Google Earth

Maybe this is old stuff, but I recently stumbled upon Google Earth I'm having a blast, but wasting a lot of time with it. Basically you are provided an image of the earth, and you can sort of seamlessly go to any location (visually) on the planet. The Grand Canyon is really cool. You can tilt your perspective, direction, distance, etc.. They even give you GPS coordinates, so you can find cool places to visit. Anyway, here's my corner of the world (the menan buttes that are to the west of Rexburg). To download the software follow this link.


The Menan Buttes from straight above, as seen by Google Earth

The Menan Buttes closer to the ground

I'm a little T.O.'d

The other evening Jon and I walked through weedy fields up to our necks, crossed the cow-urine contaminated slack water of the teton river two or three times, trespassed through a farmer's field and finally arrived at a gorgeous diversion dam on the Teton River just in time for gorgeous light. We photographed until dark and I was really excited about the images.

The other day (a rare overcast day at that) Jon and I got into his Pick-up and drove to the Ice Caves (a series of caves 45 minutes north of Rexburg that are insulated so well that they still contain ice). The road was sort of rough (I don't think my Subaru would make it, the light was great, the caves were fantastic, but the exposures were long, some as long as 40 minutes. I was also very excited about these photographs.

I dropped the film off yesterday at our only lab in town that develops medium format film. When I came back to pick up the film they were slow to the counter, and acted a little strange. I could see the owner in his office sort of hiding out. Finally one of the employees came out and said "there was sort of a problem". Anyway, three of the four rolls of film I dropped off got stuck in the machine and were ruined. They were nice enough to give me two rolls of Kodak Gold as a replacement. They even wanted me to pay for the one roll that wasn't ruined. I convinced them that they should let me have it for free. One nice quote from her "were these taken nearby, I hope?" Ahhhhhh.

Anyway, here are two images that did turn out:


Crystal Falls Ice Cave Entrance

I'm not sure of the name of this cave (Jon do you know?)

Garden Flood

Kevin and Ethan occupy their own corner of the Garden. I would call it a sandbox, but there is no sand and it isn't in a box. They created their own world with a series of caves and tunnels. Being typical young boys, as soon as they created their world they destroyed it. Luckily they chose water over a more devestating force like fire. Enjoy the series.


Civilization with Boat

The Great Flood

Property Damage

Kevin and Ethan's Ark

Yellow Rail

Last night at 10:30 I received a phone call from my friend Marty. He told me that another friend Mark Delwich had heard a Yellow Rail singing at sunset at Market Lake. Yellow Rails are nocturnal and I figured if it was singing at sunset it would be singing at midnight. Jon and I left soon thereafter and arrived at Market Lake ca. 11:20. The directions we received were a little sketchy and we wasted a lot of times knocking rocks together (which is what Yellow Rails sound like) in a attempt to get the rail to respond.

We finally called Mark and got better directions to the place he heard the bird. As we were arriving at the correct location Jon heard the bird out the window. We got out and the Yellow Rail sang non-stop for the ten minutes or so we spent with the bird. We left Market Lake at 12:45 and got back to Rexburg at 1:30am.

This is the 2nd or 3rd good record of Yellow Rail for Idaho. Follow this link to learn more about Yellow Rail.

The following photographs were taken by Jon Long.

Me banging rocks together.

Moon and Marsh

Things that Grow in our Yard

Susan and Tracie (Susan's Sister) were determined to grow a garden this year. We've tried the last two summers with not much success. I'm secretly (it's no secret now I guess) hoping it fails so I can plant other stuff. This year though things are growing well and I may be out of luck. So far peas are the only vegetable to mature, but it looks like we'll have plenty of beans, corn, cucumbers, zuchini, squash, and maybe carrots. Anyway, here's some stuff growing in our yard, including peas from the garden, cherries, apricots, and dead poppies.


Stuff that grows in our yard

Welcome Home

Susan and Jacob came home Saturday morning, both with a clear bill of health. Everybody is doing fine. Susan feeds him when he's hungry and they both sleep when they can. The boys love their brother. Ethan loves him a little too much and wants to hold him and touch him and play with him all of the time.


Welcome Home sign made by Kevin

Jacob not looking cute

Paper brothers that Kevin made for Jacob's room

More Pictures

Here are a couple more photographs of Jacob. They were taken when he was ca. 1.5 days old.


Jacob Sleeping (one of his two favorite things to do)

He's got pretty long toes, which he got from his mother

It's a Boy

Susan's due date was yesterday, which came and went without much excitement. I noticed she wasn't in bed this morning at 5:00. I went downstairs to check on her and she was starting to have contractions. They didn't get close enough together until 7:30 or so. We went to the hospital and she moved right along. Jacob - we haven't agreed on a middle name yet - Clark was born ca. 10:00 this morning. He weighs 7.5 pounds and is 19 inches long for those of you who are interested in such things. He's got a lot of dark hair and the nurses swear he's one of the cutest newborns they've seen (though I doubt they tell many parents that they've given birth to one of the ugliest babies they've ever seen). He is pretty cute though and doesn't have the squished face of a lot of newborns. Here's a few photographs:


Susan after the epidural

Jacob minutes old

Ethan and Jacob

Jacob cleaned up

That's all for now

A Cold Photograph for a Hot Day

Most of the complaints about the weather in Rexburg have to do with the bitter winter cold or the relentless wind. For the past couple of days though the weather has been unbearably hot and still. We reached 99 degrees yesterday, and are in the mid 90s today. I guess we are still probably the coolest spot in the Snake River Valley though.

Maybe this photograph of a homemade ice fountain (basically a garden hose on a post) in Rexburg will help. It was taken on one of the coldest days this past winter (ca. 10 below zero).

