I saw this tree out front of a Wendy’s. I love spring flowers. I also really like the depth of focus on this shot.

Blossming Tree

I went with Candace and the girls to tour the fire station. We went with Keelyn’s home-school group.

They wouldn’t let any of us slide down the fire pole, but they had one of the firemen do it so that we could watch. I had to time it so that the spot lights hit him right as he slid down.

Riding the pole

This was the old fire truck that they use for parades and funerals.

Old Firetruck

I think that Kiersten may have had more fun than Keelyn.

Driving the fire truck

Heading home. After a couple late nights in a row getting everything packed up at the end of the event and then having to get up early to make a flight I felt like I was in a blur/fog with one focus – HOME. This was photo-shopped to add the zoom blur.

In a travel fog

Went wandering around the resort grounds in the afternoon one day. I found that they had a garden down near the water. They also had a boat at the dock nearby. I really liked the little seahorse on the prow.

Italian Boat

There wasn’t much growing in the garden because it was winter, but there were a few flowers starting to bloom.

In the resort garden

And one or two in full bloom.

White Rose in bloom

This was on my last trip to Las Vegas with CEO Space. They always fogged the room and turned on the fancy lights and the disco ball. The picture doesn’t really do it justice.

Super Teaching Room

I know it has been awhile since I posted here. I have a few days of pictures that I never posted, so I plan to post those first, and then pick up on whatever day I left off to complete a year of pictures. I initially hoped to do them consecutively, but if you look at the last time I posted you will realize that it didn’t happen.

If you look at my earlier post (Day 73) in the first picture you can see the mountain I climbed on Day 74. These are my favorite pictures from the climb/hike.

It surprised me to see such delicate flowers growing in the desert.

On the hike I had to go around a couple of canyons like this. Others I just found a place and crossed them.

I found a ladder to nowhere. I couldn’t tell if someone placed it there, or just happened to wash up like that in some flash flood. I really liked the green of the rock, so I brought a piece back with me.

I saw very few living things, mostly just insects and plants, but I did see a few lizards. This was the only one that stayed still long enough for me to get a picture of.
Most of the cacti I saw were very small. This one really wasn’t much larger than my hand.

More flowers. There were actually quite a few of these along the way.
At the summit of the mountain was a geo-cache. Just an ammo box full of papers and trinkets and things. Not sure why the half circle of stones was there unless it was to make a smooth spot at the top or to protect the cache.
This is a slightly zoomed in view from where I started. It looks a lot closer than it is. As the crow flies it wasn’t far, but on the other side of the rise is a mess of canyons that requires a lot of up and down and back and forth.

This is from the foot of the mountain.

Here is the view looking back at the resort just before I started. I was dying to see this again by the time I made it back.

This is from the top of the mountain looking back at the resort. In that little red circle is a multi-story hotel and conference center.

I first saw this view last year, the first time we went to Lake Las Vegas for class. From the first moment that I saw it I wanted to climb it. There are a number of elements to this picture that I love. In the foreground is grass, sustained only by mans intervention, in and environment where it would not normally exist. Behind that you can see a waste land where nothing is growing, this too is man-made, a construction zone in its earliest stages. Beyond that you can see green start again, marred in places by trails, roads and tracks. This is where the true Nevada desert begins. A wilderness, certainly, but far from dead. And yet farther, beyond that, a challenge and the wild blue yonder. The next day I decided to tackle it.

There are good vibes and there are bad vibes – this is the anti-vibe! I could probably make a fun poster or tee-shirt out of this concept, which is what I had in mind when I took the picture and the reason I framed it the way I did. Any guesses on what the item pictured it?

I was continually surprised by the amount of life I found in the desert. This photo I also framed to leave space for text or something to create a motivational photo or something.

And this one I like just because of the crack shaped like a cross.

This is one of my co-workers, near the end of my last trip with the company I recently left. I wish I had centered the zoom on his face a little better. Other than that I love this photo. It captures the feel of what it was like to go and work at the event we were hosting.

This picture I hate. I really wasn’t paying attention to what was going on in the background and the person walking by ruins the picture. I might Photo Shop her out later. It will be tough though because of the pattern of the wall paper.

This was outside the back of the hotel in Vegas. I wish that it had been on a slightly taller pillar as I would have liked to get just the sky in the background, although I don’t hate it because the background does give it a little context that makes it more interesting.

I was trying to get a nice photo of the butterfly, but it just wouldn’t co-operate. The moment I got anywhere near it the silly thing would take of flying again. So I decided to see if I couldn’t communicate the motion. I like the abstract feel to it – the blur of the grass and the butterfly, the sun-flare, the fade from bright to dark down the picture. These last couple of weeks since the trip have felt a little like that, caught up in the whirl of chasing and elusive butterfly. I actually kind of like this picture better than the one above, not for the quality, but for the emotion. Sometimes it is worth it to sacrifice technical perfection to gain emotion.

At the Loews hotel in Lake Las Vegas I got a little shutter happy. There were so many interesting things to photograph. The first picture is my picture of the day and the rest are bonus photos. The fire picture wins because of the image in the flames. If you look near the top, you can see a skateboarder in the flames with his shirt tails kicking up in the wind and one hand down touching the board like he is setting up for a trick. I am also happy with the photo technically.

Can you see the skate boarder at the top of the flame?

Pebbles in the fountain. I just think the distortion looks cool and it was tricky to get the exposure right.

Overlooking the lake. This is a long exposure picture, that’s what gives the sky and the trees their deeper, richer colors. I like the composure because of the foreground water and the bit of fire in the corner.

“V” is for victory. Another photo for my pictorial alphabet.