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