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Cade's Cove church window - Great Smokey Mountains National Park, TN - ©2004 Ed Book (all rights reserved - DO NOT COPY)   http://edbookphoto.com
Cade's Cove - Great Smokey Mountains National Park, Tennessee
©2004 Ed Book

'was just looking through one of my image servers and this image wanted to get some exposure...

Peace
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Chimney Rock and Cimarron Ridge – on the way to Owl Creek Pass,
Uncompahgre National Forest – San Juan Mountains, Colorado, USA

I really enjoyed my time in this place, I missed it on my last trip to SW Colorado and had it high on my list of places to visit. I want to go back to spend more time exploring these forests and the other side of the ridge. When I got up to ~10,000ft (not 12,000' like I said in the video) Owl Creek Pass, evening light was starting and some snow was loose in the air. I returned to the west slopes to catch evening alpenglo on the ridge.

I also made an image of approaching weather bringing snow that was featured a couple weeks ago at CreativeTechs.com/training. I had underexposed this exposure by three stops which introduced lines of noise in the dark areas. Jason Hoppe tried a few things trying to minimize the noise without losing detail and ended up blurring the dark cloud area in a selective edit. On screen in the video, it looks like a solution but seeing the original file, I didn't like how the 'texture' of the image varied across the image and the lines of noise outside the blurred area still had noise. Good try but I decided to try a different route by introducing more noise so it was deliberate and a sort of texture... but, in the end, I chose not to use the image and don't have it online to show. Here's Jason's video though with some interesting tries... (my voice is a little garbled in the video because I was talking via phone and not via my computer)

Peace
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The Needles in morning light - Canyonlands National Park, Utah, USA
©2009 Ed Book


on my autumn Rockies tour last month, after I left Colorado on my return toward home, I stopped by Canyonlands to do some scouting (and photography) for a return next spring, perhaps with some students. I arrived in the area late and passed the rock art at Newspaper Rock too late to photograph and then stopped for the night along the road to the national park.

In the morning I was up before first light wondering where I would find a location for morning images with no pre-scouting... It's as if one is racing the sun and not knowing where it would come up and what it would paint with morning alpenglo... I drove toward the national park and was surprised by the sun rising without much color in the sky and no discernible earth shadow opposite the rising sun.

I was at this location and was looking at the map still wondering what, where, but I did know when, (and it was that moment)... I pulled out camera and tripod and set up just as the sun broke through the distant cloud bank in the east to paint warm light on the needles and I was clicking...

The Needles (seen in the distance in this image) form the southeast corner of Canyonlands and was named for the colorful spires of Cedar Mesa Sandstone that dominate the area. Later in the day, I would be much closer to the spires when I hiked the Elephant Hill trail toward Elephant Canyon. I ran out of daylight and didn't want to be caught on the trail after dark because it's difficult to follow in the dark (and in some places a challenge finding it again if one wanders away from the track).

It normally takes a couple days, at least, before I get into the making images mode, but, there in Canyonlands, I only had one day and I was lucky to start clicking with the scenery immediately... a very prolific imagemaking day it was... I'm excited for a return in the spring. wanna go?

Peace

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When I was making the exposure for this image I knew that it would be too noisy to be a literal image because of the low light situation and the Canon G9's inability to handle high ISOs and/or low light conditions without gross noise. (here's the rhetorical quiz) What does Ed do when faced with a situation where trying to minimize a potential flaw (noise in this case) would be futile? A: Ed exaggerates the flaw to make it obvious and thus intentional. In this image I allowed the noise and bumped the ISO higher to exaggerate it. Then, after some optimizing and metadata (filling in the blanks) in Photoshop Lightroom 2, I jumped to Photoshop CS3 to desaturate (color noise just looks too funky to me) and then add some texture and contrast play using a high pass filter a few times. In this display of the image, the texture isn't noticeable, but it is in a print or full screen display.

Peace
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would you watch or ignore the rain?


