Travel

Articles
Philadelphia Gallery
Art Galleries Hdr History Photography Travel 2010

I had the pleasure of visiting Philadelphia multiple times during my career in support of the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME). In 2006 I even lived there for five months during a sabbatical. The gallery below contains a number of architectural/urban environment studies, and my earliest attempts at High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography. I took most of the sculpture and fine art photos at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and long walks along the Schuylkill River.
Picket Wire Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite
Critters History Travel Video 2019

On my trip west this year I made sure I had time to visit this unique area. The Dinosaur Tracks are located within and along side the Purgatoire River within the Comanche National Grassland. It is located 35 miles south of La Junta, Colorado off the lightly maintained County Road 25 (upper left in the map above). The last few miles are on a primitive forest service road that ends at the Withers Canyon Trailhead and Campground (four sites with fire grates and a pit toilet).
Panoramic iPhone Photography
Galleries Panoramas Photography Travel 2014

About a year ago [2013] I upgraded the iOS on my iPhone 4s. A few days later I discovered a new option in the Camera App—Panorama Mode! Over the next few months I slowly realized that this was a serious photographic tool. Now I take it along as an important part of my photographic gear. It appears to work like a slit camera, but instead of moving the film, you must move the camera. This has interesting ramifications if some or all of your subject is moving (see my Treatise on Panopainting).
Galápagos Islands
Birds Galleries History Nature Travel Video 2013

We arrived about noon and proceeded to nearby Black Turtle Bay where we saw Sea Turtles, Sharks, and Golden Rays amongst the mangroves. If you have enough bandwidth you should also view the 12 Minute Video I’ve prepared to see them in motion!
Bikecentennial - Summer 1976
Galleries History Travel 1976

In 1976 I was a sophomore at Carleton College in Northfield, MN. I had already done a few cross-country, multi-state bicycle trips in High School and continued planning short trips during my weeks off. The Bikecentennial was too good to pass up! In 2002 I scanned my 35mm slides and created this travelogue with representative quotes from my journal. What you see here is the current version updated in 2026, fifty years later!
Lake Powell 2010
Flowers Galleries Hdr History Panoramas Travel 2010

This was only my second trip to Lake Powell with my friend Rick. We had made a multi-stop journey across western Colorado and Utah, stopping in Moab and Colorado National Monument. (I returned to the area once again for a houseboat trip in 2020.)
Taliesin (Frank Lloyd Wright)
Galleries History Photography Travel 2023

Taliesin was the home and architectural school of Frank Lloyd Wright. It is located near Spring Green in southwest Wisconsin. The area was originally settled by his grandfather and Wright returned to the area in 1911 with his then mistress, Mamah Borthwick. The family and buildings suffered many disasters over the years—including two fires, a mudslide, and the murder of Borthwick and six others. The current site is referred to as Taliesin III and is a canonical example of The Prairie School of architecture.
Santa Fe River Day Trip
Critters Galleries Nature Travel 2016

I was itching to go kayaking somewhere new, so I headed over to the Santa Fe River. There was a little park and boat launch near the highway 47 bridge. While getting ready to go I spotted what looked like green leaves stuck on the sides of two trees. They turned out to be Luna Moths, which I think were newly emerged. Beautiful!
Badlands National Park
Galleries Nature Photography Travel 2018

My brother-in-law Rick flew out from Colorado so we could go on a road trip together across South Dakota and beyond. We entered the Park via the Northeast Entrance (extreme right on map) and spent most of our day slowly moving west, stopping frequently—sometimes to take photos, sometimes due to bison migrating across the road. We ended up at the Sage Creek primitive camping area (upper left).
Cedar Key & Hall Creek 2021
Birds Camping Galleries History Travel 2021

I went for a quick solo kayak trip to Hall Creek near Cedar Key (putting in at the #4 Bridge off of Highway 24). I last visited this area in 2012 with a friend. The first mile or so is very shallow and I made a few mistakes on my way to Live Oak Key, where there is a narrow channel through the oyster beds. Surprisingly the old oak tree on the point is still alive! [compare with 2012]
Cedar Key & Hall Creek 2012
Birds Camping Travel 2012

My colleague Carlos and I took a quick overnight trip to Cedar Key and the primitive campsite at Hall Creek. We put in at “Bridge #4” at low tide and paddled through some very shallow water for the first hour or so. Once out in the Gulf of Mexico I had a chance to try out my new sail.
Garden of the Gods (Illinois)
Birds Galleries Hdr Travel Video 2017

