a movie..........

I scared up this flock of birds the other day while walking. I'm just glad they flew away from me and not over me!

Mid face plant! (More from Suquash)

It sucks being a puppy in those ackward teenage years! All the other dogs can run and play and all this poor young fellow does is trip over his feet all the time!

Zoom lenses are great!

I've always considered my self to be pretty stealthy but without a good zoom lens (and a tree to hide behind) I would never have gotten this shot.

A different kind of flying high

I came across this hawk about a week ago circling a recently plowed field. He seemed to be looking for his next meal.

D90 Saturation

The ability of the D90 to saturate colours in camera are impressive. The mushroom is saturated using the vivid setting and +2 on the saturation. (it will go to +3!)

The following 4 pictures are using the landscape setting and +1 on the saturation. All pictures are untouched and as shot (with the exception that they are made smaller for this blog). I threw the tree picture in just to show what one of our smaller trees look like around here... LOL