Many who cross the sound often or daily absorb themselves in books, laptops, newspapers, or conversation to ignore the crossing.  I've lived in western Washington state only since '73 so haven't been here long enough to get tired of the rain and don't ride the ferries often enough to get tired of the view - even if the view is fogged by rain...  but I've always been like that, I love to enjoy the view when I go from here to there or from there to there or there to here...   Back when I worked for wages at the place in Bremerton that did stuff to ships, I enjoyed my commute and the view, especially on the way home - for more than the fact that I was going away from that place... I often took the long way home... often my ten mile commute would stretch to fifty or a hundred or more miles and even in the rain... and even though I usually rode a motorcycle.

Now, that I work at home, I often sit by a window watching
the rain...

but, today, no rain,  cold and mostly clear but no rain... but, I watched for it...

Peace

ps this afternoon I saw the bright orb drop from a cloud and hide behind the Olympic Mountains...
 
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here in western Washington state, we sometimes see the rain coming and other times we see the promise of some light behind that rain... but often the sun sets before the clouds part enough to see what that light might be... 

Today, hmmm, there's a strange blue cloud covering most of the sky and I saw a shadow a few minutes ago but didn't turn fast enough to see the orb causing it.

you just have to get used to it, huh Bran?

Peace

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I just found this and wanted to pass it on...

For OpEdNews: Rowan Wolf - Writer

The U.S. is deeply embedded in the mythology of the heroism of the warrior culture. There is a lot of rhetoric about the courage and sacrifice of the those who have fought (versus those who have served) for our "freedom." Never is that "freedom" defined. However, it is true that many have served - willingly or not - under the belief they our protecting our "freedom" and "our way of life." I will not besmirch those sacrifices, nor will I be silent on the utterly shameful way that both the government and the people of the United States have met the needs of those who have served. We call them "heroes," but as a nation living with heroes is a more difficult task than remembering (once in a while) those who have died.

Many return from their service transformed All too often, they are too uncomfortably transformed to fit into the "civilian" flow of life. For some, it is more comfortable to return to bloody combat and the risk of death, than to return to friends and family, and co-workers, and a clueless populace. The adrenaline, and violence, and death-linked comradery is a real embrace. The invisibility and lack of understanding of "home" is a different kind of death.

For some, there is no return to war zones, and for better or worse they wrestle the demons and some "win" and some "lose." Some rebuild their lives. Some end up on the streets, or in the jails, or numbed by drugs of choice. Many, and certainly their families, cling with all their might to the comfortable myth that "it was all for a grander purpose."

I have heroes who are veterans. I have watched many face the demons of war (and military "actions") that remain with them - often for a life time. One of the sacrifices they made is the tattering of a glamorized entertainment myth of war and fighting in the face of bloody reality and burned indelibly upon their mind's eyes, and upon their hearts. It is a cost beyond bearing, and one that goes virtually unacknowledged by the populace.

Instead, they all too frequently face a betrayal by those societally tasked to know - and support - them. Namely, the Department of Defense, and the various military services, and the Veterans Administration. Conditions such as PTSD and psychological issues are frequently ignored, or those who have served are dissuaded from pursuing services. Then there are those other things that the military does not want to acknowledge, and therefore refuses to provide service - the "atomic" vets, agent orange, depleted uranium, Gulf War Syndrome, the effects of vaccinations, the paltry benefits left to the families of the fallen, the list goes on and on. The realities of serving - or surviving serving.

Once a year (twice if we count Memorial Day) the nation is called on to recognize these heroes - standing and fallen. This sanitized recognition does not mean embracing the reality of the service or the true sacrifices made. This sanitized recognition does not even recognize the human and national costs of that service. Certainly, nothing is said in this war glorifying culture regarding what the best recognition should really be - a commitment to ending war and working for peace. Yes, peace is work - ongoing work. However many veterans DO make this commitment, and for veterans that commitment comes at a higher price than for most who have never served.

