Category: Photos

A Few Photos of Clouds

It’s been quite a while since I picked up my camera. I used to be an avid photographer, but the backlog of photos to process became so oppressive that I lost motivation to shoot when faced with the idea of adding more to the pile. Leading up to a recent addition to our family, though, I spent a few months chipping away at thousands and thousands of photos, knowing that there was a huge amount of pending demand from mothers-in-law for cute baby pictures.

It’s been fun to take pictures again. Just the other night I went out onto our porch and the clouds were a stunning contrast of color. I grabbed my camera and snapped a few shots, then tinkered around with a few different edits in Lightroom (a program I’m still learning). If, for some reason, you’d like the full-res versions (for a desktop background, etc.), you can download the full-res photos in a .zip file.

2016-08-27 Clouds and colors 01.jpg Continue reading A Few Photos of Clouds

Maine Sea

The second stop on our Northeastern tour found us in Acadia National Park1. We stayed on both the Shoodic Peninsula2 and Mount Desert Island3 sides of the park and found the Schoodic area to be much quieter and less touristy.

I posted photos of Acadia’s mountains previously4, but that was only half the story. Maritime heritage is the true treasure of Maine’s coastline. I recommend steering clear of Bar Harbor and retreating to active fishing towns like Bass Harbor5, which we found to be quaint, full of history, and a great way to access offshore islands.

Fun fact: Bass Harbor was once haphazardly named McKinley, after President William McKinley. At the turn of the 20th century, federal officers asked what they should name the village’s newly built post office. Someone in their company told them to “name it after the president, for all we care.” And they did. The town carried the same name until citizens petitioned to have it changed in 1961.

2012-09-04 Vacation - Maine-Acadia - Day 1 08

Continue reading Maine Sea


1. You can learn more about Acadia National Park on the official website.2. Learn more about the Schoodic Peninsula on Wikipedia.3. Learn more about Mount Desert Island on Wikipedia.4. You can see the mountain photos here.5. You can read more about the town of Bass Harbor on Wikipedia.

Maine Mountains

The second stop on our Northeastern tour found us in Acadia National Park6. We stayed on both the Shoodic Peninsula7 and Mount Desert Island8 sides of the park and found the Schoodic area to be much quieter and less touristy.

Fun fact: The highest point in Acadia, Cadillac Mountain, is named for Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, a French explorer9. Along with leaving his namesake in Maine, he helped found the city of Detroit in the early 1700s. An automobile manufacturer honored the effort in 1902 by naming their firm “Cadillac” and using de La Mothe’s coat of arms as their logo.

Here are a few photos from the hills.

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Continue reading Maine Mountains


1. You can learn more about Acadia National Park on the official website.2. Learn more about the Schoodic Peninsula on Wikipedia.3. Learn more about Mount Desert Island on Wikipedia.4. Learn more about the explorer, Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, and Cadillac Mountain’s name on Wikipedia

New Hampshire

Last year my wife and I went on an adventure in the Northeastern US. Our first stop was the Franconia Range10 in New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest11. The terrain was simultaneously some of the most challenging and beautiful I’ve ever experienced. Fun fact: the highest surface wind speed observed by mankind (231mph) was recorded in 193412 on Mount Washington, the highest peak in both the White Mountains and the Northeastern US.

Here are a few photos from our trip.

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Continue reading New Hampshire


1. Read more about Franconia Ridge on Wikipedia.2. Read more about the White Mountains on Wikipedia.3. Read more about the highest wind speed recorded by man on the Mount Washington Website.

How Switzerland Makes Me Feel

switzerland-jungfrau-eiger-panorama

We’re in Switzerland at the moment. I had a few moments to grab the first mountain pictures I could find on my camera. (This one is completely unedited, by the way.) If you’d like to experience these breathtaking and celestial scenic views yourself while staying in an equally beautiful hotel, perhaps these Geneva hotels may be of some interest to you.

I’m still trying find words to describe what the mountains are like here, so I’ll let someone else do a better job. This is how Switzerland makes me feel:

O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
…
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?

—Psalm 8

More pictures to come.

What to Expect from this Blog

One truism that I harp on relentlessly focuses on expectations:

All frustration is the result of unmet expectation.

Or, said another way, setting expectations well provides a great platform for relationship—to others, to work, to things we consume, to our time and so-on.

Recently I read a blog that I really enjoyed and the author did a very good job of explaining what his readers could expect in the about section. I really appreciated that because it gave me a context for evaluating how much time I wanted to invest in following and reading that author’s work. (As I’ve said before, we each have a limited number of precious hours to spend.)

I thought I’d take a cue from that experience and do the same thing here.

Continue reading What to Expect from this Blog

A Visit to Zappos in Las Vegas

This week I’ve had the unbelievable privilege of spending time with a handful people from the Zappos team. Yes, that included Tony Hsieh and Fred Mossler. Peter, John and I had a drink with them last night. (No, I didn’t take any pictures with/of them. That would have been extremely awkward.)

Here are a few highlights from our adventures yesterday:

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Continue reading A Visit to Zappos in Las Vegas