Needle in the night

Night piercing amour
The Seattle Space Needle in the night is a beautiful site. It pushed the limits of my camera to get this pix though. We were staying a few miles away and it was a landmark for getting around. I tried shooting it a few nights while we were there. The Needle was the tallest building west of the Mississippi when it was built. And, since you asked, No, I did not get up the courage to go up it.

Click on their web site above, they have a neat web cam that you can spin around and view the whole of Seattle.

--steve buser

The fun never stops

Birds wait for food to be tossed into the air. The ducks wait for it to fall. People face in the wind, staring out at the boats in the bay grabbing the wind.

This is all why the Kemah Boardwalk is one of my favorite spots -- activity is buzzing around you on several levels. But each actor knows his part. "The fun never stops."

Kemah is just south of Houston along Galveston Bay. The Boardwalk is lined with great restaurants and there are rides for the kids. In the middle is a hotel looking down on a courtyard where bands keep the buzz going as kids splash in the dancing water spouts.

Great fun.

-- steve buser

Country spirit

Anybody home?
Was the church abandoned? It appear that is was. But the grass was neatly groomed.

In any case, it was on a lonely country curve miles from the nearest town . Next to it was the cemetery. Where church members were laid to rest. Kind of a traditional thing, and not just for the Deep South.

But was the church abandoned? Or does the spirit still live?

People sometimes abandon churches, but does God?

--steve buser

March of time

Wandering the back road a few weeks back I cam upon this house out in cotton country near Simmesport, LA. Probably and old share croppers home. The weather-worn look just have a nostalgic feel to me. As we march through time, technology by technology, we leave behind things that were once active and useful. We leave our past to the elements.


-- steve buser

Sun worshiping

This sun worshiping perennial was on the side of the road at J.J. Mayes Wildlife Trace just to the east of Houston, Texas, when I stopped there several years ago. The nature preserve is on the Houston side of the bridge over the San Jacinto River near Wallisville.


--steve buser

Don't tell

Uncovering secrets.
Don't tell.
It's dark, nobody will notice.
You remember when you were a kid and were just so fascinated with things, that sometimes it was worth getting in trouble just to find out what made that fancy Christmas gadget work. Here, Our grandson, Sullivan, does a a covert operation in stealth mode in the darkness.

Paw Paw sits in the shadows unnoticed, gathering photographic evidence.

Don't tell.

--steve buser

Lagniappe

Icons on icons

Two well known icons, with their icons on top of the icons -- Grand Central Station and the Chrysler building in New York City. The John Donnelly Company did the statue at the top of the station . Fleet-footed Mercury (messenger of the gods and god of abundance and commercial success) stands tall in the middle, flanked by Hercules (renowned as having "made the world safe for mankind" by destroying many dangerous monsters")and Minerva (who was noted goddess of wisdom, commerce, crafts and more),

The Art Deco Chrysler Building, opened in 1930, remains the worlds tallest brick building. The 125-foot spire was actually built inside the building to keep it a secret until it was hoisted into place.

--steve buser

The clock's stuck on five

The beach. The sun. The life. Cozumel here. One of the commercial beaches. Umbrellas ready. Drinks and eats a few steps away. Blues. Every color of them. But no one can mimic the color of the ocean. Azure blue. Turquoise blue. Clear blue. All in one. And its always five o'clock.


--steve buser

Getting nosy

Our grandson, Sullivan, is excited and at the same time unsure, as an elephant gets a little nosy. Still, the rest of the day he kept talking about how he and his Nanny touched the nose of an elephant at the Texas Renaissance Festival near Plantersville (don't ask me where we were, just go to their web page).

It was and exciting day seeing, jousting, and knights and a medieval sights of every variety.

--steve buser

Last rays, last pumps

Central Park. New York. Chilly Day. Dusk just around the corner.

The dark filters first down into the tree shaded jaunts of City Park. Buildings around the park soak up all they can of the last rays. Our hero here, the skater on the bottom, has a open road as he gets his last muscle-hurting pumps in before retiring for the night.

--steve buser

Sundown, lights up

I was very conflicted here. I was trying to capture the lights on the courthouse in Marshall, Tx. But there was also this wonderfully pink sunset that was setting up in the distance. Finally I decided to see if I could get the two in the same picture. Voila!.

--steve buser

The dragon riding hero

You want to talk about real bravery?


Try grabbing on to the back of a fire-breathing, roaring dragon who then gyrates, slaps his tail, flails and humps his back over and over in circles to fling you off. Look, the dragon's smiling. He loves this. Throwing off little children.


A real dragon rider does it all with a smile, too, thank you. Bravery is enjoying this and getting off the dragon and back on again. Over and over. This may look like the little boy that sleeps in your house. But inside his mind awakes Sullivan, Dragon Rider Extraordinaire.


By the way, Sullivan, Dragon Rider Extraordinaire -- the one in the front -- is our grandson who was displaying his dragon-taming talents to us the other day when we were with him and his mom at a fair in College Station, Texas. Suddenly this dragon lands in the middle of the place and we did not know what to do. To the rescue.... you know the rest.


