Quick Update

Well, not a whole lot to talk about right now.  Last Friday we went out and did some more exploring and I got a few more pics worth posting.  We went to Saqqara, Memphis and then back to the Pyramids of Giza.  Here's a slide show from my Flickr site.

All Work and Little Play Makes Greg a Dull Blogger

As you might of guessed, there hasn't been a lot of stuff happening around here.  I've been working at the factory until 8 or 9, 6 days a week.  Here in Cairo the normal work week is Sunday - Thursday with Friday and Saturday off.  We've been busy trying to get stuff done here at the factory, so we only got Friday off.  On our day off we went to the Egyptian Museum where they keep the contents of King Tut's tomb.  Unfortunately they do not allow cameras in the museum, so all that gear I was hauling on my back was for not.  I did get some photos of the outside though.

This is a shot of the security you have to go through to enter the grounds.  Your bags have to go through x-ray and you walk through a metal detector.  That's just to get into the grounds, you have to go through it all again to enter the building itself.


Here's a shot of the building from the outside.


It was pretty cool walking around seeing thousands of years of history.  King Tut's exhibit was the highlight.  I can't believe how much stuff was crammed into his small tomb, it's amazing.  Also, I guess I was lucky to actually see the Tut stuff since it is usually on the road at different exhibits.

After the walk through the museum, we headed over to the Pyramids of Giza.  On the way I took some shots from the van as we were bouncing through the city. 





We stopped off at this little street shop in Giza to pick up some water n snacks. 



Then onto the Pyramids.  I don't know how many people know this, but the Pyramids are pretty much in the city of Giza.  This shot was taken from the van, we were maybe 5 minutes away.



We arrived a bit late at the Pyramids, but there wasn't that many people there.  While in line to purchase our tickets, this older guy comes up to us and says, "Give me your money and I'll get you your tickets".  I told him I could purchase my tickets on my own and thank you.  After declining his offer, he starts going on about how he's not trying to rob us and that he's not mafia.  Then he goes and tells me that he's a government official.  I said, "oh really?" and he whips out his so called government official ID.  It's a drivers license....  After we purchased our tickets the guy keeps following us.  As we walk towards security he tries to grab my ticket from me and says he'll give me a tour of the pyramids.  I pull my ticket back and tell him no thank you, I'll just walk around on my own. 

I'm telling you, this guy didn't know how to take no for an answer.  He grabs our used tickets and starts leading us up towards the pyramids, talking non-stop about how he's not trying to rob us and that he's not mafia.  I stop him and ask, "Sir, what exactly are you trying to achieve here?"  I'm trying to be respectful, but the guy is really starting to piss me off.  He says, "I will take you to where you can get a very good picture and I'll tell you the history."  I again tell him that I will just walk around on my own and that I don't want his help.  He again starts going on about how he doesn't want to rob us or is mafia.  He also says that he's not wanting any money from us.  Oh yeah, and he puts in the line that he's a government official.  I told him that I highly doubted he was actually a government official and that we didn't need his help.  It only took 10 minutes of haggling with him to finally get him to leave us alone. 

So, that was the first guy trying to get money out of us.  Next, it was the camel guys.  I'm telling you, the people trying to sell you stuff totally ruins the experience.  First it was the so called government tour official, now it's a guy trying to sell me and my friends a ride on a camel.  After another 15 minutes of them following us around asking if we wanted a ride, the guy finally started talking price.  The price wasn't actually that bad, but I was so pissed about him stalking me for money, I told him I didn't want a ride.  He drops the price further and I say no, he then drops it again and I finally tell him, "I would not take a ride even if you offered it for free."  That finally drove him away. 

So, after 30 minutes of fighting off people trying to sell me stuff that I don't want, I finally get to start taking some pictures.  It's getting close to 4:00 PM and the light is starting to look good.  Sunset is around 5:30 or so.  That's when the guard yells at us, "You can't walk any further, the place is closing at 4:00".  So, there's my experience at the Pyramids of Giza.  I did take a video of us walking back to the van though.



Well, I'm still at the factory and boards may be at test by now.  I probably should head down there and see how things are going.  We're off again this Friday and plan to go back to the Pyramids of Giza to see the Sphinx, the Pyramids then onto Sakkara and Memphis.  It should be a fun day as long as I don't get too mad at the so called "government" officials.  :)

Arrived Safe and Sound in Cairo

Well, I've been in Egypt for going on 5 days now.  Everything has been great so far with no major issues.  The flight in was long, but ok.  I'm not sure how much I like Lufthansa airlines though...  Well, it's not so much the Airline them self selves but more of a dislike for the Airbus plane I flew from Frankfurt to Cairo.  I brought all of my camera gear with me on this trip.  I have everything stuffed into a Lowepro Vertex 300 backpack which is a fairly large bag, but is small enough to be carry on approved.  So, I had no problems with the bag on the previous two United Flights.  I was one of the first to get on the plane, so I just stuck it into the overhead compartment.  But, on the Lufthansa leg I was one of the last to board....  There was room in some of the over head compartments, but not enough for my bag.  So, I tried to shove my camera bag under the seat in front of me.  That didn't work out so well because there was NO room, I mean even if I had my normal laptop backpack it would not of fit under there.  The seat was very low and there was a box in the way which held all of the electronics for the LCD monitor.  Sure, it was nice to have on demand TV/Movies and Music to watch, but not having leg room or room for stowing my luggage was a pain.

