What A Great Time...

Did we ever have a great time snorkeling. We did it multiple times and it was the most fun I had on the vacation. The water is beautiful, the coral is like nothing I had ever seen and the fish and sea life were fantastic. I picked up a new camera to use underwater and I will tell you more about it next week. This photo was taken at Hanauma Bay on the island of O'ahu. We swam with this sea turtle taking photos and really enjoying it for sometime before other people caught onto what was going on. After the area began to get crowded we swam on looking for other sea life. This was the high point of the vacation for me, I never thought I would swim in the ocean with a sea turtle.

Sky Watch Paradise Style...

Hello all, I hope Mr. Linky is working today, I tried a couple of weeks ago with no luck. Today's photograph comes from Hawaii. I do not remember which island I took the photo at but this is what the skies looked like everyday along the ocean. If you traveled inland a few miles it changed to darker, clouds and fog. Don't forget to click the link to visit other great sky watch sites from all over the world. Thanks again to the sky watch staff for putting on a good program.

Red-Crested Cardinal...

Sorry today's post is a little later than usual, it is live for a change and not a scheduled post. It was meant to be scheduled but like most days the last two weeks at home I work until dark, shower, eat dinner and then off to bed almost right away. With the rain they are calling for today maybe I will get a few post ready.

This is a Red-crested cardinal, I could not find him in the online bird guide I like to use so I will have to use the information from the pocket guide to Hawaii's birds I purchased when on vacation. This bird was fairly common on islands that had mongoose. they were imported from Brazil and unlike the northern cardinal seen here in Pennsylvania the males and females both look alike. The juveniles look different from the adults, I will post a photo of a juvenile soon.

Kilauea Lighthouse...

This is the Kilauea Lighthouse on the island of Kaua'i, I mentioned yesterday that this island does not have mongoose but did provide the best bird watching we encountered on our trip. Unfortunately I did not get to spend much time around this lighthouse which was a great bird watching area because we were only on this island a short time and there was other things to see since it was a family vacation and not a wildlife photography trip. If I do not remind myself that and remember it Linda will when we are on vacation.

Sorry for not posting the last few days last week, I have many projects going around the house and just did not have time to work up a photograph and post it. Many of those projects did not go away but are getting closer to completion. I am hoping to get them done so I can spend some time in the Shenandoah forest and north in Elk County this fall and maybe even next month. I need a wildlife photography fix in a bad way but I can't get it while there is work to be done or that is all I would think about.

Mongoose...

When Linda and I first saw this creature close to Diamond Head Crater we both mentioned it looked like a large ferret but did not know what it was. We later found out it was a mongoose and a not very well liked critter. The mongoose was introduced to Hawaii nearly a century ago was to control the rat problem that was destroying the sugar cane. Well the rats slept during the day and did their dirty work at night while the mongoose was out during the day and slept at night. What the mongoose did do was destroy the bird population on all the islands that we visited except for Kaua'i because they are not on that island.

Most of the birds were ground nesting birds and the mongoose took advantage of that along the way almost making the Nene (Hawaii's state bird) extinct. On the islands that were populated with mongoose we only seen doves, pigeons and the wild chickens on a regular basis. There was another bird or two occasionally.

This was the only four legged wildlife we encountered in Hawaii except for the wild bore. We did see three of those but by the time I changed lens the moment had passed without a shot. I did not find any other four leg critters at Hawaii when I researched it before the trip and if there is any I missed them.

My Best Friend...

This is my best friend and son Shane enjoying the sunset and beach at Honolulu. Shane is away at Boy Scout Camp this week in Hidden Valley. I hope he is having a great time and earning some merit badges. Hopefully some of my projects will be complete and I will be able to spend the day with the troop on Thursday.

More Bikefest...

No more girls just bikes, sorry guys. During the day there was numerous shows like the Star Boyz, you will see them later, dogs catching Frisbee's and FMX. These guys performed for about 30 minutes and put on a good show. Short post today, to many projects to get done this week.

Bikes, Bands and Girls...

Last Friday Shane and I went to the Bike Fest weekend at the Carlisle fairgrounds. The show featured bikes, bands and girls. I just thought I would give you a little taste of all. For the older people out there you may remember the bike from the movie Easy Rider. The band is called Bushmaster Gary Brown, they are a local group that I had never heard of but they were really good. Gary Brown is playing the guitar and he was fantastic. I could listen to them more often. If you google them there my space site had a number of there songs on it you can listen to. The last photo is the girls part of the post, I have no idea what they were advertising and I don't know if anyone else did either but they shore did attract allot of attention.

