The wind in nature can be beautiful, creating wonderful waves on a lake.  Birds have a natural instinct to catch the wind, even when young they try.

On a personal note, I tried to capture the wind blowing a tree around.  Sometimes the wind will play havoc with things, like it did with this awning pole.

The site should be significantly faster.

However, there have been reports of comments getting "hidden", not showing up, or just acting plain old strange.  Given the secret sauce I used for the speedup, I'm actually not surprised.  I pushed out the changes quickly because they had such a huge impact on speed.  The good news is the comments are likely still around, they just aren't showing up.

If you have a comment disappear, post a link to the story / forum it happened in so I can take a peek.   Let me know what you did when it disappeared (editing it?  posting it?  nothing at all?).

Thanks for your patience on this!

Here is some un-edited pics from my camping trip.  These were taken from a nearby hill we scrambled to the top of.  Since these are all taken in the daytime, none of them are really that great.
Mt. Ranier While you can't see it, our camp is almost smack in the middle in some trees below. Little Twin Sisters Lake

The blurry picture of your truely.  Taken by Shannon, sans tripod (you pack that up!)

Update [2006-7-7 15:23:7 by coryking]: Let me know if that fixed it!

Friday is San Antonio; Saturday is Seminole. There are two hikes here; the first is about 10 miles roundtrip from the campground to where Seminole Canyon empties into the Rio Grande. Pressa Canyon is a side canyon that joins with Seminole Canyon. The second is a roughly 1/2 mile to the windmill ruin (it's still there). The Pecos River High Bridge (275 feet above the water) is a few miles west of the campground. Westex49 -- Armastad is at capacity. Pressa Canyon looking north Seminole Canyon looking south Everything Bites Seminole Canyon w/Rio Grande in the background Windmill Revisited More Detail Windmill Fan Reflection in the spring Pecos River High Bridge

Seminole Canyon is known for its rock art. Some of the shelter paintings in this area date back 4000 years.Shaman Dance Circle Spitting Panther White Shaman When Hwy 90 was re-routed, the old road bed was left to the elements which makes for some interesting statements about the power of nature to reclaim. Old Hwy 90 Roadbed Abandoned Hwy 90 Bridge And then, there are butterflies and sunsets. Butterfly Under Old Bridge Seminole Canyon Sunset

Rainbow Casa Grande is one of the most recognizable mountains in Big Bend. Casa Grande Again The Lost Mine Trail is one of my favorite hikes. This is what the family looks like when the peak is achieved. Rest Most folks who have been to Big Bend have seen "The Window." Here's what it looks like from the bottom. Window 1 Window 2 Those folks at the top are my friend Mike and his wife. I didn't even know he was in the park until I yelled for his email address and recognized it!

Seminole Canyon is just west of Del Rio and just north of the Rio Grande. One of the trails in Seminole Canyon State Historical park leads to an old windmill ruin. It was built in the 1800's to provide water for livestock. There's a natural spring under the windmill.Outside Inside Detail Spring

Big Bend is one of my favorite National Parks. I love the mix of desert and mountain and the fact that in July you can walk all day without bumping into another soul. These photos were taken early one morning on a trail called Grapevine Hill. It's a nice walk in the morning before the desert heat takes effect. View East from Balanced Rock Balanced Rock Approaching Balanced Rock The Trail

Yet more from my vacation, and perfect for this sunset kind of theme. I rather like how some of these turned out.

• Which is better? Rowing from Afar or the cropped version. I like the cropped one better. My only complaint is the amount of noise in the picture. That of irritates me. I had the ISO setting at 400, which might be the problem. I should have dropped it down to 200, and went for a slower shutter speed, hell I did have the tripod (I think).
• Rowing in the sunlight.
• This one was luck. I was trying to set this up right, but wound up fussing with the camera at the key moment, so the sky is not the right color.
• Rowing in the dusk

Well... back from a long weekend worth of "camping" on Lopez Island, WA. I use quotes because where I camped is far from what I consider true camping ;-) However, I did have a great time hanging out with my girlfriend Shannon's extended family and a much needed vacation.

This is the first of a series of photos I will post. Obviously, I took a lot of pictures. I have been playing with my new toys - the "Moose filter", and the subject of today's post - the Infrared Filter.

Playing with Infrared