So I want to say thank you to the most courageous of veterans who I know - those veterans who struggle for peace. They have fought, and continue to fight, incredible internal battles while waging the most significant of struggles - the struggle for peace. Thank you veterans for this ongoing service to an ungrateful nation. Thanks also to those veterans organizations that struggle untiringly for peace and truth, and support those who have served in this critical struggle.

Please thank a veteran, and thank a Veteran's organization such as those below. Importantly, also commit to fighting for veteran's rights and to creating a world where such sacrifices are never needed again.

Veterans for Peace

Iraq Veterans Against the War

Veterans Against the Iraq War

*my edit:  WinterSoldier.org

 

www/uncommonthought.com/mtblog/

Rowan Wolf is an activist and sociologist living in Oregon. She is the founder and principle author of Uncommon Thought Journal


Peace,
Ed


* I changed the link from one that was obviously incorrect.

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Poll #1481715 it's...
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 36

what/where is this

View Answers

flooded rice paddies in Arkansas just west of the Mississippi River
1 (2.8%)

stairs at Steffin Hill School, Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania
0 (0.0%)

riverbank shale Slippery Rock River, McConnell's Mill, Pennsylvania
12 (33.3%)

Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone NP Wyoming
5 (13.9%)

slickrock sandstone, Elephant Canyon, Canyonlands NP, Utah
6 (16.7%)

sidewalk I-80 rest stop west of Cheyenne, Wyoming
1 (2.8%)

walkway under the waterfall, Watkins Glen, New York
0 (0.0%)

the bottom during low water at Thurmond lake on the Savanna River, Georgia/South Carolina
4 (11.1%)

Ocracoke Island sand on the Outer Banks, North Carolina
1 (2.8%)

waste paper Townsend bag mill, Port Townsend, Washington
0 (0.0%)

Pennsylvania Blue Stone (not always blue) along US-6 west of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania
1 (2.8%)

a rock along the Ausable River in the Ausable Chasm, Adirondack Mountains, New York
1 (2.8%)

marble along the Long Trail in the Green Mountain Wilderness north of Smuggler's Gap, Vermont (not far from Ben & Jerry's ice cream plant
0 (0.0%)

parking spot at The Yurt, Mount Tahoma Trails, near Mount Rainier, Washington
0 (0.0%)

sand uncovered at the bottom of our llama pasture after last night's very heavy rain, Nika Trail, Washington
4 (11.1%)


see my answer to the question for the correct answer (click the 'view answers' link in the comments section)

As in all my quizzes, I've been to all of these places...

Peace

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Wisdom, a rural southwestern Montana village had two saloons, a liquid fertilizer company, a gas station, general store, restaurant, this community building and WIFI.  When I was there, I watched one of my online classes that just happened to be online live when I stopped for lunch.  Wisdom sits in the middle of a broad high rangeland valleys along the Continental Divide with mountain ranges in the distance east and west.  The forest to the east had a wide plume of smoke that reached miles across the forest.  The waitress said that it had been burning five weeks.  East the next couple days driving eastward, thick smoke filled the air softening details - not a good thing for broad landscape images. 
 
 
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aspen forest on the approach to the Sneffels Range in the Uncompahgre National Forest
San Juan Mountains, Colorado, USA

©2009 Ed Book

how I made this image - long exposure (1/2 sec) and moved the camera up and down.  I processed the image only with adjustmens to white and black point, clarity (mid-tone contrast), overall contrast, brightness.  I had to make a lot of exposures checking results immediately ("chimping") and then trying again and again till the camera dance and my eye were getting into sync...  The RAW image looks a drab grayish blur but from experience I knew what I could expect from my normal range of adjustments. 

On my last visit to this area I was impressed by the size of the aspen clones (grove of trees connected together by their roots) and wanted to visit just for photographing these trees.  Although they are at the base of one of the most spectacular mountain fronts in the Rockies, the aspen groves are worth visiting even when the mountains are in the clouds.  The approach to the National Forest passes through some private lands and by the 'no tresspassing' signs posted along the roads it appears that the roads themselves are private.  But no, they are legal accesses to the National Forest - since my last trip the number of new excessive consumption ranch homes (probably second or third or forth homes)  and fences added is noticable.  (an indication of the widening gap between the excessively rich and the rest of us).  

