San Francisco

San Francisco Bay and Golden Gate Bridge

This is a bit late (a few months late) but here it is at last! My first time to San Francisco I was much younger than I am now. This trip was my second time to San Francisco but this I got to wander as I pleased. However for my wife this was her first time to the bay area. We started off the day crossing the Golden Gate Bridge with higher parts of the bridge disappearing into the fog. I took these next shots from inside a moving vehicle so they are not as good as I wanted but you get the visual.

Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge

Though I did not go, you can go to Alcatraz Island to see the prison that was there. It is quite a tourist spot and you get a different look at the bay. Perhaps I'll go next time I'm there. Here are some shots of the island and bay and it shows some tour boats in them.

Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay with a tour boat and a sail boat

San Francisco Bay with Alcatraz Island

Tour Boat

Just off of Pier 49 you can get a look at the Sea Lions sunbathing and sleeping the day away. You can see them from the tours but you can get just as close from Pier 49.

Sea Lions by Pier 49

There is always a good amount of Street entertainers. Below is a shot from my favorite performance. It was a pair of brothers (their sister does it too but she was not there that day) who could do some amazing things. Here this one is balancing himself on an aluminum board on three cups on another aluminum board on four other cups on a wooden board, all on a metal cylinder. He put it all together while he was on it. It was quite impressive. To top it all off he juggled on the precarious pedestal.  

Street Entertainer from England near Pier 49

There is something for everyone. These boys were playing on a small beach with a grounded rowboat. They played in the sand and pretended they were actually on the water. Their mother was able to sit and rest her feet while she watched.

Boys playing on a little beach on the San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz and wharfs/piers

San Fransisco and bay from a wharf

The Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory is a fin place. You can see the Factory in the Panorama above. (look for the name Ghirardelli, it is on top of the building. You can buy chocolate to your heart's content. There is also an ice-cream parlor where you can get some fabulous desserts!

Ice-cream from Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory

There is plenty more to see like the world's windiest road, Lombard Street. We also drove through China town but that is all we could do because of time. I'm sure there is even more than what I even saw. This photo of Lombard Street is also taken from a moving vehicle. There was just so much to see and do so I had to take some photos from the car.

The windiest road in the world, Lombard Street, in San Francisco

The Golden Gate Bridge looking towards San Francisco

The Golden Gate Bridge looking towards San Francisco

My wife and me in front of the Golden Gate Bridge

Portraits Updated

I have had these photos to put up but I had just not gotten to it. Take a look at them all. The ones I had on were well over a year old (verging on two years) so I have removed them.

Work gone up in smoke

Have you ever work a long time on something just to see it go up in smoke? I am not talking about writing a paper and your computer decides to reboot. I am not referring to when you were doing something on your computer -say working on photos- when the power goes out and you lose everything. That is a big deal right?

Well, a few weeks ago my wife and I were heading out to my family’s farm and we got there right after dark. The high beams of our car stopped working while traveling. If you try and use them only the park lights will be on and that does not help you in the least when you are driving down a country highway. Let’s just say I was not happy. I have not even heard of someone ever having that kind of problem! As I was grumbling to myself and to my wife we drove into the valley where the farm is. As we entered we could faintly smell smoke. It did not trigger any alarms, we were out in the country and deer season was about to begin. There were people everywhere and many of them were camping. But the closer we got the stronger the smoke smell got. There was no doubt, something was on fire.

The fire viewed from the road.

As we got close to the house where my father grew up we saw the tell-tell glow of fire and the lights of emergency vehicles. I was thankful that is was not our house but I feared it was one of the neighbors' house. Judging by the location of the glow it could have been a house on fire. it would not have been the first house to burn down on that road. There have only been two houses on that road and when the one burned down they never built it again. Years later another house was built. So right before the fire happened there were only two houses on the road.

I dropped my wife off and I saw that none of my family was there so I went towards the flames to see if they were there and to see if any help was needed.

It turns out that it was not the house that was on fire but it was their haystack. It was a complete loss and the fire crews were just working on keeping the fire under control and away from buildings. Below are some photos from it. There were fire crews that came quite a ways to help. There were 300-400 tons of hay that were lost. That is $60,000-$80,000 dollars turned to ash and smoke! Though it is quite a blow nobody was hurt which is a blessing.

