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| A wild brush rabbit forages for grass along a creekside thicket near Elkton in southwestern Oregon. Brush rabbits are a species of cottontail rabbits found only on the western coastal areas of north America. Small and secretive, they spend mostly of their time in dense bramble clumps and thick brushy habitats. |
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| Check out my bald eagle photo, via ZUMApress, used as the main art in a cool story in The Wall Street Journal. They're using this story as a promotional piece to gather subscriptions. Eye catching! |
Check out the new promotional video from Heart to Heart International. I've been working as a photographer/videographer with the HHI Disaster Response Team for a few years. I captured most of the video and stills from disaster response used in the video. It's exciting to see such a well produced piece using my work in an impactful way.
Heart to Heart International - Homepage Video from Lifted Logic Kansas City Design on Vimeo.
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| No, not a monster, just a western pond turtle appearing to yawn as it swims through a layer of moss on the surface of the Umpqua River near Elkton in southwestern Oregon. Found only on the far western coast of North America, populations of western pond turtles are in decline due to disease, habitat destruction, and the introduction of invasive predators. Washington State lists the turtle as an endangered species and in Oregon they are listed as a conservation strategy species. |
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| A pair of great blue herons interact along the Umpqua River near Elkton in rural southwestern Oregon. The two birds seemed to be having a disagreement over territory. Despite their impressive size, great blue herons weigh only 5 to 6 pounds thanks in part to their hollow bones—a feature all birds share. |
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| The two angry birds flew off in opposite directions before any violence ensued. |
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Eastern Kentucky has been hit with massive flooding over the last few days. Thinking about my visit to Mayfield, Kentucky last year with Heart to Heart International after a tornado ripped the town apart. So sad to see a natural disaster causing devastation in the commonwealth again.
My video from last year in Kentucky
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| A high flying jet passes near the moon as seen from near Elkton in southwestern Oregon. The moon is in its waxing gibbous phase. This is the phase where the moon is more than 50% illuminated but has not yet reached 100% illumination. |
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| The late afternoon sun highlights a pair of immature ground squirrels standing at attention on a dirt road near Elkton in southwestern Oregon. |
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| A wild black bear climbs in a large cherry tree while foraging for fruit on a farm near Elkton in rural southwestern Oregon. The tree is part of a small orchard of old fruit trees at the site of an abandoned homestead on the hillside. |
I recently returned from another trip in to Ukraine with Heart to Heart International. While in the southwester section of the country we visited a center for internally displaced people.  |
A two-year-old boy named Igor, 2, and his mother collect shoes, a few shirts, a stuffed animal and a hygiene kit at a center for internally displaced people in southwestern Ukraine. Mostly women and children waited in a long line outside the volunteer run center to pick up food, simple medicines, clothing, and toys. Each family was also provided a hygiene kit donated by the Kansas City based Heart to Heart International. The kits are made with the amazing efforts of teams of dedicated volunteers. So far HHI has distributed over 45,000 kits to people impacted by the war in Ukraine. I’m currently returning home after spending time in Ukraine with a team from HHI |
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| A young mink stands on rocks along the bank of the Umpqua River near Elkton in southwestern Oregon. The mink appeared to have been separated from its parent and was actively searching and calling out until the two were reunited. |
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| A black-tailed deer buck stands on his back legs while stretch to eat apples from a tree on a farm near Elkton in southwestern Oregon. |
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| A black-tailed deer fawn attempts to eat a green plum from a fallen branch in an orchard on a farm near Elkton, Oregon. The fawn gave up his attempt and wondered off to browse on nearby leaves. |
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| A katydid nymph feeds on a Himalayan blackberry in a thicket along the Umpqua River near Elkton in southwestern Oregon. A nymph is the immature form of some invertebrates, particularly insects. They undergo gradual metamorphosis before reaching the adult stage. They are typically wingless. |
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| A dragonfly eats what appears to be a damselfly while clinging to a shrub along the Umpqua River . Dragonflies are fierce predators and feed voraciously on anything they can catch. A study at Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Virginia showed dragonflies catch more than 95 percent of their targeted prey, making them the most successful predators in nature. |
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| A cinnabar moth caterpillar feeds on a tansy ragwort plant along a country road near Elkton, Oregon. The toxic tansy ragwort is an invasive weed the Pacific Northwest. The cinnabar moth was introduced to Oregon as a biologic control on the plant. |
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| As the sunset colors the sky, a dragonfly alights in a pasture along a country road near Elkton in southwestern Oregon. |