I made this image along one of those roads that goes to a trailhead into the widerness.  On this occasion, like on so many others, at the indication that the road was narrowing and getting rougher, I should have parked at a wide spot and walked but I thought I'd go a little farther to find a better turn-around place... 'turned out that I had to drive through a dip where the topography of the dip was more acute than the length of the van's wheelbase length... I caught the trailer hitch on a big rock and was stopped from going ahead or backward... After climbing out and scoping out my predictament I decided to give a run at going backward and bounced over the rock and the hitch dug a deep furrow in the roadway (actually in the dry stream bed I was crossing - I had measured and remeasured clearances between the rock and everything hanging down underneith the van to assure that if I shifted to the right a couple and no more than four inches, I'd be safe... I often have these little adventures... ones that my high-clearance four-wheel drive van left at home would not even notice... (the problem with the four-wheel drive van is that it beats one to exhaustion when driving down a freeway although cruises nicely on the roughest back roads... agressive tires, stiff suspension, and short wheelbase contribute to the rough ride...)  Sometime, I'll tell about the mushrooms that I found growing in the rug and on the steering wheel leather cover when I returned from a very long trip and found that a housesitter who didn't have my permission to use the van lent it to someone to help them move and when they returned it, didn't close the sliding door... in the rainy Pacific NW winter... It took the whole next summer to dry out.  The van is for sale now (minus growy things - except some moss on the roof) in case you know someone looking for a very capable 'get there' vehicle or trailer puller...

Peace
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I was hoping that this pass-through of this region would include a few days at Great Basin National Park but I was homeward bound and only had a couple days before something I had to be home for... so, my only glimpse like on my last visit was at sundown...  So what I know of this new national park is what I've read and this silhouette.

Peace

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wish I could come up with something witty to say about these cows...  I made the image on the last day of my autumn tour and just after I was turned around from trying to cross the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in the southern Washington Cascade Range... snow, turned me around, or rather the snowplow I was following that turned around influenced my decision.  So, I had to return south to the Columbia River to get to I-5 and homeward...   I met these cows near the river where it had just begun to snow and the cows were wandering as they do... even when they ran, their tracks wandered all over... and that says something...

In my experience, domestic animals wander but wild animals take a direct route... follow a pet dog's tracks and you're find that there seems to be no reason to the trail... just this way and that and some more that and return to a former location and then this way and that again... but a coyote or wolf track is unmistakable (beside size) in that they move across the land with purpose, no loitering here or there to visit this post or that mailbox to read the latest peemail...

so, how do I know these were domestic vice wild cows?  they wandered... plus, I don't think I've ever seen a wild cow. (bovine that is)

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Talus Brubaker Book - lookin' about and enjoying sight


Getting into the pile of images made on my autumn -- this image from the first day of my trip which included a visit to my newest Grandson, Talus to hear his report of his first three weeks.

Peace

ps  no, not teeth, although his little (what do you call that blister-like spot on an infant's upper lip from suckling?) looks like it.

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Jiggity Jig...   Thank You Lord for another safe return home... 

images of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and Oregon to follow...  in a couple days.

Peace
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'just checking in...   just dropped down from Wyoming's snow to Vernal, Utah to check the interwebs and pay bills online.  stay tuned...

no photos to view as I've been sleeping (or driving) at night instead of optimizing some images. 

Peace

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'currently at a wifi eatery in Hamilton, Montana. -  the air is full of thick smoke from a fire in the Bitterroot range near here.  I'll be moving south and over Trail Pass and eastward ...

