States – Wandering Dawgs

Lens Artists Photo Challenge #373 – Looking back to Challenge #31 – Landscape

November 10, 2025November 22, 2025Posted in New Mexico, PhotographyTagged Albuquerque, Landscape, Lens-Artists, Photo Challenge, Sandia Crest, Sandia Mountains39 Comments

Sandia Mountains, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Egidio is looking back to Amy’s Challenge #31 from February 2, 2019: Landscape. I enjoy landscape photography and have many landscape photos in my archives. Usually I would post landscape photos of things like beaches, sunrises and sunsets but for this challenge I decided to focus on one subject that I have returned to more than once.

New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment, is on my mind this week. I recently returned from a weekend in Albuquerque to attend my nephew’s wedding and spend time with my family. I also got to enjoy magnificent views of the Sandia Mountains. The featured image is of the Sandia Mountains just before sunset the night before the wedding.

This was not our first visit to Albuquerque. During our RV travels we passed through there a couple of times and in 2023 I attended the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Here are a few views of these mountains from some of our earlier visits.

View of Sandia Mountains from Coronado State Monument

Hot air balloon rising over Sandia Mountains at dawn

On one of our visits we took a scenic drive to the top of Sandia Crest to take in the gorgeous views.

Last week Tina’s challenge was Ephereral. Thank you to everyone who participated in the challenge. Your responses were great and I loved all the creative images of things that last a very short time.

I hope you will join in for this week’s challenge. Be sure to tag your post with Lens-Artists and include a link back to Egidio’s post Lens-Artists #373 – Looking Back to #31 – Landscapes.

Be sure to check back on Saturday, November 15 at noon eastern time when John will be hosting the challenge.

For information on how to join the Len-Artists challenge please click here.

Every Day is a Gift

Cellpic Sunday – Savannah Prohibition Museum

October 19, 2025Posted in Georgia, PhotographyTagged Cellpic Sunday, Prohibition Museum, Savannah10 Comments

I decided to have a little fun with John’s Cellpic Sunday challenge this week. In his post he featured a terrific photo from the Prohibition Museum in Savannah, Georgia.

I have visited this museum twice and have a photo that is similar to John’s photo. I think that John’s is by far superior to mine but I thought it would be interesting to show the way I captured the same subject in 2019 with my IPhone. The only editing I did was a little cropping and converting the photo to black and white for a more vintage look. If you compare my photo to John’s the paper boy looks different.

Every Day is a Gift

You can see John’s post and his photo at Cellpic Sunday

Cellpic Sunday – Not Something you see Every Day

October 12, 2025Posted in Georgia, PhotographyTagged beach, Beached Buoy, Cellpic Sunday, Coastal Georgia, Tybee Island27 Comments

A marker buoy weighing around 13,900 pounds from Port Royal, South Carolina washed up on the beach at Tybee Island, Georgia this week. Thursday afternoon a Chinook helicopter lifted the buoy and carried it off.

Every Day is a Gift

Shared with John’s Cellpic Sunday

Sunday Stills – World Animal Day

October 9, 2025Posted in Birds, Nature, North Carolina, Photography, Texas, WildlifeTagged Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Bugling Elk, Cataloochee Valley, Photo Challenge, Sunday Stills, Whooping Crane, World Animal Day18 Comments

Terri’s latest Sunday Stills challenge is World Animal Day which was celebrated on October 4, 2025. Two animals that were on my bucket list were Whooping Cranes in Texas and Elk in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Seeing these animals in the wild was an amazing experience.

Whooping Cranes

According to the International Crane Foundation – North America, Whooping Cranes were near extinction with fewer than 20 individuals in 1941. Today, over 849 Whooping Cranes exist in the entire world.

We traveled to the Texas Gulf Coast one year hoping to see some of the Whooping Cranes who winter in and around the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. These birds breed at Canada’s Wood Buffalo National Park and migrate to Texas every winter. Today there are more than 500 of these beautiful birds.

We found these magnificent Whooping Cranes near Goose Island State Park, south of the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. I posted about this amazing experience at Magnificent Endangered Whooping Cranes.

Pair of Whooping Cranes, near Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Texas

Cataloochee Valley Elk

One fall we traveled to Waynesville, North Carolina in search of Elk in Cataloochee Valley on the eastern side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I posted about our Elk viewing adventure at Cataloochee Valley Elk.

In February, 2001, the National Park Service began an experimental reintroduction of elk into Cataloochee Valley by releasing 25 elk from the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area on the Tennessee-Kentucky border. Another 27 elk from Canada were released in 2002. Today there are approximately 200 elk.

Bugling Elk, Cataloochee Valley, North Carolina

The breeding season, also known as the rutting season, is in the fall. During this time the bull elk make their bugling calls to attract females and challenge other bulls.

Female Elk, Cataloochee Valley, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina