Reconnecting

When Blondie and I started this blog it was more of a way to reach out to our families than anything else (see Why 'Forgetfully Yours'), but recently it has been a chance to reconnect with old friends...and it's hard to believe that it's even theoretically possible...that I stay in touch with even less than blood relatives. While I don't have much time during the week (12 hour days, 5 days a week with no breaks is draining), I am working on reading through each of your own blogs to catch up on what's been happening with you before I chime in.

Until then, it's exciting to hear for you and we'll be in touch soon. ;-)

Sharing Time

I thought I would share a couple photos that I've taken over the last few years that I'm pretty proud of. Hope you enjoy em!

A Fan

I took this several years ago at the Denver Zoo, during that time of year that the Girl Scouts do their annual cookie drive. The city had allowed a couple troops (is that the right term?) to setup tables and sell their wares at the entrances. Well it didn't take much time at all before the park was just littered with these annual treats.

We had arrived at the zoo pretty late in the day so the cookie litter was especially bad.

As we were heading out of the park this little guy darted out from under the bushes that line the walkway to grab this Thin Mint from off the sidewalk. He was so enamored with getting his sugar fix that he didn't care how close I got to him...that or he was in a sugar educed haze from a day of binging. At any rate I was able to get right up on em for this photo.

I took this with a little pocket 3.1 MP camera that had no zoom on it at all...I really was able to get that close.

Bee at Aurora State Park - July 2004

Should I find it a bit odd that some of my favorite photos are ones that I took when I was just getting into photography and had only very basic equipment? Haven't I improved at all over the years?

The title pretty much tells you the relevant details of this photo. I was out biking on a Summer afternoon on a weekday that I had taken off of work. This was early on in my journey of learning some of the basics rules of photography. One of them, that I didn't really agree with, is that mid-afternoon...especially during the summer...is a bad time of day for shooting photos. The general consensus is that the light intensity is way too strong and the sun's position doesn't make for flattering shadowing. Well I think this photo flies in the face of that convention. Although I have to admit that I did wait for some cloud cover get sunshine on my subject while softening the lighting on the flowers around it.

This was taken with the same pocket 3.1 MP pocket camera...but the lens was set to "macro" instead of "landscape."

Ruedi

I have always admired photos like this, great scenes with very moody lighting and I could never seem to reproduce results like this for myself, until I tried some very early morning photography.

This was taken last summer when my boss and I got up very early, 3:00 AM to be exact, to drive an hour up to the local reservoir to do some boat fishing before putting in a full day's work. (He was happy to finally find someone who could keep up with the feverish pace he sets for himself, and still be able to sneak in some fishing before starting the day.) Normally we would go up and try a few spots on the lake without much luck and pack it in by sevenish. This particular morning was pretty cold, windy and cloudy. In fact, it start to snow as we pulled out of the water...that's Summer in the mountains for you. : ) Just as we were pulling up to the dock I looked behind me and saw the scene that I had been trying to recreate on camera for a couple years. I took several frames of this scene but the one I liked the most was just a tad underexposed.

I really like not only the lighting but how the deep reds, greens and blues play against each other. I'm really proud of this one.

I took this on my Canon 10D. (After a couple years of getting into photography I took the annual ski pass that the company I was working for gave to us and turned it into cash. I love this camera it is just below professional grade and has an all metal frame...which is hard to find in a digital camera without shelling out some serious dough.)

Three Stairs

While this isn't considered by some to be a "photo" this did start out as a regular old picture, but it has gone through some heavy post-processing in Photoshop...and I think it's so much the better for the trouble.

I took this during my "looking for patterns" phase of learning. I wish I still had the original photo for comparison to see how much more interesting the final result is with the intensifying of the colors, a slight impressionist treatment, and really cranking up the blues in the windows. I can't really tell you what I "like" about this photo other than it just works for me.

I took this one with my Canon 10D on a Saturday while at work. This building faces the balcony of the 2nd floor of an office building that I used to work at. Needless to say Saturday's were normally slow and boring and it was no big deal to wonder off a few feet away from my desk waiting for the phone to ring.

Happy Birthday Sis!

Well FatherOfFive grows up a bit this year...I actually remembered my sister's birthday on my own...even though several reminders were much appreciated. Hey can I really blame anyone that they felt the needed to remind me this year? Not one bit...I would have done the same thing in their shoes. Although I do have to admit that I intended to send a birthday card, so I guess I still have some progress to make.

When I realized that I had missed the window to send out a birthday card I asked Mom to scan a picture of me and Sis when we were little. I don't have any specific memory of taking taking this picture but I'm sure sometime soon afterward I was pulling your hair. "Sorry Sis." And I'm reminded of all the times I wasn't the nicest brother in the world growing up...and while you weren't always sugar and spice either, I am reminded of how kind you were to me.

I still remember when I first started dating Blondie that I tried to describe her to you and I could only come up with...'She's a lot like you...only better.' High praise indeed.

The years have marched on and while I wouldn't say that we have 'grown apart' we have definately centered our energies on raising our own families...and it doesn't help that we live 951 miles apart (according to Google anyway)...but I'm glad to know that you are, and always will be my little Sis...who's more like my big Sis in many, many ways.

So here's to MomOf5Gents! Happy Birthday!

Oh by the way...you are 70% younger than your house. Here's to hoping that when you turn 117 that your basement pipes aren't clogged up and that the local repair man doesn't think you are diffcult to deal with. : )

Sorry Girls - This One is for the Guys

One of my favorite programs is on the Food Network, called "Good Eats", that I record regularly. It's like a cooking show for geeks...like me. It's basically a traditional cooking show but goes on to explains some of the physical and chemical properties of the foods we eat, and why it makes them taste so good.

A couple weeks ago one episode was titled, "Man Food". It had a really funny introduction and segways from the commerial breaks. The host posed as if he were teaching us unsensitive men how to make a very special breakfast in bed for our wives. Whenever they would return from a commercial break there would be some fru fru item that he would have as a sight gag...like a napkin swan, etc. etc. And as soon as he would reinvite the ladies to leave the room he would toss his gag into the garbage or pull a chilled beer out of some "hand squeezed" organge juice or in the case of the swan...blow his nose into it. Very funny stuff.

At any rate I have been saving this program because I was determined that one of these weekends I was going to embark on whipping up some "man food". Homemade corndogs and beef burritos were the menu this evening. Tomorrow it's hot wings!

In keeping with the theme for this weekend I'm posting this commercial for the guys out there. An aquaintance of mine emailed it to me and I just had to share.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iBY7Yirq60