Waterfire Providence
After viewing the pumpkins at the zoo, we headed over the see the Waterfire. The evening was about over as vendors were packing their wares, but the fires remained lit. As is was October and breast cancer awareness month, the capitol had pink lights. A gallery of my photos is here.
The first weekend of May is when the Shrimp Festival was held in Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, FL. Courtney and Josh flew to Atlanta Thursday night. We drove down on Friday and came back on Monday. They flew back from Jacksonville very early Monday morning.
The main street in historic downtown was closed to vehicles to allow vendors to set up their tents to display their wares. Food and shopping were all around. It was quite hot walking around on the asphalt street, which made us very thirsty. Fortunately water holes were readily available.
With my camera and tripod I captured a few images. The best I put into a gallery, which is here.
It’s been a few years since I’ve visited Hawaii. We flew out on Saturday, stopping in San Francisco for a few hours. The first day we drove to Waikiki and had lunch at Duke’s. After strolling around for a while, we returned to the Hawaiian Princess in time to capture sunset photos. To view the some of the photos from Day 1, click here.
The next day we went out around the mountain next to the resort where I knew there was a cache of coral. After walking around and taking photos there we hung out on the lanai for a bit. There was someone at the other end of the beach playing with a dog. I looked out into the ocean and it looked like a dog was swimming, but since it was so far out I wasn’t sure it was. It approached the beach near where the dog was. As it started to come out of the water we could tell it wasn’t a dog, but a seal. Perhaps it was a Hawaiian monk seal. I captured a photo, but I’m not too sure you can see it very well.
We drove to the north shore and beside visiting stores there we also went on the beach. While we were there, a few people started walking towards something. One of them commented about a sea turtle being there. We went there and did see the turtle. Another photo shows the turtle’s head out of the water.
As we went on our trips, I noticed a bust or statue of someone in a park we passed. Finally on the way back from the north shore, we stopped. It looked like IZ, a Hawaiian singer, and after being able to view it and see a plaque, that confirmed it.
We made it back in time for more sunset photos. You may view the photos from Day 2 here.
The first time I went to Hawaii in 1976 we went on a tour of Pearl Harbor. Since it was not the Navy tour, we could only view everything from the boat. This time we went to Pearl Harbor on the Navy boat. There were very interesting things there including old photos, movies, and models. The photos from Pearl Harbor are here.
I was fortunate enough to be able to visit with Addison when he completed MCT at Camp Pendleton base in CA. On Sunday, when I flew there, he was able to go off base since he had a buddy to accompany him. We went to the Claim Jumper restaurant and stuffed ourselves on chicken pot pie. The food and service were excellent. Monday I went to the San Diego Zoo since I was unable to visit with him. These photos will show up eventually on the blog.
On Tuesday I attended the graduation. In the photo gallery, you’ll see the first few photos of marines that may have been assembling for some training. The next few show the deck where graduation would occur. After the deck photos, you’ll see them assembling for marching onto the deck for graduation.
After they marched onto the deck, you’ll see the 4 units assembled, followed by Addison coming up into the stands. I guess he was able to pick me out of the crowd. Perhaps the camera equipment was a tipoff!
The last 2 photos are of the inside of the mess hall. We had a quick lunch and then he had to head outside for formation, go collect their gear, and be off to their next destination. I met with him after he was packed and ready to go. Soon after that I left for the airport only to be enough minutes late to miss the flight. The next flight was about 8 hours later. I knew I might miss that flight, but being able to spend more time with Addison was worth it.
Click here to see my view from the bleachers.
A couple of weeks ago I attended my cousin’s daughters wedding in Massachusetts. Saturday morning I flew into Providence, Rhode Island airport and was picked up by Tom. We went to their house, which is where I stayed Saturday night. After we got to the house, I walked around a bit and captured some photos. Soon enough, some of Tom’s relatives started showing up. Tom had planned an cookout for later in the evening. Chris and the wedding party were still out getting their nails done for the wedding the next day. It took them a while for all of them to have their nails done. They showed up in time for the cookout, which was great. It was fun meeting the relatives.
On Sunday I drove with Chris and Tom to the wedding. The wedding and reception were held at the same place. It was a nice day for an outdoor wedding. The setting with the gazebo worked very well. I photographed the wedding instead of being a spectator. You can see how I did by clicking here to view the photos.
It was a great & quick weekend. This is the first time I’ve been to visit them and hope it is not the last!
Around dusk on Sunday, I happened to look up to see two bright lights in the sky. They weren’t moving and it was too early for other stars so I guess they were planets. Venus is usually one of them but I heard nothing about any other planet in the evening sky.
When I went out tonight, I saw not only the two planets, but a crescent moon as well. This was too tempting an opportunity to pass up so I went inside to get my camera and tripod. Some of the photographs were okay. I put them on a web page here:
You can read more about this event here.
On Wednesday May 28, 2008 I went to an early morning photography session at the Denver Zoo. The zoo had offered this type of session previously but I was unable to attend any of the weekend ones since I work until 7 AM. I think there were some offered during the week, but I had previous engagements and couldn’t attend those. This time, things worked out so that I was able to go.
I walked through the front gates at the zoo just at 7 AM and gathered with the group around Predator Ridge. The session was limited to 25 photographers and I think that’s how many were there. Dave Parsons, staff photographer at the zoo, met us there and gave a brief overview of the event. We were free to roam the grounds, and if we were interested, around 8:15 some animals would be brought out in the Wildlife Theater for photographic opportunities.
With the zoo opening at 9 AM, this meant that the usual crowds would be absent. This allowed us to use our tripods without getting in the way of any other visitors.
I think I managed to capture a few keepers. Click here to view the web photo gallery.
My photographs are now available for purchase from Shutterfly.com. I started with only a couple of galleries, but more will soon be posted. For now, this is where I will post links to them. Please make sure you Preview your prints as some of the full frame photographs will leave a bit of a white filler around the edges to fill the paper. You’ll understand what I mean when you see the Preview of the photograph.
The first galleries contain photographs from Kenosha Pass captured with two different cameras. Each camera has a different megapixel rating which determines how large a photograph may be printed.
Here are the links: Kenosha Gallery 1 Kenosha Gallery 2
The password for either gallery is ‘kenosha’, but keep that to yourself. 😉
Let me know if there are any particular photographs you’d like to see on my Shutterfly site.
A gallery for some of my Maine photographs is also available: Maine
The password is ‘maine’.
… as well as one from Hawaii: Hawaii
The password is ‘hawaii’.
Here are some wallpapers I made that you can download and use on your desktop. Click on one of the images to get to the full size photograph. In that view, right-click and Save Image As (or whatever you have to do to get it on your PC) and save it in a folder so you know where it is. You might be able to Set Image as Background during the right click, but that won’t save it to your PC where you’ll be able to find it. This first batch are all 1024 X 768 in size.
This next bunch are the same photographs except they will work for those of you that have wide screens. The resolution for this group is 1280 X 800.
Let me know if there are any others you’d like to see available for download.
2007-05-14 – I’ve moved these to my Image Scenes site. There are also a few new ones there.
This may be a little late, but only slightly. On December 15, 2006, Courtney graduated from Colorado State University. We went up to Fort Collins to have dinner before the graduation ceremony. On Saturday, we had a party at the house where about 40 people or so showed up. You may view some of the photographs here. You may also download and view a slideshow here: 2006-csu_graduation_and_party.pdf.