Pictured here are my son, Ted, and Birna who works for the Handknitting Association of Iceland. Ted bought me a sweater from the Association last year and it was the wrong size. So I contacted the Association (via email) and Birna was very helpful in replacing my beautiful sweater with one that fit perfectly. When in Reykjavik this month, we stopped in and introduced ourselves to Birna to thank her for all her help. She seemed pleasantly surprised and was a treat to speak with. Thanks Birna!

Fishing is the main industry in Iceland, followed closely by tourism. Iceland has chosen not to join the European Union as they wish to be free of EU regulations that could effect catch quotas, prices, and types of fish and whales caught. While there my son and I ate Minke Whale meat and it was very tasty ... and very expensive. A small serving (about 1-2 ounces) cost 4400 kroner (about $44!). Iceland also is home to aluminum smelters powered by thermal steam and heat. The borax is shipped from Australia and smelted in Iceland because the power is so inexpensive. There are three aluminum smelters in Iceland, in Reyðarfjörður, East Iceland, owned by Alcoa, on Grundartangi near Akranes, West Iceland, owned by Norðurál Century Aluminum and in Straumsvík near Hafnarfjörður, Southwest Iceland, owned by Rio Tinto Alcan Iceland.

The Lutheran Cathedral in Reykjavik, Iceland. Reykjavik (smoky bay) is the capitol of Iceland and has a population of about 200,000. The overall population of Iceland is about 325,000; mostly people of Scandinavian stock who came from Norway and Denmark in the 9th and 10th centuries. Lutheranism is the state religion of Iceland. The statue in front of the Cathedral is Leaf Ericson (the founder of Iceland).

With names like Cuchillo and Chloride, you would expect to find buildings and ruins like these in New Mexican ghost towns. And that's why I drove 1,000 miles to Southern New Mexico...to visit and photograph these unique and photogenic spots. Armed with my trusty AAA Gazetteer, a generic road map, and a smartphone map app I set out to discover and record my findings.

Following the Civil War, men and women struck out into the southwest looking for land and wealth; rumors of gold and silver discoveries stoked the imaginations of people from the Midwest and the East. Thousands came to Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado in search of riches and mineral wealth; the land (owned by Mexico until 1848) yielded gold and silver in huge quantities and was the force behind the growth of towns like Contention, Arizona; Chloride, New Mexico; and Durango, Colorado. As fast as the towns grew, they collapsed and died. People moved away and left the many ghost towns that, today, dot the Southwestern mountains and desserts.

But I found an interesting wrinkle to many of these ghost towns. They are still populated with people who are friendly and willing to share the town's story and history of the land and the peoples. Restaurants, bed-and-breakfasts, businesses, museums, and bars hide in these out-of-the-way towns. There's also evidence (evidenced by new construction) that some folks are dropping out in style and enjoying the laid-back Southwestern life style. Below are some photographs of these towns. Please enjoy...

The Chihuahuan Desert is a desert and ecoregion designation covering parts of Mexico and the United States. It occupies much of West Texas and parts of southern New Mexico, and southeastern Arizona, as well as the central and northern portions of the Mexican Plateau. It is bordered on the west by the extensive Sierra Madre Occidental range, along with northern portions of the Sierra Madre Oriental range. On the Mexican side, it covers the northern half of the state of Chihuahua, along with the majority of Coahuila, north-eastern Durango, the extreme northern part of Zacatecas, and small western portions of Nuevo León. With an area of about 362,000 km² (139,769 sq mi), it is the third largest desert of the Western Hemisphere and the second largest in North America, after the Great Basin Desert. From: Wikipedia.

I took this picture southwest of Truth or Consequences ... or west northwest of Alamogordo. The land is beautiful and so very different from the area in which I live (Nebraska). The soil is sandy and the plants are designed to live with little water and hot, dry air and winds. Greasewood, sagebrush, cacti, and tumble weed abound and thrive. Deer, lizards, peccary, and tons of insects live here, too. This photograph was taken with my Canon 6D mounted on a tripod. I shot with a 24-70mm Sigma lens in monochrome with a red filter; raw format; and manual settings. The picture was edited with both Lightroom 6.5 and Zoner 18.

The two biggest land owners in New Mexico are the U.S. Government and Ted Turner (he has two ranches). So, much of the high plains and Chihuahuan Desert are used for either munitions tests (around Alamogordo and White Sands) or cattle grazing. Since there's so much land, it's cheaper to divide ranches with cattle guards rather than barb wire fences. The result? Range fed cattle wander free across the land with minimal fencing or restraints. Above is a contented heifer who is grazing land to the west of Truth or Consequences.

