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White Sands NM

2009-09-28T11:16:00.001-07:00

White Sands NM
Originally uploaded by bdinphoenix

At the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert lies a mountain-ringed valley, the Tularosa Basin. Rising from the heart of this basin is one of the world's great natural wonders--the glistening white sands of New Mexico.

Great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand have engulfed 275 square miles of desert here and created the largest gypsum dune field in the world. The dunes, brilliant and white, are ever changing. They grow, crest, then slump but always advance.

Slowly but relentlessly the sand, driven by strong southwest winds, covers everything in its path. Within the extremely harsh environment of the dune field, even plants and animals adapted to desert conditions struggle to survive. Only a few species of plants grow rapidly enough to survive burial by the moving dunes, but several types of small animals have evolved white colorations to camouflage them in the gypsum sand.

White Sands National Monument preserves a major part of this gypsum dune field, along with the plants and animals that have adapted successfully to this constantly changing environment.

Click on the photograph to see a gallery of photos from White Sands National Monument.

--story from the NPS White Sands National Monument brochure

Taking in both sides of the health care debate.

2009-08-25T17:35:00.001-07:00

Health Care for All
Originally uploaded by bdinphoenix/

The sometimes raucous debate that is the reality of the national health care discussion came to Phoenix, Arizona, on Monday, August 17th. President Barack Obama came to Phoenix to deliver a speech at the VFW convention and his appearance assured that the pro national health care folks, as well as the anti national healthcare people, would be in attendance making their views known.

As is the norm in Phoenix in August, the temperature was close to 100 degrees, and that was at the 7am announced starting time. The high temperatures and the beginning of the work week probably conspired to hold down attendance for both sides, though there appeared to be far more pro healthcare advocates than anti ones.

Taking the new Phoenix light rail line to the rally not only saved on parking expenses but it also spared my having to drive in the brutal traffic in downtown Phoenix. Taking the train also meant I had to walk past the anti health care people’s meeting place, which was a restaurant with an outdoor pavilion. Conservative talk radio station KFYI was broadcasting from the site and as the antis sipped their coffee and munched on their breakfast bagels, they did not say anything to passersby but their signs were very visible and spoke volumes.

Carrying a professional camera, and wearing nothing that enabled either side of the healthcare debate to discern where my sympathies lay, I moved freely between both sides taking photographs and asking questions. I now know that someone who wants to know why either side has staked out the position they have, can learn a lot from talking to people at these rallies.

The competing signs make a silent shout for, or against, single payer national healthcare. People who are opposed to a government sponsored national healthcare plan refer to the government’s inability to efficiently run anything. They talk about the huge government deficit and how a national healthcare program will create greater deficits, thus leaving our children and grandchildren to shoulder a debt they will be unable to pay.

Some of the arguments on both sides of the issue are specious. The pro government healthcare plan people want healthcare and does not care what it costs, does not buy into the “government cannot run anything” argument, and is not willing to accept anything less.

The anti national healthcare people ask how can the plan be paid for. When it is pointed out that the Iraq debacle could pay for the entire plan the antis quickly point out that “Muslims are trying to kill us” and we must have that war. I countered with Muslims are no more trying to kill us than Christians were when Timothy McVeigh bombed the Murrah building in Oklahoma City. That simple statement of fact brought no response.

The anti healthcare people say the government cannot run healthcare. After identifying veterans in the group I asked how was healthcare in the military? They generally agreed it was not bad. I pointed out that this was government run healthcare. Again, no response. They did point out that medicare and medicaid were both poorly run and yielding to my ignorance regarding either program, I had no response. At age 62 though I better start learning about both programs.

Pro healthcare people frequently say they do not mind an increase in their taxes to pay for healthcare because they will no longer be buying medical services. When asked how much of a pay cut they would be willing to take to cover national healthcare there is never any answer.

The misinformation put forward by the anti group gets to be a monotonous drone on the sensibilities. The talk of death panels, coverage for illegal immigrants, and other inaccurate information put forward by conservative talk show hosts and the Republican party can lead a person to believe these people are owned by insurance companies, who may have the most to lose if price competition from the government is brought to the health care field.

All in all, the health care rally was a very worthwhile and educational way to spend a morning shooting photographs and educating myself on this crucial issue. Click on the photograph to see more pictures from the Phoenix health care rally.

Les rues de Calais

2009-04-03T10:37:00.001-07:00

Les rues de Calais
Originally uploaded by bdinphoenix

Calais has a casino, a lot of bars, and.......

