I take a lot of photographs. I guess that is because I like the artistic element along with it being a way to jog my memories....you see, many of my favorite pictures are in my head too. It's just that they get pushed aside by all the mundane work and life things that keep my life so busy.

So here are my favorite pictures with some descriptions (some might call it blabbering) and thoughts about them. I'm going to try to get to 100 pictures here...no more, no less. If I pick more, I think I'll stick them somewhere else. LOL, probably in "My Favorites 2".

I've set up five pages of "My Favorites" so the loading time is not so long. So each page will have 20 pictures on it. This is page one.

Aaahhh, a slight change already... I created a page for all the pictires of flowers that I selected. I don't think I'll put an explanation with each one. If you want to go there directly, it is at My Favorite Flower Pictures.

A quick note: To get started on this, I grabbed pictures from my SMALL directory - these are pictures I've posted somewhere on the web already, so I liked them at one time or another. I figured they would be a good place to start, rather than having to try to go thru all the different albums first. Without a doubt these will change as I do that.

Okay, I'm bending the rules already! This isn't even a picture! It's an anigif - my web symbol ( aka avatar ) that I use on the chat boards. Actually quite a few people know me by this. When we post, it's an easy way to see who wrote the response.

After a while you begin to identify the person by their avatar and board name...thus I am "Websailor", the computer nut busy typing on his PC.

To those who know me, it is quite fitting for me both in regards to my UNIX System Administration job and for the style I have on electronic forums/boards - knowledgeable about computers, helpful with technical things, but also humorous.

While this isn't the greatest photographically speaking, it is one that touches my soul. You could say it is symbolic for me about my whole life.

First of all, it is out in nature, the great outdoors, in the wild. You can't see any roads or other signs of civilzation about, but it doesn't have the feel that civilization is far away.

It's also clear that the two people, (me and my Mom, whom I love dearly and who did a wonderful job raising me, along with my Dad) are curious about something.

And it's adventurous. I'm standing right on the edge and probably could fall in if I make the wrong move. Yet I'm comfortable about that, I know my limits and I'm being careful not to get wet. There is balance between my inquiring nature and my actions.

You can also see the little kid in me... I still haven't completely lost that to adulthood and still enjoy playing.

This is my favorite wedding photo. It was taken in the courtyard at the Lafayette Park Hotel where we had our reception. It was a brief quiet time for us, I think the first one we'd had together since getting to the reception.

We still have the special "Love" champagne flutes in our hands (and I do love to drink champagne) and my sweetie is still looking just as beautiful as the first moment I saw her on this day.

I loved the way she had her hair up in the tiara, her makeup, her wedding dress, and dangly earrings.

But I loved the expression on her face so much more - she was very, very happy.

I love the humor in this picture!!!!

Alaska totem poles are wonderful to look at. When I took this picture I didn't know the kid on the bicycle was in it. I only saw that when I had it developed and of course, it was too late to do anything about it.

This is a totem at Saxman Totem Park, Ketchikan. This unusual totem recounts the story of a child held by a clam as the tide came in.

Here is more info about the Saxman Totem Park from Cape Fox Tours.

This is a mural painted on a wall by schoolchildren in Ketchikan, Alaska. It's one of those wonderful things you see when you go walking around, not on a guided tour.

To me this scene is wonderfully composed. The sled dogs draw my eyes in and I feel drawn into the picture. It makes me want to take a journey with them, wherever they are headed.

The rough texture of the wall makes the snow look more realistic.

Aaaahhh, steam engines! I love them! First of all they are big mechanical things. The sounds they make are awesome. The large ones humble you with their size and power.

This is White Pass & Yukon Railroad Engine #73. It was sitting there hissing steam, and chugging away, steam rising from the cylinders.

It was polished and looked newly washed. When I took the pictures, the white highlighting on the cylinders stood out and made the picture seem to be three dimensional, with the white lines not attached to the engine, but floating in space. Cool!

I took this while on an Alaksa Cruise. The sunset started out being very pretty around 11 p.m. I decided to wait until it set all the way.

The ship was slowly cruising between some mountains going up the Inland Passageway. It was quiet and fairly warm out, so it was a very comfortable time to be outdoors.

I kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting... Finally around 3 a.m., when this picture was taken, I gave up and decided to go to bed.

It was a glorious several hours of beautiful sunset, and there were quite a few other people out enjoying it also.

Tropical sunsets are so beautiful! I was so lucky to be at the right place at the right time as our cruise ship passed an inter-island freighter in French Polynesia just as the sun was setting.

If I remember correctly, that is Moorea in the background.

Looking carefully, you'll spot an automobile on deck. These small freighters are the primary way to move supplies to the islands.

This is such a peaceful serene setting, it makes me wish I were sailing away on board that vessel.

The chapel in Yosemite National Park in winter time. Lots of people get married here. I can see why.

This could make a nice Xmas card.

This just looks very pretty to me. It is a very romantic setting but suprisingly difficult to get a good picture of due to people (usually), the lighting (always a consideration in Yosemite) and the trees and brush around the chapel.

Below is a view of the chapel in summertime. It's still quite pretty, and with booming waterfalls that look like wedding veils, a lovely site to got married in.

Taken on a crusie ship (the Dawn Princess) as we approach the head of the bay. You can see a glacier coming down the mountain on the right.

The little bergie bits, as I call them, are all around and often have wildlife on them. The ship pushes them aside but the captain does avoid hitting the larger ones.

