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It's heeeere!
Feb. 27th, 2014 07:04 pmSorry, just had to share the joy of photographic gear lust, temporarily satiated.
( Cut for those who don't care! )
( Cut for those who don't care! )
Look who's 3!
Feb. 24th, 2014 03:49 pm
Amy! Though man-oh-man, you'd never have known she wasn't in the full grip of her Terrible Twos despite turning 3 yesterday. Heck, she even argued about it when we told her it was her birthday and she was turning 3! "It's NOT my birthday, it's YOUR birthday, and I'M TWO." Oy. I think it was a lack of sleep, but aside from a couple hours of her being good, she was pretty much a nightmare all day. She's just so stubborn when she gets something in her head. She'll misplace a toy or book, come ask us to find it for her, and then go nuclear when we can't find it or refuse to look. Or she'll get it into her head that she wants to do something, and raise the ceiling if we want her to do something else. And heaven help us if we ask her to do something she DOESN'T want to do. Sheesh. I'm glad these phases pass in time, but I'm pretty sure she's been the worst with this stuff. Hermione was perfect, always eager to please and not a complainer. Hallie was a little more vocal, but easy enough to distract or redirect or coerce somehow. Amy just will. not. have. it. I guess she'll be our Type A kid. ;)
Anyway, weekend was good otherwise. Heather's sister Stef came over Friday night, and we had fun watching some old home videos with her. Saturday we headed up to the zoo in Sanford, where they've recently added giraffes (though the feeding station for them doesn't open for a few more weeks). It's not a great zoo, but our main goal was to get our pass there since it's relatively cheap, and then we can use that to get discounted admission at lots of other zoos and aquariums. And the animals they have are pretty cool, though their enclosures tend to be on the small side which makes me feel bad for some of the critters.
After the zoo we got lunch and then headed home, and then I stayed home with Amy while everyone else went ice skating. Hallie finally got past a hurdle so she got a lot better, and Heather's apparently decided that rather than just take Hallie to her lesson and sitting around each week, she's going to sign up for lessons too. She already skates okay--well enough to stay upright, anyway--but she wouldn't mind getting better.
After the ice skating was dinner and then our walk and paddle down at the lake that I posted about before.
Sunday Stef headed home in the morning, which left us the day. I'd been wanting to head out to the big plant nursery we like to get some stuff, so we decided to make an outing of that, lunch, and checking out a city park we hadn't been to before. The park was first, and it wasn't as nice as I'd expected, but the girls had fun. Then we couldn't find a place for lunch, which caused some drama. And then the nursery, which hopefully redeemed the trip. I got a bunch of milkweed plants, and some dill and fennel, and a porterweed, all for the butterfly garden. Got some azaleas to replace a couple that died over the winter. And Heather was looking at the fruit trees and couldn't resist getting a peach tree, which will hopefully do well. The girls and I planted all of that when we got home, which is always fun.
Then I tried changing the oil on my car again. I'd tried a couple weeks ago and was frustrated because I couldn't get the damn drain plug out. It was clearly overtightened by whoever changed it last, and my tools weren't quite the right size so I ended up rounding the edges of the bolt a bit. Not good. Since then I got some new tools to hopefully fit better, but even so all I did was round off the bolt even more. Gonna have to take it in somewhere and hope they can get that off--I did order a new plug to replace that one, but first the old one's got to come off! Not happy about it, changing oil is not supposed to be an ordeal!
I also worked on my photography website a little. The home page has always been my blog, but I wanted to switch to a setup where there's an actual home/landing page, and a menu link to the blog instead. Finally got that working, though I still have work to do on the landing page, as well as my portfolio images which haven't been updated for a year or two. And I'm sure there are other changes I want to make to the text here and there. I'm always saying I'm happy as a part-timer and don't want too much business, but lately I've been getting hardly anything and it makes me feel out of practice, which is bad.
Oh, and I ordered my new lens, which should arrive around Thursday. Looking forward to playing with that! At the nursery I saw a guy who had that very lens on his Canon, so I asked him about it a little. He frankly seemed a bit clueless for a guy who dropped $1300 on a lens, but he said he mainly got it for video since it's stabilized and has been happy with it. We'll see!
Okay, enough rambling. Have some more photos instead.
( Clicky! )
Fame! Fortune! Glory!
