What could I possibly say? Don't miss these images.

In case you missed it. It was a beautiful evening. Double click the image to get a better view.

Day 31 of my 365 Day Photography Journey.

I have nothing to say. I hope you enjoy the images.

Make a Great Day.

The Eiffel Tower

Hello!
Day 30 of my 365 Day Photography Journey. Please join me.

After talking about the Tour de France, why not blog about the Eiffel Tower. I know I posted these photos on FB but I didn't blog about them. I told a short story to those who stopped by the house for our Paris recap. I'll tell that story now along with a brief history of the Eiffel Tower.

Planning for a 100 year anniversary of the French Revolution monument began in 1884. From over 300 designs, Gustave Eiffel won with his design. Construction began in 1887 and finished in March of 1889. The monument went up under controversy, like so many of things in Paris. Gustave push the monument as both useful in Radio transmission and Scientific experiments. The lease for the monument was up in 1910 and was almost torn down for it's over 7,300 tons of metal. It was decided it had more use as a radio tower due to it's height at 1050 feet.

It's now arguably one of the most visited monuments in the world at an estimated visitor count of over 250 billion people.

See the beautiful sky? It's only from misreading our invitation that we were able to visit the Eiffel Tower by accident and see it on the most scenic day of our trip.

Lee and I were on the train headed to our dinner engagement, when Lee lifts her head with a start and explains, "We're two hours early." She starts to laugh, "How did I miss that." She then looks up and sees we're getting ready to stop at Trocadero, she turns to me and says, "Quick lets get off here and visit the Eiffel Tower." This all happened in about a 30 second time span. My head was spinning. I said, "Wait. We'll get off at the next exit." We got of the next stop and began to work our way down to the river. We were treated to songs from a sax player as we approached the bridge to cross. As we climbed the steps we saw her off to our left over looking the Seine River, with a beautiful blue sky accented by white billowy clouds. It was perfect.

We didn't know that we'd be treated to such a nice view by getting off after the "best stop" to see the Eiffel Tower. Everything just worked out fabulously. I actually think the best view is with the Seine River in the foreground. I wish I had walked along the river just east of here I could have captured more base of the Eiffel Tower, with the river and several boats in the foreground.

We continued to walk around the tower and the park for the next two hours before getting back on the train.

The images below were taken on different days from different locations.

Make a Great Day!

Thank you goes out to Eiffel Tower Facts for the details shared on this page.

The Greatest Race of All time!

Hello!

Day 29 of my 365 Day Photography Journey

Me Riding in Le Tour do France

Le Tour de France the greatest race of all time!

Yes you heard me correctly, The Greatest Race of All Time!

Since I'm not in France at the moment I can't get live pictures of the race so I'm forced to photograph my TV. I'm sorry but I really wanted to talk about Le Tour de France.

The race changes from year to year but always finishes in Paris, at the Arc de Triumphe since 1975, which was a block away from where we stayed in Paris. This year it has 20 stages over 22 days, covers over 3500 kilometers (almost 2200 miles), riders climb over 46 miles in altitude (246000 feet), reach speeds of over 50 mph, cover three countries, battle the rain, heat and traffic. Over 200 racers from all over the world compete at the start of the race, many of which will quit due to broken bones or fatigue. 30+ riders are out already by the end of stage 11. This race takes so much out of the riders, their immune systems fail and they become very vulnerable to illness. If a rider is lucky enough to avoid a limb breaking accident, that looks like dominoes falling over, they get to face the alps and spend 4 hours going up at grades of 10%+. Riders have to be careful they don't burn all the fuel in their tank or they won't be able to finish the race.

Le Tour de France was started because L'auto, which is a newspaper company that started over a polarizing war case, (in which a French man was accused, convicted and later exonerated of selling secrets to the Germans), in an attempt to shut down Le Vilo, another newspaper company because they had an opposing view to the case. Did you follow that? Long bicycle races were very popular at the turn of the century to the French, so newspapers made money when the races where on. L'auto decided to shut down Le Vilo buy hosting a grand race across France. The formula that worked was to pay anyone who averaged 20km/hr over the course of all the stages a typical wage that was received working in the factories, with a bonus to the winner of each stage of 6x an factory workers annual salary. After many beatings and a lot of cheating, it was decided the second Tour de France would be the last. Since the race took place during the day as well as at night, cheating was easy and some riders took cars and trains to the next locations. The winner, Maurice Garin, was disqualified for cheating after 5 months of debate. Even though the race was seriously flawed it was an incredible success. So changes came, along with rules, increased days, and distances. L'Auto put Le Vilo out of business in 1904, but the race went on breaking only for WWI and WWII.

