A strange combination of signs.

Blacksmith shops are hot and smoky. Not to mention noisy and dusty. But I'm not sure I understand why a little tobacco smoke mixed in with all that coal smoke would make a lot of difference. Picture made in Nova Scotia.

This is a scar on the side of the cruise ship after we passed through the Panama Canal. I guess we kissed a lock wall. Anyway, I photographed the scar as we got off the ship in the next port. Later, as we got back on board it had been painted over. I suppose kiss-marks like that are something of an embarrassment to the crew.

We passed through those locks with only inches to spare, so it's not surprising that we ran out of room once.

Rabbit

This could be an eye test. There was a rabbit sitting in the leaves over by our garden. He watched me closely, just so I wouldn't get to close. After a while, I went back to the house for the camera and he was still there when I got back. I think he was aware that he was not easy to see. I took the picture without a flash and went about my business of hauling mulch in a wheelbarrow. After a while I noticed that he was gone.

I can't explain this one.

I need a little help here. This was painted on the side of a store building on the island of Aruba. Nothing in it makes any sense to me. The people are all dressed in cream colored or white clothing. Does that indicate different gender? They wear masks, and cone-head hats. The small people seem to be children that look like undersized adults. Some are eating and drinking and there is a pile of cards visible that indicates somebody has been playing cards. Are they drinking milk and eating honey, or could that be wine and cheese? Only the dog looks normal. A little help?

Mums at Dollywood

Dollywood, in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, is known for music, rides, good food, and downhome folks, but when I think of it, I think of flowing water and flowers.

Ship on the Rocks

So how does a ship get that far up on the rocks? There I was out in the Arizona desert and this ship was sitting up there on the mountain side. As you may have guessed, it's a big ship with 14 decks and it's parked in a cove similar to the one at the right. You can only see a few of the upper decks. Oh, I made up the part about Arizona. It's in the Caribbean. I like pictues that fool your eye.

Beauty and the Beach

In Aruba there is a stone arch that was cut out by wave action. Here, you can see the waves breaking on a beach behind the arch. The lady in the picture just walked into my shot. I didn't even know she was there. No, seriously. It was pure accident, she just walked in as I clicked the shutter. Have I ever lied to you?

Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

Willette almost matches the flowers in Nova Scotia. She never liked this picture because the bright sun makes her face look all scrunched up. But the colors are great. Flowers in Nova Scotia just seem to explode.

Storm Over Panama

I took this shot of a storm forming over the Panama Canal. Heavy rains provide the water to operate the locks. Hydrolectric power is used to move lock gates and the electric "mules" that tow ships through the locks. The ship was on Lake Gatun, waiting to enter a lock. The jungles are thick and dark. For scale, you might see a man in a row boat to the left.

Maxine, Howard, and Bunny

In 1944, World War II was still raging in Europe and the Pacific, but in Hazard, Kentucky, my two sisters and I were dressed up for church. We don't look like that now, but when we get together, we are just like kids again.

I still wonder what ever happened to that Ford Coupe in the back ground.

Note: You can click on any of these pictures to see them full screen.

Columbus statue

This statue of Columbus is near the waterfront in San Juan Puerto Rico.

Underneath an old timer.

This is the bottom of a new Cushman motor scooter that has been sitting in a crate since 1947. Maybe 0 miles, is better than calling it new. It's 59 years old, as I sit here posting this picture. Somehow, probably as a dealership closed, it got shuffled aside and was discovered in storage by a collector.

It's the kind of thing collectors dream about. Any unopened container that has been sitting that long is likely to contain some kind of treasure. I haven't found mine yet, but I'll keep looking.

A really old motor scooter.

This unrestored motor scooter is an Autoglide, the forerunner of the Cushman. It was built in Lincoln, Nebraska, circa 1940. It appears to have several horns.

vintage Chevrolet

I saw this classy old Chevy at an apple orchard in the Smoky Mountains in November of 2005.

Loudon County Sunrise

I was still half asleep when I took this picture of the sun rising in January of 2006. It was taken through the woods behind our house. But I think the trees add to it.

White rocks and flowers

This is a little rock garden beside our garage. White limestone is scarce in this area, so I hauled the rocks home from Rutherford County. The area is shady, so we used shade loving plants. I took the picture this morning. (July 24, 2006)

Highlander

This is a 'possum's eye view of a Cushman Highlander model 721 coming at you. The picture was made at a scooter meet in Georgia. I'm not sure what the model year of this scooter is, but I have a very similar Highlander that was built in 1961.

14,400 feet above sea level

This is the summit of Mt. Rainier in Washington. This is about as far up the dormant volcano as you can get in a car. We were there the day before the terrorists hit New York City on 9-11. They say none of us will ever forget where we were during that awful time. Our flight was canceled, so we had to drive our rental car all the way back to Tennessee. Even under the circumstances, it was a great trip, that I will never forget.