In World War II the Germans bulked up their forces in and around Calais, France in anticipation of the allied invasion of Europe. As we all know the invasion took place much further down the French coast at Normandy. Calais was eventually isolated and taken by the Canadiens after the invasion, which had completely surprised the Germans with its location.

I have watched countless Hollywood versions of the invasion of Europe, known as D-Day and I noticed how the Germans and American always talked about Calais. From The Longest Day to D-Day the 6th of June, to Band of Brothers, Calais is consistently mentioned numerous times by both sides.

Now that I have visited Calais I can a rhetorical central question of the characters who talk about Calais. That question is, why would anyone want to go to Calais? While it is the closest place to England on the European continent, it has little else to attract anyone. There is a casino, restaurants, and countless bars.

When I was growing up in Philadelphia my parents used to make reference to the bars at the end of each block and the one in the middle of the block. In addition there would be a church between the bars. The bars and the churches both wanted your money, and neither cared much how they got it.

In Calais there are bars on the corners. There are taverns in the middle of each block and also in between the middle and the end of the block. There is also a casino and a port with a ferry that travels between Calais and England, which is just across the English Channel.

Calais has its small residential area but in my mind it will only be noted for its taverns. It has a couple of churches, but there are those pesky taverns again. I saw a small park near the town’s center but the hotel clerk warned me to be careful at night and to use the hotel bell to gain entrance because it was not safe at night. There are she said somewhat embarrassed, “A lot of bars here”.

Now that I have seen Calais, I can move on to Lille and never have to wonder what is in Calais again. Click on the photograph to see more of Calais.

London, March 2009

2009-04-01T04:38:00.001-07:00

Buckingham Palace
Originally uploaded by bdinphoenix

My London visit has come to a conclusion. I made two mistakes with this visit. First, I did not schedule enough time to see more of the city. London is a huge city with 1000+ years of history and I did not even see half of it. Second I did not allow for time spent at the places I did visit.

I spent a couple of hours at the National Gallery and a couple of hours at the Tower of London. I walked to both places so I could see more of the city and I did not allow for the time needed to move my 62 year old bones across the city. The next time I visit London I will know better.

London proved to be a friendly city. Buckingham Palace, pictured on the left, is constantly packed with tourists. Many of them were teenagers, which prompted me to wonder why they were not in school.

When you think of the history of this place and the people who lived here, names such as King George III and his African ancestored wife Charlotte, Henry VIII, who had Ann Boelyn beheaded, Queen Elizabeth, all of them, and Queen Victoria, you realize that much of the history of the western world was dictated by people who lived in Buckingham Palace.

Trafalgar Square was undergoing maintenance and construction but was still a lovely visit. I walked the Buckingham Palace mall to get to Trafalgar and it was a lovely walk indeed. With verdant St. James Park on one side, the wide boulevard was lined with the flags of Great Britain and Mexico, whose President was visiting the Queen the day I was there.

Britain has a lot of statues and memorials to its famous generals. These men made possible the saying that "the sun never sets on the British empire". There were statues to men who had succeeded in India, China, Burma, South Africa, and France in the Napoleonic wars. There were no statues erected for Generals Clinton, Howe, and Cornwallis, who presided militarily over the loss of the American colonies. This is only further proof there are no honors or awards for second place, especially in war.

The Tower of London, a United Nations world heritage site, is a forbidding place and I can only imagine the horror for people who were sent there centuries ago. The crown jewels are stored here and it is still used as a fortress, as it has been for since it was built. The Romans first used this site and the British have improved upon the work of the Romans. Once used as a prison and execution site for enemies of the crown, it is now a monumental tourist trap.

I walked across the Tower of London bridge and crossed the Thames river, one of the world's great rivers. I also walked back to the hotel, or at least as close to the hotel as I could get before my feet, legs, and back gave out and I was forced to hail a cab.

The only bad spot in London was when I went to a restaurant named Olivo for dinner. The owner met me at the maitre'd's stand and informed me that he was full. I could plainly see that 3/4ths of the restaurant was empty and when he noticed me looking at the empty chairs, he told me he could seat who he wanted to seat. I told him I could plainly see how full he was, what with most of his customer disguised as empty chairs. I don't know if he had a racial problem or an appearance problem. I was dressed in a black baseball cap, black jacket, and blue jeans. Of course he could have just said my attire was improper but he did not.

