Truth in Advertising...

We came upon this in London whilst walking around...we did *lots* of walking.

Dawn of a new day...

What is it about the dawn of a new day?

For a time in the mornings my day is new of full of possibilities...I awaken to a scene like this and turn on some music to start my day. Once I make my way to the shower it happens...reality starts oozing its way into my reverie. It all starts innocently enough, I might simply consider taking the CD that's playing out to the truck...so I can listen to it on my way to work. Then the dominos quickly start falling, I'm taking the CD to listen to on my way to work...at a job I no longer enjoy. *sigh* I also realize I'll have time to listen to a large portion of the CD because of traffic retards. Even though I am a scant 20 miles from my office from my house there are days it can take me two hours to make the trip, and the bulk of my commute is on the Interstate, less than 5 miles of arterial roads. My average time is 35-45 minutes, and I just can't justify a logical reason in my mind except that the bulk of my fellow commuters are retards.

My goal is to get to a place where these things I no longer allow to detract from my feelings of possibilities and hope for the day...my peace.

Full Moon and a Thunderstorm

I get lucky with a lot of my shots...I just happened to get this one as I was leaving the gun range. A thunderstorm was moving in and I took the shot before the thunderhead covered the moon.

My first...

Now I've been into photography since...well some of my first memories involve a small Kodak 110 film camera. And I became really fond of it by the time I was 13. Especially what I like to refer to as "ambush" shots. Either when people don't know they are being watched or when they aren't ready.
I started shooting digital photos in 1997 with a Kodak camera I think was less than one megapixal...ahh those were the days. I really started taking quality digital photos in 2001 with my Nikon 880 CoolPix camera, it is a 3.3 MP camera had a decent zoom and quality of my images was good enough...or so I thought.
This squrrel eating a McDonald's fry here was one of my first shots with the Digital Rebel. I took it in Centennial Park which is pretty much across the street from work. I was using my 75-300 lens here because squirrels are funny about people getting too close. Speaking of work...that's how I ended up with this particular model of camera in the first place. Two of my friend's I happen to work with have the same camera. They took a trip to the Grand Canyon and came back with some fantastic shots. I'll post links to their pictures later on, I highly recommend the time to look through their collections. I was sold. My choice was confirmed the day after I got my camera and took my lunch in the park. The detail that this imaged showed when I got it back to my computer was phenomenal! Look at the fingers and the hairs on the tail. And this was at quite a distance away too. I'll eventually settle down on my postings, but I just have so many backlogged that I want to find time to post and talk about. :)

Is this art?

Alright...*sigh* I have what I consider to be a very nice DSLR camera with a decent lens that was used to take this and other photos, most of my photos are with this lens on my camera.
(Oh, for those that might care...It's a Canon Digital Rebel, with a Canon 28-135mm IS 72mm lens w/UV filter)
At any rate...I let some other people, obviously, use my camera. I say obviously only because there are photos of me in this collection, not because I'm a grand master photographer or some such. I have several photos of this...type I guess is a word I can use. Now this photo has definitely been 'retouched' I've tried to clean it up, but still couldn't tell you who the subject was. The moral of the story? Don't drink and shoot...just say no!

Kevin & Kieran

 

There are always...possibilities

I know I promised to share photos of an unusual event...and I'll try my best to stay on course, but (my favorite conjunction) I find the stream of my thoughts wandering. Which has been a lifelong struggle I might add. I oft times find my mind running away, a myriad of thoughts in all directions all the time...generally when I should be concentrating on a task that has nothing at all to do with where my mind is. I suck at administrative, repetitive tasks...repetition bores me, no moreso it agitates me mightily if forced upon me. I view it as a net loss of energy and time to do anything more than once. I know there are those that may read this and know me and say there are plenty of things that you do repeatedly that you admittedly enjoy, like shooting, you do that to a point of excess, and after all aren't you only going through the same motions again and again? They would be correct only in part. I suppose the clearest form of my distaste is that I should add the word "completely." I dislike to do anything completely more than once. There are many things I attempt to complete who's endpoint is perfection...which is a never-ending goal, but I try none the less.

So that aside, (prime example of mind wander there) I wanted to share a few photo's from HP's customer appreciation night. Those in the IT field, specifically messaging will no doubt recognize these names:
Kevin Laahs, Donald Livengood, Kieran McCorry, and Pierre Bijaoui

All of these gentlemen are top-notch consultants for HP, and provided a multi-national learning extravaganza for us regarding all things Exchange.
These are things most anyone knows...but as an observer of society I've often found there is a lot more to people than first meets the eye. Did you know for instance that Kevin is a talented musician and singer as well? That the Southern Gentleman Donald Livengood also has a talented voice for something other than Powerpoint presentations, and that even the soft spoken Kieran will sing along? Yes, I have proof!

I know it's not a flattering picture gentlemen, but it makes me smile everytime I look at it. :D
I'll be fair here and give equal time to embarrassing photos..yes Virginia, I too am a singing geek.

I'm still cleaning up the photo of Donald & Kierran, but I promise to post it ASAP. Speaking of cleaning up photos...I think my next rant will be "Why inebriated individuals shouldn't take photos"

HP Exchange Academy in Philly

Last week I took a trip to Philadelphia, PA for some much needed traing on Microsoft's Exchange Server 2003.

This was my first trip to Philly, and although I knew, in relation to Pittsburgh, where it was geographically...it didn't occur to me what else it was around. Atlantic City, NJ for instance. :) So I drove to AC the Saturday before my classes were to begin and found that New Jersey is a pleasantly small state to traverse by car. The drive from Philly was less than an hour. I've been to Reno, and Vegas before, and have found I'm not much of a gambler. I play nickel slots so I can have a few drinks, and eat a really cheap steak dinner and then I'm pretty much done with the casinos. Call me silly but throwing money away without any thing to show for it doesn't "entertain" me. Probably because I already know the odds are astronomically against me...and my luck sucks on a good day.
Below is a shot of the sunset and the Atlantic from the AC boardwalk.


I'm still sorting the pics I took on this trip, but tomorrow I promise to show you something the outside world sees very seldom...singing geeks!

Welcome

I'm going to try using this as a place to post my pictures and share stories of my adventures both above and below the ether.