Crepe myrtle tree

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bush! It's a shrub! It's a crepe myrtle so big it's a tree. In the right climate, shrubs can do that. This is in Georgia.

red leaves

This is a common site in Blount County, Tennessee. Picture made in the fall of 2005.

Tourist

A typical tourist in a typical snapshot. Picture made in Skagway, Alaska. There are no roads to the state capital in Juneau, but if you are tough enough, you can drive to Skagway.

Tomato

This girl is no dummy. She is selling tomatoes. No, wait, she is a dummy. So is the tomato in her hand. I never figured out why she was there at the entrance to the casino on a cruise ship.

Dawson, West Virginia

This picture shows an old country store near my grandfather's house in West Virginia. His house is on the hill in the background. My first visit there was in 1942. He called the place "Weatherhill."

In 1959, I stopped there to see my grandparents and bought gas for my 1953 Packard, from the pump that you see in the picture. The store had no electricity, so the pump was hand operated.

Lighthouses in North Carolina

Three lighthouse pictures from the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The one in the middle is the Cape Hattarus light which was recently moved to a new location to escape beach erosion.

Kitty Hawk

The Wright Brothers' monument at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, where they made their first powered flight.

A Motel Cat

This cat came to visit us in our motel room in North Carolina. Because we were guests in her motel, she allowed us to pet her. She inspected our luggage and then left.

It was raining that day.

I love the Smoky Mountains when it is raining. I took this picture of a stream in Cades Cove on a rainy day. Water was running everywhere.

My scooters

Of all the scooter pictures, this one is my favorite. The scooter in the foreground is a 1947 Cushman. The one in the back is a 1963.

A Flower

This is one of the millions of flowers at Dollywood, in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

Edsel

Ford Motor Company built the Edsel about 1960. This rusty relic was spotted in Smithville, Tennessee. I hope someone has restored it by now.

Crosley station wagon

This was our family car in 1952. It's a Crosley. It was not very fast, but you could drive it more than a mile on a penny's worth of gas. That's me cleaning the windshield.

Model A Ford

Marianne, an internet friend, sent me this picture of her Grandfather's car. Fords like this were built from 1928 until 1931. Many of them are still running.

I like the garage in the background.

Unidentified school group

This picture of a school group was made by a photographer from Logan, Ohio. Clothing in the picture suggests the 1920's, but I have not been able to identify anyone in the picture. Can you help? Click the picture to enlarge.

Untied shoes

My mother always liked this picture of me. She said it was typical because I could never keep my shoes tied. This may have been my 8th birthday. Anyway it was taken in Hazard, Kentucky, just a few months before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.

That's me in the middle with George on the left and Bob on the right. (We called him Robert back then.) I have no idea who took the picture, but it must have been about 1950. That's the old high school building on Orange Avenue in Fort Pierce, Florida. The three of us still keep in touch.

A Toy Motor Scooter on a Mailbox

It's a neat little toy scooter, isn't it? Actually, it's really just an antique Cushman scooter parked in the yard. I lined it up with the top of the mailbox and shot the picture. It's a 1947 model. In the computer age, I could have done it all electronically, but this is trick photography the old fashioned way.

The Setting Sun

Sunsets and sunrises make great photos. Here, the sun sets over Tampa, Florida.

Twins

These twin waterfalls are on Kauai. They show up on TV all the time. I recently saw them as the background in a commercial. Kauai, is the last major island at the northwestern end of the Hawaiian chain. It's cliffs and beaches have starred in many a movie.

I see a face.

This is a cruise ship named "Disney Magic." From this perspective, I see a face.

A Red Church

The color of this red church in Costa Rica suggests brick, but the exterior is actually welded steel plates with a rust-proof primer on it. It is known simply as as "The Steel Church."

A Wooden Lighthouse

Up in Nova Scotia, we found a neat little lighthouse made of wood.

Posing with her great-grandson.

Here is my wife's mother with her great-grandson.

An Old Picture

I didn't take this picture.

This is my wife's mother as a child. She recently celebrated her 90th birthday. I think she still very closely resembles this picture.

The Inside Passage

This is a cruise ship view of the Inside Passage, a beautiful waterway down the southern coast of Alaska. If you are not familiar with it, you need to look it up on a map.

Anybody Can Take Good Pictures

This is my first post. It looks like the last, but that is the way blogs work.

I have a method that is bound to produce a few good pictures. I take tons of them, and if 1% are good, and .001% are excellent . . . well, you get the idea. Anybody can do it that way.

I plan to post them here, in no particular order. Comments will be appreciated.

Here is one of my favorites. At first glance, you might think it was taken down south. But then you saw that little sign . . .
Howard