Around the World in Eighty Years

I walked the hill to the fort above the Goa Resort and the Russians didn’t like it. “It is too hot.  Get on.”  Scooter after scooter passed me, stopped, waited for me to reach them then offered me a ride.  It was very kind but, “I’d really like to walk.” “You will die.” “I won’t [...]

Around the World in Eighty Years

Around the World in Eighty Years

I give to you pictures of mushrooms !!   These mushrooms pictures are from Columbine Canyon on the north side of the Columbine Hondo Wilderness Study Area in Taos County, New Mexico. Mushroom identification has never been my thing so if anyone can put a species name on any of these, please drop your comment [...]

Around the World in Eighty Years

Around the World in Eighty Years

This street-side beauty was one among a group of spring roses in Taos, New Mexico near the Taos Inn yesterday evening.  It was so lovely I took 20-30 different shots of it, up close and far away. It was just perfectly formed and rather hard to walk away from. ##

Around the World in Eighty Years

Around the World in Eighty Years

At 19,661 acres, this isn’t one of the largest Wilderness Areas in New Mexico but what it lacks in size it makes up for in stunning beauty. The Wheeler Peak Wilderness marks the top of the rugged Permian-Pennsylvanian Sangre de Cristo Mountain range and, at 13,161 feet, hosts the highest point in New Mexico. From [...]

Around the World in Eighty Years

Around the World in Eighty Years

Cuba is a gorgeous island in the northern Caribbean Sea where the Gulf of Mexico meets the Atlantic Ocean. If you’ve booked holidays to Cuba and are flying into José Martí International Airport outside Havana, one of the most important things to pack is your camera, and one of the best ways to get to [...]

Around the World in Eighty Years

Around the World in Eighty Years

All three of these supermoon 2012 shots were taken in Kit Carson Park. Taos, New Mexico. May 5, 2012. ## By Jim O’Donnell

Around the World in Eighty Years

Around the World in Eighty Years

From the ancient stone villages and fortified chateaux of the Knights Templar dotting the foothills that turn to the great wine plains of the Gare, Garrone and to Aquitaine it looks like a lonely outpost of bristling towers and domes on an iced-over alien planet.  It appears impossible to reach. Its residents look to the [...]

Around the World in Eighty Years

Around the World in Eighty Years

Moonrise over Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Taos, New Mexico. Thursday, May 3, 2012. ISO 100, f/18, 1/20s with a Nikkor 55-300mm lens. On Nov. 18, 1801 in Durango, Bishop Olivares granted permission to the community of Taos to build a church. The adobe structure was completed in 1802. In 1833 Bishop Zubiria, of [...]

Around the World in Eighty Years

Around the World in Eighty Years

Visiting Italy usually brings to mind Rome and Florence, pasta and cappuccinos, cobbled streets, frescos, museums and plenty of crowds. However, you can visit Italy and enjoy an entirely different kind of holiday that’s packed with hiking, yachting, lounging on unspoilt beaches and exploring enchanting towns that surround breath-taking lakes. Lake Garda is a good choice [...]

Around the World in Eighty Years

Around the World in Eighty Years

    An American Coot (Fulica americana) in central New Mexico. The coot is not a duck, because it lacks webbed feet.  Instead, it gets around with some rather large toes.  The coot is also known as a mud hen.  Typically, you’ll find them in very large flocks.  This guy was all alone. american coot [...]

Around the World in Eighty Years

Around the World in Eighty Years

  White Headed Buffalo Weaver   I really loved this shot but could not squeeze it in before I left for Europe in March.  So, here it is. A passerine native to East Africa,  the ‘buffalo’ part of its name comes from its habit of trailing the African Buffalo and feeding on disturbed insects in the soil behind [...]

Around the World in Eighty Years

Around the World in Eighty Years

Happy Friday everyone! It is cold and dark in Taos this morning. It rained in the night and might be snowing even now up on the mountain.  Flowers in spring is one of the best things in life.  Yellow spring flowers – especially one with red stripes (!) are some of the best flowers of [...]

Around the World in Eighty Years

Around the World in Eighty Years

Today delivered a fine surprise.  On a calm, clear morning just after the crack of dawn, I was unexpectedly dumped into a large hot air balloon basket and flown 1700 feet over the Taos Plateau in northern New Mexico, down into the Rio Grande Gorge and back up and over the Mesa. It was a very cool [...]

Around the World in Eighty Years

Around the World in Eighty Years

I was hunting a sunset shot as a small storm rolled over the Sangre de Cristos and colored the sky pink. Then I saw the cat on his own hunt among a group of sleepy horses. I’m not sure if cats can take down horses but the black cat here sure thought he could. ## [...]

Around the World in Eighty Years

Around the World in Eighty Years

I told you this week would be full of spring flowers.  The weekend in Taos was fabulously perfect weather-wise. Here, a tulip, one among a group of tulips, waits patiently for the morning sunshine to reach over the fence. ##

Around the World in Eighty Years

Around the World in Eighty Years

I’m finally back and nearly home. I’ll have more from France and Finland in the coming weeks. It is spring time in Colorado. Fabulous. I shot this hungry guy this morning on my father’s lilac bushes in Pueblo, Colorado.  He/she is a Vanessa cardui, a very common butterfly, known as the Painted Lady in Europe, or the Cosmopolitan [...]

Around the World in Eighty Years

Around the World in Eighty Years

Here is the last shot from my five weeks in Finland and France.  From here on out I will get back to my goal of posting the photo on the day I took it. I spent most of my final day (was that really just the day before yesterday?) on the train from Helsinki to [...]

Around the World in Eighty Years

Around the World in Eighty Years

On Easter weekend, my friend John Mata (who introduced us to GIMP) and his family attended the annual Eggstravaganza festival at Santee Lakes, Santee, California.  He says: “The weather was prime. We were with good friends. We had a great time. In this busy photo I converted the entire image to black and white, with [...]

Around the World in Eighty Years

Around the World in Eighty Years

Ok. This wasn’t today. It was last week. But I loved this place. It was stunning and I wanted to share this photo. The Gavarnie Cirque is a glacier carved amphitheater-shaped valley located in the central Pyrenees.  This is a massive chunk of rock. The cirque is a stunning 800 meters wide at the bottom and 3000 [...]

Around the World in Eighty Years

Around the World in Eighty Years

The tourist shops at the base of Gavarnie are just opening for spring. The old lady was wrapped in a coat and sat in the sun. “Take what you want,” she said. She waved her hand without looking at me or removing her sunglasses. She had anything one could wish for candy-wise. The gummies were [...]

Around the World in Eighty Years