Big Boy No, 4014 visits Tama Iowa, June 1, 2026.
Big Boy No. 4014 is the biggest operating steam locomotive in the world. It is on a cross country tour from Wyoming to the east coast and then back across the country to Colorado and back to Wyoming. It is massive at 133 feet long and weighs 1.2 million pounds. That is 44 1/3 yards, nearly half a football field in length.
Google Earth Pro. The yellow line measures the distance from me in my car to the tree with the eagle’s nest.
Why would a photographer take a picture of a barely visible eagle that is 284 yards away? Because it is there!
Cemetery, The Presidio, San Francisco, California. Photo © Jim Doty, Jr.
Memorial Day began unofficially in a variety of places as people felt the need to recognize those who gave their lives in the Civil War. Memorial Day was officially declared on May 5, 1868, when General John Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic ordered a day of observance when all Union and Confederate Graves at Arlington National Cemetery would be decorated with flowers on May 30, 1868. One state after another adopted May 30 as a Memorial Day observance until all of the Northern states had adopted May 30 by 1890. Many Southern states had picked different days to honor the Confederate dead.
U.S. Flags at Sunset, Rose Hill Cemetery, Lamoni, Iowa
From Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865.
Richard Duane Klug (the name just above the rose) was born January 26, 1946. He died in Darlac Province, Vietnam, November 14, 1967 at the age of 21. He is one of over 58,000 American soldiers that died in Vietnam, and one of over 1.1 million American soldiers that have died in all American wars (almost half of them in the Civil War).
Plustek Film Scanner, Epson Flatbed Scanner
If you have precious slides, negatives, or prints that you want to scan, you have come to the right place. Choose wisely from the scanners that are available or you could get burned. A scanner that might be just fine for one person will be totally unsuitable for the next person. When it comes to scanners you need to know what you are getting and, just as importantly, what you aren’t getting. That is what this article is all about.
Update: This is a minor update of an article I wrote 4 years ago. Two things have changed since then. The BBB changed the rating for Spade and Company from “D+” down to an “F”. And there are now 151 reviews from mostly unhappy customers.
If it sounds too good to be true . . . .
Don’t get scammed by fake review articles posted online by the company that sells the lousy product. This is just the latest example of a cheaply made Chinese product touted as a high tech wonder. The watch does not work as advertised.
Wildlife Guidebooks
The first step to photographing wildlife is finding wildlife and one of the best ways to find wildlife is to look at wildlife location books. They will save you hours of frustration by sending you to the best locations to find wildlife.
Some of my favorite photo location guides.
“If you want to be a better photographer stand in front of more interesting stuff!” – Jim Richardson, National Geographic photographer.
A good scenic location guide can save you hours of precious time searching for the best spots at a new location. The best scenic locations guides are written by and for photographers. Photographers are much more in tune with what other photographers want to photograph. And for each location, photographers will tell you the best season of the year and the best time of day to get the best images. Some will give you additional photography advice for each location.
Patrick Demarchelier was also one of Princess Diana’s favorite photographers. This image was created in London in 1990.
Demarchelier was one of Cindy Crawford’s favorite photographers. She posted two photos they created together as a tribute to him after his passing. This is one of them.
The Devil Wears Prada was on TV last night. In the movie, Amanda (played by Meryl Streep) is the particular and tough as nails editor of RUNWAY magazine. She tells Andy (Anne Hathaway) her clueless new 2nd assistant to “Get Demarchelier”. Andy has no idea who that is. A few seconds later, Emily (Emily Blunt), the very with-it 1st assistant, holds up the phone and says “I’ve got Patrick”. I am a huge fan of Demarchelier’s work. He is one of the best of the best. This video is about Demarchelier.
Contact Sheet. Catherine Ursillo by Al Gruen.