But how would you like to have all the work you did all year just go up in flame? Most people realize how much work goes into farm work. You have to prepare the ground by plowing, disking, and harrowing. You have to plant at just the right time because if there is a freeze while the alfalfa is too small it will kill the plant; then you have to plant again. After you plant you have to water constantly to get over all of the fields and keep cattle out. You may think that is tiring but that is just the start. You have to wait for the hay to get high enough and make sure you get water on it so it can grow. When it is time to cut the hay you have to make sure the ground is dry for the cutting to commence. After you cut all the hay down you have to let the hay dry. If the hay it put up too wet it will rot and be no good and it can even combust and cause your haystack to catch on fire. The only thing I have heard about this fire is it was likely a case of spontaneous combustion.

Now you may thing that the farmer should have just put it up right, but it is not just that easy. The hay has to bend just right and feel dry enough. It is an art. I have seen my father do it and I don't think I would be capable to do it. I would be afraid that I was doing it wrong, even if I was doing it right. Not only that but I know that the last crop of hay we cut got rained on for over a week after we cut it. You have to wait for that to dry out too! Not only that but you do want just the right amount of moisture in it so it will hold together.

And we are not done yet!

You have to bail the hay stack the hay and keep it from going bad so you will have food for all of your animals through all the long bitter cold months of winter. (That includes feeding the animals... I'm exhausted just thinking about it all!)

So in conclusion you will have to buy hay, beg for hay or sell your animals that you cannot afford to keep. And we all know that insurance will not be much help and they will get out of helping somehow... if you have insurance. 

Keep all of that in mind as you watch a struggling farmer’s livelihood go down the drain.... I mean up in smoke.

 Burning bails of hay behind heavy machinery.

 Flashlight light catches a stream of water as it is aimed to slow the flames till they can be moved.

 Lights from equipment light up the smoke as crew work on the blaze.

 Crews battle blaze to protect surrounding area.

 A pillar of water is illuminated by the lights of fire and heavy machinery.

 Water arks over hay and between moving machinery to cool the hottest parts of the fire.

 A firefighter is silhouetted by flames of the burning haystack.

 Close up of the last few bails of hay that are not ash. they may look ok but they are burning on the inside.

 Firefighter working hard even though it is a loss.

 Heavy equipment and tractors moving burning hay to protect buildings, fields and trees.

 Heavy equipment with claws and buckets shovel the burning bails to a confined area.

Red, yellow, white and blue lights mix as man, machine and water fight fire, heat and smoke.







I know it has been a while since I have posted. This past week I have been out helping my father do farm work. I have photos to post but I have not been able to get to them yet. Sorry!

While you wait go vote on the photo I entered in the 2011 National Geographic Photo Contest.

I took this photo on a trail which goes from the Oregon Coast Highway to the Heceta Head Lighthouse. My wife and I were on our way from the lighthouse heading to the beach to watch the sunset. Suddenly, sunlight came pouring through the trees horizontally giving a breathtaking sight. The trees shaped the light to resemble the light of a lighthouse. We were stopped in our tracks by the amazing picture of the sunbeam-painted forest. After taking some photos we continued to watch the beautiful scene till it faded away. That moment of splendor surpassed any sunset we might have seen on the beach.

Location: Heceta Head, Florence, Oregon, United States
Category: Nature

 

 

You might recognize this photo since it is the main photo on my blog.  I hope you like the photo ( and that you actually go to the National Geographic website and like it there) and that you share it with others.

More From Yellowstone...

 In my hast to put up those photos from Yellowstone I missed putting up these images. These are between West Yellowstone, MT and also along Firehole Drive in Yellowstone National Park.

Eagle - Yellowstone National Park

Silex Spring, Yellowstone National Park

Fountain Paint Pot, Yellowstone National Park

Fountain Geyser, Yellowstone National Park

I am not sure of the name of this hot spring but I think it might be 'Black Spring' or something. It is near to Surprise Pool.

White Dome Geyser, Yellowstone National Park

Firehole Spring, Yellowstone National Park - Panorama

Firehole Spring bubbling, boiling and churning

Surprise Pool, Yellowstone National Park - Panorama

 Surprise

Surprise Pool Edge

Great Fountain Geyser, Yellowstone National Park - Panorama

Yellowstone July 2011

 Back in July I made a trip to Yellowstone National Park with my parents and my wife. My wife and I were moving from Idaho to Utah and we wanted to make one last trip to Yellowstone. We had even more reason to go because my father had never been to Yellowstone. Since they were up for my graduation we decided to go show him around. 

 It was a beautiful day, you could not have asked for better weather. We got to see some of my favorite places in Yellowstone and a new favorite place (there is always more to see in Yellowstone). Yes we did go to Old Faithful but the geyser is not that exciting compared to many other things in the park.