I had the opportunity to travel through Southern Illinois on my way back from Iowa in June. I large part of this hilly country is contained within the Shawnee National Forest There are miles of trails, several wilderness areas, and many points of interest. I stopped for the night at The Garden of the Gods (not to be confused with the area in Colorado by the same name!).
China Trip (2012)
Galleries History Travel 2012

A concise collection of photos from our 2012 trip to China. Including the Li River Valley, Terraced Mountain Rice Fields, Many Museums, Taoist Temples, Buddhist Temples, The Terra Cotta Army, Pandas, Shanghai, The Great Wall, and Beijing.
Total Eclipse & Snake Road
Birds Galleries Science Travel 2024

Last week I traveled with my Sister Diana to Southern Illinois hoping to experience the Total Solar Eclipse. We were not disappointed! We had mostly blue skies that day with some high stratus clouds. Nothing can really prepare you for the moment of totality. We could suddenly see “stars” (actually the planets Venus and Jupiter) in the odd twilight. It got perceptively cooler and the wind changed direction.
Santa Fe River Day Trip
Birds Galleries Travel 2025

Out with friends to canoe down the Santa Fe River in north Florida. We saw many large turtles sunning themselves along the way plus a juvenile bald eagle! Stopped for lunch in the outflow from Blue Spring.
Panhandle Pitcher Plant Expedition
Galleries Nature Photography Plants Travel 2020

The last time I went hunting for Pitcher Plants was 2017. This year I went about two weeks earlier and learned more about their distribution and lifecycles. I visited six sites in all, moving from Florida into Alabama. I saw mostly pitcher plant flowers as I moved west, apparently the flowers emerge days to weeks before the funnel-shaped leaves.
Chaco Canyon 2023
Galleries Hdr History Panoramas Travel Video 2023

After braving the nearly washed out road from the north I arrived around 9am. I had to walk my Prius diagonally over piles of gravel and exposed rock faces. This was my third attempt over twenty years to visit this important site. (The first two failed because the roads were completely washed out!)
Yucatan Maya Trip
Hdr History Travel 2009

First on our list was Uxmal, my personal favorite! Located in the gently rolling Puuc Hills, it is one of several significant Late Classic Mayan centers in that area. The so-called Pyramid of the Magician dominates the modern entrance to the site. The main temple entrance takes the form of a huge mouth, still intimidating even today. The pyramid was actually built in five stages, each covering older parts of the structure.
Gulf Coast Carnivorous Plants
Galleries Nature Photography Plants Travel 2025

Spring is the time to hunt for carnivorous plants along the Gulf Coast of Florida and Alabama. The image below from 2020 shows three different, unrelated species that have all evolved the ability to trap and consume insects (Pitcher Plants, Butterworts, and Sundews).
In Pursuit of Pitcher Plants 2017
Nature Photography Plants Travel 2017

We decided to take a week-end trip to the Panhandle to see if we could find Pitcher Plants. We were not disappointed! Here I am standing along Highway 65 in the Apalachicola National Forest…
Lake Powell 2020
Birds Flowers Galleries History Panoramas Travel Video 2020

It had been ten years since I last visited Lake Powell. This year I went with my college friend Al and his partner Marian. Not having our own boat, we decided to rent a houseboat from the Bullfrog Marina. This turned out to be a great idea! With a few exceptions it was clean and well maintained (certain lights and the gas grill did not work).
Fort Clinch State Park
Galleries Hdr History Travel 2015

This fortification along the Florida/Georgia border dates from the era of the Second Seminole War (1847) and served the needs of both the Confederacy and the Union in the Civil War. It is a asymmetric pentagon built out of red bricks with gun emplacements on the top of four walls. There are several lovely internal architectural features such as arched ammunition magazines and spiral stairways, No shots were ever fired here!
Birds of Amelia Island
Birds Galleries Nature Photography Travel 2015

I was the trailing spouse for a meeting on Amelia Island. I spent most of a morning taking these photos of the local birds—including some spectacular flying by a pair of Ospreys! Right at the limit of my equipment.
Winter Camping in Yellowstone Park
Camping Galleries Travel 1986

We were three college buddies with lots of skiing and camping experience between us. So when I moved to Wyoming we decided to take a little winter trip inside Yellowstone National Park.

This is a slide!