Skolai Images

Hey Folks,

Here’s another flower, the Fire Pink, from the Chattahoochee National Forest, North Georgia Mountains, Georgia. I took this one spring hike up in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, near the North Carolina border. Spring in the Appalachians is an amazing time, the biomass that is generated in the hardwood forests there in a couple of weeks is simply awesome. The woods go from bare and barren to an incredibly rich, diverse glut of biota in what seems like a couple of days. Walking through the deep green forest and seeing a red glow like this little flower is way cool. The red is so bright, I had to dull it down a little on the computer to make it not look overdone - it’s really an intense vibrant flower.

I think there was a push to make the Fire Pink the State Flower of Indiana, but I’m unsure if it ever went ahead. Fire Pinks should be the State Flower of some state, I can tell you that - they’re just way to cool not to be!

I was giong to wait until springtime to post flowers, but my friend Ron Niebrugge is having such a whale of a time down in California shooting the bloom of the century in the desert, I didn’t want to be left out. Check out his blog right now for some downright NASTY wildflower photos!

Cheers

Carl

Hey Folks,

I know, I know, another photo from 4th street, downtown Anchorage. This was one of the later dog teams of the morning, towards the end of the teams, and they seemed mighty keen to make up for the late start. Right now they’re making their way across the frozen tundra of the Alaskan wilderness, and I bet they’re not quite pushing it as hard as they are here.

Anyway, rather than go on about the race, I want to get back to a subject I briefly mentioned the other day. Customer Service. Whilst a good rant about some lame-a** company who fails at every turn to offer reasonable support is good for the soul, it’s probably more important to throw a word out for those companies we do enjoy doing business with. For me, there are a few, and I’ll try to give a shout out to each as time goes by, but the first one I would like to mention is My Photo Pipe. The good people at this Atlanta, Georgia, store, formerly called Color Genesis, offer the best service around for prints and printing. (more…)

Hey Folks,

I’ll maybe try to get one more post in here before I hit the road, so I’ll do 2 for today. This is a photo from the past. I’ve been catching up on some editing and web updates he last few weeks here, and haven’t really got out to shoot too much. As a result of that, I’ll try to post a couple of shots from years gone by that I like - and maybe even post a few of the countless thousands I didn’t like. This photo was from an overnight trip a couple of years ago to the Chattooga River in north east Georgia. The Chattooga River defines the border between Georgia and South Carolina, and lies between the Sumter , Nantahala and Chattahoochee National Forests.

Congress designated the Chattooga River a “Wild and Scenic River” in 1974, and I’d attest to that designation. It’s both wild and scenic! The designation protects a corridor along the river for nearly 60 miles, though it’s somewhat silly (more…)