July 4, 2012 Celebration

Spent this afternoon with Barrett, Kristin, and Ryan Rose.  Cooked some burgers had some laughs.  Then tonight we walked (along with Alley) downtown to watch the fireworks.  I love living this close to downtown, especially on days like this.  It was a nice walk both ways and it was even nicer not to have to worry about traffic.  

The fireworks were great as usual!  Here are a few shots I got of the evening.

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Nashville Zoo

So my friend Andrea has season passes to the Nashville Zoo.  She takes her niece, Alex all the time.  Yesterday I tagged along.  It was fun.  The animals are always interesting to watch.  I didn't get a lot of photos but I did get a few that I liked.

The birds were gorgeous.

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Hidden Treasures

It is always nice to get something like this from someone interested in my photography.  I'm just waiting for the day when they want to start paying me!  ha ha ha.

"Hi Paul,
I am the graphic artist for Appalachian Voices. We are a Non-Profit Environmental Organization in Boone, North Carolina. Currently we are working on our upcoming issue of our newspaper which features Pickett State Park as a "Hidden Treasure" of Appalachia. We saw that you had a couple photos of the Twin Arches in Pickett State park and I was wondering if we could use one of them within our issue. We will give credit to you in the issue as well. Feel free to email me back at meghan@-----------.org if you have any questions. Thank you! -Meghan"

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Hull Lake- at Defeated Creek

Did a little camping on Hull Lake just outside of Carthage, Tennessee on Friday night with some East Nashville friends.  We came back early because there were storms coming in, and we didn't think it would be that practical (or fun) to be in a tent when they hit.  Here are a few images I took on a short hike we had Saturday morning.  I love all the green this time of the year.

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Sunset on Percy Priest Lake

So I saw some photographs taken at Percy Priest Lake here in Nashville while looking through one of my groups on Flickr.  I asked the guy who took them where on the lake he had been when he took them.  He responded that it was at Hurricane Creek.  So I looked it up on the map and headed there with my GPS on Sunday, April 29.  The sunset was striking to say the least.  The colors changing as the sun sank down past the horizon.  Gorgeous and a peaceful evening.
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Driving from Beatty, NV to Kingman, AZ

One of the best things about being out West is that there is so much space. You can see forever when there are no trees to block the view. Wide open spaces also mess with estimating distances...because you can see things that are far away, but they seem much closer...until you try to get to them and what looks like a 30 minute drive is more like a 90 minute drive. It is gorgeous though and it doesn't get boring driving through all of the scenery.
Here are some photographs from my drive from Beatty, NV to Kingman, AZ, which took me right by the Hoover Dam about 30 minutes outside of Las Vegas.
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The Grand Canyon & Death Valley

This Spring Break I took off to the WEST again! I flew into Las Vegas on Saturday night March 31 and got the rental car and headed to Beatty, NV. It is a little town outside Death Valley, California.
After a good night's sleep headed to Death Valley the next morning. It was breathtaking to say the least. It reminded me of Yellowstone because of all the variety of landscape to see.
I drove over to Kingman, AZ on Monday and spent the night there. The next morning (Tuesday) got up and headed to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon (which was about a 3 hour drive). I've not been to the Grand Canyon in about 10 years or so...but it never disappoints. It never looks real even when one is standing there looking at it.