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We make our second exposure in Yosemite as part of our 2025 Year in California. At truly one of my favorite locations, known as the Gates of the Valley - standing over the Merced River and looking at mighty El Capitan. That's not a bad way to roll into May!

So head over to the Central Illinois Calendar blog to get your May off on a free solo of sorts.

Our year in California continues - and just to confuse the issue - we take you to the Alabama Hills. The story goes that the Alabama Hills, near Lone Pine, CA, in the Sierra Nevadas, were named for the CSS Alabama, a Confederate warship deployed during the American Civil War. When news of the ship's exploits reached prospectors in California sympathetic to the Confederates, they named many mining claims after the ship, and the name came to be applied to the entire range.

So California - with an Alabama touch. The arch in the frame is called the Mobius Arch, and if you head just a few miles west from Lone Pine - you'll find it - in April or any month.

Head over to the Central Illinois Calendar Blog shortly to get your desktop for our fourth month of the year.

We interrupt the Southeastern road trip for a return to the west coast - and a Yosemite sunrise from Glacier Point - overlooking mighty Half Dome.

This was result of a thirty-mile drive in the dark from the Wawona Hotel up to the top of Glacier Point about an hour before sunrise - just to be in the right spot for the sun to sneak up over the distant peaks between Half Dome and Tuolumne Meadows.

Head over to the Central Illinois Calendar Blog right now to get your March off to a fresh start.

We're a full eight days ahead of the start of February - and we're already posting the calendar. What in the world?

Well - the first road trip of 2025 is in offing, and my departure will overlap the normal posting routine, so we're getting ahead of the curve.

We welcome you to the Lone Cypress (or at least the lonelier Cypress) on the "17-Mile Drive" coastal road between Monterey and Carmel-By-The Sea on California 1. It really isn't that lonely, as there were easily 100 people milling about when we dropped by - but it is what it is. At least they don't let you wander out there - or there'd be influencers hanging off of every branch.

So if you wanna be early - head over to the Central Illinois Photoblog to get you some ocean tree views!

As we foreshadowed over the last few months, 2025 is going to be a single theme. Twelve calendar images with something significant in common. And that bond is: CALIFORNIA.

Each of this year's images was made in the Golden State - quite a few in the last two years - but also a few from other years (like our first image - from 2016). And mostly geographically diverse - so don't expect five images from Yosemite etc. We're branching out as much as we can.

This month's picture is from the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, just a tad west of the town of Lone Pine. Known collectively as the Alabama Hills, it is also the home of Mt. Whitney (which you'll see later this year as this early morning was foggy as all get out). While on the edge of a lot of desert, there was clearly enough moisture in the air on this January morning to produce a wonderful rainbow. Oh - and a rare calendar bonus - my very own shadow jumps into the fray. Exciting times.

So anyhow, head over to the Central Illinois Photoblog to get yours.

It's the last calendar of 2024, and since we're chilly here in Central Illinois, thought I'd go back to Hawaii one more time to warm things up. And no better place than the summit of Haleakalā Volcano on Maui in the appropriately named Haleakalā National Park - one of two national parks in Hawaii.

Haleakalā, or the East Maui Volcano, is a massive, active shield volcano that forms more than 75% of the Hawaiian Island of Maui. The western 25% of the island is formed by another volcano, Mauna Kahalawai, also referred to as the West Maui Mountains.

The tallest peak of Haleakalā at 10,023 feet is Puʻu ʻUlaʻula. From the summit one looks down into a massive depression some 11.25 mi across, 3.2 mi wide, and nearly 2,600 feet deep. The surrounding walls are steep and the interior mostly barren-looking with a scattering of volcanic cinder cones.

And the little Easter Egg here: if you look to the two large peaks off in the distance, those are actually Mauna Kea (on the left) and Mauna Loa - about 40 miles away on the Big Island, and Manua Loa is part of the other Hawaiian National Park - Hawaii Volcanoes NP.

Anyway, that's a wrap on 2024. We've got a single theme for 2025 - take your guesses. Meanwhile, head over to the Central Illinois Calendar Blog to collect your December desktop eruption.

It's one more trip to Utah for the penultimate calendar of 2024 - to beloved Factory Butte and the moonscape that surrounds it. We actually drove our car to the base of the object in the foreground (four-wheel drive and decent ground clearance) but even though there were tire tracks between us and the Butte - we went no further. Fortunately the drone was available - as we were on BLM land - so I was able to fly quite a bit closer.

At any rate, head over to the Central Illinois Calendar blog to claim yours. Back to Hawaii next month and then... a themed year for 2025. Stay tuned!

Back to Hawaii - and the Big Island's Waipi'o Valley - aka the Valley of Kings. It was the location of the ancient grass palace of the ancient "kings" of Hawaiʻi. From the top of the overlook, it's about 2,000' down to the valley floor, and the road at times reaches a 45-degree slope, making it one of the steepest roads in the world. Only open to 1. 4WD vehicles and 2. residents of the Big Island - neither of which we had or were, so we just took in the view from above, which was still pretty fantastic.

So head over to the Central Illinois Calendar blog to get yours.

Another September and another sunrise, from some body of water somewhere on Earth. In this case, the eastern end of St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, looking across the eastern Caribbean Sea to St. John. I woke up plenty early one morning so you didn't have to. The view was more than worth it.

So head over to the Central Illinois Photoblog to grab your free 30 days staring at a tropical sunrise while you do something just a little more mundane (but no less important!)