Do I have any desire to ride in this race? NO! But I don't mind riding along for a little while. What I do is move the spinner to the TV, hit play on my DVR and voila, I'm racing in Le Tour de France. I think I actually bring fear to some of the riders.This guy in the red jersey kept looking back at me to make sure I wasn't going to make a move.

The ultimate prize is the yellow jersey, which means you've covered all the stages to date with the best time total combined. Finishing the last stage in the yellow jersey makes you the champion of the race. Along with the championship you get to deal with accusations of doping for the rest of your life.

The winner of the yellow jersey also get about 31,000 euro($40,300). That's 1550 euro a day. At that rate Tom Brady would make 24,900 euro ($32,000) a year, for 16 games.

As I tear it up on the road with the pros I still need water from my bottle, like the pros. Seriously though, this is a great way to exercise. Riding with the pros, beautiful country side and good commentary, based on the camera view I could be in second or last place, it's great. I'm going to save all the stages so if anyone wants to come over and ride with me, give me a call.

I love this race!

Make a Great Day and Get some miles on!!

Mourning Doves

Hello!

Day 28 of my 365 day photography journey.

My son called me today and said if I don't come over soon the doves will have flown the nest. I decided to head over today and grab some images. Brandin was handling something when I got there, so I grabbed my gear and headed to the back. I started to look for the doves on my own. I looked under ever bush in the backyard and couldn't find them.

After about 10 minutes of searching, Brandin comes out and stands on the patio and says to me, "What are you doing?" I reply, "I'm looking for the doves." He turns to his left and points at a vine growing about two feet from him, next to the entrance of the house and chuckles, "They'll right here."

Who knew? I'll explain in a minute why I was looking under bushes.

I've been bird watching since I was 6-7 years old. My mom loved it and took my brother and I with her. Do you know how hard it is to be 7 years old and told to sit still and wait for the birds? Soon I was hooked. For me seeing a new species was the goal, the trophy, bragging rights about how many different species "notches" I had in my belt. A great image of any bird is the goal now.

I share this because I was so into new species, I failed to learn much about the birds I was seeing regularly. One of these birds was the Mourning Dove (called this because of it's song, which sounds mournful), which until recently, thanks to my lovely Lee, I thought was a "Morning" Dove. Just about every time I saw one it was early in the morning, so when my mom told me it was a Mourning Dove, I easily translated that into "Morning Dove." I never looked in the book to see how it was spelled. For 40 years I was in error.

Well, Mourning Doves spend a lot of time on the ground looking for food and resting, so when I thought about mourning doves nesting, it would nest on the ground. Right? Wrong. Who knew?

This mother was so cool, calm, and amiable. She let me photograph to my hearts content.

She has two chicks in this nest with her and they are almost ready to fly the nest like my son said. There's not a lot of room left for mom as you can see in the photo below.

Thanks for the call Brandin. Give Levi a kiss for me.

Mom has to sit on the edge of the nest now. The babies are almost as big as she is.
This nest sits about 6 feet off the ground in a wisteria bush.

Mommy and a baby.

Make a Great Day.

Bicycles Part 2

Hello!

Day 27 of my 365 Day Photography Journey.

They're called Bikes, Pedal Pushers, Pedal Cycles, Pushbikes, and just plan Cycles. Are they making a resurgence? They are actually.

Can they change our future? Or maybe a better question, can they change the future of our country and the world.

While doing some research for my previous blog I came across some very interesting facts. I'd like to share them with you as they are very dear to my heart.

The bicycle is a tremendously efficient means of transportation. In fact cycling is more efficient than any other method of travel--including walking! Bicycles are efficient.

When Lee and I went to Paris we were introduced to a new concept. Paris provides bicycles for free to it's local residents. Paris isn't the only country that does this. Parts of Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands also provide community bicycle programs. They've implemented new road construction principals, mass transportation provisions which allow for bicyclist to ride for free and transport their bike in the process, and bicyclist awareness programs.

The image to the right is a rack of government sponsored bicycles. I think it looks better at night then it does during the day, but hey it's about color. See also the closer image below.

The residents swipe their card, pull a bike and then return it to any rack when they are finished. I'm not advocating a government sponsored free bicycle program but there are other affordable viable options, where it makes financial sense for everyone involved. I'll tackle that concept some other time but for now I am talking about getting more people riding for a number of reasons.

Lets talk about the pros and cons. Pros: Exercise (Can I get an "Amen"), reduced traffic, saves money (no gas to run to the store), greater social interaction, increase the income of our poorer ranks (what do I just say?), promotes a more relaxed enjoy nature and concept, and it's easy on our planet. Cons: Exercise (and all the couch potatoes said, "Amen"), not practical with little ones, Safety (This is a big one. Bicycle awareness needs promotion), long distance commuters (it's just not practical).


