Late last fall I took a small detour from one of my driving trips and made the loop through Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. It was cold, foggy and dreary. I didn't expect much pixel punching. To my surprise I saw a lot more than expected and had my CF card warm in no time. There was the nice immature red-tailed hawk that posed for me; the small buck that decided to wander along in front of me, a doe who thought she was hiding behind the tall grasses and several vultures who drooled over me (must have been the smell) until they realized I was still alive.

Chimney Rock - Nebraska

So I had driven close to 650 miles and had consummed massive quantities of coffee, the sun was settling into the its resting place on the western horizon and I was 20 to 30 minutes away from Chimney Rock, a marker used by the pioneers along the Oregon Trail. I drive like a mad man, legs crossed (did I mention the amount of coffee I had consummed?) and arrived just in time to watch the last glimmer of sun drop along the shoulder of Chimney Rock. Took a few shots and headed out to find a gas station to fill one tank and empty the other (amazing how this always seems to balance out!). Fortunately there was a station within a few miles of the "Rock".

Alliance, Nebraska

Alliance, Nebraska is one out of the way location. In spite of this, one of my customers is located there. Fortunately for me so is a most unusual roadside attraction, Carhenge! Wow! Here is one cool place, one that needs another trip by me for sure. Carhenge was built as a memorial site for the father of the building family, located on a portion of the land he farmed. It is basically a scale model of Stonehenge in England built from old cars all arranged and stacked to resemble the original both in layout and orientation. CRAZY is about the best explanation.

Kansas Wind Turbines

Last week was spent mostly in Nebraska calling on customers. Drove over 700 miles on Tuesday to get to Alliance, NE for an afternoon meeting. Along the way I was captivated by the predawn colors of the sky contrasted with the wind turbines churning away almost silently. I found an exit off I70 and drove about 2 miles along a gravel road to get a few images registered on pixels. At the base of one turbines resided a simple "old windmill". I was impressed by the contrast between the "old" and "new" both in stature and construction. I spent part of the 15 minute stop shooting from several angles and with lenses ranging from 11mm to almost 400mm.

Trips 2009/2010

I will be leading a trip to Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico, November 2090. Price and retails are not yet established. If you have never been to this exciting location you owe it to yourself to get there during the months of November thru February to witness the thousands of migratory birds visiting the area. I have been doing my photography there with a simple 100-400L IS lens although there are numerous photographers there with larger lenses. I find the 100-400 adequate for the images I am wanting to capture. If money were no object I would take along a 400/2.8 and 1.4X II and 2X extenders.

In 2010 Chuck Hamm and I will be leading a trip to Tanzania. This trip will be in June of 2010 during the "Dry Season" and will include several areas and parks of Tanzania not on your normal safari route.

For information, contact me at griggsjiml@me.com

See you in the field!