On the heels of the day trip to Ocean City, turned right around with the camera and spent some time on the Maryland side of the C&O Canal / Great Falls area on Monday, Oct. 10, 2011. Below is a selection of color and infrared shots that were captured.

Last Warm Days of 2011

The weather was so nice yesterday(10/8/11) that I took a day trip to Ocean City, Maryland to spend some time by the Atlantic.  Yep, sometimes even living Annapolis and being on the Chesapeake Bay isn't enough of a "water fix" Anyway, the visit allowed me to try and be creative with some longer duration exposures with some of the photos. Below are a few results.  Enjoy.

Endings & Beginning of Endings

As most of my long-time friends know, I am a space-geek. I have worked for NASA for almost 30 years and a large portion of that time has been associated with the Space Shuttle program.  So when I realized that the week of March 7 had both Shuttle Discovery concluding her last mission ever and Shuttle Endeavour rolling out to the launch pad in preparation for her last flight next month (currently 4/19/11), I decided me and the camera had to make a trip to Florida.

A little bit before 12 noon on Wednesday, March 9, twin sonic booms were heard at the Kennedy Space Center. The double boom effect is caused by the delta wing design of the shuttle - the nose of the shuttle creates a sonic boom and then the tips of the wings create a second shock wave.

Shortly after that, Discovery was lined up for her approach to the runway. FYI - the Space Shuttle's angle of approach is seven times steeper than the one used by commercial airliners.

NASA employees, media reps and guest view Discovery's approach from the mid-field press/guest site at Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF).

Discovery nears the SLF.  The view of the end of the 3-mile long runway is blocked by trees.

Rolling down the runway with drag chute deployed.  In her 39 flights, Discovery traveled more than 148.2 million miles over the course of 365 days in space.

Discovery rolls past the ground recovery group of KSC employees and vehicles.






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On Thursday evening, March 10, 2011, Shuttle Endeavour was transported to the launch pad.
The giant mobile launch pad crawler travels at less than 1 m.p.h. The trip from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad takes over six hours to complete.

Closer view of Endeavour as she continues her trip to the launch pad.

And at sunrise the next morning, Endeavour was at rest at Launch Pad 39-A.  The STS-134 mission will be her 25th and last flight.  The Mission Commander for STS-134 is NASA Astronaut Mark Kelly, the husband of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

East Gallery

So I spent part of the Feb. 26-27 weekend at the East Gallery in Washington, D.C.

The East Gallery has been around for quite awhile.  One of the things I like is that unlike a lot of museums, photography is permitted in a good portion of the building. This allows someone like me to take camera in hand and see if I can make the building and the people visiting into "art."  So below are a few of my attempts.

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When you walk into the East Gallery, look up and admire the view!

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When I started walking around, I was struck by how the people seemed to interact with the building.

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Another view that shows how visitors become "art" themselves.

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O.K.  This one isn't art. I'm sure these phone booths had functional purpose when installed.  Now I'm just inserting it into the series for those individuals under 25 so they can see how staying in touch was done in the "good ol' days."

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Since Georgia O'Keeffe is one of my favorite artist, had to have at least one shot that included some of her work.

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Where would any artist be with their hands!

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I came across this image near the end of my visit. I thought it was a striking image and was a little sad as it seemed this image was set aside in a part of the museum that probably doesn't get a lot of traffic.

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Close-up cure for the winter blues

Having had enough of the snow, ice and cold temps outside, I decided to pay a visit to the Botanic Gardens in Washington, D.C. with my camera and macro lens.  In addition to ditching my winter blues (at least for a couple of hours), the visit provided me a reminder of the beauty and inspiration that can be found in nature's details.

FotoWeek 2010

During FotoWeek 2010 in Washington, D.C., different types of photos are projected on the outside of various buildings. The images below are photos from the new book THE PRESIDENT'S PHOTGRAPHER: Fifty Years Inside the Oval Office that were displayed on the outside wall of the Newseum.

While taking the photos, I was struck by how appropriate the words on the outside of the museum were to the photos being displayed, especially the second one of a frustrated Hurricane Katrina survivor.

"Oh Snap" - Week In The Life At Goddard

The last week in October 2010, Goddard Space Flight Center conducted a program for employees called "Oh Snap." The idea was to have employees take their own cameras and document the people, the buildings and the activities that  make up the center,  I didn't much of a chance to play with my camera due to a busy week but did manage to get a couple of shots.  Enjoy!

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Several employees took advantage of pretty fall colors that were on display around the lake that is on the center grounds and submitted shots in bold color. . I decided to take a different approach and shoot the lake with my little infrared camera. The Hubble Space Telescope looks at the universe in the infrared spectrum so I figured why not do the same to the center that is called "Home of the Hubble."

Goddard Lake - Infrared

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Building 32 at Goddard contains many of our Earth scientists so it seems very appropriate to show how the building interacts with Mother Nature!

Building 32 / East Campus - Infrared

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I've always thought the lobby inside Building 32 had a bit of a space ship loot k to it. Late on the last day of the "Oh Snap" program, I tried to get a few shots of employees leaving the "mother ship."

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Even though I didn't get a chance to shoot more during the official week-in-the-life program, my hope is to get some interesting shots in the coming months. Stay tuned for more!