Civil Defense Caves Revisited

Yesterday Jon and I went back to the civil defense caves to give it another shot.

On the drive in there was a large Gopher Snake (maybe 4.5 feet) on the road. We stopped to admire it (I guess I did most of the admiring because Jon isn't that excited by Reptiles I discovered) and then moved it off of the road. Some other wildlife in the area included Sage Grouse, Sage Thrashers, Rock Wrens, Brewer's and Vesper Sparrows, nesting Cliff Swallows, and a Short-eared Owl. We also saw a couple of cool Carrion Beetles (I guess they're pretty common, but still cool). Here's a link to a picture and info.

I exposed more 8x10 film and the results were worse than yesterday. I shot a lot more color film though, and that worked out pretty well. We also found the exit for the main cave, as well as a partially collapsed lava tube which were both nearby. I got the film back today and was pretty excited by the results. Here are a couple of scans:


Civil Defense Caves (Main Cave)


Civil Defense Caves (Collapsed Lava Tube)

Civil Defense Cave

Ca. 20 Miles North of Rexburg, ID there are large lava tubes known as the Civil Defense Caves (additional information and driving directions are here). I guess they were intended to be used for protection during a nuclear attack (I'm speculating).

I drove out to the caves yesterday intending to make 8x10 negatives for platinum printing. When I arrived there were a couple of locals holding a shotgun. There were no targets set up, I assume they were shooting the cliff swallow nests. If I were a braver man I would have confronted them, being unarmed however, I walked past them into the cave entrance. They left thankfully and I was able to enjoy the cave in silence.

Exposure times were long (several minutes), so I got a second camera and began photographing with that one. After finishing with the 8x10 camera I walked it back to the car then went back in the cave to get the smaller camera, which was towards the end of its 30 minute exposure. I didn't think I needed a flashlight, even though the camera was quite a ways in. When I got back there I realized that it was quite a bit darker as the sun was setting and there was less indirect light in the cave. I scrambled around for a bit, knocked my glasses off, retrieved my glasses, and then found the camera. I picked up the camera walked half way out of the cave and realized I hadn't stopped the exposure. I'm sure the exposure will be weird if not ruined.

I developed the 8x10 negatives today, most are underexposed and have too much contrast. Oh well, I now have two reasons to go back. This one worked out the best.


Civil Defense Cave From Inside Looking Toward Entrance, Fremont County, ID 2005

Sand Creek Ponds

North of St. Anthony, Idaho the landscape is pretty bleak. There are miles and miles of sand dunes and sage brush. However, just before you reach the Island Park Caldera there is a set of ponds bordered by lush grasses and trees. It really sits out there in the middle of the desert. These are the Sand Creek Ponds. I've been there a couple of times before, but always seem to forget about them. I went up there a couple evenings ago hoping to find subject matter to photograph and looking for birds. I didn't make many photographs, and the birding was sort of slow, but it was a nice place to be on a warm summer evening. This picture is a picture of the only large format picture I made that day.

Sand Creek Wildlife Management Area

Watering the Yard

Today was fairly uneventful. I gave a lecture to my color photography class, scanned some film, answered some emails, read the paper, and even got in a short nap before Susan and the children came home.

Susan had a doctor appointment today. The doctor still thinks she's several days away from delivery. I guess we'd better decide on a name soon. I like Henry, she likes Joseph or Jacob. I think we may name him Jacob Henry. I'll keep you posted.

Kevin had his first soccer game tonight. Kevin's team lost 15 to 1. They had some hot-shot on the other team who scored 14. Kevin didn't seem to mind, he was happy to be running around.

After we got home from Soccer I watered the backyard.


Sunset in the Sprinkler

Rexburg Parade

We made it back to Idaho last night, so the children could attend the 4th of July parade in Rexburg. It's a pretty typical small town parade, with a lot of high school cheerleaders, old cars, horses, and floats celebrating "America". The kids like it because they give out a lot of candy. A dairy distributer even gives out chocolate milk. Here's a pretty typical entry in the parade:

Fireworks

We went to my sister's house, who lives in West Jordan, UT, last night to light fireworks in celebration of independence day and just because it's fun to light things on fire. I was having a good time with the digital camera and was surprised how good the photographs turned out after 30 second exposures. If the firework was lit for too long during the exposure the firework would be too overexposed. I determined exposures needed to start just prior to the firework ending, and then you would have the remainder of the time left for the ambient exposure. Here are some of the better results.


I think this fountain was called "winter storm"

My parents, my brother Curtis, my wife Susan, my nephew Carson, my son Kevin, and my sister Carrie watching the fireworks for 15 seconds.

Kevin and his grandmother playing with sparklers.

Sam trying to spell 2005 with his sparkler.

BBQ Pizza

We went down to my parent's home in West Jordan, UT for the 4th of July weekend. Last night we had an excellent dinner. We had marinated chicken breasts, pineapple, and mixed vegetables all cooked on the grill. We made a lot more than we could eat, so tonight we figured out a great way to cook the leftovers. We cooked pizza on the grill. It worked out pretty well, though they had to be finished under the broiler (the pizza crust browned before the top was done). The most popular pizza was the BBQ Chicken. It had barbeque sauce, mozzarella cheese, diced chicken breasts, grilled pineapple, asparagus, green peppers, grilled walla walla sweet onions, green onions, and zuchini. Anyway, here's some photographs.


Ham and pineapple (finished) and combination (in progress)


Going clockwise starting with Kevin in the orange shirt:
Kevin, Ethan, Susan, my mother Pat, my father Carl, my sister Carrie, and my brother-in-law Sam,