Hawaiian cowboys? – it sounds like a contradiction, but then Hawaii is full of them. In addition to its active volcano, pristine beaches, and the world’s largest observatories on Mauna Kea, the Big Island of Hawaii is also home to one the largest and oldest ranches in the United States. After the war of 1812 John Parker settled in the Islands and became friends with King Kamehameha I. He married the daughter of a high-ranking chief and was given two acres of land and allowed to manage the free-roaming cattle on the island. Over the next 160 years the ranch grew to thousands of acres around the town of Waimea and until 1992, it was the largest privately owned cattle ranch in the United States (including Texas and Montana!).

The paniolos (or Hawaiian cowboys) who work the ranch are descendants of Mexican vaqueros, excellent horsemen brought over by Parker to manage the growing operation. They trained local men to rope and ride a generation before the American cowboys of the Wild West learned their craft, and introduced to the local culture the sound that today is synonymous with Hawaii, the ukulele.

The Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area on the Washington-Oregon border east of Portland is a paradise for water-sport enthusiasts, history buffs, and photographers alike.  This magical corridor, which provided Lewis and Clark safe passage through the Cascades during their journey to the Pacific,  today plays host to world-class windsurfing, fine wine making, and includes some of the most beautiful waterfalls in North America.

Latourell Falls pictured here is an icon of the area and one of numerous waterfalls that dot the historic Columbia River Highway. As America’s first scenic roadway, this national historic landmark is an engineering marvel from the last century and as much a destination as the lush grottos, cascades and temperate forests that surround it.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th. Here’s another image from the Freedom Trail in Boston where it all began. On April 18, 1775 two lanterns were hung in The Old North Church to inform Paul Revere before his famous midnight ride that the British were coming by sea and not by land.

After running the Boston Marathon in April I hit the Freedom Trail to loosen up some sore muscles and get a good dose of American History. Here’s a still life from the old North Church where Paul Revere was given the signal at the start of the Revolutionary War that the British were coming by sea.

HDR (or High Dynamic Range) is an increasingly popular process of combining digital files to create an image that more closely resembles what the eye sees. It’s used primarily when the contrast in a scene exceeds the latitude of what the film or sensor is able to capture in a single shot.

Depending on the amount of contrast in the scene a series of up to 7 identical brackets one stop apart are combined, which represent all of the tonal value from the darkest shadows to the brightest highlights. This image of False Kiva in Canyonlands National Park is very close to what I saw that evening, but the extreme contrast would have made it nothing more than a vision in my mind’s eye if not for HDR.

Photographic purists may balk at the use of such digital wizardry, but in fact it is not unlike the dodging and burning that Ansel Adams used countless times in the darkroom to achieve his magical prints. As he put it, “the negative is the score, and the print is the performance”. I concur, and feel that any photographic process which helps render a natural scene as it was witnessed is acceptable as long as it does not deceive the viewer or alter the truth.

The cliff dwellings of the American southwest are the most spectacular ruins north of Mexico. The Anasazi Indians (or ”ancient ones” as the modern Navajo call them) were the prehistoric pueblo culture that thrived in the Four Corners region between 900 and 1200 A.D. then mysteriously disappeared.

Many of their elaborate structures are well-preserved in national parks such as Mesa Verde in southwestern Colorado, Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, and Canyon de Chelly in Arizona. From three story citadels perched precariously on canyon ledges like Square Tower House above, to the 500 room Great Houses of Chaco Canyon, these skilled masons left a legacy to rival the ruins of ancient Greece.

Archaeologists and scholars still debate what caused their sudden demise toward the end of the 12th century, but the stone handywork of the Anasazi remains a fascinating testament to the vision and tenacity of these ancient people.