grasshopper

There's a certain alien aspect to insects that sends a chill down my spine when I see them up close--but also fascinates me. The chitonous armor outside and those cold, unblinking faceted eyes staring at you...

it's a bug!

Gotta love those sleek green lines. This is one critter that was built to kill--though at the moment he seems to be having salad.

daffodils and pansies

I took this picture of daffodils and pansies in April of 2004 in a garden just outside of Raleigh, NC. The purple azalias in the background make a nice backdrop for the picture.

spring is coming

Spring is on its way and soon scenes like this will be all around. Little birds, cute from a distance, asleep in their nests. Of course up close they aren't quite as cute--and are hungry as Hell. Unfortunately I forgot to pack a few worms with me so they had to wait for their Mom to come home with the shopping.

apocalypse

This is an unusual shot for me. It certainly wasn't planned. Around the corner of this spit of land is a boatlaunch ramp. I had waded around the shore looking for interesting shots until I got to this point. Here events became more serious because I slipped on a rock sat down quite quickly. I had the presense of mind to keep the camera above water and this shot was taken as I squeezed the camera in my hand.

I named the post "apocalypse" mostly for the way the sky looked---a storm was coming in and it was about to start raining--but also because I thought at the time that the day of reckoning had arrived for my camera.

pink and yellow

This tree grows out over my driveway. While at times it's very pretty, as illustrated here, at many times it's annoying! But because it can be pretty while in bloom, I never seem to be able to bring myself to trimming it back.

ducks in mist

On an early morning in December I snapped this picture of ducks crossing a channel in a lake in SC. I like the way the sun lit up the mist that the ducks were swimming across.

parked truck

I like the shiny truck on land and all the shiny water in front of it. A little pink to the sky on a early morning paddle.

Outer Banks

These 3 pictures were taken while on a trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was quite some time ago and I only had a 1 megapixel digital camera then so the size of the pictures is quite small.


I loved the way this sailboat looked but unfortunately the picture just doesn't do the scene justice. This was taken outside a restaurant I stopped at for dinner on the last day I was at the Outer Banks.

I took a number of pictures of the seagulls that followed the ferry. This is one that gives perspective from the cars on board to the gulls above.

evening on a lake

This was taken while kayaking on Lake Hartwell in September 2003. The light was starting to fade as I turned off of the main lake and I took this shot over my shoulder while waiting for a boat to go by.

marina

I waded out in the water a little to get this picture of a marina on the other side of a river. My camera wasn't good enough to really resolve the marina but I liked the picture anyway.

forest path

This is one of my favorite pictures from this trip. I love the changes in color from the panopy of the trees down to the rain damped path below. I took this photo on the way back from the waterfall pictured in the post below. By the time I was hiking out the rain had mellowed out to a fine mist...and under the trees you didn't even know it was there. If I hadn't been soaked to the skin it'd have been a wonderful walk.

raining hard

This was taken a week before the picture of the lizard in the post below. I had hiked a few miles in to see this waterfall. It's in the area between NC, SC, and TN that has hundreds of waterfalls hidden about the hills. When I started out it was a beautiful sunny day but the heavens opened up just minutes before I got to the waterfall here. It was uncomfortable but the rain made the scene even more beautiful.

green lizard

These two pictures were taken in June. The lizard was rather shy so I started taking pictures from a ways back but crept up on him. The picture below was as close as I could get. The next picture was just of a leaf because he had scampered away. I don't have a very long lens so on shots like this I have to actually be close to the critten I'm photographing.

Clouds

I took this picture while hiking in the Adirondack Mountains in November of 2001. There wasn't much snow that Fall and for a few days the ground was clear during a brief warm spell. I used that window to climb 3 mountains before the snow came back in--this time to stay until May.

A bridge over a stream

Ths picture above I took with my first digital camera back in July of 2001. I'd only had it for a few months and I was really enjoying taking pictures. The picture was taken of a bridge, deep inside a park where only foot, bike, and horse traffic was allowed. I decided the best angle on it was to be had by standing in the middle of the stream under it.

What I didn't realize was that I had company in that stream. The picture below was taken only a foot or so away from my leg. Even now I have trouble believing that I took 3 pictures of the snake before I scampered up the bank and out of the river.

Tibetan Terrier

This is a Tibetan Terrier I came across in my travels. I took the picture in April 2004 and was barely able to escape with my life. Fortunately innate laziness on the dog's part--and being fat-- kept me safe. My own nimbleness was a factor also, of course. (that's a joke)