Exercise: Balance, coordination and over all health just running errands. Here's a biggy, think about the reduced health costs due to the number of people exercising regularly.
Reduced traffic and saves money: Do I need to explain these?
Greater social interaction: You are more likely to interact with some you can actually hear and talk too. It's a fact.
Greater income for those in a poorer bracket: Experiments done in Africa (Uganda and Tanzania) and Sri Lanka on hundreds of households have shown that a bicycle can increase the income of a poor family by as much as 35%.^[46][47][48] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle)
Promotes a "Smell the roses" and enjoy life concept: You're out in the weather you smell the changes of seasons. The more bicycles the less cars and smog and the more fragrant flowers and trees you encounter.

The cons to riding more are resolved through unbiased law enforcement, respect, education and city planning.


Hesperia has some very nice bicycle friendly roads. Exercise them and yourself. If you want to get out a bit, head up to Silverwood Lake there is a bike trail that goes part of the way around the lake.

What if every car on the road in Hesperia, Victorville or Apple Valley was actually a bicycle? Reduced insurance costs, reduced deaths, reduced energy needs, increased social activity, a closer community, kids can ride a bike to school without the fear of being hit by cars, clean air and less noise. I know it's not a realistic picture of the future but it's an idea worth giving some thought that might change our kids future.

Social events where arrived at via bicycle in days past. Wouldn't it be awesome to show up to a black tie affair on a bicycle? The rollers would valet their Cannondale, Schwinn, Giant or Trek.

I hope I gave you something to think about. I'm thinking about how I can make a better community.

Be nice to bikers! Please help to spread the word. Thank you!

Make a Great Day!

Bicycles Part 1

Hello!
Day 26 of my 365 Day Photography Journey

Raise your hand if you had a bike as a kid. How old were you? What color was it? Did you start with training wheels? Did it have handle bar tassels? Did your mom or dad run along side as you learned to ride? Did you put playing cards on the forks to make your bike sound cool? Do you remember the first time you solo'd without the training wheels?

One of the first memories I had, if not the first, was at the age of three when riding my tri-cycle. You know the ones: Red in color, running plate connecting the rears wheels, and a big spoked wheel in the front. For real speed, you would put one foot on the back plate and use the other to thrust yourself forward at amazing speeds, at least for a three year old, an jump into the saddle and ride it out, keeping your feet clear of the pedals. The memory that stands out wasn't of me breaking world records at break neck speeds but it was of me building speed and jumping into the saddle only to feel the most excruciating pain in my left bare big toe as it rapped itself between the spokes of the front wheel and the front forks. Yeah! Seriously, I was in my 40's before I couldn't tell by feeling or looking which big toe had been mangled and ripped to shreds that day.

I hope your first memories of riding where much better then mine. Fortunately, it didn't deter me from riding a bike.

My first bicycle was a "hand me down," but not just any "hand me down." This thing would probably be a serious collector for those into that sort of thing. It had a sissy bar about 2 feet over my head standing up, with a hangmens noose in it. I'm to this day not sure what my parents where thinking. Big old chopper handle bars that forced me to reach about a foot above my head. Black as black could be, with stretched forks making the bike about 7 feet long. I like Harleys, but at 7 I wanted something I could jump, race and do tricks with. The only thing I could do with this bike was look like I road for the 12st Biker Gang, youngest member obviously. After several trips to help me get my bike from where I left it laying on the ground at the old dairy farm, because I wrecked, again, from trying to jump it on my monsterous track, and cleaning my wounds, my parents decided to get me a more appropriate bike, unbeknownst to me.

It was my 8th Christmas, all the presents had been opened and our parents asked, okay now that Christmas is over who wants breakfast, while my brother and I look at each other going, "Yay, more socks, cloths and a couple hot wheels." I know, not very grateful? I was 8, it takes a long time to learn gratitude, or at least until ones 9. Then my dad turns to my mom and says, "Wait, isn't there something else? Did we open everything?" Mom then says, "I'm not sure, do you think we left something in the garage?" That was our queue and off we flew. In the garage for me was this beautiful orange racer with purple strips, and big banana seat and racing handle bars with orange and purple tassels. I don't remember what Peter, my brother, got that year.

I was on a bi-cycle just about everyday for the next 12 years of my life. We lived on a cul de sac so riding in the street was allowed, soon going around the block and then "be home for dinner."

As I got older the distances got longer. My friend Joey and I would ride up to Silverwood Lake on our BMX bikes on the weekends, just for fun. A trip of about 25 miles with one gear. Try it sometime.

Bi-cycles have a very memorable place in my heart.

I've been riding this mountain bike since 1996.