Feb. 18th, 2014 12:37 pm..Or, you know, none of the above. See, now and then I go onto Flickr and check my stats, which shows photo views and whatnot. It also shows referring links: when people use my images on websites and do so properly (with a link back to the photo's Flickr page), someone clicks the link, I see the referral, then I can go see what my images are up to out there on the wild web. Usually it's dumb stuff, photo dumps and stock image sites, that sort of thing. But now and then it's a blog post or something more interesting. Yesterday I checked and was pleased to see that I made it onto a Slate travel blog, which I think is cool!
http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2014/02/17/president_s_day_road_trips_see_taft_s_chair_the_lincoln_bullet_and_a_menagerie.html
Then today I see this one, which I dunno, it seems like a strange/random topic for a blog post, but whatever.
http://www.photographyblogger.net/15-great-pictures-of-little-red-wagons/
Sidenote: I know some photographers would see stuff like this and start sputtering about copyright infringement and lost revenue and that sort of thing. I respectfully disagree, and in fact I post most of my personal work to my Flickr stream under a Creative Commons license because I actually LIKE it when my images get picked up and used. I mean, it's my personal stuff--I upload it to my Flickr, maybe I make a print for archival purposes or to go on the wall, and then I forget about it unless it pops up on my PC as a wallpaper (there's a nifty program called John's Background Switcher that can pull photos from Flickr and other places to use as wallpaper, I highly recommend it!). So if someone does choose to use one of my images, I figure at least it's getting a little extra visibility, and I'm not losing anything since I wasn't trying to monetize it in the first place. Plus if not mine, the blogger (or whomever) would just go find a different image instead. Which is maybe the wrong attitude to have, but whatever. :) It's also why I don't watermark my personal stuff.
Speaking of photography, I think it's about time I invested in a new lens. I've had my trusty Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 since 2006, and for a consumer-grade lens it's been fantastic and served me very well. But it's not as sharp as I've become accustomed to from my better glass, and lately it's started acting up, throwing lens communications errors when I shoot with it. And it's a pretty crucial lens for weddings especially, so I feel like I need to replace it before I book another one (and even before my next portrait shoot, not that I have anything definite set up presently). Canon's 24-70mm f/2.8 is over $2k, but Tamron has their own prosumer-grade 24-70mm f/2.8 with image stabilization (which the Canon lacks) for $1300, and I think I'm going to ask the wife if I can spring for that with part of the annual bonus I'm getting this week. That lens will not be going on the kayak, though. :)
http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2014/02/17/president_s_day_road_trips_see_taft_s_chair_the_lincoln_bullet_and_a_menagerie.html
Then today I see this one, which I dunno, it seems like a strange/random topic for a blog post, but whatever.
http://www.photographyblogger.net/15-great-pictures-of-little-red-wagons/
Sidenote: I know some photographers would see stuff like this and start sputtering about copyright infringement and lost revenue and that sort of thing. I respectfully disagree, and in fact I post most of my personal work to my Flickr stream under a Creative Commons license because I actually LIKE it when my images get picked up and used. I mean, it's my personal stuff--I upload it to my Flickr, maybe I make a print for archival purposes or to go on the wall, and then I forget about it unless it pops up on my PC as a wallpaper (there's a nifty program called John's Background Switcher that can pull photos from Flickr and other places to use as wallpaper, I highly recommend it!). So if someone does choose to use one of my images, I figure at least it's getting a little extra visibility, and I'm not losing anything since I wasn't trying to monetize it in the first place. Plus if not mine, the blogger (or whomever) would just go find a different image instead. Which is maybe the wrong attitude to have, but whatever. :) It's also why I don't watermark my personal stuff.
Speaking of photography, I think it's about time I invested in a new lens. I've had my trusty Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 since 2006, and for a consumer-grade lens it's been fantastic and served me very well. But it's not as sharp as I've become accustomed to from my better glass, and lately it's started acting up, throwing lens communications errors when I shoot with it. And it's a pretty crucial lens for weddings especially, so I feel like I need to replace it before I book another one (and even before my next portrait shoot, not that I have anything definite set up presently). Canon's 24-70mm f/2.8 is over $2k, but Tamron has their own prosumer-grade 24-70mm f/2.8 with image stabilization (which the Canon lacks) for $1300, and I think I'm going to ask the wife if I can spring for that with part of the annual bonus I'm getting this week. That lens will not be going on the kayak, though. :)
The Tale of a Saturday.
Feb. 12th, 2014 03:54 pmThis upcoming Saturday has really bounced around, and it hasn't even happened yet!
I got an e-mail a couple weeks ago from a lady for whom I did a family shoot a couple years ago. It's her, her husband, and their two young sons. She was planning a birthday party for one of the boys, and asked if I could attend and shoot from 11am-1pm. Birthday parties are really sorta meh in my book--I dunno, it's just not something that I think generally leads to awesome photos, especially when the venue is indoors--so I quoted her my full hourly rate for the 2 hours, figuring she might opt for a regular session instead. And indeed, she wrote back saying they weren't wanting to spend that much, but could I just come for an hour? And really I didn't want to, but I also don't want to run off repeat business, so I was debating it.
