Sometimes the chance to get this close to nature requires a visit to the local animal rescue center. This barn owl is a permanent resident of the California Living Museum in Bakersfield, California. I am most in awe over the colors and markings on this beautiful bird.

I was fortunate to be living in the Eastern Sierra when the Great American Race rolled through in the 1990s. I had one chance at this car and I liked the image so much I made it into a gift photo for my father, who loves old cars and can probably tell you what this is and the history behind it.

Sometimes it pays to walk outside.

Little did I know from inside my apartment, but the sky above my Bishop home was literally on fire as the sun set and the light from it lit a layer of clouds from underneath like a radioactive storm.

I literally had seconds to grab my camera and shoot this from the street.

I personally believe that winter sunrise is the best light to capture the alpenglow against the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada from the Owens Valley. The more prominent mountain is Lone Pine Peak, with Mt. Whitney at the right edge of the frame.

Mt. Whitney towers more than 10,000 feet over the adjacent Owens Valley floor, but unless you know where to look you’d almost miss it while driving up US 395 through the Eastern Sierra.

I love aspens. It’s as if these trees become radioactive as their leaves change color. These are just some of nature’s glory from Modoc County, California.

One of the perks of driving a commercial truck is seeing sights like this. The drawback is the lack of sufficient parking for those monsters. This time I got lucky, though it’s difficult with delivery deadlines to spend the kind of time necessary to make good photographs.

Nevertheless, here’s a shot of Sisters, the twin volcanos in Oregon as a winter storm chases me.

I remember an assignment in photography class one year called “color without color.” The assignment was to photograph something with color film (yes, film) that looked black & white. I can’t recall what I photographed for that assignment, but I remembered it when looking through old photos shot on slide film over the years, including this one made up in the Aspendell area of Inyo County, California. Just a few weeks earlier these trees were aglow in bright yellow; now, their dead leaves are buried under at least a foot of snow.

This tourist was apparently completely oblivious to me and my camera set up on the tripod when she began to literally run from spot to spot, shooting photographs. So, in the spirit of turning lemons into lemonade, I used her as a prop (completely unbeknownst to her, of course) to frame some images. I think they worked pretty well.

This wasn’t just a concert for the kids… many adults attended this show at Northside Baptist Church in Columbia, SC in 2008. The Saturday evening concert by Christian rock group Building 429  was punctuated Easter Sunday as the group led two of the three morning worship services.