Reflection at Dawn

Reflection at Dawn
Originally uploaded by Kirk Howard

An early February snowy morning in Yosemite National Park. This is a photo from Stoneman Bridge take with my Panasonic Point n Shoot.

What attracted me to this image is the glassy calm of the Merced River and the dawn colors in the reflection.

Barque Eagle...

Once again my office window presents a unbelievable view. The USCGC Eagle is parked outside my office window at the moment here is a snapshot of the 295 ft. Barque class sailing vessel, ordered and commisioned by Adolf Hitler, built for Nazi Germany and used by the Third Reich as a training vessel.

Update-

The Festival of Sail starts today at 12 noon with a Parade of Tall Ships along the Bay – ending at the Bay Bridge at around 1 pm. It will be a great experience for you all to see. Take a look from your shop or office windows, stand along the bay side promenade to experience a majestic display of 32 Tall Ships!

Route & Parade Duration
These majestic marvels of medieval engineering, from ports of call all over the world, will make their way past thousands of spectators lining Crissy Field, Marina Green, Fort Mason, Aquatic Park, and locations all along the Embarcadero. The first vessel will pass under the Golden Gate Bridge at Noon. The Parade will last approximately 1 1/2 hours from start (at the Golden Gate Bridge) until the finish (Bay Bridge). Once the vessels pass under the Bay Bridge they will sail to their respective berths. Vessels will be open for tours beginning Thursday July 24th at 10:00 am.

For more information on touring vessels docked at Pier 3 just north of the Ferry Building – or activities at Justin Herman Plaza please visit: http://www.festivalofsail.org/schedule.asp

The World I See…

This morning I walked into work and we are having a little power outage. It has been very warm up here in Nor Cal for the past few days. I imagine it is taxing the power grid to the local utilities infrastructures limit.

I thought I would share with you an image I snapped with my point-n-shoot Panasonic that I always carry with me. I took this image at 6:00 AM while the lights were still out in the building. From my chair this is what I see when I look out the window.

It’s better then looking at a brick wall all day. What do you think?

Happy 4th of July...

"Pig" Would like to wish everyone a "Safe & Sane" Happy Independence day.

This photo was taken at the Alameda County Fair on Monday. Magellan and I had a great time talking with the students in the 4-H Live Stock area.

The students were of all ages and very eager to share their knowledge with us. Some of these kids were barely 80 pounds dripping wet and their "Pets" were six to nine months old and out weighed them by several hundreds of pounds.

They we're all busy cleaning, feeding and practicing for the show and auction. It was told to Magellan, by a very energetic young man (that reminded her of a Nephew), that a pig went for several thousands of dollars in last years auction. Whoa, that's an expensive piece of bacon.

We went camping. See you when we get back. Have a great holiday.

Buenos dias...

Good Morning,

Here I am at work waiting for the opening bell to ring. I looked out the bay window as the sun was rising, and this is what I saw @ 5:59AM.

“Hey Taylor” didn’t you say you wanted to see more boats?

Big Canoe...

I have been working here in San Francisco for almost seven months. This is one of the largest ships I have seen go past our window. I have a great view of the bay from our office and I can see the entire western span of the Oakland Bay Bridge.

This is an image I just took not more than five minutes ago. The vessel is the Alaskan Explorer. She is 941 feet long, or longer than three football fields. She has a 164 foot beam. Features a double hull to prevent the 1.3 million barrels of crude oil from leaking from her bowels.

Photo by: Kirk Howard Copyright© 2007

She was built in San Diego, California for the the BP Oil Shipping Company, USA. The Alaskan Explorer was delivered in 2005, and is the sister ship to the Alaskan Frontier. Both will be operated by SIU-contracted Alaska Tanker Co.