The picture does not do justice to the majestry in front of you. You don't get a good enough sense of the scale - these mountains and glaciers are large!

You also can't feel the bitter cold wind - while only a few hours ago, at the entrance to the bay, you were comfortable in short sleeves.

I like the people at the railing and the wake of the ship. This is another Alaska Cruise picture, traveling up the Inland Passage. The colors are okay and there is a nice depth to the picture.

Mostly I like it because it looks so quiet and peaceful.

This was one of those nights that I stayed up very, very, very late.

People often wonder what this is. It's a lucky picture!

It's lucky because I was able to capture the movement of train! It's looking down at the rails and the coupling betewen two passenger railroad cars on the White Pass & Yukon Railroad . It's a narrow gauge railroad linking the port of Skagway, Alaska with Whitehorse, the capital of Canada's Yukon Territory. The White Pass Trail was one of the two main passes used by prospectors during the Klondike Gold Rush.

I like the movement, the details of the linkage, and how it makes you wonder what it is.

This is looking up at a forming thunder cloud while hiking down in the trails of Bryce Canyon National Park. The colors and shapes of the eroding land are fantastic.

I like to frame things, and in this case, there is a convenient tunnel that the trail goes through that was aligned just right to show the people, the clouds, and a few of the hoodoos. These fantastic shapes have you looking everywhere as you walk along the rim or on the trails.

The people seem to be hurrying to get out of there, which is a good idea, because thunderstorms like this can cause flash floods in the canyons.

Trivia fact - Bryce Canyon National Park has a 7.4 limiting magnitude night sky! In most rural areas of the United States, 2500 stars can be seen on a clear night. At Bryce Canyon, 7500 stars can be seen twinkling in the void! How neat!!!!

Bryce Canyon, along with Zion and the Grand Canyon, are some of my favorite National Parks!

This is Thors Hammer at Bryce Canyon National Park. It is a noticable rock formation, and if you stay for a while at Bryce Canyon, you'll notice it looks different almost each time you look at it. That's due to the changing sunlight thoughout the day.

A legend of the Paiute Indians, who inhabited the area for hundreds of years before the arrival of European Americans, claims the colorful hoodoos are ancient "Legend People" who were turned to stone as punishment for bad deeds. Thors Hammer is one of those that almost looks like it has a face on it... It's a bit haunting.

It also looks like it could fall over almost any time. This tower is several hundred feet high.

If you keep looking at it, after a while you begin to see a face (or faces) in the rock... or maybe a body...there's something there...see, isn't that a crop of dark hair on top????

Sometimes I like to use elements in the nature around me to frame a shot. This is an example of that - while the tower is quite spectacular, when it has all the other colored rocks around it, it gets a bit lost. Frame it with the dark green trees and it really stands out.

In this case, the clouds help too, otherwise you'd have a big batch of boring blue sky!

Everywhere you go in Bryce Canyon, you see these beautiful spires and towers...and each day they look different and each hour of the day, as the sun (or even the moon!!!) puts light on them they have a different look. Your eyes feast on all the vibrant colors.

Bryce Canyon National Park is one spectacular place!!!!

And another example of framing - this one a bit deceptive.

At first it looks just like a big rock wall...but the texture in the middle is different.

Aaaahhhh, now we see - it's a hole in the wall and that is the background canyon wall that you are seeing.

That's pretty neat! What's that bright spot above the hole? Oooohhh, that's another hole and the sky and a few trees on the cliff top.

This location is called the "Natural Bridge" and is right next to the road. There are quite a few other holes in the walls that you can see also.

This is a Civil War Reenactment in Concord at the Naval Weapons Center. I like attending events such as this because I like history and I like to see the effort the people put into recreating past times.

And I like the cannons, and musket fire and charges....it's the little boy that still lives inside me!

The smoke from all the musket and cannon fire blurs the troops in the background so your eyes focus on the soldier with the raised pistol. They also get pulled to the right to see the soldier rushing to join the battle. Finally, they take in the whole scene and see the flags and the men on the ground and the advancing troops.

For me it's a very touching picture.

I'd love to be able to say I deliberately composed all this, but nope...it was a lucky shot - just being in the right place at the right instant.

The balancing rock at D. L. Bliss State Park, California. A blissful place indeed with beautiful Lake Tahoe right there.

Or is this a rock monster?

Every time I look at this picture, I see a face with a wide mouth and a black tongue sticking out.

It's all an illusion of how the the lighting plays on the surface of the rock.

Still it's very eerie to turn your back on this rock....you can almost feel it move when you are not looking!

You'll just have to visit it yourself and make up your own mind....

It's a great example (to me anyway) of taking a photograph of something ordinary, but making it not so ordinary.

This is a surreal looking picture to me, but the sand dunes in Death Valley National Park are surreal!

The light helps make this scene so good, the way there are sharp edges to the dunes, with bright sun lit sand on one side and dark shadows on the other.

These dunes are quite large and it takes some effort to get out to them. In the sun, on a hot day, they can be quite dangerous. But they are also fun to walk and play on. It's usually windy so all traces of your footsteps are wiped out in a few hours.

I can't help my eyes from following the crest line of the sand dunes back to the mountains.

A self portrait!

Death Valley National Park sand dunes....

I like the way the sand is sculpted into what look like endless waves on the ocean.

There was nobody else around to take a picture of me in the beautiful location, so I took one of myself!

I'm a little bit taller here than I am in real life

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