'the past few days... visited Talus (Grandson)
then visited the Mount Tahoma Trails a couple nights with visits to High Hut, The Yurt, High Hut again and
Paradise, Stevens Canyon, Chinook Pass in the park and
down the American River to Yakima,
then easterly to the wind farms of Columbia and Garfield Counties in the Blue Mountain Foothills.
  [one day photographing from before sunrise till about an hour after sunset... then I climbed into my van for the night till the wind arrived during the night shaking the van ... 
In the morning, the windvanes spinning in the 26 knot winds...  one day still air... the next day strong steady winds that gave a totally different impression of the site...  the added parameters of sound and air motion and the visual spinning windmills.... and what did that mean for exposures?  the tactics and maneuvering differences were interesting.
Then, the wind filled the air with fine dust so
I drove northerly to the Snake River and a dam crossing where they record  your identification and then open the gate for you to pass across...
then across the Palouse to Steptoe Butte a high  360 degree view of the Palouse except that that evening there was so much dust in the air the setting sun just fadeded near the horizon.
I left and drove south to Lewistown
and then up US 12 to Lolo Pass and
down into Montana. 

from here, I'll drive south up the valley till the air clears... or to near where the medicine tree used to be till one day
it fell over



Peace

Current Location: Hamilton Montana

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also known as
WAstock.com
Peace
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©2008 Ed Book

What do you do when the wind is blowing too much to keep your subject sharp?
Here are some things you can do:
  • use language that would embarrass a sailor and perhaps bring on a lot of bad karma and don't make an exposure
  • quietly don't make a picture thinking you're not good enough
  • watch the motion enjoying the moment knowing that you're not going to get a picture
  • make an exposure knowing that you're going to throw it away but do it just because you like pushing the doohickey
  • make a "documentary" exposure to remind you that you were there
  • make an exposure knowing that you can use it to make into a digital painting
  • raise the ISO (sensor sensitivity) until the shutter speed is short enough to stop action
  • wait for the wind to stop
  • photograph a rock instead
  • use a long shutter speed to allow the motion to show and hope there is enough motion to make it look like the motion was deliberate
  • be glad you had a gassy lunch and break the wind
  • wait longer for the wind to quit
  • come back a different day or week or month or year
  • move the camera enough that it's unmistakable that motion is important in the image

I've done all of them...

Peace
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©2008 Ed Book

I should have mentioned when I made the last post that that image was made along the way in my optimization work for this image.  I was adjusting the tone range of the tree trunks and I temporarily slid the slider all the way to dark to see which pixels would be affected and the image I posted was what was presented.  I liked the image at that point so saved that version and then continued on to this version. 

 
Peace
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Hybrid Poplar grove (Populus deltoides) Boardman, Oregon
 
I've driven by this grove many times, each time not stopping to make a photograph because some condition like high winds or poor light and once because of an ice storm.  Last autumn, I was returning from a photo expedition to the Blue Mountains in northeastern Oregon and had my opportunity.  I didn't have much time to explore before losing the light late in the day but did come away with some images that I liked.  Hopefully, my next visit will have conditions conducive for photography, even if I have to stay a few days for a break in the wind and some good light.
Peace

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I'm planning to include Klickitat County in my autumn tour again this year as well as stretching to the Rockies to see the aspen and tamarack.  I haven't decided on time or logistics yet but will be deciding soon.  I'm trying to juggle the autumn tour with a sailing trip up into the Georgia Straits in Canada.  Oh yeah, and get wood for winter heating before the soaking rains.
 

 
Peace
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Klickitat River Canyon road, Klickitat County, Washington
©2008 Ed Book
 

I should mention not to try this at home... or while driving...

try it while parked beside the road like I was.

I did see the interesting lines in the mirror and pulled over and stopped so I could investigate more.  I make it a point to stop when I think I might find something interesting.  Many years ago, while on a trip I would see 'something that might be interesting' but not stop... then a little way down the road I would think about what I might have missed but still not stop... then thinking of it on and off for a few miles would finally feel bad about not turning around to go back and look till I had driven twenty or more miles and then back to see that nope, nothing interesting... but be glad I hadn't driven thirty miles before making my decision.  So, now I stop when I see 'something that might be interesting'.  And am always glad that I did.  And sometimes find something interesting...