All in all London is a great place. A diverse city with many different ethnic groups living and working together, it was also a clean city with a friendly populace. I had numerous conversations with people I did not know about America, Bush, Obama, and futbol. I cannot wait to visit the city again.

Click on the photograph to see a complete set of pictures from London. Now it is off to Calais, Lille, and Paris on the channel train.

Tumacacori

2009-03-22T15:07:00.001-07:00

Tumacacori
Originally uploaded by bdinphoenix

As Jesuit Eusebio Francisco Kino and his party approached the Pima settlement of Tumacacori in January 1691, they rode the wave of a century of expansion northward along New Spain's west coast corridor.

In 1767 King Charles III of Spain, for political reasons, abruptly banished the Jesuits from all his realms. The Franciscan, who took over the missionary effort inherited the woes that had frustrated the Jesuits: restless neophytes, Apache hostility, disease, encroaching settlers, and lack of government support. The Tubac garrison was transferred to Tucson in 1776, and by 1786 only a hundred Indians remained at Tumacacori.

Click on the photograph to view more pictures of Tumacacori National Historical Park.

Venice - Day Four

2008-10-06T14:49:00.000-07:00

Today we left Venice for a tour of Torcello and the island of Burano, both near Venezia. We rode up the Grand Canal and took a leisurely one hour boat ride to Torcello. The centuries old church there is rich in history and one of the shrines of the Catholic church. Photography was not permitted in the church but we did receive a history of the church at Torcello and were allowed to tour the grounds, where photography was permitted.

After Torcello we took a ten minute boat ride to Burano. This very colorful island village is a must stop for anyone visiting Venice. The richly colored village is a photographer's dream. I walked practically the entire island and just had a grand old time clicking away with the camera.

On day five we visit the Jewish ghetto, which does not mean the same thing ghetto means in the US.

Venice - Day Three

2008-10-05T08:07:00.000-07:00

The sun rises the same way, everyday, in every place on the planet. What is different is what is located underneath the sun. The sun rising over the Grand Canal in Venice is indeed a beautiful sight. Shimmering off the blue water and casting a rosey glow on buildings that are hundreds of years in age is truly beautiful.

One of the side benefits of shooting photographs at sunrise in Venice is there are no crowds. The wharf at Venezia goes from shoulder to shoulder crowds during the day to practically deserted at sunrise. For a photographer shooting at sunrise this is nirvana. You can go anywhere and the only crowds you encounter are at the choice shooting locations, where we all smile, nod hello, and hope the photographer who beat us to the best spot does not linger long. Fortunately in Venezia there are many places for such photography.

Venice - Day Two

2008-10-04T14:54:00.001-07:00

Day two in Venice was every bit as exciting as day one. We started off the day visiting the Rialto market. Fresh vegetables, fresh meats and fish, fresh fruits and a lot of people were everywhere. The peppers in the photograph to the left were just some of the many foodstuffs available.

We then took a water taxi across the canal so we could visit the Church of San Giovanni e Paolo. This church is not only a house of worship but it also holds the remains of many of Venice's most prominent citizens down through the years. That is down through hundreds of years. There are folks buried in sealed cases in the floors, there are people entombed in caskets on stands on the walls, and photographs or paintings of many of these folks are located next to or underneath their grave. Our guide said many of these people just did not want the world to forget them.

We also visited the architectural museum at Arsenale and saw some of the many architectural ideas Italians have for living in limited or tight quarters.

Photographs are being added daily to my flickr page at http://flickr.com/bdinphoenix.

Venice - Day One

2008-10-03T15:57:00.000-07:00

Day one in Venice came to a close with a nice dinner at a family restaraunt and a group meeting at our hotel. The flight to Venice was a long one but US Airways showed three different movies and served two meals, or at least some material on trays that looked like food.

The trip from Marco Polo airport in Venice to the hotel villa igea was a 45 minute ride in a water taxi that circles the lagoon that Venice resides in and then journeys up the Grand Canal. It is a wonderful sight seeing trip and a portent of things to come.

The water taxi stops about 50 yards from the hotel villa igea and after checking in I went walking and photographing. There are tourists everywhere. These folks come from all over the world as Venice is a popular spot for European holidays.

I got a look at the canals and St. Mark's church as I went on an approximate one mile circular walk with my hotel as the central point. There are small alleyways and bridges crossing canals everywhere. There are a lot of small shops and the usual tourist traps designed to separate you from your money.

