Joshua Tree National Park

Winter at Joshua Tree. Beautiful, stark, and cold (down to 20 F at night). For more images, click on the title.

Exceptional Dude

My very good friend Mr. Aaron Dude was married in Tampa last weekend. It was such a blessing to be part of this celebration of Aaron and Sherry joining their lives together. For more pictures (by a professional) click here to go to Mr. Billy's blog.

River Through Middle Earth

This is Middle Prong River located in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Being very lush and green, it reminds me of Middle Earth and I half expected to see Gollum jump out from behind a rock.

Saddleback Caterpillar

I found this critter crawing around a building here in Oak Ridge. It turns out to be a saddleback caterpillar, which can leave a nasty sting. From the USGS site:

Another unique slug caterpillar. Charcoal black or brown, with unmistakable lime green abdominal saddle. Saddle with central brown patch ringed with white. Dorsum of first and eighth abdominal segments with fingerlike lobes bearing numerous stinging spines. Sting intense and of considerable duration. Food: broadly polyphagous on trees, shrubs, grasses such as corn, and other garden plants.

Hail

Some major hail fell from the sky last Sunday during a severe storm. I've never hail this big. Hail is formed when liquid water gets caught up in big updrafts and freezes. Sometimes this happens several times as you can see from the rings above when I cut some of the hail stones in half.

Ice Sculptures

These interesting ice blobs remind me of stalagtites growing down from a icy roof - exept they get bigger. I noticed them recently while hiking up in the Smoky Mountains. The little blobs are only a couple of inches high and are actually in a moving stream.

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.