Another photo from the Fourth of July. The “Family Fun Pack” of fireworks only came with five sparklers… seriously.

Snapped some pictures on the Fourth of July this year and this is the first of a short series I’ll be posting here. Enjoy!

As it turns out, I can leap about seven feet… somewhere between that mouse and the mountain lion depicted on the wall. Jennifer grabbed this shot with impeccable timing.

Nevada State Route 375 was dubbed the Extraterrestrial Highway in 1996 as a means to capitalize on the the mid-1990s cult popularity of extraterrestrials. Aliens were undergoing a sort of renaissance during that time. The X-Files was big on tv, Independence Day starring Will Smith and other alien-themed movies were released in that timeframe as well. To capitalize on that resurgence, the Nevada Commission on Tourism had the thing renamed in recognition of the supposed paranormal activity along the highway. (Probably test flights of top secret military aircraft and nothing of extraterrestrial origin, but who cares, right?! ALIENS!)

In early July Chris and I went to Rachel, NV to see the Little A’Le’Inn, a small diner in a small town in the middle of Nevada. It’s only real claim to fame is that it sits on the Extraterrestrial Highway, a stretch of Nevada highway that runs just north of the infamous Area 51, and is claimed to provide unparalleled sightings of UFOs. A few more pictures from the trip will follow shortly. This one, however, was taken on the side of the road as he and I double checked our route to make sure we didn’t miss a turn.

Jennifer’s friend Elyse lives on the 37th floor of Turnberry Place, a high-rise condo just off the Paradise Blvd. The view, though not of the full Las Vegas Strip, is pretty damn good. Looking down you see the parking lot of the Las Vegas Hilton. Planet Hollywood and City Center are off in the distance.

I attended the Advanced Technology Academy high school graduation a little while ago and captured this image while walking around. The color was good and the emotion was genuine.

When you’re the one with the camera, you always find yourself on the wrong side of the lens. Unfortunately the most common way a photographer (as which I barely qualify) makes it into photos is via reflections… like here. This is Jennifer on a breezy day on the balcony of her friend’s condo.

I was messing about in the kitchen and got a picture of some green leaf lettuce lit through the kitchen window. Yum.

This is a seven-image stitch of the Spring Mountains that make up the western side of Red Rock Canyon. The original image is almost 100 megapixels with the stitch having been downsized to just over 26 megapixels. The only issue with this image is the amount of noise present in the original image. I left the ISO up a bit high. Oh well. Shoot and learn. View the 20 megabyte version.