Peace
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I woke to cloudy skies and light rain this morning.... uh oh normal Washington weather is back. 

The past month, I've been editing and optimizing for my online archive, images that I didn't want to post to ruin the summer experience for journal watchers–Autumn images...  Now, I'm ready for summer but seem to be out of sync. 

So, here's an image I made last year at the end of August to ease into the autumn season...
 
 
 

 
Stevens Canyon clearing clouds – Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
 
©2008 Ed Book

The end of August, last year, I was up at Mount Rainier and after spending a couple days around the Paradise Meadows with constantly changing skies – 'the mountain' was making low clouds and they were swirling quickly across the Tatoosh Range. I made a few series of exposures at set intervals of the clouds scudding across the peaks from up in the Paradise Valley and then visited the Reflection Lakes to a closer vantage point and different perspective.  While at Reflection Lakes, I looked down into Stevens Canyon to see that the clouds that had filled the canyon were clearing with rugged tree-populated ridges silhouetted.  I made a few more series of exposures of a couple dozen each and then with light failing, headed down the canyon to the Cowlitz Box Canyon where I found interesting late afternoon light.

more similar images from that occasion if this one wasn't enough...
These are a few from some of those series but are not the sequential series because they are reserved for a multimedia package.

Peace
 
 

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Talus Brubaker Book


learning the "pull my finger" joke at two days old


Yesterday, we drove down to near Olympia to visit Seth and Victoria and meet our new Grandson Talus.  WOW, I love Grandkids!

Here are some more pictures from our visit.  Victoria's Mom, was visiting and I included her too.   More later...

Peace


 
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Talus Brubaker Book was born just a few hours ago to my Son Seth and his wife Victoria.

Mom and Baby and Dad are doing fine.


sign me,
Proud!


Peace
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I was asked to help judge photo prints for the Kitsap County Fair. The judging was today and it took all day... lots of good images in the ~800 images we looked at. It was a good experience... more to say but it's late and I'm beat...

Peace
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hairpin turn on the Rattlesnake Grade
descending into
the Grande Ronde River Canyon
in the southeast corner of
Washington state
©2008 Ed Book

I was at this location overlooking the Grande Ronde River Canyon last autumn for a couple hours sitting and looking...  and seeing... 

While I was there a bald eagle, three buzzards, and a pair of redtail hawks visited on their rise on the thermals.  (my images of them are birddot pictures because I was in the wide angle mode when each passed. 

After soaking up the canyon and before leaving this location to drive down into the canyon, I turned around to make this image.  Traffic was light but I watched a few  vehicles go by and would guess at color and type of vehicle after hearing but before they came into sight.  The amazed look on the driver's face as the canyon panorama passed was replaced by shock on the second pass and horror on the third pass when they realized that they were going in circles in some guy's panorama photograph.

Canon G9 capture tripod mounted, six part composition,
one of them optimized in Photoshop Lightroom
and adjustments synced to the other parts
and edited using Photoshop's Merge into Panorama command
with the click of a button
(and waiting about twenty minutes). 

More panorama images here...

Peace

 
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I was looking for something in my journal from about seven years ago and found that a lot of posts were titles only with no post body.  I checked one at random to find that there is text but not visible.  I opened the post to edit and copied the text to post it again... here it is again...  do you remember this?


I saw a list like this in a couple other LJs   (better than a "which Osmond are you?" quiz)

50 things I've done in my life: (updated)

1. 'moved 15 1000 ton barges of coal by myself all at the same time – with help from the Ohio River current...

2.' was charged by a grizzly bear...

3. 'was a topside lookout on a new construction submarine on the surface during a hurricane on it's initial sea trials...

4. 'set a Pacific ocean ship crossing speed record (that still stands) while I was a nuclear reactor operator aboard USS Enterprise...