Meanwhile, I've been arranging to get a security system installed at home. The company I work for offers a decent one, and it's pretty cheap for employees on a monthly basis but does involve some upfront installation fees, so we'd been tossing the idea around and never pulled the trigger. But lately there have been a number of break-ins and attempted break-ins in our area, plus the system offers some nifty bells and whistles, so we figured we'd go ahead and use my upcoming yearly bonus to pay for the installation and equipment. And when they got back to me to schedule an appointment, they offered Saturday afternoon, conflicting with the party anyway.
Meanwhile, we also went ahead and ordered a digital piano, as I mentioned last time. (If anyone cares, we decided on Kawai's CN-34, which seems to be a pretty good combination of features and quality for the price, and gets good reviews. We ordered it directly from Kawai's website so we could use a zero-interest financing deal, but for fulfillment they apparently get in touch with a local dealer that has that model in stock, who then arranges delivery. So I got that call yesterday, and they offered to deliver.. wait for it.. Saturday afternoon as well!
So from nothing to do Saturday, suddenly we had a birthday party photo shoot, a home security system installation, and a piano delivery. I wrote to the birthday party lady to say I can't do the party, but I offered her a discounted regular family session instead, which is what I'd prefer to do anyway. Meanwhile I wrote back about the security installation to see if a weekday was possible, and got it moved to Monday. And then, totally unexpectedly, the piano people called back today and said they could make it tomorrow (which is awesome)!
So after all that, we're back to no plans at all for Saturday. Which is just how I like it! The weather looks perfect, so I foresee some outdoorsy activities. Maybe I can finally get the kayak back on the water!
I got an e-mail a couple weeks ago from a lady for whom I did a family shoot a couple years ago. It's her, her husband, and their two young sons. She was planning a birthday party for one of the boys, and asked if I could attend and shoot from 11am-1pm. Birthday parties are really sorta meh in my book--I dunno, it's just not something that I think generally leads to awesome photos, especially when the venue is indoors--so I quoted her my full hourly rate for the 2 hours, figuring she might opt for a regular session instead. And indeed, she wrote back saying they weren't wanting to spend that much, but could I just come for an hour? And really I didn't want to, but I also don't want to run off repeat business, so I was debating it.
Meanwhile, I've been arranging to get a security system installed at home. The company I work for offers a decent one, and it's pretty cheap for employees on a monthly basis but does involve some upfront installation fees, so we'd been tossing the idea around and never pulled the trigger. But lately there have been a number of break-ins and attempted break-ins in our area, plus the system offers some nifty bells and whistles, so we figured we'd go ahead and use my upcoming yearly bonus to pay for the installation and equipment. And when they got back to me to schedule an appointment, they offered Saturday afternoon, conflicting with the party anyway.
Meanwhile, we also went ahead and ordered a digital piano, as I mentioned last time. (If anyone cares, we decided on Kawai's CN-34, which seems to be a pretty good combination of features and quality for the price, and gets good reviews. We ordered it directly from Kawai's website so we could use a zero-interest financing deal, but for fulfillment they apparently get in touch with a local dealer that has that model in stock, who then arranges delivery. So I got that call yesterday, and they offered to deliver.. wait for it.. Saturday afternoon as well!
So from nothing to do Saturday, suddenly we had a birthday party photo shoot, a home security system installation, and a piano delivery. I wrote to the birthday party lady to say I can't do the party, but I offered her a discounted regular family session instead, which is what I'd prefer to do anyway. Meanwhile I wrote back about the security installation to see if a weekday was possible, and got it moved to Monday. And then, totally unexpectedly, the piano people called back today and said they could make it tomorrow (which is awesome)!
So after all that, we're back to no plans at all for Saturday. Which is just how I like it! The weather looks perfect, so I foresee some outdoorsy activities. Maybe I can finally get the kayak back on the water!
Stuff, bullet-point style.
Jan. 31st, 2014 09:38 am• It's Friday! Hooray!
• No idea what we're doing this weekend (aside from a last trip to WDW on Sunday), but the weather looks like it should be better, finally.
• Weather.. craziness! The past few days have been cold (well, for us Floridians, anyway) and rainy and gloomy and just awful. Today will get warmer but still rainy, and then we'll be in the lower 80Fs for the next week or so. And that may be it for winter this year.
• Ah well, just means I can start working on the butterfly garden earlier this year, right?
• Been spending too much money lately. Nothing big, but it seems like I keep finding little things that I just have to have. $5 here, $10 there, pretty soon we're talking about real money!
• Still waiting on some info to do our taxes--we're in no hurry this year because we're pretty sure we'll end up owing money, but I guess it would be good to know how much the damage is going to be. My bonus (due in a few weeks) will cover it, but I'm curious to know how much will be left over!