Enough of complaining about not having room on the plane.  Onto the small scare I had when I arrived in Cairo.  I had scheduled a "meet n greet" service with the hotel.  The service includes a greeter to meet you before immigration to help ensure you understand how to fill out the paperwork, get your visa and so on then drives you to the hotel. As I'm walking through the airport, I see a few people holding up signs with names, but I don't see mine.  I'm thinking, "dang, they forgot to come pick me up and I'm screwed!".  I pull out my laptop to get the hotel's phone number and called them up asking where my driver was.  It turns out that the meet n greet service will only meet you before immigration in terminals 1 and 2.  If you arrive at terminal 3 they meet you after you go through immigration and then help you pickup your bags to go through customs.  Of course the hotel had forgotten to tell me this when I booked the service.  After I figured out where to meet my driver, I went up to immigration and handed the officer my passport.  He starts flipping through and asks me, "Where is your Visa?"  "Visa?  I don't have no stinking Visa" is the thought that goes through my head, but I politely tell the immigration officer that I do not have a visa.  This is where it gets strange.  You have to have a visa to get into Egypt, but you don't have to have one before arriving.  You just walk up to a so called "bank" which is located before immigration and pay them 15 USD.  Then wallah, you have a visa.  Sounds like a racket to me....  No back ground check, no paperwork to fill out, nothing of the sort.  They just want your money.


When I finally got through immigration the meet n greet guy was standing there holding my bag.  He told me he was concerned that I had missed my flight but had looked through the bags and saw my name.  From there I hopped in a Mercedes and we were off to the hotel.

The hotel, well it's pretty nice.  I'm staying at the Hilton Pyramids Golf Resort.  I have to say, the staff are very polite and it was a breeze to check in.  I have a room over looking the pool, so it can be a bit noisy in the afternoon with all the families playing in the water, but it's not terrible.  Here's a video of my room and my view.  Please excuse the mess, I took it after waking up the other morning, so the bed wasn't made yet.


Well, that's all for now.  I got a chance to go explore some around Cairo on Friday and will be posting my photos later.

New name, new mission, same blog

So, for those who are still following me from my old blog 9 Weeks of Freedom, thanks for sticking around.  For the new people who have stumbled upon this blog, welcome and I hope you stick around.  As you can see from my earlier posts, I started a blog to talk about my travels during my Sabbatical.  I enjoyed talking about where I had gone, the photographs and so on, so I figured I'd continue blogging about my weekend adventures looking for a great shot.  9 Weeks of Freedom didn't make sense anymore, so I changed it to Shields Photography.  I've actually thought about selling my photos and am working on setting up a website to do so.  Why the plain name of  "Shields Photography"?  I guess you could say it's for sentimental reasons.  My Grandpa Shields had a shoe repair shop in White Salmon, WA called "Shields Shoe Shop".  Sure, I'm not starting up a repair shop, but I'm carrying on the name.

For those who don't know me, my name is Greg Shields and I have this semi-serious addiction of photography.  As a kid growing up, I always wanted to get into photography.  When I was around 10, my Grandma gave me a small Kodak 110 film camera which I used as much as I could, but when you're a kid and money is tight, there is only so much film/developing that you can purchase.  Then in middle school I wanted to take one quarter off from Band and take the photography elective but couldn't due to the fact that I had committed to my other passion, music.  My parents had purchased a trumpet for me that year with the condition that I had to stick with music, no matter what.  Since I only had 1 elective in middle school, it was band.  For some reason, my high school didn't have photography, which I always thought was kind of dumb.

So my photography aspirations started later in life when I purchased a Minolta 35mm SLR.  Due to the fact that you're waiting days to see your results, I didn't really get serious about my photography skills.  Then the promise land was in sight: Digital SLRs.  Of course when DSLRs first came out, there was no way I could afford one, but Canon came out with an affordable DSLR called the Canon Rebel and I just had to have one.  I bought one with the kit 18-55mm zoom.  It was a great camera and took wonderful pictures.  I shot with it for around a year and a half.  Then Canon came out with the 20D.  I started investigating the 20D and decided that it was the way to go.  I wanted more control over my photos and the Digital Rebel just wasn't cutting it.  I still have the Rebel though, it makes a good backup when I go on long trips.

Anyways, enough of the history and let's start looking at what's coming up.  To support my photography addiction, I work for a company that sends me around the world.  On this Monday, Sept 21 work is sending me to Cairo, Egypt.  Yep, that's how lucky I am.  I'm taking my camera gear with me and hopefully will have some time to get out there to explore and shoot some photos.  So stick around, I'll be talking about my trip, posting some photos and video.  I picked up the Creative Vado HD video camera to shoot some video of the locations I'm at.  No, I don't plan to talk much, but hopefully I'll get some cool video to share along with my photos.

Well, I hope you guys/gals enjoy my blog and keep coming back.  It's time to start packing for my trip.

Colombia Trip is Coming to an End :(

I’m wasting time here in Bogota’s international airport waiting for my flight to Toronto.  I am exhausted from the last 9 days, but it’s a good exhaustion.  This trip has been SO much fun and non-stop action.  From having dinner with Sylvia’s close friends, to exploring a church built in a salt mine to drinking way to much Aguardiente (a drink made from sugarcane which is served cold in a shot glass).  The time spent here was WONDERFUL.  A big thanks to Sylvia and Hernan for inviting me to their wedding and thanks to Rachel and Andries for inviting me along to Cartegena. 

One thing I want to talk about before my battery dies.  We (Andries, Rachel and I) flew from Cartegena to Bogota this afternoon.  About 20 minutes from landing the captain got on the radio and talked for along time in Spanish then the flight attendents started grabbing everyone’s under the seats and shoved them up top.  I didn’t have a clue what was going on, but I figured we were going to get into some bad turbulence or something coming into Bogota.  I took off my headphones and started putting stuff away preparing to land.  The girl next to me says, “I sure hope we’re going to be ok” and I tell her everything is going to be fine, there’s nothing to worry about.  She keeps going on about how she’s really worried and stuff and I keep telling her not to.  Then she says, “The pilot said there is going to be fire trucks waiting for us on the runway in case there is any problems”. That’s when I say, “Why? is there something wrong with the plane?” 

The girl tells me that a warning light has come on in the cockpit saying that the planes brakes were not operating properly.  That’s when it hits me, the flight attendants were preparing for an emergency landing! After the girl saw my reaction, she asked if I spoke Spanish and I replied, “no”.  She then made a comment about how she was amazed that I wasn’t worried about what was going on and was so relaxed.  Just after my English speaking friend tells me about the problems the plane is having, the captain gets back on the radio saying that the warning light was now off but the fire trucks were going to still be on the runway in case we had a problem.  Everyone on the plane was quiet as we came in to land, except for the girl next to me.  She was scared as hell and talked about how she has bad luck on flights and the stories of what happened until we made it to the terminal. 

The funny thing is that Andries didn’t tell Rachel, who doesn’t speak much Spanish, until after we had landed safely.  Rachel said it was a good thing because she would have been freaking out if she knew what was happening.  I have to admit it scared me a little, but when the captain said that the warning light was off, I felt a bit better.  Ah the joys of traveling!

Made it to Bogota

I’m at my hotel in Bogota.  I also just got done talking to Sylvia to let her know I made it in.  Even though she knows I’m a well seasoned traveler, she insisted that I call. I didn’t want to hear the wrath of Sylvia for the next week.  :)

I had a very nice surprise getting on the plane in Toronto.  I boarded, went back to coach looking for 4C and saw that coach started at row 15.  The first thing that crossed my mind was that the stinking seat was booked incorrectly.  Then I wondered back up to first class and tada!  There was seat 4C empty and waiting for me. 

When I checked in with Air Canada in Chicago this morning, they didn’t give me a seat assignment yet.  When I got into Toronto, 6 hours before my next flight, they wouldn’t let me go directly into the International wing.  I had to go out through Canadian customs, hang out for a while then go back in.  So, while I was waiting around I decided I would go up to the front desk and get a seat assignment.  I was wanting to get it as soon as I could because I didn’t want to be stuck in a middle seat.

So, when I was trying to get in line to get my seat assignment, I showed the guy in charge of the line my ticket.  He says, “The flight must be pretty full so you won’t get assigned a seat until 1 hour before the flight leaves”.  I thought, “wonderful, I’m going to be stuck between 2 people with no room what-so-ever.”  Then I’m waiting at the gate for my seat assignment and still haven’t received my seat assignment and they had already started boarding the plane.  The lady at the desk was really stressed, so I didn’t want to go up there and tick her off by asking questions.  You don’t tick off a stressed flight attendant, that’s just bad karma waiting to bite ya.  She finally calls my name and doesn’t say anything about where I’m seated, just hands me the ticket.  So, I got a first class seat for 75 bucks.  Well, it’s 75 bucks + 55k miles.  Can’t beat that now, can ya. 

The hotel that Sylvia and Hernan picked for us is one of the nicest places I’ve stayed at.  The room is more like an apartment!  There is the downstairs which has a small living room, kitchen, dining room, bathroom and a bedroom with 2 twins.  There there is the upstairs which has a king sized bed, walk-in closet, huge bathroom and a sitting area.  Oh yeah, there are LCD TVs everywhere.  The people at the front desk are on top of things and extremely polite.  I’m talkin “Hong Kong JW Marriott” polite. I’ve never said that about any hotel I’ve stayed at, and I’ve stayed at a few in my travels around the world.  A big thanks to Hernan and Sylvia for taking the time the last time they were in Bogota to find this hotel.

Ok, I’m done typing for the night.  There is a bar downstairs which I plan to go and have a light dinner and a couple drinks.

Flying to Bogota

I’m half way through my 2 day journey to Bogota, Colombia.  Did the red eye flight from Portland into Chicago, got lucky with the hotel having a room available when I showed up at 6:00 AM.  Now I’m on a jet flying from Chicago to Toronto, Canada.  Yep, flying Air Canada on one of their smaller locally built jets.  The flight attendant has a cute smile and there is no one sitting next to me.  When I was checking in the lady at the front desk asked if I wanted to fly out on the 7:00 AM flight instead of the 8:30.  I figured, “what the hell, I can either sit in Chicago for 2 hours or Toronto instead.”  I haven’t been through Toronto before, so I have a new place to wonder around and explore.

I ended up sleeping most of the day yesterday since I didn’t get any sleep on the red eye into Chicago.  I can never sleep on the plane for some reason.  So, I didn’t go down town Chicago to see the sites.  Oh well, I’m going to be doing a hell of a lot of wondering around and exploring once I get into Bogota. 

I did go to a local pizza shop close to the hotel called Gino’s for dinner and tried out some Chicago Deep Dish Pizza.  It was a heck of a lot better then the Old Chicago Pizza joint back in Hillsboro.  :)  Also, it must of been good because there was a picture of President Reagan on the wall having lunch there.  If Reagan ate there, it must be good, right?  The service was, well normal for Chicago, but the pepperoni and cheese pizza was darn good. 

I forgot my USB cable for my iPhone, so I stopped off at a Brookstone at the airport to buy one.  I feel like I was violated after I saw how much the damn thing cost.  25 bucks for a cheap AC/DC converter and USB cable?  Probably cost a buck fifty to produce AND ship from China…  But what can you do?  I needed to charge my phone and there wasn’t anywhere else to go buy one.  Still feels wrong though…

That was a short flight.  We’re starting to descend into Toronto, so I better shut this down.  I’ll be posting later tonight when I get into Bogota.

Preparing for Bogota

I have a red eye out of Portland tonight to begin the 2 day journey to Bogota, Colombia. Yes, you read correctly, it's going to take me about 2 days to get down there. When I booked the flight, United could only find a flight that was 11:20 PM, Sunday out of Portland to Chicago. Arrive in Chicago at 5:00 AM local time Monday. Then the next flight is 8:00 AM Tuesday from Chicago to Toronto, Canada then arriving in Bogota, Colombia about 9:00 PM Tusday, local time. I can't complain too much though. I used miles for the trip and just had to pay 75 bucks for the booking fee and taxes. The flight home isn't nearly as bad. I fly out of Bogota at 11:30 PM local time, arrive in Toronto the next day then fly into Seattle. From Seattle it's a short hop to Portland. Still a lot of flying though... but I'm used to long trips with all the traveling I do for work.

For those who don't know, the reason I'm going to Bogota is that a very good friend of mine is getting married next weekend. They both now live in Hillsboro and work at Intel but her and her fiance are originally from Colombia and they wanted to be married there.

While I'm in Colombia, I'll be staying in Bogota at the 101 Park House in the Grand Suite with some friends of mine. The hotel looks, well freaking awesome. Probably over kill, but since there are 4 of us splitting the bill, it's not that bad. Wednesday night the soon to be married couple have invited me to a dinner at their friends house. Then Thursday night we're supposed to go to a famous restaurant just outside of Bogota called Andrés Carne de Res which looks like a great place to learn more about Colombian food and have a good time. Friday is still kind of open and then Saturday is the big wedding and party.

After the weekend a couple of my friends and I will be flying out to Cartagena, Colombia which is on the the Caribbean Coast in the northern part of Colombia. It looks like a beautiful place to visit.

Well, that's about all for now. It's time for me to finish my packing and go purchase some good clothes for the wedding. I'll be posting on here when I have time.

Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Arches

Sorry I haven't updated much on here lately. I haven't really had Internet connection on either my iPhone or my laptop. Get out in the middle of Utah and the cell phone service is spotty at best. I was trying to talk to my parents while on the road and by 5 miles outside of a town, the phone would drop and I would get a "No Service" until the next small town.

I'm sitting here in a small coffee / bakery located in Moab, UT drinking a cup of coffee and jamming out to some Block Party. It's a nice little place with some atmosphere. Their breakfast burritos are GREAT. Gary headed back home to Oregon yesterday. He wanted to be home by Sunday so that he could get back to work Monday morning. Sucks to be him!

Grand Canyon National Park
While Gary was still hanging out with me we checked out the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Like I said before, it was raining the night we got there, but that morning it was clear with some spotty clouds. My cousin, Robyn, sent me a note on Facebook saying that she wanted to go to the Grand Canyon this year with her kids, but that her twins didn't want to cause it is just a big hole in the ground. Well, they are right, it is a HUGE hole in the ground, but well worth driving to see. I'm not that happy with the sunrise shots I got there so I'm planning to head back later this week after I shoot sunset shots at Monument Valley this evening.

Gary and I got up about 5:00 in the morning to go shoot sunrise shots at the Grand Canyon. It was a bit hazy so the circular polorizer helped out some to get rid of it. Looking towards the east into the sun there were some clouds which were creating some beautiful rays of light against the dark rock formations.



Looking east you see this huge wide depression of rock formations, color and shadows. I put on the widest angle lens I have to get this shot and it doesn't even come close to capturing the entire view. It's something like 10 miles across from the South Rim park to the North Rim park, but takes 240 miles or so to drive since you have to go to the far east, cross the Colorado and then back in.



The above shot is ok, but being this small of a picture it's hard to see everything that is going on, so here's a couple more shots zoomed in.





Like I said before, I'm not that happy with these shots. I think they are "average". When I head back to the Grand Canyon I plan to shoot sunrise shots from the North Rim then drive the 240 miles around to the South Rim to shoot sunset shots. I need to head back towards the west anyways for the next part of my trip.

Bryce Canyon National Park
So after shooting sunrise at the Grand Canyon I headed northeast to Bryce Canyon National Park in southeast Utah. The weather wasn't helping me at all there. It wasn't raining, but during the best part of the sun setting across the rocks, a big ol' cloud decided to park in front of the sun. I still got some interesting shots. I also like how these came out a lot better then my Grand Canyon pics.

For those who haven't heard about Bryce Canyon full of these large spires called "Hoodoos" which are formed by water and ice wearing away the limestone. It makes for some very cool pictures.





I really like how the second shot came out. The big cloud which was parked in front of the sun finally decided to get out of the way and further out on the canyon floor there was some low light just catching the smaller hoodoo in the lower left and the rock formation on the right which had a look of a fort or something.