5. 'was a nuclear reactor operator on a nuclear submarine and nuclear aircraft carrier...

6. 'sued the US government and won...

7. 'got lost in the wilderness on purpose to see how long it would take for me to find myself...

8. 'fell 40' rock climbing and lived but still don't remember falling...

9. 'went through the windshield of a tractor-trailer truck...

10. 'taught a chef in Singapore how to make a hamburger...

11. 'got caught in town in the Philippines after curfew (during a period of martial law) twice (a shoot on sight offense)...

12. 'fell on a motorcycle on a busy interstate highway and passed a motorhome while sliding at 65 mph and didn't get a scratch then drove another 500 miles before stopping for the night...

13. 'fell again the next day on an oil slick where there had been an accident (the only two falls in over 100,000 miles of motorcycle travel)...

14. 'rebuilt a motorcycle engine myself and it had so much power it could do wheelies (touring bikes aren't supposed to be able to do wheelies) so sold it the next day...

15. 'had lightning hit a power pole when I was walking past it and another while driving past that fell and almost hit me...

16. 'photographed my wife holding an adult cougar on her lap...

17. 'was at the Salt Lake City airport and saw a woman coming down an escalator that I had never seen before and unconsciously yelled "OH WOW" loud enough that everyone within hearing looked. I asked her to marry me a week later and she said yes...

18. 'held my first Grandchild before his mother did...

19. 'saw the space shuttle entering the atmosphere...

20. 'climbed Mt St Helens before it erupted...

21. 'got sunburned in February on a submarine...

22. 'won a state lottery five times ($1. each time)  and won big once ($10.)...

23. 'cleared the land, designed my house, and did half the construction work myself (after over thirty years, 'still not finished)...

24. 'llama trekked in the Cascade and Olympic Mountain Ranges with my own llamas...

25. 'mooned the crowd at a busy intersection on a bet and I wasn't drunk...

26. 'saw a ufo...

27. 'worked during the summer in college on the railroad and my job was to climb on and off moving railroad cars...

28. 'was within 30 feet of a train going off the tracks on two occasions...

29. 'moved a diesel locomotive when I was 13 and I was the only one on the engine...

30. 'have not purposely eaten meat since '74 (but had salmon, scallops, and shrimp this year - the remembered taste was much better than actual)...

31. 'climbed out the window of a moving vehicle when I was driving it and steered from the running board ('seemed like a good idea at the time till I came to a stop sign and had to get back in to operate the brake)...

32. 'lifted the end of a car when it was falling off the jack and put it back on the jack without hurting myself...

33. 'was wakened one night by a bright meteor shower (Persieds) when I was sleeping on my motorcycle (because I didn't want to lay on the ground where I was)...

34. 'wrote several thousand pages of nuclear technical work instructions and a technical manual and contributed to others...

35. 'crossed the continent four times by motorcycle and once in a 37' motorhome (with my kitty, Dusty Roads) and twice by van pulling a trailer...

36. 'made a security tour of the basement of the US Capitol with a Capitol guard...

37. 'taught a survival swimming course and swam under burning gasoline after treading water six hours...

38. 'rolled and flipped end over end in a VW beetle and was unhurt because I wore my seat belt...

39. 'stopped on an Interstate highway because I couldn't see because it was raining so hard and when the rain subsided so I could see again, there was a large tree on the road in front of the car that had been carried by the wind from who knows where...

40. 'saw three waterspouts on the Great Lakes...

41. 'tipped an excavator over when attempting to pick up a very large rock...

42. 'twice was wakened while camping by black bears that brushed against me...

43. 'was thrown from a canoe going through rapids 50 miles into a trip and the canoe bent in half around a boulder, then repaired it by beating it with rocks to go another 100 miles...

44. 'rafted the Chilliwack River in spring flood...

45. 'saw a ghost...

46. 'have made photographs in 52 states and provinces and six countries...

47. 'touched a newborn seal to see if it was alive when it's mother beached it and left (it was and the mother returned 6 hours later and took it away)...

