I was right . . .

. . . the samples are things of beauty! The Montana folks sent me samples from Brazil, Malaysia, South Africa, Cuba, etc. Just go to the "Just Arrived" pages and see for yourself. In addition, I have my first really great essay from a fellow X-teacher who went to Sand Dunes National Park. Be sure you go to Colorado, and check out that incredible page. In addition to that a box of samples arrived from a fellow collector right here in Massachusetts. I also had to move off the three-season porch and set up in the dining room. It's dark in here! My exposures are running almost 45 seconds. At a local "Junk Store" I found a setup for taking pictures of items that were to be posted to on-line auctions. I bought a set of the lights, and I'm not sure about the results yet. The exposure time is way down, but the images are very warm. More to follow.

Too many samples to count!

It was a great week. Two people from my Montana class sent me cartons of samples! One set is all foreign, so there will be some really neat "Just Arrived" images over the next couple of weeks. Also two of my school friends just returned from trips. The California samples are already posted, and Nevada is going to be next week's state of the week. The sample is fantastic! I centered on what I think could be a fossil bone. The sample was loaded with bits and pieces of tiny critters!

Clear Skies,

Charlie

Suddenly it hit me!

I've been anguishing over images for these pages. I have a few myself, and several of the people have sent stuff, buy most don't. As I scour the sites I find some great images, but they all MAY have a copywrite, so that involves sending an e-mail to the photographer asking for permission. Then it hit me, I'm doing this project with NASA on the International Space Station and how to use the images taken by the astronauts (duh!) As a defaulI'm going to post an ISS or Shuttle image to the page with a link back to the Gateway to Astronaut Photography page showing the origin and statistics on the image.

Clear Skies,

Charlie

My Biggest Fear - Florida!

A sample arrived from Tampa today. I lived in fear of someone sending me one from Tampa because I am staring at 49 samples of my own! I will NEVER get this done this week. I'm actually working three days! Wish me luck as I slug through a few a day. The sample came with an interesting note. The person who sent the sand told me that it actually was Tampa sand. Apparently most sand in Florida is actually shipped in from the Bahamas. Now there's an interesting piece of trivia! All seriousness aside - thank you Jessica from Tampa!

Clear Skies,

Charlie

Campabello at Sunrise

I'm sorry, I just had to say that! Most of you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. I just received some sand from Campabello Island in Maine/Canada. A book about FDR was titled "Sunrise at Campabello." Sand is history. In some cases it tlls the story of what happened to the planet. In other cases it's the story of the people who walked across it. Did FDR look across this little patch of sand that I now have? What horrible even took place over the sand I have from Normany's Omaha Beach?

California Sand

One of my daughter's friends sent me pictures, but no sand, from a great site north of San Francisco, so I cheated and used that as my gateway to enter California Sand images. There are a ton! The California coast is so different from the east coast. My daughter lives in Los Angeles now, so we get a chance to visit a couple of times a year. We have only felt safe going into the water in one location there - Paradise Cove in Malibu. Paridise Cove is like going back in time. The restaurant located right on the beach is something right out of the 1950's! There are pictures on the wall of all the famous folks who have eaten there. Classic pictures of classic cars that weren't classic when they were taken, are joined by images of people smiling with huge fish! The rocks that make up the cliff backing the beach are spectacular! They are sedimentary layers, but the layers are vertical. As you walk along the beach, the layers begin to flatten to the horizontal again. It is truly anamazing spot. Thank you Christa, I wanted to photograph my California sand.