Arches National Park
Arches was ok, nothing spectacular but worth stopping off to see in an afternoon. I'm glad I have the year long National Park Pass because I would have felt ripped off if I paid 25 bucks to get in.

I did check out a couple of the arches, but the light wasn't that great. There was one called Skyline Arch which had some wonderful light on it. I liked how the dead tree helped out the foreground on this shot of it.



After checking out a few of the Arches I started looking for interesting rock formations to get silhouette shots of with the setting sun behind. I guess this kind of shot is one of my trade marks if you follow my photos on Flickr. So I headed up to a view point of some of the larker rock formations and found these great little pools of water in the rock. It must of rained hard in the morning there cause it was the only water I saw.

This is The Organ with the Devil's Backbone in the far distance.



Another interesting shot I got was of the Petrified Dunes which are spread out under Devil's Backbone. If you look closely there is a arch in that rock formation at the top. I'm not sure which one it is though.



After the sun went down over the horizon, the sky lit up only like it can in the desert.



I think the water puddles really helped make this shot stand out. Otherwise the bottom half would be just black and boring.

Well, that's all for now. It's getting time for me to hit the road for Monument Valley. Right now the plan is to go to Monument Valley, stay the night. Head over to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon to see what the sunset looks like, stay the night there and catch hopefully some better sunrise shots then drive over to the South Rim to shoot sunset. After staying the night on the South Rim I'm planning to head to Las Vegas. A buddy of mine who I haven't seen in a few years lives on the north side of town, so I'm going to hang out with him for a couple of days. After that I'll start wondering north towards home.

Raining at the Grand Canyon

I'm camping outside of the Grand Canyon in a nice campground which is
very well priced, 10 bucks a car, and it's raining.... I thought I
was getting away from the Oregon weather! It was raining on and off on
the way here from the Hoover Dam but was just overcast when Gary and I
was walking along the Canyon Rim. But once we got to the camp and
started setting up, it started coming down and hasn't stopped since.

We're hoping that it blows through overnight and clears up some in the
morning. Clouds are good for Landscape shots but rain isn't.... I'm
setting the alarm for 5:00 AM to get out to the rim for some dawn
pictures. But if I wake up and hear the rain coming down on my tent
like it is now, I'm going back to sleep.

As I've been typing this blog entry it's actually started to rain
harder. But no thunder n lightening so far. According to the weather
report there are supposed to be thunder showers the rest of the week.
If the weather doesn't cooporate, I'll just head up to southern Utah
where hopefully the weather will be better. I just can't believe that
I ran into rain in Arizona, isn't this area supposed to be hot and dry?

Greg on the go

Long Drive

I'm sitting in a Starbucks in Boulder City, NV having a real cup of
coffee. Gary and I did a 10 hour drive yesterday from about 10 miles
outside of Yosemite to here in Boulder City. It wasn't that bad of a
drive. We cut through the mohave desert and saw pretty much nothing.
It was hot and dry. We stopped at the town of Mohave, CA for lunch and
I asked Gary, "Who the hell would want to live here?". He didn't have
an answer and neither did I. Driving through places like that really
make me appreciate living in The northwest.

Well, we're getting ready to head out and take the Hoover Dam tour. I
did it a few years ago but Gary hasn't seen it before. Then we're on
the road again heading for the south rim of the Grand Canyon. I'll
post photos of the Grand Canyon when I get a chance.

Greg on the go

Still hanging out in Yosemite

I'm in a little blip on the road called Buck Meadows which is about 9 miles outside of the Yosemite entrance on HW 120. I stopped in for lunch and found out they have wifi! So, I've been sitting in their bar drinking a coke and going through the photos I've taken over the past few days.

So as I was talking about before, I was camping at this outrageously priced campground. Today I found a nice National Forest campground which is only about 8 miles outside of the HW 120 Yosemite entrance and it's a heck of a lot cheaper. Sure, it doesn't have showers or a toilet that flushes, but I'm camping so it doesn't matter.

Yosemite is a big park! I didn't realize just how big it was until I started driving around it. I've put at least 400 miles on the car putting around the major roads. 400 miles at 35 MPH or less is a lot of time in the car. A lot of those miles was running up and down Glacier Point road. I headed up there Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening trying to get the perfect shot of the sun setting on Half Dome. I've been up and down that road so many times in the past few days I think I can drive it in my sleep. :) Sunday was the night though. There wasn't any stinking clouds blocking the sun, the crowds were mostly gone and Half Dome was glowing. It's amazing how solid granite looks so drab at high noon but get some evening light on it and it changes your perseption.



Another shot from Glacier Point. That's Nevada Falls on the right and the Siera Mountains in the back ground. You can hear the roar of the falls from way up there. It's 3000 feet or more down to the falls, so to hear them from up there is something. I can't wait to get to the base of them tomorrow to hear how loud they are up close.



One thing about driving in Yosemite, those California drivers who like to drive 80 MPH on their freeways sure change their driving habits on a high land switch back road... It's like they never have driven in the mountains before. It's funny stuff. Pretty much everywhere in Yosemite is either 25 or 35 MPH which I try my darnest to keep at. These California drivers will haul butt on the straight aways and get right on my tail. Then when we get into some corners I stay at the same speed I was going in the straight aways and they fall way behind. Damn city slickers... :)

Well lets see. I might as well post up a couple more pictures of what I've seen. There are these small little creeks running down the mountains pretty much everywhere you go. It's amazing how these little streams get overlooked by most people. Sure, a big ol' water fall looks cool in all, but you just can't get the details of falling water like a creek cascading down a mountain side.





