Air Force Skies

We went to an Air Force Academy football game on Saturday and I captured this image for Skywatch Friday during the flyover. If you look carefully you can see the flames coming out of the engines!

I've got more photos from the game that I'll post another time.

Dead Tree in Vancouver

This week's PicStory theme is wood. While exploring Stanley Park in Vancouver one afternoon, I found this dead tree, held up from within by a metal framework, and I thought it would be a good wooden example.

To replace My World Tuesday, which was retired after its founder Klaus Peter passed away, Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, and Sandy have started Our World Tuesday. I intend to be a regular participant here and this is my first post for it.

The Hague Parliament Buildings

For this month's Sunday Scans meme, here are a couple of old photos from when I was growing up in Holland. These were labeled as being the Parliament Buildings in The Hague.

Visit Sunday Scans on the first Sunday of each month and link up with other scanners!

Bellevue Botanic Garden Trees

For Scenic Sunday, here's my last post from the Bellevue Botanic Garden, of some trees. Since I was limiting myself to my 50-mm lens for this whole garden (approximately 75mm equivalent in 35mm film terms) I found it quite a challenge to get some worthwhile upwards-looking tree photos. Nevertheless, I liked the deciduous and evergreen combination in this first shot, despite the dull grey (soon to rain) sky.

And I liked the shape of the primary tree in this second shot.

And that's all from the Bellevue Botanic Garden. But there will be more scenic photos next week! Maybe something closer to where I live. And thanks to Clytie for pointing out the giant heart in the first shot, and linking it to Guest Heart Thursday!

More Cloud & Ground Lightning

In one of our many summer thunderstorms, I got several photos which included close cloud-to-cloud lightning and more distant cloud-to-ground lightning. I posted one of these a few weeks ago, and here's another. (In fact, this one includes two ground strikes, but one of them is rather faint.)

And from a more recent storm where I got several nice shots, here's some lightning flaring across the sky.

It's been a good summer for lightning photos - if you like them stay tuned because I've got lots more. And for more sky-themed photos, visit the awesome Skywatch Friday meme.

Dog Wash

This week's PicStory theme is animals. And from my perspective what better photo this theme than a photo of my favorite animal, Socks? Here's a photo of him after a shower. This is a rare photo not taken by me, this was taken by my son while I was drying him. (That's me in the background holding him.)

He doesn't like showers, but he loves the blow-dryer. And he knows he gets his favorite treat when it's all done!

Red Rock Canyon Quarry

For this week's Scenic Sunday post, I'm taking a break from Bellevue and going back to October of last year for some shots of the Red Rock Canyon quarry, taken right around sunrise during an early-morning hike. I started before the sun was up to try to capture that great early morning light.

This is a great off-season hike because it's lower in elevation, so it's generally free of snow, and in town, so it's close.