48. 'got a snowmobile stuck in deep snow thirty miles from civilization with my son (someone saw it happen from three miles away and came to help – there was no one else within twenty miles)...   the next day I rolled another one down a slope I wasn't able to successfully crest...

48. 'got a ticket for driving 55 mph in a 35 mph zone and lost my license to drive for 60 days (I was driving 25 mph and had slowed to less than 20 mph to cross some railroad tracks when the policeman clocked me) (he was later fired for giving bogus tickets to out-of-state drivers)...

49. 'attended >six years of formal schooling after graduating high school and still have no college degree...

50. 'met my wife on the internet...

Peace

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Rainy Day Drive - Pacific Northwest - USA
©2008 Ed Book

We're sorely missing this kind of weather... there was a bit last week but the past few months were way under average...

Here're a few more rain images...

Peace
 
ps  I didn't push any pixels around in this image... the rain and motion gave the effect produced.

Current Location: Nika Trail (home)
Current Music: Heavy Cloud No Rain - Sting

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Because of the hot weather we've been having here in the Puget Sound latetly, I thought I'd post an image from Mount Rainier that I made at Reflection Lakes last autumn when clear cold nights allowed for some ice to start forming on the lake.  No bugs, very few people, and beautiful autumn color with frost each morning.


Mount Rainier reflected in Reflection Lake with hoarfrost on the shore
 

Current Location: Nika Trail (home)
Current Music: computer fan spewing out heat to cook me

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...who would think a boy and bear would be well accepted anywhere...


well, the bear was wild and I didn't see it dance, but I did see and photograph it eating huckleberries and mountain ash berries, walking down the trail, startling Sally which amused Bronka, and then stopping about ten feet from the trail to curl up under a bush to take a nap.
Sally's website with lots of information about Mount Rainier

This was one of a few cubs I photographed in the Paradise meadows last autumn. I spent about an hour with this guy including waiting twenty minutes while it snoozed.

The cub acted as if there were no people present as it never seemed to look at or acknowledge their presence.

A little later, a coyote came down the trail and it also ignored me except that it did step off the trail when it passed. It was in a hunting mode with a vole or mouse on it's mind. Luckily for these animals, they had evidently not been habituated to people feeding them which is really bad for wildlife because they then depend on humans for food and lose their ability to forage.

Peace

ps ...it's just amazing how fair people can be... (do you know this song?)

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Immature bald eagles in training on an oyster bed along the Hood Canal of Puget Sound, WA, USA
©2009 Ed Book

OK, something a little different...   see the little triangle at the bottom right corner of the image?  It's purpose... to make the image viral...  why would I do that?  publicity, of course.  You may copy the link and post it in your journal (for no fee).  What it does for me is that anyone seeing it can click on it and go to my website to license the use of the image.  (Of course stripping the code that controls the link or screen capture or removing any metadata or modifying the image or such other possibilities are a violation of my copyright.)  But, you do have my permission to copy the code and post it in your journal.  Try it. Let me know if it works or if it doesn't.

Peace
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sunset on the shoulder of The Brothers
Olympic Mountains
as seen from Green Mountain on the Kitsap Peninsula in Puget Sound in Washington, USA

I often go for a walk in the forest in late afternoon and often watch the sun set from a clearing through the trees.  On this occasion, a few days ago, I first drove down to Big Beef Creek on the Hood Canal to see if there were any bald eagles lurking about. Seeing only 'eagle dots', I drove south a few miles to one of the Green Mountain State Forest trailheads to hike.  I chose a trail where I would be able to look across a logged area toward the mountains.  Just as I was getting to a place that was open to the west, the sun decided to clock out for the day.

As is often the case, I chose to return to the van by a different route... this time crosscountry... bushwacking... I'd think I'd learn that that choice is often, in hindsight, not the best choice... but an adventure none the less.


more landscape silhouettes


Peace
 
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Ed Book
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