I just went to New Mexico last week to photograph ghost towns near Truth or Consequences and the Chaco Canyon ancient Indian dwellings. Since the weather at Chaco Canyon was very bad (forecast: 20 during the day with snow and high winds and 7 at night), I stayed south and visited Truth or Consequences, ghost towns to the west, White Sands,  and Alamogordo. On the way home, I took some interesting pictures of towns and villages in New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. All toll, I drove slightly more than 2200 miles, took about 500 photos, and spent about $700 on food, gas, and lodging. The building pictured here is the back of a storage facility in Elida, New Mexico located on state highway 70.

All across New Mexico I drove through rain storms, snow showers, and sleet and ice assaults. Being from Nebraska, none of this bothered me much but the shifting weather did give me a chance to stop and take some photos. The storm pictured here was along the Billy the Kid Trail (aka: hwy 70) in central New Mexico. The temperature varied between 29 and 40 depending on the altitude.

This little church is in Cuchillo, on highway 52 just to the northwest of Truth or Consequences. I took pictures of this building and the building (barely visible in the background) as I started by first "ghost town run" on a quiet winter Sunday. I brought two DSLR Canon camera bodies and one Canon point-and-shoot. The cameras are: Canon 6D and Canon Rebel T2i. I brought the following lenses: Canon 50mm; Sigma 24-70mm (my favorite); Sigma 150-500mm; Canon 10-22mm; and a Sigma 70-200mm. Most shots were with the 24-70mm and the 10-22mm wide angle. As you can see, I shot in both color and monochrome. Most pictures were edited with Lightroom6.5.

The Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) is holding its final meet of 2016 at Virginia Motors ports Park this weekend. Sure wish I was there since several of my photog buddies (Joe and Dave) are there now: Joe shooting live video feed for Door Slammers Plus and Dave with his trusty tripod. Well, I'll get my fix November 4-5 in Saint Louis at Gateway Motorsports Park when the American Drag Racing League (ADRL) makes it's comeback. That's another story and I won't bore you with the details. So, look for some new drag shots in a few days and HAPPY HALLOWEEN. It'll be a big day for me because I will be 70 this holiday ... gosh, where has the time gone? Bye for now.

Yesterday I was in Weeping Water, Nebraska; a town of 1000+ located in Cass County. This building, now the public library, was originally built in 1885 as a Congregationalist Church and educational academy. Construction was of native limestone quarried nearby. The stone was peppered with iron fragments that "weep" rust when wet. The academy was closed before our involvement in World War I (1914) because the quality of the public schools improved.

 Due east of Lincoln, in Cass County, lies the village of Murdock. Surrounding Murdock are tens of thousands of acres of corn and soy beans. The beans are used mainly in meal or processed into oil; the corn is used almost exclusively as animal feed. In Eastern Nebraska the growing year has been good and, therefore, there are above average crop totals...and depressed prices per bushel. Here you can see the corn being stored in huge piles next to the grain elevators. That corn eventually will be sold and trucked to other elevators and co-ops. The day I took this photo was sunny and cool. Perfect weather for harvest. Meta data: Canon 6D. Sigma 20-70mm lens. Shot in manual setting: f/11. 1/125. ISO 100. Edited with Lightroom 5.7.

This valley (west of Cody, Wyoming) shows evidence that it was shaped by a glacier or glaciers. The valley is "u" shaped which indicates that the walls and floor of the valley were scraped and pushed into this shape by a huge glacial river of ice and rock. As the glaciers pushed down the valley, their weight and motion carved this valley into the shape you see here. When the glacier retreated, it left a moraine of pulverized rock and soil. There have been five major ice ages in the history of the earth and this glacier could have been born in the current epoch: the Quaternary Ice Age. This latest ice age started about 2.5 million years ago and has lasted until now.

The pine forests of the Rocky Mountain ecosystem are vast and varied. Besides deciduous trees (Aspens, oaks, sycamores) the forests are made up of hundreds of millions of Ponderosa, Lodge Pole, Scotch, and Limber pines. These pines are threatened by two major natural phenomena: fire and insects (the Mountain Pine Beetle, the Ash Borer, and other types of borers and insects). But the forests survive and prosper. Pictured above is a pine forest in the midst of a regrowth cycle following a fire. If you look closely you can see the new pine trees covering the hillside with ruminants of the old forest poking above the small, newer trees. Some pines re-germinate only after their seeds are touched by fire! Some pine seeds are spread by wind, birds, or wild animals. And...some forests are planted by humans for harvest at a later date.

