Twin TowersMany of the Giants are twins, like this one (these?) in the General Grant Tree grove.

Being accustomed to life at sea level, getting around at 7000 feet was a chore. We took things slowly and in small doses. Still, you feel it. Even after three days. 

If you haven't been to the area, make plans. Be sure to include King's Canyon in your plans. It's uncrowded and the canyons, valleys and peaks are stunning. This is a nice time of year to go, just before the Memorial Day holiday and summer crush, and moderate temps. We had cool nights and hot days.

I've put a few images in a Sequoia National Park gallery for you to look at. Please enjoy! 

Anne and I spent three weeks in New England staying for extended periods in Portland, and Bar Harbor, Maine and in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Day trips and harbor and river excursions took us to so many gorgeous places. Acadia National Park is a feast for the senses and is both rugged and intimate. The little out-of-the-way lobster pounds as they're called let us taste the freshest of the fresh. 

I've put up two galleries for this trip. One showing a few of the unique lighthouses we encountered and a larger gallery that shares some of the other surprises and memory treasures we found on our journey. Please enjoy. 

Beavertail Cactus

Brittlebush

The weather was great, too, in the mid 90s. I know what you're thinking, but you have to be there to appreciate just how comfortable that temperature is in this environment. 

A new gallery - Death Valley Super Bloom - has been added to show you some of the flowers we found. Non-flower shots taken this time will be added to the existing Death Valley gallery. Please enjoy! 

Blue Ridge Parkway Mill House - 2011I know, this isn't in New England. It's a mill house along the Blue Ridge Parkway taken during our travels in the fall of 2011. I'll put a New England shot here when I get one. ';-)

Still married to a surface-crawler, Anne will cheerfully endure another stimulating cross-country road trip aboard the PG GRUVN. The passengers are witty and urbane, the accommodations are quite comfortable, the audio books are interesting and the surroundings constantly diverse. Said it before... the only way to fly. 

Neither Anne nor I have ever been to this particular neck of the woods. While living in Virginia, Anne and I, and Nora a babe in arms, spend several days in Cape Cod, but that's the extent of our north eastern travels. We're excited about discovering the area.

We will, as usual, end up in Philly for a week with Nora and the boys; always the icing on the cake for us. I'll be posting images here upon our return. 

Note: This image is not from New England. It's a shot of a mill house along the Blue Ridge Parkway taken in 2011. I'll replace it with a real New England image when I have one.

Bergin harbor in the rain.

We spent a week in New York once we arrived on the east coast. Saw a few plays and enjoyed the hottest recorded June day in the history of Manhattan. Just lucky, I guess. After a smooth crossing on the QM2, we enjoyed a week in London. We spent a day at Wimbledon, which was incredible, and our luck held and we enjoyed the hottest recorded June day in London. 

I've put up a small gallery of images from our time in Norway which was our last stop on the way back to Dover. I plan to add similar galleries for our stops in Iceland, The Shetland and Faroe Islands as well as Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. 

Needless to say, it's going to take a little time to edit down thousands of images. I'll post them as they come ready and say a little something here about the experiences behind the images. I hope you enjoy this little taste of the Norwegian coastal life. 

An abandoned wooden house, Skjolden, Norway.

Lom Stave Church, Sogenfjord, Norway. On July 4th, we'll leave England from Dover on a small(er) vessel for two weeks in the Norwegian Sea. We'll visit several ports of call on the Faroe and Shetland Islands before circumnavigating Iceland, stoping for day trips at several locations the names of which my fingers are unable to type. From Icelandic waters, we'll cross to the coast of Norway and work our way south, poking into fjords and exploring the small villages and towns along the way before returning to Dover, and then on to Portsmouth. After a few days in that historic maritime port, it's on to the Isle of Wight for its incredible scenery and history, then back to Southampton to catch the QM2 for a westward crossing. 

After training from NYC to Philly, we'll enjoy a relatively restful week or so with daughter and grandsons. With batteries charged, we'll head west overland again on the final leg of what we not so jokingly have christened the, "Spend it all" tour. We should be back in Pacific Grove mid August.

Look for images on Facebook as we move through this, and for a new album or two here when all is said and done.  