While we were going through the park we decided to play a game to see if we could find vehicle license plates from all 50 states. There were only a few we did not find in the short time we were there but we found Hawaii and Alaska so we did not do that bad. The game was just to pass the time walking through parking lots to the real attractions!

Two of my favorites are right by each other, so you can get two in one stop. They are the Excelsior Geyser Crater and the Grand Prismatic Spring. If you love Caribbean blue waters this is a fantastic place to see. You get to be quite close to the Excelsior Geyser and you can see the air bubble up through the breaks in the steam rising off of the pools boiling hot surface. The water is a beautiful blue but so hot it would take the skin right off of you if you were try to take a swim. 

 Excelsior Geyser Crater - Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Grand Prismatic Spring has a rainbow of colors and all the texture you could possibly ask for. If you like to hike or bike I would also suggest taking the trail that goes on the other side of Grand Prismatic Spring, between it and the mountain. Not as many people go there and I have wanted to go but I have not quite had the time to do it yet.

 Grand Prismatic Spring - Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

With both of these pools make sure you hold on to your hat. Every time I visit these two I count the hats that unfortunate people have lost to the gusts of wind. Like I said earlier you don't want to go swimming in these pools. this last time we visited we counted at least 19 hats!

 Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park - Wyoming

While we were traveling from Old faithful to West Thumb there was a little turnoff that I decided to take on a whim. You can't see any steam rising or geysers shooting up into the air but you won't be disappointed. This stop is Kepler Cascades. there is a lookout point where you are basically above the river and waterfalls. This photo here is panorama I took farther up from the lookout point and even it does not capture the magnitude of these cascades. There were Rocks right by me to the right and left that limited my ability to capture the whole scene.

Kepler Cascades - Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Elk at West Thumb, Yellowstone National Park - Wyoming

When we got to West Thumb you can see Yellowstone Lake go off into the distance. But if you take the walking paths you can see all sorts of bubbling mud pots and steaming hot springs. The Abyss Pool is my favorite hot pool there (though it is hard to choose a favorite). Try as you may you cannot see the bottom from the walkway. The green-blue waters turn into yellow and orange as they seep out across the ground towards the lake. Though the pool is deep the water is crystal clear. The only thing keeping you from seeing the bottom is the steam and your inability to get a look from a good angle.

 Abyss Pool - Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Emergency landing near Downey, Idaho

This glider made an emergency landing near Downey, Idaho a little more than a month ago. I learned from the pilot that he had left Logan, Utah and had gone all the way up by Jackson, Wyoming that day. He was on the way back when he lost track of time and the updrafts got choppy. He landed in the field of the Fuhriman Ranch and was waiting to be picked up when I got there.

Venture 2a Glider Panorama - Downey, Idaho

The Rexburg Temple Presidency

I had the great opportunity to take photos of the Rexburg Temple Presidency. This temple has special meaning for me because it was where my wife and I were married. This is a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There are temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints all over the world.

There are 134 operating temples, 12 under construction, and 14 that have been announced. Most of the temple has been built in the last 50 years.  Here is a video showing many of them all around the world:

A temple is a sacred place and  a person has to live their life in a way to be worthy of entering. Though that is the case the temples are open to the public right after construction is complete, but before their dedication, so everyone might be able to see what a temple looks like from the inside. These open houses are great opportunities for anyone to learn more about temples. The open house for the San Salvador El Salvador Temple will end Saturday and there are upcoming open houses for the Brigham City Utah Temple,  Calgary Alberta Temple, Cordoba Argentina Temple,  Fort Lauderdale Florida Temple,  Kansas City Missouri Temple, Manaus Brazil Temple,  Phoenix Arizona Temple,  Quetzaltenango Guatemala Temple,  Rome Italy Temple, and theTegucigalpa Honduras Temple.

If you have any questions about temples or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints visit http://mormon.org/ and you can see if there is a temple near you at http://lds.org/church/temples/find-a-temple?lang=eng

Hanna, Utah - July 2, 2011

 There is nothing like a bit little fireworks to celebrate freedom and independence. This last weekend I was able to do just that. I was out with family in Hanna, Utah and while the pyrotechnic festivities were going I decided to take some photos (in part because I was having flame-making difficulties which tends to be a problem in this sort of thing).  But I was able to get a few beautiful shots.  After the little show I took some photos for a night sky panorama. You can see the Milk Way in it, it looks like a bit of clouds.

Ground to air firework - timed exposure on tripod

 Panorama of the night sky - also timed exposure on tripod

Watching Fireworks -  timed exposure on tripod

Watching Fireworks 2-  timed exposure on tripod

Lighting Off Fireworks -  timed exposure on tripod