Another Photo From My Trip To California

I found this photo when I was going through all of the photos I took in California again. It isn't really spectacular or anything, I just like the way it looks. It makes a good desktop wallpaper.

Back From Cali

It has been a while since my last post. This is due to the fact I have been in California for the past 7 weeks. The Coast guard sent me to Petaluma, CA to a training school. Petalume is locatd about an hour outside of San Francisco in Sanoma County right around the corner fron Santa Rosa and Napa. During my time there I was able to do a bit of sight seeing. I rented a car and took some friends from my training class to go see some red woods. The actual Redwood Forrest was about six hours away so we opted to go to the Armstrong Redwood State Reserve which was only about 45minutes from the training Center. This was the closest place with "old Growth" Redwoods. My friends and I walked 4 miles to the top of this Mountain and when we got to the top it began to pour down raining on us. We had to walk back down the Mountain along a road with nowhere to take shelter for about two miles. I guess that made it more memorable. Here are some pictures from that excursion.



I found this guy crawling through the foilage. I looked him up and identified him as the Red Bellied Newt. I found some interesting facts about this species. They are born in the water similar to a tadpole and don't leave the water until their fifth year. They are able to regenerate body parts such as their limbs, eyes, heart, and even a damaged spinal chord. they carry the most potent form of Neurotoxin known in the wild in their skin. Its a good thing none of us tried to eat him. Lol!






I was also able to take a trip into San Francisco while I was in California. I went to the golden Gate Bridge and the Famous Pier 39, more commonly known as Fisherman's Warf. It turned out to be another rainy day. Here are a few shots from that trip.

Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas everyone! This year I took my wife and kiddos to visit her side of the family for the holidays. We had a great time. We arrived early in the week to find about four feet of snow on the ground. By the end of the week the snow had dissipated and all that was left was mud. The majority of the driving portion of our trip was spent in Pennsylvania. I always like driving through PA since that is where my father is from. The state is full of beautiful countryside. We saw farm after farm and the occasional horse and buggy as there are a lot of Amish communities up that way. Here are a few scenes I captured through the car window while my wife was driving.

Farmland:





Abstract: (These were fun to take and I just thought they looked cool.)

The Heavens

The weather report called for snow flurries today. When I looked out of my 9th floor office window at work today, I didn't see any flurries, but I did see this breath taking view of the sky. I thought shooting the clouds in this scene with a mixture of a high ISO along with knocking off a few stops made for a neat effect. (We did end up getting some flurries later this afternoon.)

Veterans Day

Happy Veterans Day to all who have served! One of the things I enjoy about being in the military is we get off for all Federal Holidays. Having the day off from work gave me an excellent chance to get out again and shoot some wildlife photos. Here is what i came up with.

These Canadian Geese flew overhead giving me just a few seconds to get this shot off.


I found this guy relaxing on the water.


On my way out of the woods, I came accross this Squirl perched on a stump.

Smoke On The Water

I took the day off of work today to celebrate the second birthday of my twin daughters. Their birthday was actually yesterday, but I could not get off until today. I decided to take the opportunity to wake up early and go back to Huntley Meadows, my favorite spot. I got there just as the sun came up. Today was the warmenst day we have had in weeks. As the sun broke through, I noticed a slight fog on the water. The fog along with the Fall foilage made for some interesting shots.







The Great Egret Finding Breakfast

Ducks on the Water

I took my family to a local park today so the girls could run around. Just before we left we took a short walk along the Occoquan River. The Occoquan river is part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed and flows into the Patomac River. The name Occoquan is derived from a Dogue Indian word meaning "at the end of the water". As we were walking we came accross some kids feeding a small group of ducks. Here is one of the shots I got of them.