Cairo, Egypt (August, 2008)

Something Sphinx

Horse-Drawn Wagon on a Busy Bogota Street

Teleferico to Monserrate - Bogota, Colombia

How the Other Half Lives in Colombia

Colombian Rainbow

Flower in Sunlight

Bogota, Colombia from Monserrate

Sunset in Bogota

My daughter and I took a trip back home in Hawaii for Spring break.

Entrance to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, the final resting place of thousands of US service personnel. Set in an extinct volcanic crater, this place is commonly called "The Punchbowl".

View of Ford Island, situated in the middle of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The ship on the left is the USS Missouri, the battleship on which the Japanese surrender during World War II was signed.

The tower to the right of "Big Mo" is the control tower at Ford Island Naval Air Station.

The white structure on the right side of the image, the one with the boat headed towards it, is the USS Arizona Memorial. On the morning of December 7th, 1941, the Japanese military launched a surprise attack on Hawaii, focusing most of it on Pearl Harbor. USS Arizona took a direct bomb hit that caused massive fire and explosion that destroyed the ship and killed 1,177 of the 1400 crew. Some 900 of those sailors are entombed in the her sunken hull. A memorial spans the bridge of USS Arizona, a solemn reminder to all who visit: Americans, Japanese and people from every other nation, of the tragedies of war and the sacrifices that are made by all who serve their country.

Many years ago, back in my high school years, this was the house I lived in. The window to my room is at the top right, just above the American flag.

This photo was taken at a beach on the northern shore of Oahu, Hawaii. That is my daughter, her mouth full of goldfish crackers. It was very cloudy that day, but even so the views and the ocean were incredibly beautiful.

My daughter took this photo on our first morning in Hawaii. This was at the far eastern end of Oahu at about 8am.

The blue Pacific Ocean meets the volcanic coast of Hawaii.

There is a lot of evidence of Hawaii's volcanic origins, right beneath you feet.

This is a nice picture of Hanauma Bay. Look closer and you will see hundreds of tourists in the water and on the beach. When I was a kid, you could go down there and swim, snorkel or SCUBA dive whenever you liked, free of charge. Now, visitors have to stand in line for upwards of two hours and attend a "reef preservation" presentation before walking down to a beach that is overcrowded, noisy and frankly nowhere near as nice as it once was. Oh, and they charge admission too.

Another phoot of Hanauma Bay. The dark areas are rocky and the light areas are sand. To the left is a reef and beyond that, the water drops off until it is about 200 feet deep near the entrance to the bay. The bay itself is a volcanic crater that collapsed several thousand years ago, allowing the sea to enter and create what you see here.

Oh, and if you want guaranteed rainbow viewing, Hawaii is the place to be.

This is called "The Blowhole". As the waves surge toward shore, water fills up a cave and spurts out of an opening in the cave ceiling.

The state flag of Hawaii includes elements from the Union Jack (UK) and eight stripes, representing each of the "major" Hawaiian Islands. The other flags in this photo are those of the US and of the Kaneohe Bay Yacht Club.

Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. This is a view from the KBYC pier.

I am fairly certain that this is a shrine to a Shinto Kami, which is a deity of the Shinto faith.

Kailua Beach Park, one of the less touristy beaches on Oahu.

View of El Faro, Isla Culebrita, Puerto Rico

Flamboyan Tree on Culebra, Puerto Rico

Playa Zoni, one of the unspoiled beaches you'll find on the little Caribbean island of Culebra. I spent a few days there this week on vacation.

Happy Father's Day

There are some gifts money can't buy.

Last Night's Moon

Picture taken with a Canon 10D (digital), tripod mounted using a Tamron 18-250 at maximum zoom with auto-focus, 1/125, f13, ISO 100 settings.

Shrimp Boats, San Leon, Texas

This was taken with a Canon 10D using a standard 28-105 lens on auto-settings. It was originally in color, but converting it to B/W turned it into a much better image.

Enchanted Rock, Llano County, TX, sunset

This was one of the first photos I ever took with a little Nikon 4300, my first digital camera, back in May 2003. I used one of the pre-programmed settings ("Sunset") and a tripod. No color enhancements were used when I processed the image. I went back to Enchanted Rock last year and the tree was no longer standing.

Lone Pine, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Tunnel Light Display

Visit to Villahermosa, Mexico

That's me on the far left, having a great lunch with friends at El Matador, one of Villahermosa's great eateries. The drinks in the red cups are horchata, a sweet beverage made from rice and water.

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This photo was taken near the Galleria Mall in downtown Villahermosa, the capital city of the State of Tabasco. The weather was rainy during my three-day visit but the temperature was a comfortable 75 degrees (F).

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Tabasco, Mexico from an altitude of 1km. The weather didn’t let up until after my departure, but this photo gives an idea of the topography and vegetation of the area.