Great Texas Balloon Race: Special Shapes

July 27, 2018 by Michael

It is that time of year. Once again, the Great Texas Balloon Race comes to the local area! I’ve missed it the last two years but not this year!

I woke up early this morning and headed to Longview to get some shots of the special shape Yoda balloon. Being a long time Star Wars fan (let’s not talk about the latest ones), I looked forward to getting some pictures of the venerable old Jedi Master.

I arrived just in time and the balloon crew arrived soon afterwards. They first stretched the balloon out across the field and all you could see was green material. It didn’t take long using a regular fan to start pumping air into the material and then came the fire!

As the hot air from the fire was pumped into the balloon the material began to lift up and no longer needed to be held up by hands.

Soon, the hot air in the balloon began pulling upward enough that the basket was set upright, almost as if by some hidden “force” was at work. 🙂

Soon, Master Yoda was awake and looking over the crowd of those who came to pay homage.

While I was there, one lucky young man got a quick ride off the ground. I’m not sure if he was happy or scared.

As I left, Yoda looked down and gave me an approving smile. At least I think it was a smile.

Then, just as I thought I was done, I looked up to see that there were many more of the “regular” balloons that were flying over Longview, so I had to make a couple of stops to catch them.

And I wasn’t the only one taking photos of the colorful balloons in the sky.

Tomorrow I’ll be getting up extra early as the balloonists will be competing for their accuracy challenge. Stay tuned for more photos!

All words and photos copyright 2018 MHampton Photography
Equipment used: Canon 1DX Mark II, Canon 24-70L 2.8

Alaska Cruise 2017: Part Eight – Day at Sea and Final Destination

May 25, 2017May 25, 2017 by Michael

It has finally come–our final day aboard ship. This will be a full day at sea with only minimal view of land. We take this opportunity to sleep in a bit and then get breakfast. When we return we see the last of our towel sculptures for the trip–a heart! Our cabin stewardess was excellent on this trip. She saw to our every need promptly and completely. I should have gotten her photo, but I didn’t think about it.

Ventures onto the deck provided this scene pretty much the entire day. There would be briefings about debarkation procedures and such to attend, and just general relaxing aboard the ship.

One event that we did attend was an ice carving demonstration. This guy was pretty amazing.

He started with a simple block of ice and just started chipping away.

I know that by this point I would have shattered the entire block into nothingness, but he appears to know what he is doing.

Looks like wings. Maybe an angel or a bird?

Jen, the cruise director, pumps up the crowd as he continues his work. The ice is starting to take shape.

Yep, it is starting to look more like an eagle at this point. Do you see the head and beak in the front?

Now the feathers of the wings are taking shape.

And the final product, done in just 23 minutes. Again, I would have a bag of shaved ice left! Incredible!

Checking the view, pretty much the same as before, lots of water, sky, and clouds. Still gorgeous though.

Land ho! Finally, off in the distance I see my beloved mountains! According to the GPS tag of the photo, we are still far enough north that those are Canadian mountains.

But the sun is setting and its time to make sure everything is packed for debarkation. The night is uneventful and when we wake up in the morning I get my first view of Seattle Washington. Yep, there’s the Space Needle! I’ve always wanted to see that!

And there is Mount Rainier! I’ve always wanted to see that as well!

And here they both are together. This is one of those places that is on our list for a return trip where we can spend time. This is not that trip. Duty calls and we must return to our real lives as ordinary workers in the system.

So, with that, it was time to pack up the cameras and prepare for the customs, TSA adventure. It will be nowhere near as exciting as the last few days, but it must be done. By tonight we’ll be back in our own bed in Overton, Texas. It will be many more days before the swaying sensation goes away but hopefully the memories made on this trip will never recede.

Thank you for coming along with us on our trip. I hope that you enjoyed the stories and photos. Watch this site in the future as many of the photos taken on the trip, some shown here and others not, will be made available for sale. Buy them and help pay for our next adventure. If you do, I’ll be sure to share those memories with you as well!

Thank God for the beautiful places to see!

Until next time…

All words and photos copyright 2017 MHampton Photography
Equipment used: Canon 5DS-R, Canon 7DmII, Canon T6S, and various Canon lenses

Alaska Cruise 2017: Part Seven – Ketchikan Alaska

May 23, 2017 by Michael

Today is our last port-of-call–the city of Ketchikan. Alaska. We were told that the name Ketchikan is a native word that means “Land of a thousand jewelry stores”. I’m not sure I believe that, but for the size of the town, they certainly have their fair share. They even have a Walmart. We did not go but I did overhear one of the passengers from the boat asking where to catch the “Walmart shuttle”.

