December, 2008

Somewhere somebody is working on a plane nicknamed the “Bolo”. The Douglas B-18A was all but wiped out 67 years ago when Pearl Harbor was attacked. After all these years, there are only five still intact.

The Grand Canyon is a deceiving place for photographers. You come up to the rim and peer out and think that something so grandiose will be an easy capture. And you snap away, and snap away…but in the end…you never feel like you got “it”. Colors, depth, vista all seemed lost in my little camera. So next year I will head back with a BIGGER camera…that will for sure solve the issue. I mean really…big things need a big camera- so simple.

The hardest part for me and photos is getting up early in the morning to go get the shot. Once I am up though, the sunrises, the quiet, and the tranquility I generally experience rank right up there with my most cherished moments; and the subsequent mid-day siestas are golden also.

Everyday at the Vatican in Rome, there arrives tour bus after tour bus of the faithful and not so faithful. It is almost suffocating, the droves that come here. What I like about this photo is that there is not one single soul in it. An impossible shot to get anytime after 730 A.M.

Since my first visitor to the site was from Utah I thought that I should post an image from that beautiful state. With so many incredible parks, I am ashamed that i have not spent more time there. This is from Arches National Park. The day was scorching hot and I could only make it about 20 minutes or so without craving the air conditioning in the car.

This is my first post on my new website and I thought hard and long about what the first post should be about. I love photography very much and it has become a constant outlet for me as I truly love making things that are visually interesting to look at. The truth is, that i would have never known anything but a point-and-shoot camera had it not been for my adequate friend Dave. He had a Canon 10d Camera and was very good at introducing me to the world of pro-sumer cameras. Once I saw his camera it was love at first sight. I did not,however, covet another man’s camera and thus got my own and it has been ecstasy ever since.

Some of you might wonder why I call Dave an “adequate” friend. I keep a list of those I know, and if they call me enough, write enough, or even visit once-in-awhile…they achieve “good” friend status. Dave is too busy to be my good friend and has since slipped into “adequate” friend status. He could do better but i don’t think he wants to. None-the-less this is a tribute to the man who introduced me to photography.

That is Dave in the distant archway in a palace that was started but never finished before our bombs fell. This was to be a great ballroom and I am shooting from the middle of the room. The name of the palace was “Victory over Iran” and it is located near the Baghdad International Airport.