So there's the small stuff for ya, now here's the big ones. Yosemite Falls is an amazing sight to see.



Another shot of Yosemite Falls from a different angle.



Well, I think I've over stayed my welcome at this joint I'm at, so I better wrap this up. My buddy Gary is driving in today. If everything goes well he should be up here around 9 or 10 tonight. I offered to meet him down in the valley so that he didn't have to drive so stinking far in one day, but he insisted on driving all the way up here. I need to get into a cell phone coverage area to call him.

We're going to stay here in Yosemite for a couple more days then it's off to who knows where. I'm thinking the Grand Canyon, but we'll see what Gary thinks.

Glacier Point

I'm up here at Glacier Point in Yosemite and I have cell phone
service! So here's a quick blurb and hopefully a photo.

I'm up here waiting for the light show of the setting sun on Half
Dome. Below is a pic I took with the crappy iPhone which doesn't do
justice to the view. Anyways, it's a pain typing on this iPhone so I'm
signing off. More to come when I can get wifi for my netbook.

Morning of June 20th

It’s just after 8 AM and I’ve already had my first cup of coffee and finished breakfast.  I didn’t write on my blog last night because I was a bit tired.  But I did take the time to go through my pictures from the morning Crater Lake photo shoot and the photos I took yesterday in Yosemite National Park. 

I’m pretty happy with the photos I got at Crater Lake.  The lake was like a mirror early that morning and there was still some snow on the crater walls which made for a beautiful photo opportunity.

Yesterday after finding my extremely expensive camp ground, which isn’t that great, I headed into Yosemite.  I have to say, it is a beautiful site to see even after the big fire.  I had totally forgot that there had been a fire here, but driving around you see how it swept through the park.  Things are starting to green back up again and there are wild flowers which are starting to come back.

On a side note: I don’t know why, but there is a bell being rung further down in the canyon below my campsite. Breakfast bell? I don’t know…

Well, I don’t want to waste too much of your time, so I’ll get right to what everyone wants to see.  Well at least I hope they do, the pictures. 

I started out the day at the foot of Bridal Veil Falls, but there was soo many people there I didn’t really get any good pictures.  I’m thinking I’ll have to head back there on Monday when the crowds die down.  So I headed up the mountain to to see what was up there and then I was able to see a full frame shot of Bridal Veil without having to fight the crowds.

I like how the spray is creating a rainbow effect at the bottom.

Also from this point you got a peek into Yosemite Valley

Further up was Glacier Point, at least I think that’s what it’s called.  There was some nice views up there also of the valley floor.

And then there is Half Dome Peak:

The second shot of Half Dome was taken from the Valley floor and I was headed back to camp.  I plan to go back up to Glacier Point for sunset shots tonight if the lighting was good.  I was originally planning to stay up there last night for the sunset, but there was a big bank of clouds coming through which was blocking the sun.  Of course by the time I got down to the valley floor the clouds were gone.

Well that’s all for now.  I’m packing up and heading back into Yosemite to take some more pictures. 

Yosemite? Not yet.....

Well, I drove out to Yosemite yesterday and ran into a snag... There are a bunch of National Forest camp grounds outside of Yosemite along CA HW 120, but by the time I got up there on Thursday, every one of them was full. They are all "first come, first serve". Not really surprising since I didn't get up there until late Thursday afternoon.

Since my plans for camping last night were thrown out of the window, I went back down the mountain to Oakdale, CA and spent the night at a Best Western. Kind of a funny story there. I was on my iPhone checking rates for the local hotels and I saw that the Best Western had an "Internet Only" booking rate which was 25 bucks cheaper then a walk-in booking. So I made the reservation from across the street, walked in and got my room. The lady at the front desk was kind of freaked out when I told her the name the reservation was under. She said, "I don't have a reservation under... OH! That wasn't there before!"

Anyways, I did find a camp ground online which is 5 miles outside of Yosemite but the price is ridiculous! I'm not going to put down the price because if I do it might cause someone to have a heart attack... I ended up booking it until Monday when hopefully the National Forest camp grounds will have thinned out so I don't feel I've been violated to camp longer.

I just got off the phone with Gary and he's planning to head my way on Monday which is why I'm going to look for a cheaper camp ground. After he arrives I'm sure he'll want to check out Yosemite, so we'll stay a couple more days.

Well, I'm headed out soon to head back up the mountain. No cell phone or internet out there in the wilderness, so there won't be any updates for a few days.

Morning Coffee in Arcata

It’s about 7:30 in the morning and I’m having a cup of coffee at Mosgo’s coffee shop in Arcata, CA.  The coffee isn’t the greatest cup I’ve ever had but there is free wifi here, so I can’t complain too much.  After a few sips the coffee is starting to taste better, or my taste buds have been desensitized to the point that I can’t taste anything.  Either way it’s better then the crap I’ve been brewing in camp. 

I drove from Crater Lake through the Redwoods to Arcata, CA yesterday.  It wasn’t that long of a drive, something like 7 hours total, but by the end i was dead tired.  I didn’t feel like setting up camp so, I booked a room at the Motel 6 and was sleeping by 8:00.  I plan to head back into the Redwoods today and find a camp site to hang out at for a couple of days. 