This really looks like a great place and I am looking forward to exploring more of it.

Night lights

2008-09-01T09:03:00.001-07:00

Night lights
Originally uploaded by bdinphoenix

I have been to Chicago before this but this city is always interesting. Its lively downtown area is in sharp contrast to my home city of Phoenix, Arizona. There are people on the street everywhere in Chicago, as opposed to Phoenix where there is almost no one on the streets. The restaraunts are lively and Chicago cuisine sure has a well earned reputation for quality. I really like this place.

Chase Field

2008-05-28T18:14:00.001-07:00

Chase Field
Originally uploaded by bdinphoenix

The most important man in the ten year history of Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks is not former owner and founder Jerry Colangelo. That distinction goes to a mechanical engineer named Willis Haviland Carrier, who received a patent in 1906 for his invention of an “Apparatus for Treating Air”. Carrier’s invention permitted his paper company employer to use four color printing without the colors becoming mis-aligned due to heat and humidity in his factory. There is no indication as to whether Carrier received a raise from his $10 a week salary.

Carrier’s invention has enabled the Diamondbacks to entertain baseball fans in their state-of-the art facility, Chase Field, in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. Looking like a transplanted airplane hangar, Chase Field has a retractable roof, panels on one side of the arena that permits stadium management to open the panels, as well as the roof when the weather permits. In Phoenix that does not occur often.

Daytime temperatures have gone as high as 123 degrees and it is not uncommon at game time to have temperatures in the 110-115 degree range. But in Chase Field, with the roof and side panels closed, the air conditioned stadium can feel as comfortable as your living room.

On the night I went to watch the Diamondbacks play National League west foe San Francisco the weather was perfect for baseball. The roof and side panels were open and the Diamondbacks were in first place, 3.5 games ahead of the second place Dodgers. The announced crowd of 23,604, looked sparse in the cavernous environs of Chase Field. While I am no expert on crowd size, I had the feeling that the only way there were 23,604 people in that stadium was if a sizeable number of them had come disguised as empty seats.

I arrived early and there were friendly stadium hosts and ushers everywhere. They were even friendly when they asked political petition carriers, a Phoenix pastime, to leave the stadium area so customers would not be hassled. I moved quickly and easily to my seat, stopping to get a Diamondback hot dog and a beer on the way. The concession worker even gave my ego a huge boost by asking me for identification to prove I was 21 years old. I can tell you that at my age of 61 that rarely happens. The hot dog was huge and the beer was cold and together almost made a meal. Some fans seated near me chowed down on some chicken tenders and French fries and next to me a fellow and his wife had one of the biggest ice cream cones I had ever seen.

Fans at Chase Field certainly have a clear view of the baseball field. There are unobstructed views to the field and some fans were even using a swimming pool behind the center field wall. I suspect Chase Field is the only stadium in the world with its own pool. Unfortunately Chase Field is so large that I could not get the same feeling for the game that I had received earlier at Camden Yard. We could just as easily have been watching a football game, which Chase Field hosts during the college bowl season, or a tractor pull, which Chase Field also hosts from time to time.

Chase Field, while an engineering and architectural marvel, is certainly proof that bigger is not always better. It also did not help that the Diamondbacks, losers of five of their last seven games, were thoroughly outplayed by the Giants. Looking tentative at the plate, the Dbacks were overwhelmed by the pitching of San Francisco’s Tim Lincecum. With no Barry Bonds to boo on the Giants roster and the Diamondbacks doing very little at the plate, the fans biggest cheers came when center fielder Chris Young fired a bullet from center field to home plate to prevent a Giants runner from scoring.

Giants catcher Bengie Molina, coming off a week in which he was recognized as the National League’s player of the week, hammered a pitch into the left center field stands to give the Giants a 3-0 lead they never relinquished. By the ninth inning most of the fans had gone home and the Diamondbacks suffered a 3-6 defeat.

Now to visit southern California and the Angels, Dodgers, and Padres.

Orioles Park at Camden Yard

2008-05-15T14:48:00.001-07:00

Camden Yard
Originally uploaded by bdinphoenix

Orioles Park at Camden Yard, built in 1992 at a taxpayer cost of $110 million, gives you the feel of what a baseball stadium should be like. I don’t know whether it is the warehouse look behind right field, or the signs on the ramps that warn “Watch Out for batted balls” but you get the feeling that this is going to be a great place to watch a baseball game.

