Beach bench

A bench on the beach in San Diego, California. The sun is on its way down for the day.

Tres amigos

Pelicans along a beach in Southern California.

Reflections on glass

Sunset reflected on a car window, somewhere along the Oregon coast. If you look carefully near the bottom left of the picture, you can see a soda cup inside the car.

Sunset at Goat Rock beach

Birds calling it a day at the Goat Rock beach in Jenner, California.

Goat Rock Beach

Sunset at the Goat Rock Beach in Jenner, California.

Borax and clouds

This was near the old borax mine in Death Valley National Park. Beautifully stark on a day where the high was 116 degrees Fahrenheit.

A trail leading up to the Cinder Cone in Lassen Volcanic National Park in California. If you make it up there at sunrise, you can see some beautiful sights.

Light breaking through

Somewhere along the 395-N on the way to Mammoth Lakes, California.

Upside down Snag Lake

Over the Labor Day weekend, we went backpacking in Lassen Volcanic National Park and camped at Snag Lake one night. The night was cold and windy but the next day was beautifully calm. So calm that the reflections in the water of the lake were perfect. So perfect that I rotated the image upside down and it was hard to tell. Above is the upside down image. If you look carefully, you can see some logs in the water - they are in the top half of the picture, towards the right.

Light and shadow in the Japanese Garden

One of the many beautiful sights in the Japanese Garden of Portland, Oregon.

Roses in Portland

A rose - one of thousands at the International Rose Test Garden in Portland, Oregon. If you ever happen to have an extra hour to spare, you should check it out. Also happens to be located right opposite the Japanese Garden. You walk into the garden and it feels like you are in a fragrance shop.

Yellow and blue

A yellow wallflower with Caples Lake in the background. This was taken during a backpacking trip to Fourth of July Lake near Carson Pass, California.

A truck, a rainbow, and Mt. Shasta

Cruising down on the I-5 freeway, we were lucky to see this huge rainbow with Mt.Shasta, a 14,179 foot volcano, in the background.

"Flying Dragon" long jump

Above is the "Flying Dragon" style of long jump as exhibited by an athlete at the Prefontaine Classic track meet in Eugene, Oregon this year. Ok, I just made that up. But, that is a pretty cool way of making a long jump, isn't it?

For a complete writeup about the meet, read my other blog post here.

Sun and rain

We've been having some heavy rain and pretty much no sun for the last few days. This was taken in the evening when the sun decided to peak out anyway while the rain continued to pour. The glass window provides the barrier from the rain outside.

Full moon and lamp

A picture I took recently in a parking lot at night. I had to cut down the exposure time a lot in order to get the craters of the moon. This one is 1/1250 of second. I started off with around 1/100 of a second.

Tracking the caribou

Three caribou from a larger herd that we saw in Denali National Park, Alaska. Look carefully at the one on the left. It has a belt around its neck, with a box at the bottom. Most likely a tracking device. I didn't see it at the time, but only later, at home, while zooming in on the picture.



Curiosity took me to web-searching and on to this page - http://taiga.net/satellite/. It's got some interesting information about tracking - why they do it, how they do it, etc. The basic technology is GPS satellites. An interesting rule of thumb is that the device shouldn't weigh more than 4% of the animal's body weight.

Ripping into lunch

A bear in Katmai National Park, Alaska, ripping into a red salmon.

How long can you keep a pumpkin after Halloween?

Ever wondered how long a pumpkin can last after Halloween? Last year I decided to find out. I got two pumpkins last Halloween, around October 2007. One big and one tiny. The big one survived till this September - about 11 months - before collapsing from within. Apparently, it started rotting slowly, until gradually the outer skin became too weak to hold back the guts and one fine day I was greeted by the sight of it half collapsed in on itself - like a building that's been brought down by a controlled detonation.



The above pic shows the tiny pumpkin. This one survived till October 2008 - about 12 months. You can see the little patches of white on the outside. That's fungus. Surprisingly, the pumpkin felt quite solid to the touch. Then, I took a little kitchen knife and this is what happened:




The inside looked a bit empty. I guess that's how they go. For purposes of scientific disclosure, the pumpkins were never harmed, fed, genetically modified, or otherwise altered after they were bought. The big pumpkin was always kept outside, where temperatures ranged from 32F to 100F during the year. The little one was always inside - pretty much between 68-78F.



Happy Halloween.

Strolling along the beach

A bear that we saw walking along the beach of the Naknek Lake in Katmai National Park, Alaska. This one was around 70 feet away.