Thirty Years of Photography (Part III 2010-2014)

February, 2019. The rain poured nonstop and turned the Mission College Prep soccer field into a swamp for this season ending match. That’s not just a splash the kid is jumping over – if you look closely you’ll see another kid on the ground.

There’s a racing series for $500 cars known as the “24 Hours of LeMons.” Got a junker? Deck it out in a hot dog and burger and see if you have what it takes to win – or just survive – this two-day challenge.

One of the many farmer’s markets scattered around the San Jose suburbs.

Ever wonder why a cattle egret is called a cattle egret? Well, here you go…

This escolonia flower was on the trail leading from the visitor’s center to the crater of the Poas volcano.

This is, of course, the Golden Gate Bridge.

This small cemetery is in the Point Reyes National Seashore.

Best $9 I ever spent. I got this sashimi plate at a place called MoMo Sushi in Vancouver, British Columbia, while waiting to board our ship.

My first close-up view of a cruise ship. And this is a little one by today’s standards!

Hours spent walking the decks resulted in a lot of photos of the ship’s details. This one of the funnel is one of my favorites.

The Pearl tied up in San Francisco. Unlike the Princess line that docked at Fisherman’s Wharf, we were relegated to “the docks” way down at Pier 30 and people had to take shuttle busses to Pier 39.

Of course the Princess passengers didn’t get a beautiful bay tour of the city and a cruise under the Oakland Bay Bridge like we did.

After cruising under the Golden Gate Bridge as the full moon rose behind us, this bicyclist was kind enough to be crossing at the perfect time. This was shot with a long zoom on a moving ship and with very little light so it took a lot of work to get this photo print-ready, hence the grungy black and white look.

Badwater Basin in California section of Death Valley National Park, the lowest point in North America.

I met a talented musician on my 2008 train trip to Denver. In 2010 Patti Casey was in California playing with her band so we took a quick trip to Bakersfield to watch her play. The stage was across a pool of water from the audience, giving me this lovely reflection.

This Western Terrestrial Garter Snake being a bit less than terrestrial and spectacular rock formation were in Kings Canyon National Park

This fisheye view of Hoover Dam from the new Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge captures the old Highway 93, the dam, and the shadow of the bridge on the canyon wall.

Not all National Landmarks commemorate achievements and victories. Manzanar National Historic Landmark stands as a reminder of what prejudice and hysteria can lead to. In this case, over 120,000 innocent United States citizens were uprooted from their homes at gunpoint with only what they could carry, and moved to camps located in such lovely places as the California desert.

This is re-creation of one of the barracks at the Manzanar Japanese Internment Camp, not to be confused with a prisoner of war camp. Barbed wire fences and soldiers in towers with machine guns made sure the internees (don’t call them prisoners) didn’t leave until the end of World War II. I guess it can be confused with a POW camp after all.

The metal tags and wooden wall are at the granary in Templeton.

The Western Gull is from the north “T” pier in Morro Bay.

Mr. Ricks is in Avila Beach.

Sunset silhouette over Morro Bay, California.

Oso Flaco Lake is a hidden gem near the tiny town of Guadalupe. It’s a peaceful spot unexpectedly located on the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area where birds, ducks, raccoons, and more are often seen.

I nearly walked into these cattails on a trail at Santa Margarita Lake.

These pelicans were on Stearns Wharf in Port San Luis near Avila Beach.

We got into San Juan at about 4am and spent the night in a hostel. We had a day to visit old San Juan before our ship sailed that afternoon and I got this picture of two residents of the San Juan National Historic Site.

I can’t believe I slept right through both the Rapture AND the end of the world!

This warning was stuck on a wall in Barbados.

Looking down from the deck of the Celebrity Summit. Its amazing how the water in the Caribbean really does look as turquoise as it does in all those photographs you see.

I don’t know what it is about the United States, but it seems that everywhere else in the Americas is splashed with color! These colorful curtains were for sale in St. John’s, Antigua.

This is, by far, the most popular photo I’ve ever taken. I can put this on facebook and it gets five times as many views as my other photos. I put it on my new Flickr page and it got 250 hits in twelve hours. (I usually get about 10.) I need to stop taking pictures of rocks and start photographing naked people!

This is the famous Maho Beach in Saint Martin. Princess Juliana International Airport is across a fence just beyond the beach and tourists come from all over to stand under the airliners as they make their final approach. Sadly we had to leave before the 747 came in, which is twice the length of this 737.

This Jaguar is at the Woodland Auto Display in the Estrella Warbird Museum in Paso Robles.

These two photos are from the old abandoned Los Angles Zoo in Griffith Park.

A close up of the old sign patinted on wall of the Piedras Blancas motel in San Simeon.

The San Luis Obispo Post Office in downtown has some great old post office boxes.

The cliche shot of a streetcar under the Fishermans Wharf sign. Shouldn’t there be an apostrophe in that sign somewhere?

This pulley was on an old crane in Alameda, California. The crane is no longer there, which is a reminder to always take the shot when you see it because you never know if you’ll have another chance.

This shot of a container ship and dock in the Port of Oakland was taken from near the old crane in Alameda.

This chrome statue was on the road between Singleton and Winsor, New South Wales.

We boarded our ship on Thursday but didn’t depart until Friday, so we got to spend a night on board. We couldn’t have asked for a better location, just across from the opera house and with the Sydney Harbour Bridge directly ahead.

Our first stop after we left Sydney was Melbourne, a city of some incredible architecture. This is the interior of the State Library of Victoria.

White-Fronted Terns are incredibly fast fliers, and I managed to get a couple of good shots while visiting Port Chalmers, New Zealand.

We found this small reading room in Akaroa.

I spotted this scene while at the railway station in Wellington.

This colorful fountain is on the the cruise ship Celebrity Solstice.

We couldn’t leave New Zealand without at least one picture of their famous sheep.

Finally, this is the scene of the dock in Tauranga, our last stop before disembarking in Auckland.

We spent our first night at what we call “The Round Bed Motel” (it’s actually the Route 66 Motel) in Barstow, California. This small motel has a collection of old cars in the parking lot, including this old Cadillac.

Just like the hoodoos aren’t all there is to see at Bryce Canyon, arches aren’t the only thing to see at Arches National Park.

Canyonlands National Park, Utah, where the canyons are inside even bigger canyons.

This is Newspaper Rock State Historic Park in southern Utah.

We had visited Zion National Park before, so we just drove though on the way home.