Cat... Er, Dog days of Summer

Well it's official in a couple more hours, not a drop of rain will have fallen in the month of July up here in this rain forest we call home! Many days in the high 70's / low 80's and up to 92 late this afternoon. Not to mention that there isn't any rain in the forecast for the foreseeable future.

You have no idea how happy we all are about this global warming / climate change thing, finally we are getting nice warm dry weather like everyone else!

Living in a fish bowl

 

Just playing with the fish eye lens.

 

Local news.

 Found this news paper printed a day before we arrived in Kauai.  

 There is a  tourist guy from Texas landed a world records 25 lbs. Ono fish in Kauai 2013.  NOT!   LOL. 

Sunrise Over Kauai.

Round 43

I am the sunset wizard afterall!

 

And a little Hawaiian humor just so Tex doesn't get bored.

This is a photo of a t-shirt I saw during our last trip.

 

Hey, I don't write the stuff, I just take the pictures.

Chicago River Tours.

Captured the Trump tower from the river tour.  I think the best way to see the architectures in Chicago is to take the river tour.  Not only they cruising around the downtown, they also gives you a history of those famous buildings within 1.5 hour.

Field Museum.

No dinosaur in the world compares to SUE—the largest, most complete, and best 

preserved Tyrannosaurus rex ever discovered. In May 2000, the unveiling of her 

67-million-year-old skeleton at The Field Museum made global headlines. Since 

then, more than 16 million visitors have marveled over Chicago’s prehistoric giant.

I'm wondering if my wife going to let me have the 800mm lens, if I get her something like this?

The Bean.

 Directly from the bottom of the bean.

This place is very cool for photograph, but you need to get there early between 6-7 am if you don't want people in your picture.

Waipouli Beach Resort Under Moonlight.

Sunrise Over Waipouli Beach Resort.

The Val-Tex Enigma

 

Man, it's tough pleasing two women at the same time, especially at my age! LOL

 

OK, so how do I post photos from Hawaii for Val and keep Tex interested too? I use photos from paniolo (Hawaiian cowboy) country.

 

This first shot was taken along the Piilani Highway, pronouned hi- way, yea, yea, I was just seeing if you were paying attention. It's pronounced pee-ee-la-nee highway and this was taken on the Kaupo Ranch near Lapehu Point on the south side of Maui.

 

This was taken in upcountry on Maui near the Tedeschi Vineyards on Kula Highway. I'm told their wine is very good. Unfortunately I can't tell you from first hand knowledge because I'm more of a cold beer kind of guy.

Ron started it... Again...

As long as we're posting Hawaiian sunsets... Here's one from our last trip to Oahu in 2011.

Stretch

Three Boards Long

Stretch the Grackle has become a frequent and regular visitor to the backyard fence. Measuring almost three boards (6" boards) long, other than an occasional and rare visit by a hawk, Stretch is by far the largest bird that comes by. 

Woodpecker Imitation

Keel shaped tail and metallic black feathers, the rascal has taken up eating cedar!

Curiosity?

Stretch seems as curious about the fence as I am about his antics! 

Ahhhhhh....

I just can't help myself!

 

The sun setting on the island of Lana'i as seen from Maui.

Fun in the sun!

A picture from a few days ago of one of the local Coast Guard's high speed response vessels.

Haven't had time to get out and take any pictures this past week as I've been taking advantage of our nice sunny weather and getting the above water portion of the landing craft all scraped, sanded and painted. Tomorrow the boat gets hauled out of the water and I get to scrape and paint the under water part. Big job! Did I mention how much I love my boat lately? (Not!) Ha ha!

Safe Surfing

 

I'm an adventerous kind of guy, right? LOL

 

And if you're going surfing you have to have the right mode of transportation!

If you ever find yourself on Maui and are in need of beach clothes, good shave ice or the tourist type souvenirs, this is the place to go. The owners are super nice folks and their prices are great. 

The Grind.

Add this one in this group since Ron asking about it.

Lee Big Stopper -10 stops filter.

Without Lee Big Stopper.  1/250 sec. exposure

No more traffic with Lee Big Stopper.   2.3 sec. exposure.

Buckingham Fountain.

The Bean in Chicago

Waipouli Beach

A path to nowhere

 

No, really, it goes nowhere. It dead ends in a lake.

 

It was built by the governement, would you expect anything less?

Fireworks fun!

Last night in Port Hardy they had a nice fireworks display, the end of a two day celebration called FILOMI Days. FI is for Fishing, LO is for Logging and MI is for Mining which are or were anyway the three main employers for the Town of Port Hardy.

Before I headed into town to watch the display I went on the internet to get a couple of pointers for capturing firework pictures. Sure enough all the sites said you have to use a tripod... Anyway long story short, Shutter 8 to 30 seconds, aperture f/8 to f/16, ISO 100, manual focus at infinity and use a remote control.

And this last picture is for Ron