Just in case any of you are in Babb, MT just outside the eastern entrance to Glacier National Park..this is a great place to stay and relax..never would have found the place had the Canadians not denied me entrance to their country for a 32 year old DUI...beware!!!

The Lodge at Dusk

Lodge Puppy Greets You
Great Accomidations
Clean your boots

I've been racking my brains trying to decide what to do for my first post since I joined this great site several weeks ago.  Finally, I decided to start by sharing photos from my favorite place I've ever visited...the Grand Canyon.

I worked at the Canyon in 1986, and have revisited it on 4 occasions since then.  It was a great place to work, but with views like these, it made the job easier.Overlook 1 Overlook 2 Overlook 3
I've hiked to the bottom of the Canyon more than 10 times.  Some of the trails are easier Trail than others. Hermit

The second trail is called Hermits Trail, and after you hike several miles, you come to Dripping Springs. Dripping As you can see, it's appropriately named.  It was much easier to see formations like Duck on a Rock!Duck

The Grand Canyon is famous for it's sunsets, Purple Haze and the weather can be unpredictable, Storm but when you get that once in a lifetime shot it makes you appreciate the experience even more. Lightning

I can't wait to go back next year!

The weather has been so dreary here and there just hasn't been anything interesting to shoot, so I started looking back at some of my past pictures.  Summer before last we were traveling the southern route to California.  In the middle of the prairie while crossing Texas we came across this huge cross that had statues around it and gardens.  It was lovely.  We saw the Painted Desert and the Grand Canyon.  In the desert we found some  petrified wood and a sunset in New Mexico.  We spent a week in Mammoth Lakes in California and enjoyed every minute.  On our way home we stopped at The House on the Rock in Wisconsin.  One of my favorite rooms there has this huge carousel with
twirling lights.

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rapid city

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I think we are going to have a lot of these cold nights before Spring.  Some more picture to remind us of warmth.golden streak shadows in the gold

It is a cold, windy, gray day here today.  I had recess duty and nearly froze.  I just felt like I needed to think about something colorful that reminded me of warmer weather.  another shot in Yellowstone,  reach for the sky lake in Jasper

This is a picture I took in Wisconsin at theHouse on the Rock .  These planes were hanging from the ceiling.  
On Friday after Thanksgiving I was trying some shots around the house.  I was trying to get shots that fit the theme. Colorful Duck and corner in my house
Here is another vacation picture.  I took it in Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota road to nowhere.

These are a few more of my favorite pictures from our summer trip.  curvy pine tree The pine tree caught my attention after I had taken many shots of just the reflection in the water.  This golden water was taken at Yellowstone, as was grey patterns.  These two were taken at Rushmore and Custer State Park hungry donkey Jackie in tunnel.

My husband and I usually take a road trip every summer because we can and because we enjoy doing that.  Often we comment about what a wonderful world God has given us to enjoy and whether sites are great orsmall there is something we can enjoy in each of them.  This summer we shared our trip with our 12 year old granddaughter who called home each afternoon giving a report of what she saw.  We found scenes like this that showed the rejoicing of nature after a disaster of a burnt forest.  And wild flowers growing in a very dry place.

These were taken back in September when I made a road trip to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon with some friends.  I just recently put this panorama together because at first glance of the 10 or so photos I didn't think it would make an interesting enough photo for the effort.  This photo is one that stood out on its own as I was putting together the actual panorama.  They were taken at the Desert View lookout about as far east of the Grand Canyon as you can get.

Well I was inspired by Paulamouse, (I'm always inspired by you Paul especially the love you have for Cindy) with his star photos and the followup by peektar.

Now these two shots are not great artistically but were a fun excersize I tried back in 2001 in a trip to Zion and Yellowstone NP. They were both shot around Midnight with a near to full moon. If I remember correctly they were shot with Fuji Film ASA 400 and stopped down a bit but well over a minute exposures. I scanned the Negatives with a Dimage' Scanner.
Little grainy, little out of focus but ahh just throwing *#@% against the wall.

The streaks you see are Stars

Zion NP at Midnight

Old Faithful at Midnight

Here are a few photos from our recent trip.These are of Haleakala National Park in Maui Hawaii.
At the top
The crater rim
Crater
Oregon licens plate, go figure.

Down under those clouds is a rain forest
Some one's work space
This Park is the only place in the world where the Silversword plant grows.
This flower  is about the size of a quarter. I think this is the first macro I've taken that has turned out. I'm still learning.

It was a nice fall day.Me and my wife took a ride up to  Letchworthfor the day.Here's some of the shots autumn autumn4 autumn5 autumn6 autumn7Sometimes you have to take a few extra steps for a good shot.I ran out to the middle of the bridge for this shot. autumn8 autumn9 autumn10 autumn11 autumn12 autumn13 autumn14 autumn15You can go into my pix to see more.

