I was on a road trip in the spring of 1997. This was a very bad hair day. Or could it have been the intense New Mexico wind at this bluff. This bush made the coolest whisling wind sound. When is there not wind in N.M.?

I was on my way to the UFO Museum in Roswell.

Aliens are very difficult to record, they don't sit still and it's hard to arrange a recording session of a spacecraft pass by and crash with them. So I used Pro-Tools.

I had to settle for wind sounds. No loss, they were perfect that sunny April afternoon!

I spent most of the summer in 1999 tearing down the west side porch and building the new audio studio.This was a beautiful day in May. I must have recorded over 300 individual wood cracks, breaks and creaks. The wood was very dry and when stressed it let out a extremely loud crack!

I managed to break the crow bar. I was getting in shape, didn't even know my own strength.

This photo was taken in 1995 by the very gracious gentleman who allowed me to record his vintage telephone museum.

What a collection he had. Lots of antique telephone and related equipment. They even had this bright red phone booth built in the early 1900's shipped over from England with the help of the US Navy. A sound recordist's dream.

Many of these sounds can be heard on a sound effects library produced by the finest company in the business, Sound Ideas.

Recording rock slides in a North Idaho quarry with my brother Tom. I was extremely nervous about him being so close to the edge of the cliff, but he is very athletic and handled it well. Me, well I almost got the sense knocked out of me a couple of times. I should have brought my trusty old hard hat.

As we moved to the right, the cliff got higher. He must love danger. He did it all for the love of sound effects recording.

He was not compensated for his services. (It's a family thing...)

Recording a stream in Kentuky. It was a beautiful day in April, 1996. The stream came out of the mouth of a cave.

I then ventured into the cavern and captured some wonderful contained water flows and trickles.

Then it was off to a underground cave to record dripping water and ambience.

Hangin' with "Monster" at the Suffleton Steam Power Plant in Seattle.

Here we are getting ready to fire up the turbine water pump that feeds the steam tanks. This pump moves 150 gallons of water per second up a huge pipe that's 75 feet long. When you shut the pump off, all the water backfills the pipe and slams into the close valve.

The huge "clank" sound the water makes hitting the valve was worth enduring the puddles and dust.

Cranking a 1903 Magneto phone. Ding ding ding...I was glad the lines were cut so I could not dial out to somebody in the past, I wouldn't know what to say... [Play Sound ]

The Blue Angels pilots reacting to the F/A-18 Hornet pass by we recorded earlier in the day. This guy moved his head with the pass. He really thought it was live, not Memorex. They were thrilled.

We were in now. The following year they let me get close and personal with the F/A-18 Hornet. Starts, stops, run-ups, taxi bys and extremely close passes.

A sound recordist's dream come true. [ Large ] [ Play Sound ]

My associate at the time felt it was neccessary to do that finger in the nose thing in front of one of the last remaining piston hydroplanes to race this course.

We received free "all access" passes because he helped the Coast Guard carry their hot tub up into the race control tower.

We never figured out why they needed the hot tub anyway. The race was on Lake Washington in Seattle (1992) and it was a beautiful hot summer day. Everybody else was in the lake. [ Large ] [Play Sound]

The Budweiser hydroplane crew testing the turbine engine. Loud is an understatement. But when these boats are racing on the water, they barely make a sound. It's like a light whirring vroom effect.

We tried to get a position out in a boat near the course, but they were very concerned with safety. After watching a boat flip totally out of control, I understood why. [ Large ] [Play Sound ]

An F-117 Stealth Fighter/Bomber at the Whidbey Island Air Show in Washington State. This jet makes a great whooshing sound as it passes. It's actually very quiet.

I was in a great spot away from the crowd. I could see the pilot clearly through the canopy as it streaked by at 100 feet. [ Large ] [ Play Sound #1 ] [ Play Sound #2 ]