The guy behind the lens

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Nature's Fury

This week across the United States has been an amazing week for severe weather. Twice in the past few days North Texas has had brushes with severe weather in the form of high winds, hail and multiple tornadoes. Luckily for me, our town of Allen missed out on the worst of it, but we did have a stunning display of one of Mother Nature's greatest predictors of severe weather. These photos show the mammatus clouds that formed over much of North Texas on Monday afternoon in advance of an outbreak of severe weather. These clouds frequently serves as advance warning of a severe thunderstorm before it actually arrives.



The one thing these images do not convey is the sense of motion that occurs with these systems. In the span of only a few  minutes the lobes of these mammatus will shift and change. This gives the atmosphere a feeling that it is "boiling" in advance of potentially "apocalyptic" storms.


Click in any of the images to see it in the original gallery.

I hope you avoided this week's nasty weather and can enjoy these images from the safety your computer!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

EASTER BUNNIES!

To everyone celebrating the Easter Holiday here's one of my favorite images. It's titled "Three of a Kind" for obvious reasons. These three bunnies were discovered by some of my students hunkered down in the quadrangle of our school during the midst of a construction project which had disturbed their nest. Thankfully, Mama Rabbit was found a few hours later and the whole brood was able to relocate via the "Bunny Protection Program" to a ranch in East Texas to live out their lapin dreams.


I hope your Easter weekend is filled with many joys - Our newest joy is the addition of a new Scottie Dog yesterday to help fill the void left by the passing of our 16 year old German Shepard mix, Cassie. Our current Scottie, Rumpus, is adjusting to life with his new (and very active!) housemate we've named Mr. Bumbles.

Three of a Kind

Click to view this image in the original gallery

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

SHARPTOOTH!

This week's Wordless Wednesday  & Camera Critters post rather speaks for itself ...  :)  


"Raggie"
Sand Tiger Shark
Click in the image to see it in the original gallery

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Nature's Nice Surprise!

Here in North Texas we are being pleasantly surprised with a very good local crop of wildflowers. Late winter predictions were pretty dismal as we are dealing with a profound drought throughout much of the state this year.However, it seems the the area around Ennis, Texas is having a stellar year, and this year's month long Bluebonnet Festival is a rousing success. I have been there the past two weekends to shoot this year's carpets of bluebonnets (lupines for you out of staters!) and Indian paintbrushes and the views have been very rewarding. I 'm heading back on Saturday to see the downtown area fully decked out for the actual festival events and to shoot some areas that were not quite in prime form last weekend. If you are within a day's drive of Ennis, I strongly recommend you visit in the next two weeks! You will not be disappointed! You can use the Bluebonnet Festival link above for detailed directions from the folks in charge of things in Ennis!






Click in any image to see it in the original gallery

Visit Skywatch Friday for more stellar skies!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Oxbow Sunset

This week's SKYWATCH FRIDAY / SCENIC SUNDAY post takes me back to Grand Teton National Park and the oft visited Oxbow Bend observation point. This view looks toward the massive Mt. Moran across the Snake River. On this night late in June, I was luck enough to capture the brilliance of sunset on the fleeting clouds. The richness of the color was due in part to the presence of smoke in the atmosphere from California wildfires that had been burning the few days prior.

Oxbow Sunset
Click in the image to see it in the original gallery

Monday, April 4, 2011

Wandering along the Bluebonnet Trail

Bluebonnet Carpet



Bluebonnet Pond

One of a Kind

Don't Fence Me In

Springtime Palette
Click in any image to see it in the original gallery


Enjoy more floral fun at TODAY'S FLOWERS
This was a small slice of MY WORLD
This weekend I had the great pleasure of visiting the town of Ennis, Texas. Enis is the home of the Ennis Bluebonnet Festival and the Bluebonnet Trail. This celebration of the blooming of the State Flower of Texas lasts for the entire month of April and they have been lucky to have a great crop of flowers on hand to start off the month. According to all predictions, the drought we've seen here in north and central Texas was supposed to really put a downer on this year's crop of bluebonnets, but if this weekend is any indication, the season looks to be pretty healthy! On this first weekend of the festival, the crowds were small and the roads that make up the "trail" were well marked. I strongly recommend visiting the website for the festival and getting an up to date map with current conditions and specific areas with the best blooms as these will change throughout the month.  Enjoy my sampling of this weekend's Texas Color. I may well return there nest weekend!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

I Too Have Shot Elephants!

With all the furor over Go Daddy's CEO Bob Parsons internet video posting of his Zimbabwean elephant hunt, I thought I'd use this week's Camera Critters post to share images from the two chances I had to "shoot" elephants. Like Mr. Parsons, I am proud of my "shooting" of these amazing animals. Since my interaction and observation of them in the wild  has allowed me to be able to better educate my students and others about the lives the stunning animals lead. Unlike Mr. Parsons, my "shooting" resulted in  no harm to any of these animals.
My first chance to see elephants in the wild was in Botswana at the Chobe National Park in July,2006. Chobe is known for its amazing concentration of wild elephants which is supposed to be the highest in the world. These images were taken either in or close to the Chobe River.

Mother & Child

Young Poser

Savannah Sojourn

My second interaction with wild elephants was during my 2007 visit to Madikwe Game Preserve in South Africa. These images were taken when two local elephants wandered out of the bush & join us at lunch for a "drink". I am more than happy that I did not have to pay their bar tab!  The lodge's pool is a frequent stop for these elephants who have learned it is a reliable and  clean water source.

Elephant Cocktail

Enjoying a Drink
Enjoying a Drink

Trunk Rest
Trunk Rest

A final note on the last images. Watching this elephant, I learned that elephants, like people, are either "right tusked" or "left tusked".  As such, wild elephants will rest their trunk on the preferred trunk and will also use that side  for a greater degree of their daily tasks. This partially explains why most elephants have one tusk that is more worn down than the other. As you might expect, the difference is accentuated with age and greater wear.