It was a great drive.  I went through Medford, back up to Grants Pass and cut across into California on Highway 199 which is also called Redwood Highway.  Once you get into California on 199 the road gets good and curvy which was a blast in the little Honda.  I was also taken aback at how the climate changes so radically coming down the hill into Crescent City.  Up high it is fairly dry with scrub pines, the sun is out and the air temp is in the upper 80’s lower 90’s.  Then you drop down and it gets cooler, the trees get bigger until finally you’re socked in a low level cloud/fog bank and the air temp is in the 50’s.  It’s an amazing change of climate over a 45 minute drive.

Well, the coffee is getting cold and I need to get on the road. 

First Day Wrap Up

It’s been a successful first day on the road.  I didn’t crash the car, it’s not currently raining and I saw Crater Lake.  I even took a couple pictures up there at Crater Lake, but the lighting wasn’t the best. 

On the way down here the weather was great until about 20 miles before where I planned to camp.  It was POURING down rain.  Not )some drizzle, I mean RAIN.  I hadn’t seen it rain that hard since I was in Manaus, Brazil.  I was a tad bit nervous about trying to camp in the what was looking to be miserable weather.   When I reached the camp is was raining, but not cats ‘n dogs.  So, I scoped out the camp ground and it was pretty much empty which meant I had plenty of time to hopefully wait out the rain and go do other stuff before setting up camp.

I stopped off in Prospect, OR to fill up the tank.  It’s a nice sleepy little town that reminded me a lot of my home town, White Salmon, WA.  Well, more like the White Salmon I grew up in. 

Anyways, after filling up the tank I headed up to Crater Lake to see if it was raining up there.  Funny thing was that 5 miles out from the camp it was sunny.  You just can’t get enough of Oregon weather.  Up at the top there was some clouds, but much to my relief no rain.  I hadn’t been to Crater Lake since I was something like 12 or 13.  I remembered it being bigger and a lot higher at the rim then it actually is.  Still a beautiful sight to see though.  Like I said before, the lighting wasn’t great, but here’s a shot that turned out half way good. 

I plan to head back up there bright ‘n early in the morning to catch the sunrise.  As long as the sun is out, you can’t go wrong with that “golden hour” light. Hopefully it won’t be too cloudy or even worse, raining.

After messing around a bit up there at Crater Lake I headed back down the hill.  By the time I got back the rain was gone, so I picked a camp site away from everyone else plus had some trees growing close enough together for rain proofing my camp.  After the torrential down pour I saw earlier, I wasn’t going to take any chances.  I’m actually pretty proud of how my rain proofing turned out, but knowing my luck it won’t even rain tonight.  :\

Maybe it’s a bit overboard, but I hate a wet tent, so this should do the trick.

Ok, it’s getting close to 10:00 and 5 AM comes pretty darn early. 

On the Road

Well, it's only been 4 hours driving and I'm not sick of it yet. :)
I'm in a small Oregon town on HW 97 called Chemult. Stopped at the
first cafe I saw to grab a bite to eat. Since I have some time to kill
before the food arrives I figured I'd add a quick blurb on my blog.

So far nothing really exciting has happened. I did see a burned up van
on the side of the road which had just been put out. The fire
department was gone, but the cops were still there. It still smelled
though.

As for my buddy Gary. He felt terrible for leaving me hanging, but
it's cool. He still might meet up with me somewhere south, just
matters when he gets all his stuff done.

Well, the food should be getting here soon. One more thing, I'm the
youngest person in this cafe by at least 15 years if not more. And
they are all looking at me like I'm crazy typing on this iPhone of
mine. <end>

On the Road in the Morning

So, everyone has probably been wondering, "Where is Greg and what has he been doing?". Well, the short answer is "Not a whole hell of a lot". I had originally planned to leave last Wednesday but I wasn't totally prepared yet. Then the weather here in beautiful Oregon wasn't on my side, so I postponed a few days.

Another reason I was postponing a few days was so that I could take off at the same time as my buddy Gary and his girlfriend Merisa. I just got off the phone with Gary and he's still not finished up with his work that he needs to get done before he goes. I'm going a little crazy sitting around the apartment so I'm heading out solo in the morning. It's going to be me, my camera, and the Little Red Rocket filled to the gills with camping gear.

Over the last few days I've been packing up everything I need and dumping it in the living room. Looking at everything spread out over the floor, I was getting nervous that it wouldn't all fit! For those of you who don't know, I have a '09 Honda Fit which is surprisingly roomy for a sub compact, but it's still a darn small car.



But after some careful packing (actually stuffing) the car I think it's all going to fit. I still need to throw the cooler and my bag full of clothes in, but that should be easy.





Oh yeah, I picked up a new backpack to carry all my camera gear. I'm really liking it! I can carry all my lens, my extra camera body plus all the supporting crap and a laptop in this beast. It's one heavy SOB though with all that gear in there. Should be able to burn off a few pounds while hiking with it, or just die of a heart attack. :)



OK, that's about all for now. I'm on the road in the morning and will be updating on facebook and tweeting if you want to follow along. My facebook profile is on the right along with my Twitter account.

IT'S FINALLY HERE!

As I'm typing this June 5th, 5:00 PM will have passed and I'm officially on sabbatical. Holy crap it feels good! Time to head to the bar with some friends and celebrate!

Running Out of Time!

It's already Thursday and tomorrow's my last day before my sabbatical starts. I'm supposed to get this stinking test put together and shipped off and nothing is working right. I've been working some late hours this week trying to get this thing finished, but I'm running out of time. I can always have my counterpart in Malaysia take care of the work, but I really wanted to get as much done as possible before.

