Last month while I was out in Oregon for Adrian and Anna’s wedding, I was able to spend a few days with some family members on the Oregon Coast! Here are a few fun silhouette shots we got at a sunset near Manzanita, Oregon.

I caught this image May 22, 2009, on the trip to Jonathan and Ra Sheeda’s Wedding. I was driving east down the Interstate, and happened to look in my side mirror and saw a gorgeous sunset, complete with rays of light. I decided to stop at the next exit and try to get a picture of it, but started getting nervous because mile after mile was going by and there was no exits! I think 11 miles later, I finally found an exit, pulled off, found this beautiful scene! I think the rays of light were even more powerful a few minutes before, but I was still thrilled to finally get a shot like this! I hope you like!

Spring is here! After a long and brutal winter, and then a long and brutal flood season, the river is down and the temperature is up! It hit 80 degrees today! I drove to a new park over in West Fargo, Rendezvous Park. I thought maybe I could get a picture of the sunset. As far as recreating, the park is nice. Lots of open space to run and walk! It could sure use a few more trees, but what brand new park in North Dakota couldn’t? hehe! There wasn’t a whole lot of photo ops, but I got a few shots of the sunset I like! Basically my shutter-finger was itchy after a long winter and I had to give it some exercise! I hope you like them!

After spending a fun weekend with friends in northern Minnesota, I was driving back to Fargo on Monday morning and drove by a spot where I saw several bald eagles! I’ve never had any success getting shots of them before, but I just happened to have my camera and my 300 mm lens with me! I pulled over to the side of the road and to my surprise and amazement, they all set down on trees right along the road and posed for me! I hope you like these! I am super thrilled!

The weekend before last I spent some time with my friends while I was in Cloquet, MN, and we headed out to a nearby state park, Jay Cooke State Park. My friends made sure to tell me to pronounce Cooke “cookie.” Were they teasing me? Probably, but how do I know?

We had a lot of fun!  We followed a small stream up a long ways and found some very interesting waterfalls and fascinating rocks that had been eroded by hundreds of years of steady water flow. We also found a set of walls going up a hill that we weren’t able to figure out? Who knows! This first shot is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.

This is us walking up the riverbed just enjoying ourselves, looking for interesting rocks and little waterfalls.

We found these old stone walls. They weren’t part of a building, as they were every so often about every 20 feet all the way up a hill.  Maybe bridge supports? We just don’t know! We did know they were old. One of the pictures you can see a tree growing off the top of the stones! It didn’t even have any soil and the tree looked several years old!

Megan and Tiffy found a log balanced on little hump and found that they were able to use it as a seesaw.  None of us could believe that it worked as well as it did.  Here they are having fun!

We found some honeysuckle growing along the river.  I had never had it before! It was very sweet and delicious!

In the summer of 2006, I went to a graduation party at Itasca State Park in Minnesota! The party itself was fun, but I also enjoyed the state park as I had never been there before.  Itasca State Park is where the Mississippi Headwaters are located.  The Mississippi, which is over a mile wide when it gets to the Gulf of Mexico, starts out in a little pool so small you can wade right through it! Here are some of the pictures I got while in the park!

And of course we need a picture of the Graduation Boy himself, decked out in a hilarious T-shirt someone gave him for the occasion! hehe!

This picture was from a trip I took to New York City in March 2001. The World Trade towers were still standing at this point, and one of the buildings I was working in while in Brooklyn afforded me this beautiful view of downtown Manhattan.

Have you ever just walked outside one day and looked at the sky and been blown away? That happened to me in August 2006.  I was walking out of my apartment building here in Fargo, and the sky was a color that I had never seen before, and since then have never seen again! I have seen beautiful sunsets before, but that night, the entire sky seemed like it was on fire! I ran inside and grabbed my camera, and got a few shots. It’s too bad I didn’t have time to drive out into the country to get some more interesting shots.  Unfortunately, these colors only lasted a few minutes, so I had to make do with these.  These have not been enhanced in any way.  These are the original pictures straight from my camera. 

Welcome to the latest Blast from the Past!  I took this picture of downtown Manhattan from Brooklyn Heights, NY, across the East River. This was in March 2002, and marked the 6-month anniversary of the WTC attacks. There were 2 huge beams of light aimed into the sky to represent where the towers used to be.  It was a magnificent sight, and I am glad I happened to be there at the time.  I was still using my old Pentax ZX-30 at the time, and I was shooting with 200 speed film, with an exposure length of 30 seconds.