My good friend Charles Brown-Roberts, who has left Knoxville for the golden sunshine of California, took these pictures while back for a visit and shared them with me before he left.

I'm a Maryville College man myself. But I have to say: I like the architecture of the main UT Library, as well as the way the terraced lawn goes with it.

He was in town for a software conference that was held at the Knoxville Convention Center, so he had a chance to take this nice picture of the grounds by the Center as they face our famous
1982 World's Fair Sunsphere.

Of course, it's pretty much impossible to look at the Sunsphere and not think of the Simpsons episode where Bart takes a joy ride to Knoxville and winds up knocking over the "Wigsphere". But crazy, unused landmark or not, I love this picture!

There was an exhibit at the Emporium Gallery at Gay Street and Jackson recently that allowed people to write notes on Sunsphere-shaped pieces of paper regarding their ideas for the future of our beloved giant golden golf ball.

You've gotta love artist types; many of the notes shared a perspective that I won't repeat in polite company! But it is a question worth asking:

What do you think we should do with the Sunsphere?

This series of pictures was taken at a boat ramp off of Old Knoxville Pike. I pass by it on the way to work and back every day, and occasionally I stop to snap a few photos.

These were all taken on the same day. The first photograph was a morning shot. Notice how calm the water is? I love this place...it's so peaceful just to stop and look.

The second photo was on the way home from work at about 8 p.m. Just when I was about to snap this picture, a bass boat shot by -- as you can see, in an S-curve.

I was cursing their unknown names at first, then I realized that I liked the S in the water. And now, this is one of my favorite pictures from that day. You have to love it when things turn out that way. ;-)

The last photo from this series is of a couple ducks I saw in the Taco Bell parking lot that day. They were just hanging out in a handicap parking space. I was in the drivethrough line, and jumped out of my car to get a few quick photos of them.

Who knew ducks like Taco Hell? I thought it was just chihuahuas!

These pictures of Knoxville, Tennessee were taken from the James White Parkway South Knoxville Bridge at sunset in June of '06.

I've had a nice film camera for several years, and enjoyed photography. But I recently got a Cannon ProShot1 digital camera, and have fallen in love with taking pictures of Knoxville!

This view is one of many things that are exceptionally nice about living in South Knoxville, along with affordable houses, nice older neighborhoods with big trees and it's only a couple minutes from Downtown.

From this close-up you can get a better sense of the fairly new condos that have been built on the Tennessee next to downtown. Not a bad location, eh?

Though it's a little dark, you can also see the Sunsphere in the background middle, behind the federal courthouse tower.

The large brick building on the left-hand side of the picture is the Andrew Johnson building, formerly the Andrew Johnson Hotel, where many famous people once stayed, including Hank Williams Senior, who was last seen alive at the AJ.