Are you a lot like me? A little disappointed in how I turned out?

I participate in an online photography group on Flickr where you get paired with another photographer from somewhere out in the interweb and you look over each other's photographs and then issue a challenge to the person that will push their comfort level as a photographer. Since I do only landscape photos it is a fun way to expand my hobby and a cool way to meet other photographers from around the world. This month I was challenged by an older lady from northern California to do a self portrait. It feels odd to take pictures of myself, but it turned out to be a fun experiment. I spend way too much time sitting in front of the computer and so for my self portrait I wanted to see what I look like as I sit for hours reading Magnum, P.I. fan fiction and watching videos of stranger's colonoscopies.

The Columbia River Gorge Gang and the Mystery of the Vista House Sunrise

Sifting through the epically beautiful trash

These pictures are from my visit to Yosemite National Park in July, 2007. My recent trip to Arches and Canyonlands made me think about the different national parks that I have visited and I thought I would re-post some of my older pictures from the different parks. Yosemite National park is an amazingly beautiful place. Grandeur and stunning are two words that describe it well. Katie and I camped in the park for two weeks and spent the entire time hiking, swimming and just enjoying the beauty. I might post some pics from the Grand Canyon and the Tetons later as well. Enjoy.

I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear..... Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years... Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.

One more shot from my recent trip to Moab. The title of this post comes from a few lines from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Nature", it is an inspiring read, you should check it out.

Portland: Our people are weirder than your people.

And they journeyed from Oboth, and pitched at Ije-abarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sunrising.

I believe God used to wear Earth around his neck on a necklace, his own galactic bling. And Delicate Arch was the loop where the necklace clasped onto the Earth.