Contact Sheet by Al Gruen is an interesting and worthwhile book. It is about picking your best photos from a contact sheet. (And it also works for picking your best digital images.) In the darkroom you can lay all of your negatives from one roll of film on top of a sheet of photographic paper. You expose the paper and develop it and you have miniature photos of all your negatives on one piece of paper. It is called a contact sheet. An example is the image above. You can look at the little photos with a photographer’s loupe (a kind of magnifying glass) and pick your best images to make enlargements.
Headed for Colorado this fall (or any other time of year)? Welcome to my complete Colorado fall color photography and travel guide with 133 photos, 18 maps, and over 100 pages of information (if you print it all out). I cover some of the best known fall color locations in Colorado, and most of these locations look great any other time of year. Spend anywhere from two days to two weeks exploring the beautiful Colorado Rockies at a gorgeous time of year.
Adobe Bridge
While using Adobe Bridge to do a quick search in my “most important photos” folder for some photos, a curiosity question came to mind. Modern digital cameras save a lot of information in each photo’s metadata. Today that is a lot of stuff, but years ago they only saved the date and time of the photo. I wondered which of my photos was the first to have the exposure information recorded in the metadata. So I went back to 2003 (the year I bought my first two digital cameras), and went looking.
There is no Planet B. Protect the one we have!
John Muir
Today is John Muir’s birthday! He was born April 21, 1838. He had a profound influence on how Americans viewed our wild lands and his influence led to the establishment of many of our National Parks and other protected lands. He was nicknamed “The Father of our National Parks”.
Here are photos from some of my favorite national and state parks along with quotes from John Muir.
Lamoni Middle School track meet at Graceland University.
Dance Recital, Living Art Studios
At 7:00 pm Saturday evening, April 4, the parking lot was already filling up with cars for the 7:30 pm dance recital. People were arriving early to get a good seat.
Pelicans on Lake LaShane this morning. April 9, 2026.
Last night I was photographing these pelicans under cloudy skies. The images just didn’t “pop”. This morning I had a 30 minute window with sunlight on the pelicans before the clouds again moved in. This is the full uncropped image, resized for the web.
Solar Eclipse sequence.
The second Great American Eclipse was 2 years ago today. The first was August 21, 2017. I traveled to the path of totality for the 2017 eclipse but for this one I stayed home to share it with my children and grandchildren.
Northern Arizona
We were flying east our of California and I was watching the landscape go by. I spotted this interesting bend in the channel carved by the Colorado River in Arizona.
California Poppies, April 3, 2001.
I was in Fremont California when I spotted these poppies growing in a school yard. I got out of my car, walked to the poppies, and lay down on the ground to put the sun partially behind one of the flowers blossoms. I used a small lens aperture like f/16 to turn the sun into a sun star.
California Golden Poppies
California is famous for California Golden Poppies in the spring. I was at the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge when I photographed these poppies on April 1, 2017. This particular wildlife refuge is a favorite of mine and I try to spend some time there any time I am in the Bay Area.
Bluebonnets and Paintbrush, Texas.
One of the best places to photograph wildflowers in late March and early April is central Texas and the Texas Hill country. It was March 31, 2001 when I photographed these wildflowers in central Texas. Driving along I-35 there were vast expanses of wildflowers as far as the eye could see.
No Kings Rally, Lamoni Iowa
Saturday, March 28, 2026 there was a “No Kings” rally in Lamoni Iowa, population 2,200. I was out taking pictures for the local newspaper.
The Vietnam Women’s Memorial, Washington D.C.
March 29, 2026 is National Vietnam War Veterans Day. I am posting these images in honor of those who served.
Moon Over Balanced Rock, Arches National Park, Utah.
Are you planning a spring photography trip to one or more U.S. national parks? Where should you go? Which parks will provide the best photographic opportunities? Which parks are at their best in the spring?
Ice Goblets at Lake LaShane. February 20, 2026.
Back in February our dog Rowdy and I came home from a trip to our favorite lake. My wife asked me about the messy stain on my pants. I told her I found an interesting ice formation at Lake LaShane and the only angle I could use to capture the image was to lay down in some wet, messy glop at the very edge of the lake shore with my camera close to the water.