The future's so bright I've got to wear sunglasses

Our trip to Yellowstone took us through the state of Idaho, and a side trip to Craters of the Moon National Monuent . On the way to the park you pass through the town of Arco, Idaho. Arco is a town where time has stopped. An artifact from the Atomic Cafe, in which it is and always will be somewhere around 1958. Its claim to fame, the first city to be lit by atomic power.

I Think it Says it in the Hat

In search of the elusive Moose, we went our entire 12 days in Yellowstone and Montana without coming across a moose, but on our last day in the Grand Tetons, we tracked down a cow moose and her young near the Jackson Lake junction. I'm no wildlife photographer, but I managed to get a couple of clear shots of mama moose and kind.

Here you go, George.

Mother and Child Reunion

I have returned from an extended hiatus and a long vacation in Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks. It was a most amazing vacation, and while it did not result in a lot of photographs that I would consider classic, I did shoot a massive number of images and a number are certainly "blogable". The main problem was the difficulty in getting morning light. Our lodge was in Big Sky, Montana, about 45 miles from the west entrance to Yellowstone. After entering the park, it took a fair bit of driving to reach any location that you wanted to shoot. Even getting up at 4 am and heading out the door unwashed (sorry for the graphic nature of that image), was often not early enough to get the best light.

Nonetheless, we managed to see a lot of wildlife. Mostly Bison and Elk, but we also saw Bear, Antelope, Eagle, Egrets, Marmots, and Moose. Some amazing thermal features and astounding landscapes. On route we made stops at Craters of the Moon in Idaho and the town of Arco, Idaho. Arco is the first town to be powered by Nuclear power in America and has maintained a kind of 50s vibe that is both funny and scary. Pictures of all of this to follow in the next days and weeks, but to start us off, here is an image of a black bear and her cub that we came across while driving along the north end of the park.

Heading Out

This is from my last trip to Zion National Park.

I will be returning to this space soon with plenty of new grist for the photographic mill.

Come in...

Work responsibilities will require a short hiatus for this blog.

I shall return!

Update: Galleries at Futurballa Photography are changed.

Road to Nowhere

Snapping LA

This last weekend I made a whirlwind trip to Los Angeles for a bit of a cultural jaunt with friend George. Activities included, but were not limited to, visiting the Masters of American Comics exhibits, which close on the 12th of March, at the Hammer Museum (Winsor McCay to Charles Schulz) and at the LA Museum of Contemporary Art (Will Eisner to R. Crumb).



The evening was spent at the theater. Glendale's A Noise Within theater company's production of Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi. Which was actually Ubu, The Musical. Or as I summed it up on the evening, "Max Bialystock and Elaine Stritch star in Fellini's Ubu Roi with songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim, choreography by Bob Fosse." If you couldn't guess from that, it was a bit of a pastiche, but energetic and mostly quite entertaining.


LA City Hall. Fans of old Dragnet episodes will recognize this.


Frank Gehry's Disney Concert Hall as seen from MOCA, where the Masters of American Comics exhibit was showing.


Apple add above Canter's deli, where Sunday breakfast was consumed (mmmmmm, blintzes). PalmPod?

Where have you gone, Lance Armstrong?

I was able to get a few shots of the finish of stage 2 of the Amgen Tour of California in San Jose. Basically you see them pass by really quickly and snap away, hoping for the best.

The History of Valentine's

The History Channel tells all.

Tentacles

Cleaned up the ole blogroll a bit. Removed some sites that I don't frequent much any more. Will add some new sites that are better in the spirit of the blog in it's current form.

Soon come.

Gates and Lock

Something new for my kind commenteers. I aim to please.

Detail from Mission Carmel

There's been an update to futurballa.com, have a look.

Dawn at Limantour

Along the trail to Limantour beach at Pt. Reyes national seashore.

Another Water Study

Send me dead flowers

Morning Glow

We give the gift of linking.

A happy L^th to George.

A tremendous amount of wheat!

Van Gogh in California.

No artistic comparison intended, but this image reminded me of some of the Fields of Wheat paintings.





And the entire script to the source material for this posting's title (and the funniest Woody Allen movie ever) can be found here.

One From One Leaves Two*

Happy Thanksgiving

* _{Thanks to Ogden Nash for the title, even though it's apropos of nothing.}

Walk Me Out in the Morning Dew

Early morning in a meadow near the Point Reyes Hostel.

Watching the Water

I managed to avoid running into Charles and Camilla, but other than that the weekend workshop in Point Reyes was a great success. We had perfect weather on Saturday, and Sunday's overcast and drizzly weather leant the perfect atmospheric conditions to go down to the creek bed in Samuel P. Taylor Park to do shots like this one.