My Cloud Photograph Favorites --- Set 1
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

When photographing light in the mountains.
Most landscape photographs would be uninteresting without clouds
Below are some of my recent photographs (not retouched) of clouds
Any bright lights are caused by reflection of the camera's flash against the window in front of my desk

As of the first week in November 2010 we have snow in the upper mountains but not on our yard

I expected to see a golden staircase descend when I took this shot

These lazy clouds are typical over Mt. Lafayette and Cannon Mountain
My neighbors Lon and Nancy have since sold this aged Arab mare that often escaped to graze in my yard

I took this shot two miles down the road alongside the Iris Farm (one of the most beautiful farms in the U.S.)
Sadly the farm is now vacant with cloudy future

Wouldn't my Iris Farm unretouched photograph below make a nice picture puzzle?
The low clouds to the right are hanging over Franconia Notch State Park

Grandson C.J. Moody from Old Town, Maine usually has his head in the clouds

Clouds hanging on Cannon Mountain (about ten miles away)
I think the white vertical streak is a reflection from window glass in our living room

This is actually a vertical climbing trail (Omega) on Cannon Mountain (for experts only)
In a sense this trail is a stairway to the clouds

Dark clouds at sunset

Clouds to the west behind our cottage

Clouds over the golf course behind our cottage

Jet engine vapor trails at sunrise
I suspect the jets are from the Air Force training base nearby in Vermont

Above the clouds covering the forest below

Winter Clouds at Sunset (facing Vermont to the west)

On a clear day you can see forever

I'm not sure what this farm equipment did, but of an Iowa farm a horse used to pull this thing

LaDonna and Cousin Don with Daughter Lisl and a pet llama
Don sold his horses and a huge collection of antique buggies and farm equipment in 2010

Guess which of the three is on Cloud Nine?
Hint:  it's not daughter Lisl or wife Erika

The picture below was burned by my mother on purpose in our coal furnace in Iowa
She said this picture made my father's family look like hillbillies out on the Jensen Farm
My grandfather died when my father (Vernon) was two years old
My Grandmother (Regina) Jensen raised her hard working sons on the farm
A distant relative recently sent me a copy of this picture that my mother destroyed
Pictured are Ralph, Millen, Regina, Linus, and Vernon
The oldest brother George is not pictured
When this picture was taken George was married and had his own farm
My grandmother used to spin her own wool and knit us all mittens
Now all the hillbillies in the picture (plus George) are somewhere in the clouds

 Vernon, Millen, and Grandma Jensen's 1925 Adventure in a Model T Ford --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/vernon.htm

My father (Vernon) born in 1912 passed away on January 20, 2002.  In 1995, he asked me to write a story about his first trip away from the farm (when he was fourteen years old).  You can read the story at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/vernon.htm 

Hi Paula,

Don't knock lutefisk. It's a genuine treat to most of my relatives back in Iowa and Minnesota. Lutheran churches still have lutefisk suppers.

Actually lutefisk does not smell so bad in these days of freezers. But when I was a kid, lutefisk came packed in a lye brine as a preservative. The word "lute" means lye. We could smell the lutefisk barrels before we even stepped into the church basements.

Fortunately for Scandinavians like me, the lutefisk suppers have Swedish meat balls as an alternative.

Now the herring I really like --- goes great with beer. And I would die for some fresh homemade lefsa right now. Lefsa is best described as a tortilla made out of fried mashed potatoes. But it's more of a dessert item when wrapped around gobs of sugar and butter.

Norwegian orchestra leader Lawrence Welk might rise from the dead for a lutefisk and lefsa supper. By the way, his longtime favorite saxophone player and singer was Dick Dale. Dick was once my neighbor although he's 12 years older than me and left Algona after he graduated from high school at age 16. His mother and my mother's mother, however, shared a room in the local nursing home for about seven years. Neither of them had any idea where they were and spent their days fast asleep. Each lived well beyond the age of ninety.

Surprisingly a wealthy Dick Dale returned, at over 80 years of age, to retire in Algona. I'd like to say he toots his own horn, but in reality he's a very nice guy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Dale_(singer)  

Bob

I see from my house by the side of the road
By the side of the highway of life,
The men who press with the ardor of hope,
The men who are faint with the strife,
But I turn not away from their smiles and tears,
Both parts of an infinite plan-
Let me live in a house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.
Sam Walter Foss (1858-1911)

More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and Stories
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm

On May 14, 2006 I retired from Trinity University after a long and wonderful career as an accounting professor in four universities. I was generously granted "Emeritus" status by the Trustees of Trinity University. My wife and I now live in a cottage in the White Mountains of New Hampshire ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/NHcottage/NHcottage.htm

All my online pictures --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/PictureHistory/

Bob Jensen's threads --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Threads.htm

Bob Jensen's Home Page --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/