Helping us help you
Posted using ShareThis
Pure Michigan TV: Treasure
It is still here – vacation in Michigan, move to Michigan, bring a business to Michigan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu31ZhPbazs
LEED User Group Next Meeting
The next meeting of the LEED User Group meeting in Muskegon/Spring Lake is Tuesday, September 1st at 8:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. at Nichols. Discussion will be on Energy and Atmosphere.
Advanced Dumpter Diving: Colleges Get Smart on Salvage
The scavengers arrive on college campuses like clockwork, in search of books, DVD players, barely worn clothes, lamps, couches and anything else that departing students didn’t bother to take home. Every spring, several years’ worth of accumulated goods are chucked into huge trash receptacles or placed on curbsides by harried undergrads http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1903244,00.html?iid=tsmodule
Zion and Bryce Canyon
Wow – what a week. Saturday morning we took off before sunrise for the east side of Zion – major difference in the look and feel compared to the west side – because on the west side you are in the canyon, on the east side you are way up. We hiked up one of the trails just on the east side of the tunnel to see the most spectacular view looking out over the canyon. We ate breakfast at Oscar’s again – our new favorite place! Then we took off for Bryce Canyon. We stayed at the lodge in the park – very nice place, good food but certainly not much of a night life. However, we were out shooting pictures until sunset and usually in the evening we would take off for locations other than in Bryce. We shot Bryce at sunrise each morning. I’ll be adding more pictures to my Flickr gallery soon and write more. After leaving Bryce this morning I went back to Zion and spent the afternoon before driving to Las Vegas. I’m in Vegas tonight. Will add more soon.
Zion National Park – Day 2
Met at 7:00 a.m. to head to the Park this morning for sunrise. The sun doesn’t make it into the Canyon until later so we take advantage of the things we want to shoot in the shade. Took the shuttle into the Park and first stop was Wheeping Rock. We shoot in the morning to get hopefully good light and then back out in the evening.
The sky is very blue today. Temperature was cold but comfortable I thought. We spent some time at Wheeping Rock and then jumped on the shuttle again and went to Temple of Sinawava which is gateway to the narrows also. We hung around there and captured some photos of the river rapids with gold tones in the water – the sun was bouncing off of the rocks and giving the water goldtones. We then saw a Tom Turkcy and we had to be on top of our game in choosing our camera settings and I got some photos but none that I would brag about for that one. Pretty normal for us to shoot 100 photos in a session and only get a few good ones to share. I’m just glad it is digital – can you imagine how expensive film photography was with developing lots of photos to find out that only a few were good enough to show? That would hurt!
Anyway around 11 we headed back to town and grabbed breakfast/lunch at Oscar’s. If you are in the area – highly recommend Oscar’s right downtown Springdale off off of Zion Park Blvd. Not being a breakfast food person, I had lunch and it was awesome! A Po’ Boy Cajun Catfish Sandwhich with Chipolte Sauce – it was awesome!
We then browsed a few of the art galleries. Three Photography Galleries in town. David West (www.davidjwest.com) I really like his work so of course I purchased a few of his prints and having them shipped home.
Now I’m just catching up on uploading my photos from this morning. Check out my photostream on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/31253980@N04/
We are meeting back up at 5:00 p.m. for a short class, then back out at 6:00 p.m. for our evening shoot. I’m not sure where we are heading tonight. Tomorrow morning we are heading to the east side of the Canyon. Chuck says it will be very different over there – he has been photographing the park for 12 years I think he said. Check out some of his work (www.chuckhaney.com). He is having a workshop the first week in August that I’m probably going to do also “Harvest Time in the Palouse of Washington”. I think I could get into photographing farming in harvest time! A couple of years ago I got into photographing the wineries and fruit orchards in Door County Wisconsin – almost the same?
