Bow River and Banff Park

Just another shot of the Bow River running through Banff National Park

Richardson's Ground Squirrel

When all else fails, I say post a picture of a cute furry animal. These little guys are sometimes known as "gophers" and this one lives in a small colony down by the river in Calgary. However, he does not live in a van, he lives in a gopher hole.

Hoodoos on the Bow River

These are hoodoos on the Bow River near the town of Banff. What are hoodoos? They are formed when a hard layer caps and protects the top of a formation and the softer rock underneath is carved away by wind and water.

Castle Mountain

Castle Mountain is in Banff National Park, the first national park in Canada. I hope I'll be posting lots of Canadian landscapes and wildlife in coming months...

Happy Father's Day

This one was taken a while back at Disney World... Note the cool Houston Marathon T and the ultra cool running shoes. Oh yeah, the cute kids too. Thanks for making me a father Teresa :-)

Security Crisis Averted

A security crisis was prevented today when a photographer (me) was stopped from photographing a building from a public sidewalk. Local security kops spotted me and made sure I knew "unauthorized photographs" are not allowed!

As I walked back to my office the full extent of what could happen started to sink in. What if somebody sneaked a shot as they drove by in a car! What if they were acting like they were using a cell phone near the building but were actually taking a picture! And me, someone who has been carrying cameras around the world for 30 years, shouldn't I know better than to take a photograph from a public sidewalk in plain daylight that had a building in it?....

I have done some research and the full security threat from photographers is only now being realized. The following investigative report exposes the risk all too well (warning - this is a graphic video and not suitable for young children):

==> CLICK HERE <==

Holy guacamole batman! I just looked up the building's address on Google and there is a picture of it right there on the internet along with the tenant's name!

V = 14,400

Korean Ball Joint Dolls

You can always count on me to find and document for you the latest in style, fashion, and anything hip. Actually, I may be a bit late on this trend... In doing a quick internet search this seems to have been going on for several years and started in Korea / Japan.

These two young women said they get together monthly to take pictures of their dolls. The dolls were made in Korea (you can special order them and they aren't cheap) and then dress them in various fashions and styles.

Here are some web sites if you are interested in more information. They recommended the first one and the others turned up in a quick google search:

http://www.denofangels.com/
http://www.samuraifiles.com/tsumi/samuraifilez/ningyo/store/esthetics.html
http://www.bluefairyint.com/

Apparently there was a Korean horror movie made about ball joint dolls. After all, there have been plenty of horror movies about puppets. But they seem a lot less threatening than a puppet to me (was Chucky a puppet or a doll?). I mean, these dolls can be posed but they can't actually move like a puppet.

Japanese Lantern

This lantern is inside the Japanese garden in Hermann Park and is beside the pond that has the turtles (and the koi) (and the minnows) (and maybe some frogs but I didn't see any although there were some ducks). The small bubbling fountain beside it does not look right to me. It is of a new and modern design while the lantern is a very old design. To my eye, they should not be together. Click on the picture to bring it to full size and you can see a spider's web...

Turtle & Turtle

Haiku for two turtles at the Japanese garden...

In warm green water
the still days float by slowly for
turtle and turtle


Observation: moss grows fast on a swimming turtle.

Calgary Architecture

There is something neat about this picture that you are going to have to click on and enlarge to see. In the center top of the penta shape of the walkway sculpture in the middle of the photograph is the crescent moon! A bit of modern stonehenge. It is more visible in the original (I've downsized it a lot here and there are JPG artifacts) but you should still be able to see it.

It was taken along Stephen Avenue which is the center of t he old business district. Today it is a pedestrian way for the most part with a lot of the old facades still present but skyscrapers behind them. Nice, especially since not much of old Calgary was visible (to me anyway). It is a bit like Houston in that way.