UTCO Vacation, 08.17
...Whenever I get to drive through southern Utah there are two must-dos along the way. The scenic highway 12 and Goblin Valley. As we made our way towards that direction from here in SoCal, we stopped along the way in Vegas for lunch and a walk-through of the Bellagio to stretch our legs before stopping at our destination for the day in St. George. We wandered the town a bit...
Zucchini Lasagna, 08.17
...this version of Zucchini Lasagna has become a favorite. A cheesy, zesty, tomatoey favorite...
Behind the Scenes Boots, 07.17
We moved our work studio recently (its our 4th or 5th move) and I realized I hadn't done many (if any really) behind the scenes pics in our last space so when I needed to shoot a stylized boot collection for one of our dealers I saved a sequence along the way. I won't bore with too much technical detail and instead just dive into some pics...
Trona Pinnacles Field Report, 03.17
This March, approximately 200 people gathered south of Searles Valley in southern California at a unique spot named as Trona Pinnacles for a weekend of camping, campfires, some off-road training and unofficial...
Fredbricksburg First Visit, 04.17
When I travel I pack a few minifigs and vehicles, and occasionally making day trips just to capture new shots. Lately it went into full blown addiction with the purchase of a few of their Creator buildings...
Catching Wildflowers, 03.17
Southern California deserts saw substantial rain this year and the wildflowers are exploding out there. I was keeping an eye on the wildflower reports and this Saturday...
Little Green Chuckbox, 12.16
Going from a truck to a SUV made me rework my camping gear, and that included making a smaller Chuckbox (camp kitchen). I had also changed stoves from a larger Coleman to a smaller Cook Partner steel stove, so my old Yellow Chuckbox was a bit big and...
Gargoyles in Finland, 11.16
Three hours (or so) outside of Las Vegas is a place with some real magic that’s known as Little Finland. Its a small spectacular landscape feature found on BLM land and accessed via...
Four Corners Roadtrip, 08.16
I began planning for a long vacation (two weeks) earlier in the year. It had been six years since taking that much time off. I began looking at a big route through the Four Corners Area (UT, CO, NM, AZ) back in the beginning of the year...
Beaded Hatband, 08.16
I always find inspiration when I get out of town and have the time to see things and explore, and the Southwest is one of my favorite places to find this inspiration. On my recent vacation, I loved looking at the Native American vendor’s beadwork but my brain would always say “Lets do that.”, so rather than buying a piece I ended up buying the stuff to make it...
200 Series Destination Club - Ouray, CO, 08.16
Earlier this year I traded in my Tundra for a low-mileage 2014 200 Series Land Cruiser, which lead to a complete resorting of my camping equipment. Coinciding with a long vacation a group organized on iH8Mud.com was organizing their second annual 200 Series meet in Ouray, CO. The timing was perfect so...
Casein and Gouache, 06.16
Had the opportunity to do a bit of painting while on vacation visiting my folks so experimented with Caesin (a new medium to me) as well as some Gouache. Caesin is a water based milk protein based paint, is quick drying as well as maintains a bit of a body when its dry. Gouache is also...
Anza Geo, 05.16
I’ve been feeling the need to create some original artwork as something of a creative outlet lately so decided to take on a full-sheet (30″ x 22″) watercolor project. Its been years since I’ve worked this scale in watercolor. I had experimented with some smaller geometric watercolors and knew that I wanted to take this bigger. So, here we go…
Anza Borrego Surprise, 05.16
On a whim I decided to spend the weekend out exploring Anza-Borrego State Park. I’d never spent any time there so I really looked forward to exploring and taking some pics. I know my Great Grandparents spent time camping and rock hounding out there, so its been on my bucket list...
Stained Glass Sunbeams, 03.16
Its been several months since I did any stained glass work, fortunately I remedied that this weekend. I had a rough idea and also wanted to make this be my biggest piece yet. So I began with some sketches in an application called Concept. Sketching on the iPad will take some getting used to, but its something...
Winter Watercolors, 2014
I was rummaging through the art closet this week and ran across a number of watercolors that I did in late fall and early winter 2014 and realized...
LandOps Savahia, 02.16
About a year ago a friend of mine (@aventuraseeker) mentioned an event called Land Ops (www.LandOps.com or www.meetup.com/LandOps/. In short, a Land Ops event is a group activity of four-wheeling and geocaching with HAM radios used for communications and control. After lurking on their site for a while I made it out to one of their mini-ops and was totally...
Little Finland, 01.16
I was catching up on some overland forum reading and saw mention of this place called Little Finland in Eastern Nevada. I had never heard of it and did some quick research and quickly put it on my proverbial to do list. Fortunately I was headed to...
Reprocess & Remaster, 11.15
I had the time to reprocess and remaster some of my older shots after migrating out of Aperture and into Lightroom. Shots that at the time I liked a lot, and now (10 or more years later) I still like. Today’s Lightroom (CC 15) offers features and performance that was only imagined. Ansel Adams would be in love with today’s tools. Having said that...
Fall Color in Northern UT, 09.15
Some months ago I got pitched a free two-night stay by a very nice and successful sales woman from Hilton Grand Resorts. The catch: TIMESHARE PRESENTATION...