Blog Update - Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is always a great day for me and a busy one here at the Park also a day to reflect on the many, many great Thanksgiving Days of past with my family and the joys of remembering those days is one of the things I am most Thankful for.

Now I am Thankful for my health, my family, my friends and followers, my RV and Park friends, my wonderful Yes Bay Friends, my cameras and the ability to share my camera views with my friends while I travel and play.

I have much to be Thankful for!

Enjoying life is so much more important than material things! My little home gives me everything I need and my friends make it all worthwhile.

Still playing with Star Trails! This is my first test of the rocky landscape in Joshua Tree. I plan on many more this winter!



Now on to my busy Thanksgiving Day!

Same as last year, I volunteered to bring my famous sausage dressing which is a little time consuming to prepare. I saute onions, celery, fresh mushrooms in butter then brown the sausage - this gets added to two bags of Pepperidge Farm stuffing - one bag of cornbread and one bag of seasoned. Then it all gets mixed together in the sink - since I really don't have a pan big enough to mix well. Add some seasoning then place in my large crock pot bowl and bake in the oven for about 1.25 hours at 350!



I wanted to add a little bit of Alaska this Thanksgiving so I dug out a full filet of Smoked Silver Salmon and prepared to make some smoked salmon deviled eggs. Add that to a nice tray with the remaining part of the filet of smoked salmon. Thanks Nicky Martinez - Hack the chef at the Lodge for the recipe.

A dozen eggs cut and peeled and washed!



A concoction of salmon, egg yellow, mustard, relish, mayo and a few secret ingredients and it was complete!



Throwaway serving tray with a bed of lettuce and it was ready for the group!



The dressing ready for the oven!



Dishes finished and ready for some Turkey!



At about noon I walked up to the clubhouse to deliver the salmon tray and put in the large fridge in the kitchen. I was also planning to watch and record the last turkey coming out of the fryer!

Damn that Looks Good!



Cleaned up and back for our dinner - we had a great turn-out!



The food line seemed endless with all the trimmings!



Plenty of Turkey - there were 4 - two deep fried and two oven roasted!



I hope all my friends and followers had just as much fun and companionship as I had!

Stay Tuned for more adventures from my little home to yours! My calendars have been printed and shipped and I should have them this coming week to send out to those who have purchased! You can still place your orders!

You can see it here!

Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest and Alaska!

Blog Update - Star Trails and new Calendar

I finally was able to spend some time and process a series of photos I took earlier this summer - you may recall the "Big Dipper" picture well when I was shooting that I shot a ton of images and learned the technique to merge all those many shots to create the star trails I was searching to do.

In the meantime to further enhance my equipment list and give me the ability to do more star trails without having to stand there and take 90 pictures one at a time - I bought a "Intervalometer" which is a sophisticated timer for the camera...it can be programmed to take multiple shots, with several options - delay before 1st shot - delay between shots - length of exposure and finally the number of shots to take. It was like programming the clock on a friggin VCR - since it is made in China and the instructions were written by a non-english speaking person and translated...but last night I went out to shoot the sunset and learn to use the timer. It is radio controlled so I can set the camera up on a tripod and then go back to the truck and relax in the warmth and press the button and it will shoot the series of shots that are programmed into the timer...pretty slick. Well it works and once I figured out the programming it is a piece of cake!

I am pleased with the results. Here are some pics!

First the revised shot I took this past summer at Noxon Reservoir!



Shot from Last night!



The sunset last night!



As my Facebook friends already know I have created a calendar for 2015 and it is available for sale - you can purchase it HERE! The specs for the calendar for my printer friends are as follows - It will be a flat size of 8 1/2 X 11 and a hanging size of 11 inches wide by 17 inches tall - printed on 80# gloss cover and plasticoil bound and pre-drilled to hang. The pictures will be above the months - I am not going to show all the month pages here just the image pages!

Here are the page images from the calendar!









All the months are included but I am only going to show the image pages....

























I would like to sell about 35 of these and so far about 20 are sold, so if you want one hit the link above and you can purchase through PayPal... or HERE! Stay Tuned!

Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest and Alaska!

Greatest Hits - Prepping for Barberton Art Gallery Display!

Spent all day yesterday gathering photos for the Art Display at Nine Muses Art Gallery in April. It is a ton of work going back to locate photos - getting the latest rendition and then making sure it is perfect and then sizing it for a good display size...so I was on the computer all day and into the evening.

I am really looking forward to having my images on display and want them to be some of my best and most interesting, while typing this, I just realized I am missing a couple...so will continue the hunt today. So far the ones selected are either just nice sharp images, or are unique in how they were captured or have special meaning to me!

Anyway - I will be exhibiting about 25-30 prints - all framed or ready to hang, I am going to feature smaller prints, mainly due to cost...but quite a few will be frame-less, either on metal or acrylic, both render the image fantastic and are easy to hang....

Here is what I have so far - this will be picture intense, so sit back and enjoy!

Taken in Europe!


Antelope taken at the Bison Range in Montana!


Snowy Egret taken in Florida!


Maple seeds taken in Florida!


I will have to see which one shows the type the best - so two versions! Chollo carcass in Joshua Tree NP California.





Near Moab, Utah.


Near Moab, Utah.


Brown Pelican taken in Florida!


Red Fox taken in Arizona!


Needles district of Canyonlands in Utah.


Red Barn near Kalispell, Montana!


Antelope Slot Canyon - Page, Arizona.


Thistle - Zion National Park, Utah.


Glacier National Park, Montana.


Goat Lick - Glacier National Park, Montana.


Scrub Jay - Bison Range, Montana.


Echo Lake near Kalispell, Montana.


Denali National Park - Alaska.


Coastal Brown Bear near Haines, Alaska.


Deer in Canola Field near Kalispell, Montana.


Flower - Alaska


Barbed Wire Near Kalispell, Montana.


America - Near Kalispell, Montana.


Yes Bay, Alaska.


Elk - Jasper Alberta Canada.


Mountain Goat - Jasper Alberta Canada.


Big Horn Sheep - Jasper Alberta Canada.


Noxon Reservoir - Montana.


Last Plane - Yes Bay Alaska.


Yes Bay, Alaska.


Stream - Near Choteau, Montana


Fall Leaves near Dillon, Montana.


The next few will be feature prints and will be larger sizes at the show! (Either because they are panoramas or just damn beautiful pictures!)

Mountains on Fire looking East towards the Wasatch Mountains in Salt Lake City, Utah.


The view from Yes Bay Lodge in Yes Bay, Alaska.


Tampa, Florida.


And of course! Great Egret taken in Florida.



So my friends start making your selections now, they will all be available for Sale the month of April and May at 9 Muses Art Gallery in Barberton - Make sure you are there on Friday April 24th for the grand opening and I will be happy to tell the stories behind each photo a couple are pretty interesting!

Bring your checkbooks!!!

Or if you would like to purchase your own now they are in my SmugMug For Sale Gallery HERE And will be in my Fine Art America Gallery later today!

More details and a few more photos as we get closer!

Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest and Alaska!