Our fall trip through Canada was a blast! Our first major destination was a nice but smokey stay in Glacier National Park. The smoke, from a fire in the Bitterroot Mountains to the south, made for some challenging photography but the area is amazing in any conditions. Well, maybe not freezing temps and deep snow. We were there on the last weekend before the lodges closed for the season; a lucky fluke on our part. Who needs planning? 

Quebec City, where we met up with our traveling buds, amazed us all. As did Montreal and Niagara Falls. None of us had been to the falls and we were all dazzled. And drenched! A fun time. If you ever get the chance to drive across Canada, do it. A beautiful, welcoming and friendly country. But pick your season carefully. 

I’ve put up small galleries of a few images from Glacier National Park and Quebec and added more images from the trip into other galleries already here. Enjoy!

Road out of charcoal kilns

Keep your eye out for new albums here. We've captured many beautiful images during our trips to other National Parks: Yellowstone, Yosemite, Death Valley, and we're hoping to add to those during our stay in Glacier. What a country! 

Garrapata Beach Sunset

We are so fortunate to live here! A short drive, or even a short walk, can bring us to a place of amazing beauty. We are surrounded by a dazzling display of natural beauty and wildlife diversity.

Photography, except possibly the work of the most gifted shooters, can't fully deliver the effect of actually being there. However, I believe the overwhelming attraction of photography is the attempt to capture not just the physical scene but the emotional impact that scene has had on us as photographers.  We are simply compelled to try to preserve and prolong that experience through the images we make.

A successful image makes you stop, look and linger. It urges you to put yourself in that place, to feel, hear and smell it. Best of all, it allows you to take away a small part of the experience to keep. 

How could I not take pictures?

Lucky 2001-2013 I know what you're thinking... Cat People!

Well, indulge me! 

What a joy it was to have Lucky around. We brought Lucky on board shortly after moving to Pacific Grove in 2001. We found her at PG's Animal Rescue where she was the only orange and white kitten there. Female orange tabbies are rare so we should have known we had something special even then. At what was guessed to be six or so weeks old, she could be held in the palm of one hand. Though her monocular nature was evident from the beginning, we soon learned she was stone deaf as well. At that point, the full extent of our good fortune was only hinted at. 

Lucky was a hands-on cat. She came with absolutely no "aloof" in her and always took great interest in whatever it was we were doing. In very dog-like fashion, she would bound across the yard to greet us and always wanted to be close by. How often do you find a cat who really seems to enjoy being with you? We were the lucky ones.

We've known and loved several cats over the years and all have been special to us in their own way. Lucky, however, brought something entirely new to the table. 

Note: The Remembering Lucky Gallery will be up only temporarily. It's up now to share with you a few glimpses of a pretty darn extraordinary cat. 

Detail of House Pole in Clan House, Totem Bight State Park, Ketchikan

Among other fun things, the three of us panned for gold - successfully I might add - in Juneau, rode a vintage railway into the high country in Skagway, explored Totem Bight State Park in Ketchikan and fiddled around in Victoria BC on the way home. 

I'm putting together a few images for a "Glimpses of Alaska" gallery that should be up in a few days. Great trip!

Easy life.

Charleston's gardens are legendary and the folks there take them very seriously. To bring this passion to the streets, almost every home has at least one window box bursting with color. There were literally hundreds throughout the city. The Charleston Window Boxes gallery has a few that we thought were extraordinary.

An excursion outside of Savannah took us to dinner (food again!) at the Crab Shack. We were early so we got the lovely water-side table you'll see in the Savannah gallery. While in Charleston we took in Fort Sumter and was impressed. This relatively tiny speck of a place and those who fought there made a huge difference in two major wars. 

The highlight of the trip, however, wasn't the South's charm, hospitality or even its cuisine, it was the week and a half we spent with our daughter and grandsons near Philly. How great it was to catch up on their lives, see how they've grown and watch super-Mom in action. Hated to leave, glad to be home.

Thumb Lake, Yellowstone

Thumb Lake, Yellowstone

Taking a spring road trip along the gulf coast to spend time in Charleston and Savannah. Never been there, but hear that the spring comes alive there in High Def 3-D. Looking forward to trying to capture some of that.