Hey, it’s the first post in 9 months! Check out this nice shot of a crimson red tulip grown here in Oregon. I used a Canon Rebel XTi with a fixed 100mm macro lens, and no Photoshopping.

Click to download the zipped 1920×1200 image.

Codi and I just got back from a few days in Florida – our annual Christmas Part Deux. We had a good visit, spent time with family and shivered a little in the unexpectedly cold weather. Of course, it’s now 25 degrees out in Portland and snowed earlier in the afternoon, so even a chilly Florida looks pretty toasty right about now!

We were recently in North Dakota spending time with Codi’s family. Here are some photos taken in Medora and in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Codi and I spent a little time in Florida recently visiting friends and family. We went from hot & sunny to cold & snowy almost in an instant. Here are two photos to show the difference 3,000 miles can make.

Codi and I were recently up at the ungodly hour of 3am for a flight south. One of the benefits of such an early flight is the guaranteed sunrise and associated photo opportunities. Here are a few select shots.

Here I am, staring a) intently, b) blankly, c) groggily out the window at the rising sun.

The sun was cutting through the clouds with bright orange bands of light.

A close-up of the last angle…

The thick 300-mile wide cloud cover was broken by a mysterious clearing around the northern side of Mount Shasta.

I was visiting Kiev (Ukraine) and saw this older man playing a really intricate string instrument. It sounded amazing, like a cross between a balalaika and a harpsichord. It was unlike anything I’d ever heard before. Only one problem, I don’t know what the instrument is called! Woops!

(I complain about playing my 6-string guitars! This guy has about 50 strings to deal with! Zheesh!)

I found a cool site that integrates Yahoo maps and the inherent photo gallery capabilities of color iPods. The site is iWay and it’s easy to use. Just type in ‘from’ and ‘to’ addresses and you get a batch of images to upload to your iPod. When on the road, go to your iPod’s photo gallery and you have working directions. =)

This video clip is from our initial takeoff from Portland. I like the cloud formations over the wing. Also, if you look closely, you can see Mount St. Helens off the front of the wing once we clear the cloud cover.

Takeoff from Portland
4.2MB avi file

Codi and I are back in Lake Oswego after an awesome trip to North Dakota. Zeppo, here we come!

This was a funny sight…

There was a gorgeous sunset just outside Minneapolis. It had all the colors of a rainbow, including bright greens and purples!

Codi and I have been having such a great time in North Dakota that there’s been almost no time to post photos. Well, we’re on our way home to Oregon tomorrow, so photos will be posted soon. Here are a few photos for now…

North Dakota badlands, about 10 miles north of Killdeer, along the Little Missouri River.

Here’s Codi standing over the Painted Hills National Park near Medora, ND.

Here we are together over the Painted Hills…

We took some time for target practice with compound bows. It had been a long time since either of us has picked up a bow, but we did pretty well. It was fun!

Here I am preparing a shot…

After target practice, we enjoyed a fire and roasted marshmallows with Codi’s family.

Codi and I are having a great time in North Dakota!! It’s gorgeous here! Wiiide open plains, picturesque buttes and massive skies. The weather is perfect and the air is pristine.

This is the Killdeer Battlefield located at the foot of the Killdeer mountains (buttes, really). It was the site of a famous battle between US forces and the Nakota, Dakota and Lakota indians.

Here’s an old abandoned school house that we found way out in the middle of nowhere. It still had the old wood & iron desks inside – and two outhouses in the back. Olde school fun!

Here I am on a huge bail of hay. It took a sprint and a very high jumpt to get up there! What a view from on top of the bail, though! I could see for about 25 miles, the sky was so bright and clear!

P.S. I think I’ll now refer to North Dakota as “North DaCodi”.

Codi and I found out that there’s a jetboat that runs from downtown Portland to Astoria, Oregon on the coast, so we decided to take a day off and see what Astoria is like. We learned that Astoria is a major shipping center with a maritime history going back to the early 1800′s. In fact, Astoria was the very first American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains! Cool!

As I mentioned last night, we took about 500 photos. I’ve uploaded a few for your viewing pleasure. I’ve kept the images low-res to save server space.