If you wander around Instagram Reels or Facebook Stories or wherever influences hang out - you'll find all kinds of things about this small tower just northwest of tiny Hanksville, UT. The remnants of a canyon wall - a large part of which has fallen and disintegrated leaving only the end of the wall standing - as this amazing spire.

It's actually in the middle of a glorious part of Utah - just east of Capitol Reef. Within just a few miles of this spire sits famed Factory Butte and the equally impressive Moonscape Overlook. Park right on Utah State Route 24 in the right spot - and walk 45 minutes or so north across flat terrain, and pop around the corner - and there it be.

And it sits on BLM land, so fly your drone to your hearts content - which, admittedly, everyone does. Just go watch Facebook or IG.

But in the meantime, throw it up on your desktop for the month of August and think warm deserty thoughts. And head over to the Central Illinois Calendar Blog to get your free August desktop calendar. You can do it.

We have all this Hawaii imagery, and it seems like a waste not to use it - so how about a little moonrise over the eastern coast of the Big Island from the side of the big volcano - Mauna Kea. Driving out of Hilo (somewhere about 20 miles out below the clouds), you can drive up from sea level to about 9,000' - which is about two-thirds of the way up to the top of the cone. From there, you can take tours to the top of the likely dormant volcano (last eruption was 4,500 years ago) - to see the extensive array of big telescopes that sit near the 13,000' summit. But to see the moon rising, you simply can use your eyes... and a camera.

Anyhoo, head over to the Central Illinois Calendar Blog to get your July desktop - with no hint of eruption in the future.

Welcome to the June 2024 Desktop calendar - hailing from the western edge of the Central Valley of California from little Pinnacles National Park. Hiking on one of the many short but steep trails in the park, we decided to simply have some fun with an image - and what better methodology for a future calendar.

Head over to the Central Illinois Calendar blog to get yours!

Not straying too far from a Maui sunrise however - sometimes you just go with a calendar that works. So welcome May.

Head over to the Central Illinois Calendar Blog to get yours. Aloha!

When we choose to abandon the tropical theme that occupied the last four chilly months, we do so in a way that does not hide that fact. We take you to the famed Factory Butte, just west of nowhere in central Utah. A textural dream - with rocks the size of trucks sitting at the bottom, up almost 2,000' feet to the top. Shot from the drone because, well, you need a little aerial perspective.

Head over to the Central Illinois Calendar Blog to get you one for April. Fool!

Sticking with the tropical theme until Spring officially springs. So don't be surprised to be waiting until May - but we will get there.

On the big island of Hawaii, at the southern most tip is the spot where Kilauea lava has often washed into the sea in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Old lava flows abound on this part of the island, while the main crater sits about 15 miles to the north. This has definitely been the direction the island has grown. What's fascinating about this spot, as you gaze over the Pacific, is that there is no land to your south until you reach Antarctica. Just wide open ocean for like 6,000 miles. Better you just stay ashore - and enjoy the lava rock.

Head over to the Central Illinois Calendar blog to collect your next tropical vacation - for your desktop.

Keeping the warm weather beach scene going for one more month - why not step onto a nice beach on Maui. Welcome to Makena Beach, on the south end of Waimea, for a lovely sunset. If this doesn't warm your desktop - well just hang on - Spring is coming soon. Please. Come soon. We need you spring.

Head over to the Central Illinois Calendar blog right now to get your very own non-autographed copy.

This calendar wraps up year 15 of calendars - which seems a little crazy in my mind. 180 desktop calendars. Had it been a sunset instead of a sunrise, maybe I would've just stopped here. But as it is not - I reckon we'll just keep going.

And going on the theme of warm settings for the chillier months - a sunrise, in fact, over Makena Cove, on the island of Maui, for your enjoyment.

Have a great 2024 everyone. You can head over to the Central Illinois Calendar blog to get yours.

After two months of a tree in Central Illinois, we've gone in a different direction this month. With windchills at 14 degrees two days ago - it was time to warm the place up.

Standing on the island of St. John, in the US Virgin Islands, we spied the sailing vessel Sea Cloud.

While the Sea Cloud is now a sailing cruise ship owned by a German company, it was launched as a private yacht - named Hussar V - for its first owner, Marjorie Merriweather Post, in 1931. She later served as a weather ship for the United States Coast Guard and United States Navy during World War II, when she became the U.S. military's first racially integrated warship since the American Civil War. After the war, Sea Cloud was returned to private ownership, serving as a yacht for numerous people, including as presidential yacht of the Dominican Republic. Since 1979, Sea Cloud has been used as a cruise ship.

At the time of her construction, she was the largest private yacht in the world at 360' long and a beam of almost 50'. Looks definitely like a way to see a place. A place where it's warm - as winter descends. Alas.

You can head over to the Central Illinois Calendar Blog to get our very own warm December photo. Bon voyage!

It's a yin and yang thing. Last month we featured the very same tree but in a very low key set-up. We'll go nearly to the other end of the spectrum, with a little high key (corn at least) of The Tree - as shot on a modified digital infrared camera (my old glorious Nikon D700). Sometimes things come together. And with cooler weather soon to prevail - we're saving some beach shots for those winter months.

Head over to the Central Illinois Calendar Blog to grab one for yourself.

It's been about 28 months since we've featured that mighty Burr Oak from Dillon, IL, as a calendar - so time to go again. Originally titled as Tree 49, it's now calendar #177.

Taken well after sunset, looking west, in October of 2008 - there's no field or anything beyond - just that silhouette - that perfect shape. And I'll take that.

Head over to the Central Illinois Calendar blog to get yours for the official start of fall.