Sat - June 28, 2008

Oceanic Whitetip Sharks

Photo: Ron in the water with longimanus by Neil Hammerschlag

Next stop direct from Bonaire was a 10 day trip with Berkley et. al. aboard Jim Abernethy's Shearwater out of West Palm Beach, Florida. We traveled more than 300 miles South into Bahamian waters in search of Oceanic Whitetips (Carcharhinus longimanus). Once believed to be the most prolific shark in the ocean their numbers now, by some estimates, have diminished by 90% as it's large pectoral and dorsal fins are highly valued as the chief ingredient of shark fin soup. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceanic_whitetip_shark
Please also visit: http://www.seashepherd.org/longline/longline_shark_finning.html

Posted at 05:33 PM    

Fri - June 27, 2008

Digital Shootout : Bonaire

The 2008 Digital Photo Shootout was held this year in Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles (the next island over from Curacao) Our hosts were Wetpixel's Eric Cheng, Berkley White of Backscatter, renowned underwater photographer David Fleetham and Under Exposure's Dan Baldocchi.
This image of four large Tarpon was taken under Salt Pier. For more info on the event you can go to www.wetpixel.com or try this link: http://wetpixel.com/i.php/full/digital-shootout-bonaire-2008-live-coverage/

Posted at 05:13 PM    

Thu - June 26, 2008

Freewinds : Curacao Drydock

Augmenting our portfolio of installations we now include "Cruise"-ships. The Freewinds is the flagship of the Church of Scientology and is based in the Netherlands Antilles "ABC Islands" (Aruba, Bonaire & Curacao)
Our mission was to install a Euphonix CS2000 console, ProTools HD system and ancillary gear in a dedicated mixing room. The system is used, in conjunction with an adjacent AVID editing room and master switching room, to record and post-produce events from the Starlight Cabaret theater one deck up. Digital audio signals from a Digico D5 front-of-house console are shipped via fiber optic cable directly to the ProTools system for recording. Monitoring and final mixing is done through the Euphonix.
The mix room is just inside the port (that's left for you landlubbers) hatch off the poop deck (the first deck you see in the photo)

Posted at 04:03 PM    

Tue - December 4, 2007

Macho Machu

This year's major trip was to Peru. First stop, three days in the Amazon jungle, then to Urubamba and the Sacred Valley of the Incas. A short train ride and then a 7 hour hike along the last portion of the Inca Trail led to the Sun Gate overlooking the Machu Picchu ruins - so much more impressive than taking the bus up the mountain. The next day my guide and I hiked to the top of Wayña Picchu (the tall peak in the background). The view from the top was even more spectacular than the view from the Sun Gate, and the Pisco Sours tasted even better once we were back at the bottom! Hoo-raahh...

Posted at 08:56 PM    

Sat - August 11, 2007

Roger Wehrli: Pro Football Hall of Fame

Roger Wehrli is my cuz (married to my mom's sister's daughter, Gayle) This summer Jackson and I travelled to Chicago and Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and joined up with the rest of our family for the Enshrinement Ceremonies in Canton, Ohio. Here, Roger autographs a football for Jackson. Oh, btw, here are a few of his stats that put him into the HOF…
First round draft pick in 1969, 14 seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals at cornerback, 7 time Pro Bowl, 40 career interceptions including 3 picks of Dallas' Roger Staubach in one game and recovered 19 fumbles - a franchise record which still stands today. Go Big Red!

Posted at 09:42 PM    

Mon - May 7, 2007

18,000 Naked Mexicans (and one white guy)

Spencer Tunick is a world renowned artist who has photographed hundreds, and thousands, of nude people in public places. During a recent trip to Mexico City I discovered that he was doing a shoot at the Zocalo in D.F. After much consternation I decided to participate, even though it meant leaving the warmth and comfort of my room at the W Hotel at 4am. By 7am Mr. Tunick had us undressed and was snapping away. This photo is not his, but a Reuters photo which I found online.

Posted at 09:11 PM    

Sat - March 31, 2007

PC Winter

The day Jackson and I arrived in Park City, Utah, for a couple of days of skiing & snowboarding, it looked as though we were going to be doing more rock hopping than shredding. To our surprise and enjoyment, that night we got a nice 6" dump, keeping us from shredding our boards on the barren trails. Nice!

Posted at 12:37 AM    

Sun - March 25, 2007

Mom it's my birthday…

We drove to Las Vegas on my 51st birthday to see Dave Matthews & Co. perform at the MGM Grand. The next day we flew to Salt Lake City to meet up with Sara, Andy and their kids for a few days of mountain high. "Mom it's my Birthday - What would you say?"

Posted at 12:47 AM    

Sun - January 7, 2007

Bali Hi

Hi from Bali. OK, so a year ago, I sent you a picture of the Komodo Dragons we hung out with on our trip to Indonesia. We took two more trips this year, one in August and one again in November. Other than the underwater images that proliferate our various other websites, this picture stands out in my mind as one of the highlights of our travels.

Posted at 09:45 PM    

Sun - January 8, 2006

Dragon The Line

A slightly belated post relating to our most recent trip to Indonesia. Somewhere between the monkey forest in Ubud on the island of Bali and our destination of Komodo Island we encountered a beach full of these Jurassic holdovers. The diving was pretty awesome too!

Posted at 10:29 PM    

Sun - January 1, 2006

Sweet New Year

This is the first entry for 2006. A new blog category named Travel bLog has been created to document various destinations along the way. This week I present the Tenth Anniversary of Sweet Creek Ranch in Victor, Idaho. Twenty-four friends and family members converged to celebrate the New Year in the glorious confines of the Singin' Timmy. Jackson, after being enlisted to feed the horses, cows and other animals, and to help build the annual ice bar, shown here, was rewarded by stoking his pyromaniac tendencies with assisting in the launching of the grand fireworks display.

Posted at 10:01 PM    

Sun - November 13, 2005

Dia de los Muertos

Paul Roesch and I went to Mexico City for the annual celebration of Dias de los Muertos, or Days of the Dead. The traditional dates are November 1st & 2nd, just after our Halloween. On the first day, they celebrate the lives of the elders who have passed away and on the second day, the children. There were thousands of people crowded into the Zocalo, which is bordered by the Cathedral to the North and the National Palace to the East.

Posted at 03:01 AM    

Sun - July 17, 2005

Harbor Seal

This playful harbor seal joined us for our dive at Bird Rock in the Channel Islands. After darting around it finally decided to pose for the camera. No doubt it thought it had made a friend in the reflection of the camera's dome port…

Posted at 03:25 AM    

Fri - September 24, 2004

PNG Tufi Girl

The next stop after the 12 day dive trip on the Chertan was to Tufi in Papua New Guinea where we were greeted upon landing the twin prop on a grass landing strip to traditional dancing by the local tribe. This girl was dressed in the full regalia to presumably be the bride of some lucky warrior.

Posted at 02:27 AM    

Thu - September 23, 2004

PNG Mandarin Fish

This is a photo of a Mandarin fish taken in Papua New Guinea, Sept. 2004. At just 2 -3" long, these very elusive creatures hide in the coral and rocks until just about sunset and then come out for around 45 minutes to feed and mate. This one performed a very unusual feat of swimming up above the reef 5 to 6 feet and stayed in the water column for about 3 minutes before settling back into the coral.

Posted at 01:30 AM