Denali National Park

Saturday I spent the day taking a shuttle bus into Denali National Park. What a ride that was, I saw all kinds of wildlife. The bus driver spotted this Lynx crossing the road and it only stuck around for a few seconds and then vanished in to the woods. Once I got a good ways into the park I got off the bus and did some hiking, that was when I found this Great Horned Owl nest with a couple of owlets. After I snapped some photos of them, I started hiking down the road waiting to get on the next shuttle bus that came by. Well when all the shuttle buses are full there is only one thing that you can do, and that is keep on walking and that is just what I did, hiked 10 miles out of the park. Most of the way I followed some bear tracks, heading in the same direction that I needed to go. Needless to say I was on the lookout for the bears that made these prints, but they were never seen. It was a great day, and I have so many photos to go through.

Ahhhh Alaska

Ahhh.. Alaska, I got up here yesterday and was treated with getting to see all of Mt. McKinley!! It was one of the most beautiful sunsets that I have ever seen. Today I drove around Denali and did some hiking and ran into a bunch of Dall sheep. I love Alaska!!!!

Little Sable Lighthouse

After work today, I headed down to Silver Lake state park to check out the Little Sable Lighthouse. It is just another one of many lighthouses along the Lake Michigan shoreline.
Canon 30D, Canon 17-40mm, Sandisk digital film.

Sleepy Bear Dunes

I took a drive today up to Sleepy Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The weather was really cold and windy, but it made for some big waves on Lake Michigan. There were also many different species of waterfowl on some of the near by lakes.
Canon 30D, Canon 17-40mm, canon 300mm, SanDisk Digital film.

Big Sable Point Lighthouse

Today I headed out to Ludington State park which has a really cool lighthouse. It was a nice 2 mile hike back to the 112 ft tall lighthouse. It was a great way to relax after a hard days work!
Canon 30D, canon 17-40mm, SanDisk digital film.

More Lighthouse

OK so I didn't have much time after work to find a new place to take some photos, and it looked like it was going to be clear for sunset. So I went back down the street to the Ludington Lighthouse. One is before sunset and the other is after.
Canon 30D, Canon 70-200mm, Sandisk digital film.

Beautiful night for a sunset.

After dinner, I made it back out to Ludington beach and walked out to the lighthouse, Which was pretty cool to see up close. After that I walked over to the beach to watch the sunset. There were a lot of seagulls and terns flying around, which were a lot of fun to shoot.
Canon 30D, Canon 17-40mm, Canon 300mm, Sandisk digital film.

Ludington, MI

Today, I got up to Ludington MI for the start of two weeks of work. After dinner I made a quick trip over to the Lighthouse for a few quick shots. Hopefully tomorrow I can make it over in time to catch the sunset.
Canon 30D, 70-200mm, SanDisk digital film.

Smoky Mountains

Well the weather finally broke for Sunday and it was a beautiful sunrise at the top of Clingmans Dome. After that I could not resist going and looking for some more salamanders, and you can not go around a corner without seeing a waterfall. It was a great trip and I can not wait to go back and spend more time there.
Canon 30D, canon 70-200mm, 17-40mm, 60mm, SanDisk digital film.

Great Smoky Mountains

Well the work is done and now it's time to play, and I could not have picked a better place then the Smokies! It was a wet day, but I still had a great time. The rivers are just

beautiful, and make me wish that I had brought my fly rod. Can't wait to see more tomorrow!

Canon 30d, canon 17-40 and 60mm lens, SanDisk digital film.

Georgia Aquarium

Today after work we had some time so we headed over to the Georgia Aquarium, which is one of the largest aquariums in the world. It was a lot of fun walking through, looking at all the sea life.
Canon 30D, 17-40mm, SanDisk digital film.

Georgia

This week I have been working down in Georgia. After work today I headed up to the northern part of Georgia to check out the Appalachian trail. Along the way I stopped off at Helton Creek, which had a really cool waterfall.
Canon 30D, Canon 17-40mm, Sandisk digital film.

Death Valley National Park

I've been out of town working for the last 2 weeks, and this past weekend I made a trip over to Death Valley National Park. It was a long two days with little sleep, staying up late and getting up at 4am to get sunrise shots of the sand dunes. It was nice to finally be in some 70 degree weather for a change!!
Canon 30D, canon 17-40mm and 70-200mm, on SanDisk digital film.

First Place

Friday was the opening day for the 2008 Photo Arts Club of Toledo 23rd Annual Photo Contest, which I had entered 11 photos. I entered into two categories, Places and Black and White. I took 1st place in both categories and also got 2nd place in the places category. A list of the results can be found here. I was all smiles with 7 out of 11 photos placing! It was a great weekend, and I am so glad my parents were able to make it up to see them on display!
Happy Birthday MOM!!!

Second Place

Here is the photo that I recieved second place on.