Windy Day in Godzone

click on picture to play movie!

(click here if you need the quicktime plug-in)

Over Christmas I had a great holiday in my home country of New Zealand. This is a view from my parent's house in Moeraki. They get some winds there you would not belive. This time laspe movie will give you an idea of how windy it gets. The 5 second movie was made from a camera taking a picture every minute for one hour.

Seeing Spots

This little critter was not moving so fast this morning after a cold night. What amazing colors and details in this fragile package. He didn't seem very lively, but that helped me with get his picture.

Radioactive

Most Oak Ridge locals probably would not take notice a big dirt truck driving by that had radioactive and PCB warning stickers on it. I'm still getting used to the idea that I work in the Secret City, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, birth place of the first atomic bomb. There are lots of big cleanup jobs going on some at some the old plants here. This must be one of them. I wonder where all the dirt goes? I'm not going to tailgate this truck.

A Dog's Life....

... in Victoria, Canada, is pretty good I reckon. This lucky canine has his own bicycle trailer and seemed be having a good time as his 'owner' peddled him around downtown Victoria. It's a great place to be if your a dog or a human.

The Butchart Gardens

I took these pictures at the Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island, Canada. Originally a limestone rock quarry, it was gradually transformed, with a lot of hard work, into the amazing botanical gardens that it is today. Click here for more images.

Alaska!

sym_tent, originally uploaded by phil_hall.

My good friend Sym and I spend six days exploring the Denali Backcountry in Alaska. It was perfect timing, no bugs, and the fall colors were at their peak (in August). Here is our tent, with a great view of the valley... and the grizzly bears roaming around looking for blueberries. (For more pictures, click on this one. Watch for more pictures soon, as I scan them.)

Rafting the Ocoee

The five of us floated the upper and middle Ocoee River. Doug and James from the Chota Canoe and Kayak Club guided us through the big whitewater rapids with names like Double Suck, Humongous, and Broken Nose. David was our personal photographer and safety boat. It was a wild ride to say the least. For more pictures, click here.

Look What the Cat Dragged In

My cat likes to hunt, and bring home her victims to show me. She's had a busy weekend. Both critters were still alive. The lizard, a five lined skink, was doing well when I released him. The baby field mouse (if you look carefully you can see the wound) is still under observation.

Stormy Days

Stormy Days, originally uploaded by phil_hall.

Last night we were hit with a nice prefrontal thunderstorm. Some hail and plenty of lightening. I was fortunate to get this picture from my patio.

The Magic Valley

The Magic Valley, originally uploaded by phil_hall.

A peaceful corner of the Smoky Mountain National Park. For more images click here.

A River Runs Through It

Here' what happens when you unleash an enthusiastic nature photography
class in the Smokey Mountains. Shown here on the left, amigos Ed and
Dave work on capturing 'bits' and 'bytes'. I used chemicals to capture
my images for the 3 day class.

Spring has 'Popped'

In the last few weeks, in Tennessee, nature has made an amazing
transformation. From monocrome tree trunks to vivid green forests. I
took this picture in the Smoky Mountains.

Speaking of Spring, I realized the other day that I had not experienced
a real Spring for about 10 years! Between traveling and living in
Florida (land of perpetural summer), I've missed this season! (I didn't
realize what I'd been missing).

Last Days of Winter

Last weekend, a friend and I went for a hike in the Smoky Mountains. We had planned an overnight trip, but reconsidered after hearing the harsh weather forecast. It was hard to believe a forecast of snow after several days of temperatures in the 70's here in Knoxville. Well, it was a winter wonderland up in he hills. I imagine this will be the last snow from many months. This picture really brought out the lack of color in the winter, it's almost like a black and white photo, except for the leaf. For more images, click on Title.

The Great Outdoors

There is nothing like a good hike and it's wonderful when the weather is cool and crisp like it was this day. We hiked for about 7 miles in the Smokies. This is a stitched panorama for about 5 pictures. For more pictures, click here.

Pure Fun!

Pure Fun!
Originally uploaded by phil_hall.

I went out this weekend to Haw Ridge. This wonderful park is a mountain biker's dream. Fast trails through wooded hills. Impossible, steep uphills, and insane, adrenaline pumping down hills. It feels great to be alive here. Once day when I was riding, I was just reminded, vividly, of when I was 11 or so. I was riding my bike on trails almost like this. It's just as much fun now as it was then! It's great to get muddy and feel like a kid again.

Bridal Veils

It's a wonderful time to enjoy the outdoors here in Tennessee. I captured hese waterfalls on a hike in Frozen Head state park. Using a slower shutter speed makes the falls look much more majestic.

Kill THAT Televison

What a great device. The TV-B-Gone was featured this week on wired.com. It will turn off almost any televison by going throught the codes that turn off most televisions. Now I know that there are other people that are bothered by loud televisions in public areas that no one is watching! I put in an order for one. It will be interesting to see how it works.

Friendly Fred

(Move your mouse over the image)
I almost walked right into this Marbled Orb Weaver Spider yesterday, while going for a hike. I turned around and he was right in front of my face! Fortunately he is harmless, but captivating. I have never seen a spider with colors this vivid. After a while he crawled right inside it's leaf home. You would never know he was there, except for the web.


The weather here in Tennessee has been just amazing the past several days. The trees are just beginning to change color. It's a great time to be in the outdoors.

Voyage to Antarctica

This is a photograph of a tabular iceberg drifting in the Neumayer Channel, located on the Antarctic Peninsula. These big chucks of ice have broken off from massive glaciers that meet the sea. The majority of the mass of this berg is below the water!

One of the more intersting places that I have visited is Antarctica. I worked on a NOAA reserach vessel for a couple of years in the Southern Ocean. I love photography and this was a wonderful place to shoot pictures. I took about 30 rolls of slides on my two trips to the south.

Darwin Dispute is Picking Up

A few years ago, I attended a men's lunch gathering at my church. Usually the speaker is a local Christian professional athlete. This time the speaker was talking about 'Intelligent Design'. This movement proposes that the incredible complexity and wonderful diversity found in natural organisms can not be explained by Darwin's Theory of Evolution alone. The more science shows us about the building blocks of life (such as DNA), the more it points to creation by some intelligence beyond ourselves.

The cover story for October issue of Wired is all about the controversy. It's available online now, although I have not read the entire article yet. I admit that I do not know much beyond my single high school biology class (and I received a D one quarter!), but have always struggled to believe that humans evolved from single-cell slim. I can fathom small changes within a species, but not the large jumps in evolution between the species of animals, and humans. What do you think?