The first bicycle was invented in 1817 as more a walking machine. It had no pedals, just a seat and two wheels. Your feet kind of just hung there. It was made entirely of wood.

1865, pedals were added to the front wheel but still made of wood, also known as the "bone shaker," as I'm sure you can see why.

The Big Wheels hit in 1870, costing 6 months salary. All metal with solid rubber tires. The bigger the front wheel, the better pedal to outer circumference wheel ratio, which meant greater distance covered with one rotation. The high forward center of gravity lead to some major spills, which forced improvements.

Eventually they came back to the first designs but made of metal and solid rubber tires.

Bicycling was so popular in the 1880s and 1890s that cyclists formed the League of American Wheelman (still in existence and now called the League of American Bicyclists). The League lobbied for better roads, literally paving the road for the automobile. (See Link Below)

Today we have Road Bikes (Like those ridden in Le Tour de France and my photo below, I'll write about this soon as it's in progress at the moment), BMX (Bicycle Motocross), Mountain Bikes, Beach Cruisers, Low Riders, if you can imagine it, it's probably out there.


You can see bicycles riding on the strand, the boardwalk, down steep mountain faces, across 100+ mile courses, around oval tracks and laying in most every driving-way around the world, especially when dad comes home and tries to park the car in the garage.

The bicycle is hear to stay and comes in all shapes and sizes. Apart from the enjoyment brought from using the bicycle for so many enjoyable activities, it's also a classic piece of a different time. I'd like to thank Ashley for reminding me of this while I was in Paris.

Today's bicycles can say some much about the rider and the creator. I, like Ashley, think they're moving art and remind us of a more simplistic romantic time.

Can the bicycle today, help us bring back some romance and simplicity? Please read the Bicycles Part 2 blog, and let me know what you think.

All the historical information came from the link below.

I hope you enjoyed this blog.

Make a Great Day by being the best you!

History of Bicycles

Seasons of change

Hello!

Day 21 of my 365 day photography journey.

"There is a time for everything...A time to be born and a time to die, ... a time to dance and a time to morn." Eccl 3

So many tend to think life should always be fun, exciting, positive and free from pain. Thinking along these lines tends to set one up for failure because when hit with times of pain, negativity, and confusion they aren't prepared to handle it and are crushed by life's real experiences. A better approach to life is to realize we are going to go through seasons of change just like so many other things in nature.

One example, the Red Bud tree, goes through such extreme changes it makes a great example for us.

I was reminded of this today when I went up to Lake Arrowhead and passed a tree I remember passing earlier in the year, during the spring. The tree was dramatically different. I did a double take it was so different. I told myself I would stop on the way back to look at the tree again and grab some images.

Below is the tree I photographed in it's spring brilliance. It's beautiful. Full of blossoms and looking radiant.

While I was photographing this tree, cars were slowing to catch a glimpse of this beautiful tree. Imagine driving through the forest of nothing but pines and Cyprus, rounding the turn and seeing this rich pink piece of natures art.

This Red Bud was full of bees, drinking some delicious nectar. The tree was literally humming and buzzing as I captured images. It was a very exciting experience.






Here below is the tree as it appears in the summer. What a transformation between seasons, dull spurring green leaves and clumps of brown seed pods. Definitely not as attractive as it once was. It's a necessary change, that needs to take place for the tree to grow, thrive and look beautiful in the spring. The blossoms though beautiful don't in this case serve a purpose, apart from helping bees grow their colony. There is no fruit on this tree. Without the formation of leaves the tree has no way of making food for itself through photosynthesis.

All the brown on this tree are seed pods.

It's a neccessary transformation but it so shockingly different. In the winter all you'll see is bare branches that'll look dead. The tree doesn't have to lose it's appeal during these not so radiant times. An expert looks at this tree and says, "Ah a Red Bud, wait till this spring it's going to be such a show." An expert understands changes in seasons and realizes the different stages involved in producing such a product. We'd do well to become experts at life. By this I don't mean we have the answer to all life's mysteries but I do mean we realize we are not immune to changes of seasons. We will have times in our life when things don't go as we'd expect. It's at these times we can look at our circumstances as failings and quit or opportunities to grow and demonstrate the true magic humans poses.

Unfortunately life for mankind isn't so predictable and set to the rotation of the earth. We don't know were we'll be and what circumstances we'll be facing in the spring of 2013. We do know we'll have a choice on how we approach that time in our life. A POW during the Vietnam war made it through with the simple conviction that no matter what they enemy did they couldn't take his will to hope and overcome. We have that same opportunity.

How are we going to handle the hard, trying and challenging times of now or the future? We will see them as necessarily times of growth or will we see them as opportunities to quit? Will we see the potential beauty in our hard earned efforts realized?

Make a Great Day!!!