Check them out here.

I’m currently sitting in a hotel room in Canal Winchester, Ohio. I’m a little more than half-way through my trip, which has thus far included hay rides, apple orchards, pumpkin patches, haunted houses, hiking, and lots of Fall color photography.

I’m basically reliving my childhood (I grew up in Worthington, Ohio) and have been meaning for several years now to come back during what is probably my favorite season. I’ve lived out West most of my adult life, and sometimes miss the Fall colors. (Yes, the leaves change color in the Fall everywhere, but it’s just not the same as those vibrant colors back East.)

After I get back to Nevada, I’ll sift through the hundreds of photos I’ve shot and put together a link with photos. For now, I’m still having fun!

These are great for art reference, both for seeing how things collapse over time as well as for textures. I’m fascinated by old buildings anyway, and the history of them.

You can see the photos at my gallery site, here.

The first ones I’ve posted are from Bryce Canyon, which is a great National Park in Utah. I’ve only been there once before, many years ago. It was great to see all that colored rock again.

I still have to go through the shots from Kodachrome and Escalante parks, and also the various ghost towns I passed through.

I’ve posted the photos from Bryce Canyon here. Enjoy!

I took a bunch of pictures not just for the strangeness of the environment itself, but to use as reference for an upcoming project. Lots of cool crumbling structures and collapsing walls.

Metropolis is located about 12 miles Northwest of Wells, NV. It was started in 1911, and grew rapidly thanks to a promotional campaign by the Pacific Reclamation Company. The Bishop’s Creek Dam was built, and provided plenty of water, but in June of 1912, some farmers from Lovelock filed a lawsuit claiming that the dam interfered with their water rights downstream. The Pacific Reclamation Company was forced into receivership in 1913, and that was the beginning of the end of Metropolis.

By 1920, there were fewer than 100 people left in the town and on the nearby homesteads. On Sept. 11th, 1936, the 50 room hotel that had been the pride of Metropolis was destroyed by a fire.

The two main structures seen in my photos are from the remaining foundation of the hotel (the large tower in the center of it was the bank vault) and the building with the arched entrance was the school.

You can see the photos here.

I’ve always been fascinated by these little guys. They’re like little elves in bird suits. It’s amazing how fast they can fly, and how much control they have while hovering.

This one rests on one of those swirly wind-things.

It looks like this is the female Rufous Hummingbird. That’s the closest match I could find from the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds (Western Region). Great book if you’re interested in bird identification.

I got some pretty good shots of a few different bird species, and some nice plant and insect close-ups too.

The Ruby Marsh is on the other side of the Ruby mountains from where we live, and to get to it you take Harrison Pass, which is closed in the winter because the snow gets too deep.

You can read about the Ruby Lake National Wildlife refuge here.

Check out the rest of the photos at my gallery site, here.

You can get information about the garden here.

The gardens also have a teahouse, with all kinds of teas and snacks. Since snacks are an important part of my life, I found this to be a good thing.

I took some photos mainly of the architecture and flowers. You can see them at my gallery site, here.