--steve buser

Spinning down

I am totally convinced that the sky likes to play with rustic things. Even in this case, where the windmill was totally ornamental. The spinning toy tower sat out in front of a miniature golf course. But what did the sky know? It just saw a windmill and said "that would look neat with some bright pastels and some glowing highlights. So, one night the sky showed off its work -- I happened to be passing by and caught it with my glass eye.

--steve buser

Mud Show

The Mud Show at the Texas Renaissance Festival near Houston is a perennial favorite.. We were at the festival recently -- our last time there was about 10 years ago. But, to our surprise, the Mud Show was still there. Still the same. Still the same mud bathers. Still as funny as ever.


--steve buser

This is your New York

Okay, I tried. I admit it wasn't for long, but I did try. I resisted the urge. But it was too strong. I mean the poster was sitting right there. I had to find a little bit of a oblique angle to make it work but that wasn't hard. And suddenly, I had the shot. New Yorkers. Watching the ice skaters at Rockefeller plaza. This is your New York. -- indeed.

--steve buser

Kid shapes

Did you ever notice that different shapes of people's space? Adults keep their hands in, their feet under them. Kids run with their hands flailing, hair blowing, and legs shooting forward.

This picture was taken in College Station, TX -- we took our daughter and grandson (Sullivan) to one of those parking lot fairs with all the rides. You know, the buy-a-bracelet-and-ride-all-the-rides variety. Sullivan took full advantage of the that -- five hours worth. It was a beautiful, cool, breezy day. One of those kind you remember forever.

--steve buser

Neither lights, nor bustle, nor pizazz shall keep...

Times Square, asplash with color and lights and glitter. Filled with the brushing and bustling of tourists caught up in the awe. But remove the lights, tone down the pizazz and behind it all, live goes on. Needs get meant. In the center of all this? FedEx delivers another package.


-steve buser

Marshalling interest

Christmas brings out the best even in courhouses, as the Marshall, TX, Courthouse gives evidence to in this photo. The lights are a favorite a tourism attraction in the region. It is a great advertising for their bus tour of Christmas lights through the town.

-- steve buser

Wave watching

Curiosity. That's all it was.

I watched this guy wander (wonder) down across the rock outcropping to where the waves were practicing slam dunks. He was making a pretty good pace, bouncing from foothold to foot hold, then slowed, trying to find the closest place that was still out of read of the splashes.

The scene is in at the beach front in Cozumel.

--steve buser

Into the heart of the sunset

Heading into the sunset over the I- 10 Atchafalaya Basin crossing at Whisky Bay. The bridge is about a 25-mile crossing of the swampy basin. The Atchafalaya River is sister to the Mississippi in the Southern part of Louisiana. It would love to carry all of the Mississippi River's water to the Gulf, were it not for a gate structure built by the Corps of Engineers to prevent that.


I guess if that ever were allowed to happen, this bridge structure would have to be twice as long.


--steve buser

Coming in

It's been a fun day. The sun has baked your skin and the wind has been brushing past it all day long. But it's time to call it a day. Turn on the motor and lower the sail as you steer slowly back to the channel that brought you here. Your fellow sailors and captains line up in front of you and behind you -- it's their quitting time, too.

This is a shot from the Boardwalk in Kemah, Texas just south of Houston. Hundreds of boats pass by each day heading out from the Clear Lake area into the Galveston Bay for a day of sailing or speeding cross the waves.

--steve buser

Catching Crabs

It was early morning and this young man in Guatemala had just got started on task fo catching crabs. But he pulled along side us and pulled out one to show us. We had landed at Puerto Santo Thomas de Castillo and were heading down the Rio Dulce.

--steve buser

Horn-heavy

This friendly creature is from the South Texas State Fair in Beaumont Texas. This particular year was the first year the fair was held at the new Ford Park.

Seems long-horn cattle are a source of pride in the Lone-Star state.

--steve buser

Walk-on ...rather .. . Fly-on appearance

Seems like everybody wants to be part of the drama. After all, this is the Big Apple. The two feathery thespians hope to be discovered by an impromptu appearance at the statue at the entrance to Central Park in New York City.

--steve buser

Real real

I don't know why they call it make-believe because it's as real as they get. When a young kid gets a new toy that really sparks his imagination he enters a world more real and alive than the... how do you say it... more real than the "real" one. He creates all the action, all the rules, all the drama. And it spills out into his toys as they come alive in his mind.

This is a shot of my grandson, Sullivan, enjoying new toys on his birthday. If you don't know the names of these "guys" you have to go back to play school -- your assignment is to Yahoo "Lightning McQueen."


--steve buser

Sprayed on fun

This is the Spray Park in Groves, Texas, a favorite for kids (and for moms and dads). As you can see the splashing action just encompasses the whole space.

Where is this splashy space? Here

--steve buser