I'm so busy I had to miss my salsa dance lesson last night... Sorry Rachel for leaving you hanging like that!

Next week I'm planning to head out on the road on Wednesday, June 10th. So this weekend it's gathering up my last minute supplies and getting everything ready for the road. First stop is the Crater Lake area for some hopefully beautiful pictures. Then I'll go visit the Oregon Caves and whatever else is interesting in the area. Gary and Merissa aren't planning to take off until the weekend of June 13th, so I'll be meeting up with them somewhere in southwest Oregon. From there we're heading into the northern California Redwoods.

Well, this conference call I'm currently in is about done. Need to head back into the lab to work on some issues. Only 1 day, 5 hours and 30 minutes until 9 Weeks of Freedom!

Test blog

Testing out the email function of my blog. It seems that I can post a
blog from any email address. I guess I could use my iPhone to send off
a quick blog if I really needed to, buy typing on this iPhone isn't
exactly easy sometimes.

8 days....

I thought the short timers was bad before, well it's even worse now! 8 days and counting!

A friend of mine here at work just sent me an email saying, "I want to hear more about your trip preparations.". Well, right now there isn't a whole lot of preparation work to be done. Since I like to go camping a couple times a year, I already have most of my camping equipment. It's just a matter of throwing it in the car and hitting the road.

I did pick up a new sleeping bag and portable gas grill/stove at Costco the other day. The cool thing about the sleeping bag is that there are zippers on the sides to open up vents for warmer climates, or just keep them zipped up for the colder weather. I figured that would come in handy. Sure the weather is most likely going to be warmer, but you never know.

Another preparation for my Colombia trip is Salsa dance lessons. :) Yep, I've been learning how to dance.... It's actually a lot of fun plus it can't hurt to know some basic moves. You never know when it might come in handy. ;)

Well, that's all for now. Need to try to get my mind back on work and finish what needs to be done before I take off.

Time seems to be standing still

So, you know how I said in my last post that the days were flying by? Well that went out the window this week. I guess I must be having short timers 'cause I'm quickly going insane sitting at my work desk. At least it's a 3 day weekend so I have some time off.

There's a small update to the road trip itinerary. A buddy of mine from back in Hood River, OR now lives in Las Vegas. Since it looks like I'll be driving though, I figured I'd stop by and say "hi". I haven't seen him in a couple of years, so that's going to be cool. Maybe I'll get a bit of gambling in while I'm there, who knows.

I'm also adding another camping trip to the schedule of activities when I get back from Colombia. No big road trip or anything, just a week or so of camping and fishing up by Mt. Adams with some friends. I can't think of any better way to recover from being on the road for a month and a half then a relaxing week camping next to a high mountain lake fishing every morning. Here's a picture I took last year of the lake we're planning to camp at.



Well that's all for now. Just a couple more weeks and it all starts!

19 days and counting!

My sabbatical is quickly coming upon me. I thought that the days would drag by, but lately I’ve been so busy at work I hardly think about it. I’m sure the closer it gets, the longer the days will seem.

So, the big question everyone has been asking me is, “What are you going to do with all that time off?”. That question is easy enough to answer, I’m going on a photography expedition! As my good friends know, I love photography and traveling. As for deciding where to go on this expedition has been, to say the least, difficult. First I wanted to go to Australia and New Zealand, then I changed my mind and was planning to go to Tibet. After that, I thought about back packing through Europe. But in the end, I figured I’d stay for most of it here in the States and a short side trip to South America.

I know what you’re thinking, why stay in the States? Well, I’ve been fortunate to have a job which has sent me all over the world. I’ve been to China, Puerto Rico, Ireland, UK, Brazil, Hong Kong and Malaysia. All of these countries have been great and I would love to see more of the world, but there is SOO much of the U.S. that I haven’t seen. This is the perfect chance for me to see some of the great national parks of the U.S.

So, I don’t have an agenda set in stone, I like to have a loose schedule with general targets of areas I want explore. I plan to pack up the car with a tent, sleeping bag, camping supplies and of course my camera/netbook and just drive. With that said, here’s some places that I’d like to see:

• Crater Lake Sure, It’s close to home but it’s on the way.
• Northern California Redwoods I haven’t been here since I was in middle school.
• Yosemite National Park I’ve been told you can’t go to Cali without seeing Yosemite.
• Sequoia and King Canyon
• Death Valley It’s on the way to Southern Utah / Northern Arizona so I might as well drive through.
• Zion It seems not a lot of people have heard of this park in South Eastern Utah but I’ve been told it’s well worth the trip.
• Bryce Canyon I’m drooling over the sunrise / sunset photo possibilities here.
• Grand Canyon It’s big, enough said.

It’s a lot to see in around 4 weeks, hopefully I’ll have enough time!

After my big road trip, it’s off to Bogota Colombia for my good friends, Sylvia and Hernan’s wedding. This will be my first trip to Colombia and I’m really excited about it. There is a group of us gringos going and we’re planning to share an apartment while we’re there. The cool thing is that I used airline miles to purchase my tickets. 75 bucks to fly to Bogota is pretty darn good if you ask me.

Anyways, thanks for checking out my blog and I hope you stick around for this great adventure of mine. I’m planning to blog as much as possible, but considering I’ll be camping for most of the trip, the posts will come in bunches whenever I find an internet connection.