(Repost from 2013) My Heart Aimed Towards Africa: Stories From a Reluctant World Traveler – Part 1
This post was originally posted on January 9, 2013. As I prepare for a return trip, I thought I'd repost this. January 2013: An adventure is something you sit at home in your recliner and wish you were having. However, when you’re having it, you wish you were sitting...
Why it Took Me 2 Years to Make This Simple Bowl
Why did it take me 2 years to turn this simple bowl on a lathe? Here's the back story so it all makes sense. My son, Isaac, turned me on to turning wood a few years ago when he brought a lathe to my shop and the tools I needed to turn a pen. I argued with him, told...
The One Lane Bridges of Kauai: A Photographic Journal
Kauai is not a good place to be if you like to hurry. Even if you are accustomed to a frenetic lifestyle, Kauai has a way of taking that out of you. And if you don't give it up willingly, it just kind of forces it out of you. One of the most effective ways is to slow...
Photographing Limahuli Garden: A Travel Journal of Kauai
What would you load in a canoe if you were crossing the ocean to a place no one had ever been before? Somewhere around 300 A.D., people in the Marquesas Islands far more brave and far less equipped than Christopher Columbus 1,100 years later strapped two hand-hew...
Photographing Ke’e Beach: A Travel Journal to Kauai
I saw a real, live, mermaid the first time I was at Ke'e Beach along the north shore of Kauai ten years ago. Or, at least, she wanted to be one because she had fish scales tattooed over both legs from her bikini bottom to her ankles. I didn't have my...
Hiking to Hanakapiai Falls: Photography Journal of Kauai
Robert Frost's advice to choose the road less-traveled is seldom a good idea when it comes to hiking in a jungle. Choosing the path well-worn has more to do with common sense than being a rebel. There are so many great places to photograph in Kauai that it can be as...
How to Create WOW! with Photographs: Kauai Travel Journal
I want to teach you the simplest trick I know to make people ooh-and-ahh over your photographs. Want to know what it is? I go after the perfect photograph like a hunter going after a trophy to mount on a wall. If you ever go with me while I'm photographing, you will...
Kauai Travel Journal: A Brief History
I love history so before I travel to a destination, I read history books, pour over maps, watch documentaries and look at hundreds of photographs. I do that because history is about stories and stories give meaning. My favorite historical novelist is James Michener...
Kauai: A Travel Journal, Part 1
An adventure is something you sit at home in your easy chair wishing you were having, but when you’re having it, you wish you were sitting at home in your easy chair. My curiosity about the world began as a child watching slide presentations from missionaries visiting...
A Photo Journey: Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve
Put away your red slippers and Toto jokes; there really is no place like the Flint Hills of Kansas. My heart feels at rest when I'm there; this is my heart's home. Here's an excerpt from my soon-to-be-published novel, Voices on the Prairie: The wind lays soft against...