Another year down...

It is hard to believe that 2008 is coming to a close!

In some ways I am glad this year is over. In other ways, I look back and I am sad that somewhere down the line, I lost track yet again and did not accomplish all my goals for the year.

While contemplating that failure this week, a new freshness has been revived in me. That along with some new "friends" I have met through iStockphotography and a friendly competition between us, I have a feeling I will meet the new goals I have set for 2009.

Happy Holidays to everyone and Happy New Year... may 2009 be a blessed one for you!

Brandon Photo Club Studio Lighting

Thanks to Donna, Jim and Rich for bringing in their equipment, we held a studio lighting evening for the October Brandon Photography Club meeting.

I brought my kids dressed in their Halloween costumes, dance outfits that belonged to my wife when she was a kid... which brings up the question, does her mom get rid of anything?

Another member, Kyle, brought his Batman Costume which made for some nice photo opportunities as well. You can see one of the images I took of him on my Flickr site. I still need to work on a few images I took of Donna with a zombie prop that Rich brought in.

It was a fun evening of teaching members of the club how to use a light meter, set up the lights and move them around for different lighting effects. I for one got a lot out of it, as I am trying to decide if I want to buy studio lights or continue using my dual SB-800 setup.

Too Hot?!?!

I e-mailed my friend Gary Borland from work and asked if he or his wife were doing any shooting lately and his response was it's too hot. I thought his answer was crazy at the time, it can't be too hot to get out and shoot.

WOW could Gary's response never made more sense than my trip out this morning. I took my wife and kids to Eureaka Springs Park, which is a favorite spot of mine to take pictures of flowers and insects. Between the heat and humidity, after about 30 mins, I was soaked with sweat.

I heard they finished replacing the boardwalk, which had been destroyed by a storm, so I wanted to see it. They did and the boardwalk is nice, but I wish they would have planted some flowering plants along it.

As for the flowers, this is a "botanical garden" after all, the park was pretty barren this morning, which was a real disappointment. It looks like all the flowering plants around the place had been cut back. I hope this is just maintenance that they do and the flowers are back the next time I arrive... AFTER it cools down!

South Brandon Little League

I have been out shooting a lot of little league games again this year. There is something about youth sports that I really enjoy shooting. Mainly the younger kids, there just seems to be an innocents there, they just enjoy the game for fun... it's just that to them still, a game.

You can see some of the images from those games on my flickr page or on the Backprint Gallery I am using to sell images. I used to post images to a different gallery site to sell, but a couple of friends / local photographers Jim Sykes and Donna Cuic told me about Backprint.

If you have a moment, take a hop over to my flickr site and view the images, even better, leave a comment if you see something you like!

Computer Blues...

I tend to use my computers until I have literally killed them. Upon getting back home from Ohio, I apparently did just that to my wonderful Dell. Not that I am complaining, the thing was going on 6 years old after all.

My wife doesn't understand these things as well, unfortunately. Her first comment was "what's wrong with your computer that wasn't wrong with it before we left for vacation?", which I couldn't answer at first. But thanks to Dell's web site and the indicator lights they have for errors, I found out that my ram wasn't being recognized... an easy fix IF Dell hadn't chosen to put RAMBUS memory in their computers back when I bought this one.

After diagnosing the problem and not getting the computer to boot at all, I checked some prices on ram from my laptop... I then immediately called a friend to find out how much it would cost to build a new computer. Yes, for the just a little more than the RAMBUS would have cost, I have a brand new Core2duo PC that screams.

More importantly, my wife has a new 19" LCD instead of the old 17" CRT she was using, so she is happy too! :^)

Happy New Year

I hope everyone had a safe and happy new year.

Stay warm and for all those college football fans out there, enjoy the upcoming bowl games!

I am still in VERY cold Ohio and on my way out to shoot some photos of the area around my wife's parents house. On the slate today are an 1800s Quaker Cemetery, an old covered bridge and a heavy equipment "museum" of sorts.

I am not sure how they classify it as a museum, as it is just a whole lot of old heavy equipment, mining and farm equipment in an open field, but it is all neat stuff none-the-less.