Background image: The Gingerbread Mansion in the town of Ferndale on California's North Coast is now a bed and breakfast.
Photography
A portfolio of images from travels, some of which have not been published in my newsletters.
Click the arrow on either side of an image to see the next one in that portfolio. To see the full image, click the center.
Mount Rainier, the tallest volcano in the Cascade Range, which stretches south to California, seen from the Panorama Trail.
Wizard Island, a miniature volcano, pokes its head above the waters of Crater Lake, which fill the caldera of an older and much larger volcano, Mount Mazama, which exploded in prehistoric times.
A train of pack horses delivers supplies to some of Yosemite's backcountry camps.
Mount Rainier, the tallest volcano in the Cascade Range, which stretches south to California, seen from the Panorama Trail.
National Parks
I've been fascinated by our national parks since reading a series of books about them in the library of Fairview Heights Elementary School, which is in my home town of Hamlet, North Carolina. Living on the West Coast puts me within easy reach of some of the most famous parks.
The Old Well is the landmark of the nation's oldest state university, my alma mater, founded in 1789 in Chapel Hill. It sits next to another "old," Old East, still a dorm and the school's oldest building.
This mansion in Asheville is the largest privately owned house in the United States, built between 1889 and 1895 by George Washington Vanderbilt II as a summer home.
Sunrise on a snowy morning.
The Old Well is the landmark of the nation's oldest state university, my alma mater, founded in 1789 in Chapel Hill. It sits next to another "old," Old East, still a dorm and the school's oldest building.
North Carolina
My home state and a place I still love to visit.
An ACE train crests Altamont Pass on its daily run from Stockton in California's San Joaquin Valley to San Jose and Silicon Valley. The windmills along the ridge top generate electricity.
A child waits for the Seattle-Los Angeles Coast Starlight to stop in San Jose so he can visit Disneyland with his grandmother.
This station is the origination/termination point for a section of Amtrak's Empire Builder to Chicago (the other section serves Seattle) and a stop on the Los Angeles-Seattle Coast Starlight and Cascade trains, which serve the corridor between Eugene, Oregon and Vancouver, British Columbia.
An ACE train crests Altamont Pass on its daily run from Stockton in California's San Joaquin Valley to San Jose and Silicon Valley. The windmills along the ridge top generate electricity.
Railroads
My hometown was a railroad town. Most of my male relatives were railroad men. And I worked on the railroad during the summer when I was a college student.
I ride trains any time I can, which includes trips in England, France, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain and Switzerland.
The fort was built just before the Civil War to protect the Golden Gate. Today it hunkers beneath the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Winter sunset along the San Mateo County coast.
From the Marin Headlands at the north end looking southeast toward San Francisco.
The fort was built just before the Civil War to protect the Golden Gate. Today it hunkers beneath the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Structures
Some of the most interesting structures found along the Northern California coast are bridges, lighthouses and Victorian houses.
A new barn erected on Crooked Creek between Klamath Falls and Crater Lake.
The sun begins to pierce the clouds following a storm.
Donner Pass Road was the only automobile route over the pass before the completion of Interstate 80.
A new barn erected on Crooked Creek between Klamath Falls and Crater Lake.
Snow scenes
Most of these come from the photo trips I make each December to illustrate my holiday newsletter.
Two deer in meadow near McAbee Road entrance.
The falls are one of many along the Columbia River Gorge, which stretches east from Portland.
Venus is the planet at the bottom left corner; Mars is between Venus and the moon. The lighter area in the bottom right corner is the roof of a nearby house. This shot was made February 20, 2015, catching Mars and Venus at their closest since 2008. They will not be this close again until 2017. The sun is the source of all the illumination of the two planets and the moon. The darker portion of the moon is illuminated by sunlight reflecting off the earth to the moon and back to earth.
Two deer in meadow near McAbee Road entrance.
Nature
Hiking is a hobby that blends well with photography.
I woke up early one morning at a cousin's house in Haywood County, North Carolina and looked out my window to find clouds beginning to dissipate after a snow fall. Click the link below to see what I did during my stay.
I went to Klamath Falls, Oregon for my 2013 photo trip to get images for my holiday newsletter. After checking into a motel, I immediately went to check out some locations before dark for the next day and found this view from a cliff overlooking frozen Klamath Lake. Mount Shasta, which is in California, is in the background. Click the link below to see more about that trip.
Fort Point has stood on the southern side of the Golden Gate since the Civil War and has never fired a shot in anger. When the bridge that spans the Golden Gate was built in the 1930s, it was designed to leave the fort intact.
I woke up early one morning at a cousin's house in Haywood County, North Carolina and looked out my window to find clouds beginning to dissipate after a snow fall. Click the link below to see what I did during my stay.
Background images
An unobstructed view of the background images from the pages of this website with links to the newsletters where they first appeared.