We woke pretty much with the sun, as we have most of these mornings and found that we were pulling into the bay. Karen captured this lighthouse as we passed by.

We were told that Ketchican is in the world’s 2nd largest rain forest, the Tongass National Forest. It is actually the largest remaining temperate rainforest. That being the case, we should expect wet weather here. As we get nearer the port, it is certainly more green here than our last two ports.

And yet, the mountains and the clouds, open to show bits of blue sky as we progress through the channel.

Once we arrive in port we disembark for our tour.

This stop we have chosen the Rainforest Wildlife Sanctuary, Eagles, & Totems tour. It promised a “guided nature hike, bald eagles, Alaskan reindeer, native totem carver and historic sawmill, at an exclusive reserve by the forested mountains”. Our nature hike lead us through parts of the rainforest with the guide explaining interesting facts along the way, for instance, this is skunk cabbage. The name itself is enough reason for me to not eat it though it can be eaten if prepared right. If it isn’t prepared correctly, you could die. So…

There are lots of red pine trees, some of which are decaying. This is actually good for the forest as the dirt here is very thin. The roots of the trees spread out, but without much depth, the trees can blow over in heavy winds. This rotting tree will help create more soil.

As you would expect in a moist environment, moss and other fungi readily grow.

Here, the moss and fungi are helping to break down a tree that has fallen into much needed soil and nutrients for other plants.

Pointing out how the root structures of the trees adapt to the shallow soil, our guide does some explaining.

This is also a wildlife sanctuary. Here we see signs of bear in the area! Maybe we’ll get lucky!

This beautiful flower is the “Chocolate Lily“. The “rancid smell and dark color of the flower attracts flies for pollination”, according to a sign here. I didn’t bend over to smell it.

The root system of the trees can also be used as a small den for bears in the winter. This one was empty at the moment.

Looks like someone didn’t prepare well enough for the winter. Ah, the circle of life.

Well, they did promise Bald Eagles here. This one was still quite a ways away, but I’ll take what I can get.

And then as we rounded a corner, the grand prize! A bear in the woods! This black bear was looking for food, and since they mostly eat vegetation and fish, we’re not too worried, but cameras are a snappin’!

One thing with nature photography, many times you take what you can get. The bear never came out for a nice clean portrait, but at least I got both eyes in this shot. The guide hurried us along so not too many people would be congregated in one spot. This was not a photography tour after all.

Another part of this location was a raptor rehab center. They had a few birds but of course I focused on the eagle. Just look at the talons on that thing! That’s a human hand it is perched on.

And even though it is a captive, I figure that the way things are going, this will be the only close-up shot I get of the eagle’s eye, so I take it.

They also have a gentleman here who is carrying on the native tradition of passing down stories through the use of totem poles. If you remember from day 1, these poles are used to tell stories, either historical or fiction. Each face represents a character in the story and the only person who knows the story is the builder. At least until the time comes to raise the pole in a ceremony, at which time he recounts the story to all who are there.

Once we left there, we headed back into town to see what Ketchikan was like. I told you that they get a lot of rain. This is their yearly rain gauge. In 1949 they had 202.55 inches of rain. According to this, last year they had about 170 inches! According to the sign, average yearly rainfall is 12.5 feet per year. That’s a lot of rain!

We hadn’t taken a lot of “tourist” shots, so here’s the Welcome to Ketchikan sign–“The Salmon Capital of the World”. I didn’t eat any salmon but I did have some fish-n-chips while here, but I ate those for the halibut. LOL

A monument to the men and women who came here seeking their fortunes. Some found what they were looking for, many didn’t.

Our ship is almost the length of downtown. It strikes an imposing figure in the background.

And for many of the women who came, they ended up here, the red-light district of the gold rush. They even have a girl in costume at Dolly’s. Notice how the row is built on a pier?

And note the sign at Dolly’s…

Being more interested in eagles, I found one on a radio tower. We were still disappointed that they were not everywhere like we had been told, but speaking with an older native gentleman who was walking along the sidewalk, he told us that they gather there in the mornings to fish. So, going back to one of my first statements in the first post, a cruise is not the best vacation for pure wildlife photography because you have little to no control over your schedule, but it certainly does give us ideas for future adventures.

This is what the first few main streets of town are built over. Not earth, a pier. We were told that during prohibition, bootleggers would smuggle booze into the bars in the red-light district by going under the streets of the city and then come up through the floors.

Here’s one of the many jewelry shops in town.

And sometimes, even my beautiful wife has had enough of the lens.

Back on board, we are greeted by a towel-monkey! Yet another creative use of towels by the Carnival stewards.

As we set sail, we bid farewell to Alaska. We won’t be setting foot on its land again this trip. Maybe someday soon once again we will get to come and spend more time.