Night Time On The Strip...

I really enjoy the effect one gets when using long exposures. While in Honolulu I captured a few long exposure shots. This one was taken on the main strip, I did not use the tripod but set the camera on a wall and used the timer to avoid shaking the camera when the shutter was released.

I mentioned before that I would give some personal observations of Hawaii so here it goes. I can't pronounce the words and didn't even try, the speed limits are so slow I could not wait to get home and drive 90 mph on the beltway to get it out of my system. Most of the speed limits are under 55 mph with few areas that allow you to drive that fast. Even in those areas people drive 10 mph under the limit. Honolulu has as many homeless people living on the beach as cops in the streets and that is allot. If you see a blue light on anything it is not a fire cop but a Police officer. Don't cross the streets unless you have the walk signal, even if no one is coming, you will get a ticket. The malasada's are just out of this world and so is the Moco Loca. The water and fish are just beautiful, but their is no other wildlife and the birds are scarce except for one island leaving me sad. If you are not Japanese you are a minority. I guess I should have made notes because the others are not coming to me. It was a great vacation and I am glad I went but I am more a Yellowstone or Alaska person, I just love the wildlife. On the other hand I think Linda and Shane could stay there forever.

I know I posted four days in a row from Hawaii and I have many more but I will mix things up, I just need to photograph something else. This summer has been a blur with little time for anything but projects and Shane. Have a great weekend I am back to work tomorrow.

Sky Watch Friday From Above...

After a month off I am back to Sky Watch Friday. Today's photograph was taken out the window of a 757 over 30,000 feet above the Pacific ocean close to the island of O'ahu. I really thought this trip would yield many good sunrise and sunset photos but I had trouble being up early enough for sunrise photos and found that most of the time I was on the wrong side of the islands for sunset photos. While on the ship only one good sunset photo opportunity occured and I had to watch it out a window from the dinner table. Oh well, I still captured a few photos I can use for upcoming sky watch Fridays. Be shure and click the link to enjoy other great sky watch photos from all over the world.

Our First Luau...

Since no one came out and said it yesterday, we spent our vacation in Hawaii. We landed on the island of O'ahu and spent the week there seeing most of the island and going to our first Luau. On July 4TH we boarded a cruise ship and cruised the other islands making numerous stops for more adventures. I will elaborate more on the trip as photos are posted including my personal observations of Hawaii. Yesterday's photo was taken at Sand Island beach on the island of O'ahu. We climbed the Diamond Head Crater seen in the distance but more on that later also.

We Are Home Now...

After a 16 day vacation my family and I are home now. I never mentioned the location of our vacation and I won't know but I will leave you with this photograph taken hours before leaving for home and a few hints from it. That is Linda and Shane sitting in the sand close to a monk seal, in the distance is Diamond Head Crater. Yes they were both sad to leave and I think they could have stayed there the rest of their lives.

More on the vacation later. I was surprised to see post on here when I got home. I uploaded and did scheduled post before we left. The first few days we had online access and by the time I could check my sites in the afternoon on my Itouch the post were never present. I manually posted them and assumed that for eight or nine days there would be not post. Much to my surprise they were all accounted for when I got home. Along with the numerous projects and appointments I have over the next two weeks I will make it around to all the other blogs and sites I frequent and do some catching up. It is good to be home and it sucks to be home.

Madison River Bull Elk...

Enough days in a row with birds, it is time for some big game. This bull Elk was photographed in the Madison River last fall during the rut.

Blue Heron With Her Young...

Not the best of lighting and the sky was boring but it is still a Blue Heron on the nest with two young birds.

Anhinga...

The Anhinga fishes by going under the water, when they come up they spend time with there wings spread drying off.

Gone Fishing...

Over the hump day and dinner is served.

More Armed Forces Day Photos...

Yes more from the Armed Forces Day event in Carlisle at the Army Heritage Center, don't tire of them I have plenty more.

It's All About Timing...

It's all about the timing. Granted they were a burst from the shutter to capture the right moment so some of them found the delete button. If you look closely at the top photo you can see the ball about to enter the first baseman's glove for an out. In the second photo you can see the ball as it leaves the bat after the same first baseman lays down a bunt.

Plymouth Car Continued...

Plymouth Car...

They don't make them like this anymore. So much style and beauty, now a thing of the past. This is a 1940, 6 cylinder, 84 horse power. This car sold new for $805.00.

Last Years Fawn...

I have not had a chance to get out and capture any of this years new borns, so I dug into the archives for one of last years fawns from northern Pennsylvania.