I went with family and friends to watch Baltimore’s Orioles play a match with the World Series Champion Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox, as usual, are in the thick of the early season fight for first place in the American League east division. The Orioles are in the unaccustomed position of also being in the hunt for the division lead. It had all the markings of a great game and it was.

After we settled into our seats I immediately realized there was not a bad view in the stadium. There were views from a distance but like Great America Park and Nationals Park, a spectator can clearly see the field from any location. The seats however, were not very comfortable and whoever designed the interior of Oriole Park neglected to add cup holders, a small but convenient feature that permits you to set your drink down and applaud the Orioles with both hands. The Oriole Park management also neglected to train its concession staff in the art of friendly service. Almost all of the concession workers were surly to the point of making me wonder why they worked at Camden Yard if they hated their job as much as it appeared they did.

The game was a doozy. We arrived late and the Orioles were already down 0-3, having helped the Red Sox along with two first inning errors. In years past that would have been enough to ensure that the Orioles had safely secured another loss. But not these Orioles. They battled back and were only down 2-3 when Luke Scott hit a three run homer to put them ahead, 5-3. He hit that homer off Boston ace Josh Beckett, last year’s top pitcher no less.

But these were the Red Sox and they battled back. Perhaps the key moment in the contest came in the seventh inning when the Sox loaded the bases with no outs. Manny Ramirez was batting against Oriole’s pitcher Jim Johnson. Manny worked Johnson for ten pitches before hitting the ball back to the mound, where Johnson started a rally killing double play; pitcher to catcher, to first base. Even this early in the year that might become a defining moment in the Orioles’ season. The next batter flied out to left and Baltimore’s lead was preserved.

The Red Sox later added another run but they went out meekly in the ninth inning. Boston slugger David Ortiz provided some comic relief in the ninth when he uttered some magic words to the umpire after a called third strike, and was ejected. Ortiz then returned to the dugout, where he pretended not to know he had been ejected. The umpire of course, held up the game until David left the bench area.

All in all, an exciting game at a very nice park. Now it is back to Phoenix and Chase Field.

Click on the photograph to see a photographic set of Camden Yard

Nationals Park

2008-05-13T14:03:00.001-07:00

Nationals Park
Originally uploaded by bdinphoenix

So my son Khary and life-long friends, Ross and Cheryl, have now gotten me interested in baseball again. So on May 10th my brother, nephew, and I went to watch the Washington Nationals play a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

In Nationals Park in Washington, DC, you do not watch baseball as much as you experience it. Most of my previous baseball watching was at the Vet in Philadelphia. Generally considered one of the world's worst stadiums, the Vet is now history, but Nationals Park is very much in the present and it is very, very nice.

From clear sight lines to the field to its game pavillions and food courts, it is possible to go to Nationals Park, never see the game and leave well fed and thoroughly entertained. I chowed down on a half pound burger with all the trimmings while my brother became very familiar with a bratwurst smothered in onions and peppers. I think I will find my way back to this place.

There was a game too and I saw once again why bad teams stay bad. Pittsburgh has been bad a long time. I remember the Pirates of Mazeroski, Clemente, and Stargell. Later there was a sprinkling of Bonilla and Bonds. Now they are the Pirates of botched double plays and errors on routine ground balls. Not that the Nationals were much better. Today they won but I don't know if they were better than the Pirates or Pittsburgh was simply worse than Washington.

Managers get paid a lot of money to be the brains behind the team but in a contest where hits were flying everywhere and errors were common, one of the managers tried a sacrifice bunt with no one out and runners on first and second. Now if the pitching were going good or the hitting was going poorly this might have been sound strategy. Today however, the hitting was going great and the pitching was putrid so playing for one run in a middle inning made no sense. The sacrifice failed, the hitting continued, and excitement wise the game was worth it. Oh, and today the Nationals were the better team.

Now it is on to Camden Yards and the Baltimore Orioles, another team that used to be good.

Great America Ballpark

2008-04-04T08:16:00.000-07:00

Great America Ballpark
Originally uploaded by bdinphoenix

I have been only a casual observer of baseball since the players' strike years ago. However, I spent a few weeks in early April in Cincinnati and went to three games and think I have a rekindled interest in the game. If chicks really do 'dig the long ball' then last night they would have loved the game. The Phillies hit 3 home runs and the Reds hit a couple. I sure would loved to have seen some hit and runs, some double steals, and a suicide squeeze. Man, it was as cold as an iceberg out there too.