Until later……………………. Namaste
What an evening, what a day! Soooo much fresh air, I can barely keep my eyes open. Hiked a good ways twice today. I am so, so glad I purchased some decent hiking boots a year or so ago. A friend suggested I get properly fitted and sent me to Go Gear in Muskegon, I am so thankful. I did purchase some new socks today that are made from bamboo and woll – no blisters, seamless toe – they felt wonderful and with all the hiking we did today – I have no blisters and I feel wonderful!
Anyway this evening Chuck took us to where he was mountain biking this afternoon. This afternoon he came across some cactus that was in bloom and also knew it would be a great place to catch the best sunset light coming into the Canyon. We had a perfect view of Mount Kinesava and the sunset light was awesome! I am not downloading all my photos to see if I captured that beauty. He also convinced me into starting to shoot in Raw images – will be much better quality, especially should I decide to print and frame any.
Tomorrow morning we are meeting at 6:30 a.m. and going to the east side of the Canyon for sunrise. We will then head back to Springdale, check out of our hotel, grab breakfast at Oscar’s again (yes it was that good) and then head to Bryce Canyon about two hours away. We will be staying at the Bryce Canyon Lodge – I can’t wait to share that with you.
Here are some of my evening shots: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31253980@N04/
Zion National Park – Day 1
You can’t imagine the beauty – I don’t believe you can capture it in photos but I’m trying. I took the shuttle from downtown Springdale this morning into the Park. It was a bit chilly but not cold, it was bearable. In some of the photos I took today you can see the snow in the trees at the top. As I reached higher altitude it did snow too.
6:00 p.m. Just met up with my photography workshop group – we are heading out to the Canyon for sunset……………….. I’m expecting to share some really good photos with you later.
Long day but exciting. Went out tonight and shot a typical Zion scene. The light was good………….. after today supposed to be clear sky, sunny and getting warmer. Chuck has many non-typical tourist places to take us over the next four days – I can’t wait.
Check out what I did today.
Zion National Park – Arrival
I’m not one for planning vacations well in advance but this year I decided to thoroughly think out my vacation plans. A New Year’s Resolution was made and I booked all the details for this trip on January 1st. Good and bad to planning a vacation that far in advance I have found………… I thought it would never get here………….. so much anticipation! Well finally it is here.
I flew into Las Vegas yesterday. The flight was uneventful (which is a good thing), flying through Minneapolis, arriving on time with just a little turbulance. I think it took me longer to catch a shuttle bus to the fetch my luggage and catch a shuttle bus to the rental car facility – quite the process and lots of people renting cars – it was a consistent line of 25 passenger (with luggage) buses hauling people off to the rental car terminal about 7 minute away.
I’m also not one for mapping my way to places either so I wasn’t sure which direction I needed to go in so I was thankful when the rental place guy told me I had a GPS in the vehicle. It was pretty easy to figure out even though I had never used one. North – just wanted to head north on I15. We thought we had road construction in Michigan – well it seemed like miles trying to get through Las Vegas. Finally open dessert with a back drop of the mountains appeared.
I knew it was about 2.5 hours to get to Springdale, my final destination for the day. I remembered from looking at mapquest that St. George was near where I wanted to be and that seemed to be the next significant area that mileage signs seemed you want to direct you. Hah – I thought the GPS was easy to figure out – I plugged in St. George but must have plugged in a street location in St. George because it took me down old US91 which was a beautiful, senic, backroad way to get to St. George. It winded back through the mountains and eventually brought me through Santa Clara then into St. George. I decided to pull over and recalculate my trip using the GPS and guess what – it took me right back onto I15 north to get to Springdale! Oh well, I was not on a time schedule and it was a beautiful drive through the moutains.
I eventually arrived in Springdale and checked into the Bumbleberry Motel – my destination for 3 nights. Springdale is the gateway to Zion National Park. I will share pictures of my journey that will take place over the next 5 days!
Here is a link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31253980@N04/sets/
Oh and I forgot to mention it is 48 degrees and snow in the mountains! I thought I was coming to the desert?
The Ethical Man – Part 3
The big question after watching this part 3 is will Mayor Warmington really sign the Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement – stay tuned to find out for sure! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8001951.stm