Central Wyoming at the end of September is a beautiful and stormy place. Spent the day driving through rain and sleet until I reached the Nebraska border. It had snowed the night before but evidence of the storm was gone when I arrived at this off ramp northwest of Cheyenne. The clouds were scuttering along the horizon and the cool wind rustled the grass and the bales of hay. I had left Lander, Wyoming at 8:00 am Mountain Standard Time and would drive until I got home to Lincoln. All toll, the day's drive totaled about 800 miles and ended at 12:30 am the next day. I drove, stopped and photographed, had several meals (in my car and in restaurants), gassed up, and took about three cat naps in rest stops along I-80. I love to drive. It does something for my soul. It calms and centers me...it's been that way since I was a kid. Long drives, drives late at night, impromptu drives ... the hum of the tires and the whoosh of the wind make my life better. That's all I can say on that. That's all.

   Mount Moran is  a 12,605' mountain located in the Teton mountain range. Named after Thomas Moran, a landscape artist, this mountain contains several glaciers. The front of this mountain is marked by a very visible basalt intrusion known as the Black Dike.

A jumble of camera equipment....

I'm happiest when I'm shooting.

When I started this photography trip to Wyoming, I had a vague idea of going to Jackson Hole to photograph the Grand Tetons. The rest was up in the air. I had no plans on where to go and what to shoot. So I reserved two hotel rooms: one in Cheyenne, Wyoming and one in Jackson Hole.

The picture to the left is of one of the four Little America Hotels owned by Robert Holding. This hotel is in Cheyenne and harks back to the 1960's in design and customer service. Holding, also owner of Sinclair Oil, died several years ago with an estimated worth of about $3 billion dollars. I might add that the hotel was a pleasure to visit and the restaurant was wonderful. Also nice...the hotel was immediately next to the I-80 on-ramp west to my destination.

At the top you can see a photo of  me and one of my cameras taken on the bank of the Snake River immediately east of the Teton Mountains--seen in the background. As I drove around each day, I would dive in and out of my truck to grab cameras, tripods, lenses and filters. At the end of each day my trunk would look like a disorganized jumble of expensive junk. Pictured above are the contents of my Honda Civic's trunk the end of one of my photo safaris. I'd pack everything up, drive back to the hotel and begin to organize and edit. 

OK, so I stop in Lander, Wyoming for the night at this place called the Maverick Motel. But the bill said it was the Frontier Motel...whatever. Attached to this motel is a small steak house. I'm tired so I decide to walk across the motel courtyard to the restaurant. The waitress is super nice and tells me that they have  a prime rib special for Friday night. "Right-o," I say. "I'll have that medium rare with french fries."  Then it arrives. Not one, but two plates of food! One for the steak and one for the fries and the corn. Don't forget the corn. Oh....and the au jus came in a small soup bowl. I finished about 25% of the meal and took the rest back to the room. Good lord. Haven't seen anything like this in all my life. They sure do eat in Wyoming.

To me, this is one of the iconic symbols of the western United States. The cattle guard. Where in Iowa and Nebraska, most livestock are fenced and most pastures are gated...livestock in Wyoming, Colorado and Montana (and other western states) are restrained by both barbed-wire fencing and cattle guards like this one. A simple grate that prevents cloven hoof animals from wandering off the rancher's range. Many interstate off-ramps end in a gravel road guarded by grates such as this one. Oh, and please do keep out. That's why I shoot lots of stuff with telephoto lenses. If you travel west, please honor the rancher's property lines...your respect to the land is appreciated.

The Grand Teton Range in West Central Wyoming, south of Yellowstone National Park. The Tetons lie to the north of Jackson, Wyoming. These mountains are quite stunning because of their composition and the fact that they have no foothills---they jut out of the earth in a very dramatic way. The reason for their appearance is that these peaks are pushed up by earthquakes that do two things: the mountains are thrust upward and the valley floor falls as a massive slab of stone and earth. The rock that composes the Tetons is extremely old (2-3 billion years!) and is mainly igneous: granite and gneiss. These lovely peaks are swaddled in millions of lodge pole pines and deciduous trees. Winding below these peaks is the Snake River. This photograph was taken early in the morning (about 7:30 am) with a Canon 6D and a Sigma 24-70mm lens set at 24mm. f/11; shutter set at 1/60. ISO on auto.