Hi, My Name is Moose. Yes my mother named me Moose although the when I was a kid, I thought my name was Lilshit cause my Mom always said: "Get over here you Lil Shit!" Anyway. Who am I? Most times I feel like I am two people and sometimes three. Who I think I am, who I really am or even who other people think I am. Me Myself and I

I grew up and Lived most my life as an Italian in NJ Yes, I did for a while work for some "Good Fellas". But after a while I grew tired of the East Coast rat race and decided to move to the Left Coast to a Sleepy Little town in Southern California

When I feel like it I drag out my tools and turn people's houses from This to  This but I don't feel like it much anymore and I just want to take... you guessed it, Photographs.

I love to go out to Dinner, yes I love fine dining but my favorite thing to do is find great food and a beer for 2 for under $25. But, I am also a great Chef. I love to Cook  and should have gone to the Vermont Culinary Institute but that was another life.

Besides Photography, I love music as we have covered already but I also love to travel. I have been as far away as Japan but I mostly like to take Road trips and my favorite destination is America's National Parks

But one of my absolute favorite things to do that covers most of my hobbies and likes is to Drive Off-Road in The Desert and then hike to Photograph The Desert Wildflowers It is the best I ever feel.

So, that is me in a Nut Shell and I emphasis... NUT

I hope you like me

Dedicated to Beholden, who encouraged me to stop being the A-Hole on this site and concentrate on the Photography
I will try on the photography but no promises on the a-hole part. Thank you my Bun Nee Pal!

Well, this shoot almost didn't happen. It was the last day of the trip and I was kinda sick and thought maybe I should just go home and as we got up to the lake we were informed that the road was closed due to snow and Ice but we could go to the Lodge. So we went and had lunch and by that time the road was clear. But the snow definitely add to the scenery.
Sorry for so many photos, I like to post 5 or less. But I shot almost 400 this day so it was hard to whittle down.

CL1 CL2CL3 CL4 CL5 CL6 CL7 CL8 CL9 CL10

One of the "problems" I found on our road trip earlier this year was light.  Since we were, in fact, trying to get somewhere it was rare that I had good light for any of my pictures.  The only two places I was able to get good light was Death Valley & Redwood National Park, both of which we spend the night at.

Getting the lighting right at the ocean was hard.  I had to position Shannon in such a fasion that the light was comming at her perpendicular to the ocean AND get the ocean in the background!  There was only a few bluffs where I could do that.

Grand Canyon, Arizona
Death Valley, California
Redwood National Park, California
Redwood National Park, California

As I said I would, I took a stab at enhancing the digital version of the Glacier National Park picture using Photoshop Elements 3.  I'm not an expert in the use of PSE3, so I'd be happy to get some tips on how to improve results.  Here is the enhanced version of the digital picture. Here is the scan of the slide version. I had trouble getting the deep blue from the slide on the digital enhanced version.  Any tips would be appreciated.  Also, I'm interested to hear opinions of the two versions.

I took both my cameras to Glacier National Park this past August.  One is a digital SLR (Nikon D70) and the other is a film SLR (Nikon N80).  Mainly I did this because my oldest daughter insisted that I shoot slides as has been our family tradition on vacation. I wound up shooting a digital and film version of many shots.  I thought it would be fun to start a good debate on Photographica, but first there's a test.  The test is, which picture is digital and which is film (Kodak Elite Chrome 200).  Here is the first contestant. This is contestant number two. These were both shot at the same time using bracketing on both cameras.  I have selected the best exposures from each.  I scanned in the slide on my Nikon film scanner with default settings.  The digital version was shot in hi-res JPG (not Raw) and was not post-processed at all.  Now the test.  Which is digital and which is film.  Let the voting begin.  After a while I will reveal the answer.  Then we can have a good debate about digital versus film.

I mentioned earlier that we took a trip to Glacier National Park recently.  One night it got down to freezing.  We woke early in the morning to see my oldest daughter and her boyfriend off.  They were heading back to college.  I walked around the Two Medicine Campground and caught some pictures of the fog lifting off the lake.  I also caught some shots of the fog lifting off the mountains.  Later in the evening I caught this sunburst shot.  We  absolutely love Glacier National Park...especially Two Medicine.

Have you ever noticed how people travel thousands of miles to see the sights that are in your own backyard but how often we neglect to see them or wait a long time? I recently visited Channel Islands National Park and wonder why I waited so long. The many different types of rock formations were fascinating. I also captured some plant life that is unique to the area as well as a quail and butterfly. Hiking into the valleys, grasslands, and canyons was awesome, you would never know you were out on the water. Then there were the spectacular views of the ocean. It is a great trip and worth while if you ever get a chance.