• A little bummed about my photo business lately--not that I've been trying particularly hard, but inquiries have been few and far between for some time and I can't help but wonder why. Is it my prices? Do I need to revamp my website and ads (which I've been meaning to do for some time anyway)?
• I did get an inquiry last night from a previous client, and return business is always good. But it's to cover her son's birthday party, which strikes me as decidedly meh. But she's asking for 2 hours, so I think I'll ask for my full hourly rate x2, and if she bites that would be worth it. And she probably will, since they're pretty well-heeled. Ever heard of the movie The Queen of Versailles, about the rich couple building a huge mansion? Yeah, that's in their neighborhood.
• Another round of trips coming up, did I mention that? Bakersfield will be up first, probably early March. Then the other 3 markets between then and early April, and in April that conference in Nashville. I need to get that Southwest credit card and start racking up the points!
• I'd been wanting to check out one of Joe Hill's novels--that's the pseudonym of Stephen King's son Joseph. Happened to come across one (Horns) at the Dollar Tree, of all places--which frankly didn't bode too well. But I picked it up and started it a few nights ago, and so far it's pretty awesome. I'll have to review it here when I'm done!
• I had to change my cell phone password yesterday (it's a BlackBerry--I know, it sucks, but it's my work phone so at least it's free) and every.single.time I type the old password before I remember it changed. Passwords suck.
Um, I guess that's enough for now. Seems like a pretty slow day around here!
• No idea what we're doing this weekend (aside from a last trip to WDW on Sunday), but the weather looks like it should be better, finally.
• Weather.. craziness! The past few days have been cold (well, for us Floridians, anyway) and rainy and gloomy and just awful. Today will get warmer but still rainy, and then we'll be in the lower 80Fs for the next week or so. And that may be it for winter this year.
• Ah well, just means I can start working on the butterfly garden earlier this year, right?
• Been spending too much money lately. Nothing big, but it seems like I keep finding little things that I just have to have. $5 here, $10 there, pretty soon we're talking about real money!
• Still waiting on some info to do our taxes--we're in no hurry this year because we're pretty sure we'll end up owing money, but I guess it would be good to know how much the damage is going to be. My bonus (due in a few weeks) will cover it, but I'm curious to know how much will be left over!
• A little bummed about my photo business lately--not that I've been trying particularly hard, but inquiries have been few and far between for some time and I can't help but wonder why. Is it my prices? Do I need to revamp my website and ads (which I've been meaning to do for some time anyway)?
• I did get an inquiry last night from a previous client, and return business is always good. But it's to cover her son's birthday party, which strikes me as decidedly meh. But she's asking for 2 hours, so I think I'll ask for my full hourly rate x2, and if she bites that would be worth it. And she probably will, since they're pretty well-heeled. Ever heard of the movie The Queen of Versailles, about the rich couple building a huge mansion? Yeah, that's in their neighborhood.
• Another round of trips coming up, did I mention that? Bakersfield will be up first, probably early March. Then the other 3 markets between then and early April, and in April that conference in Nashville. I need to get that Southwest credit card and start racking up the points!
• I'd been wanting to check out one of Joe Hill's novels--that's the pseudonym of Stephen King's son Joseph. Happened to come across one (Horns) at the Dollar Tree, of all places--which frankly didn't bode too well. But I picked it up and started it a few nights ago, and so far it's pretty awesome. I'll have to review it here when I'm done!
• I had to change my cell phone password yesterday (it's a BlackBerry--I know, it sucks, but it's my work phone so at least it's free) and every.single.time I type the old password before I remember it changed. Passwords suck.
Um, I guess that's enough for now. Seems like a pretty slow day around here!
Catching up!
Nov. 21st, 2013 04:17 pmI'm taking tomorrow off, which makes today my Friday. Tomorrow's Hermione's birthday (she's our oldest daughter, for anyone unfamiliar), and I have some time to burn before the end of the year, so I thought I'd take the day and see what we feel like doing. She mentioned wanting to go to Mount Dora, but I think I talked her into saving that for a nice weekend day, so we can also hit the big corn maze that's out that way (and isn't open on weekdays). So tomorrow I think we plan to go buy her (and maybe me too) some new shoes at the outlet mall. Exciting, right? I know!
Anyway. I've been remiss at posting so I should catch up. When we left our intrepid hero, he'd just returned from a short work trip to Birmingham, which was pleasant. That weekend I was dreading a bit: photographing two weddings on one day, which I would never have signed on for on purpose. But it turned out pretty well.
I started out with a drive over to the coast, where I was to meet the couple at the office of their officiant, a lady who specializes in beach weddings. She was nice but talky and frankly a bit insipid. The bride and groom arrived and were very nice, and eventually the makeup artist made it too. So I did some getting-ready coverage, drove the groom to a shop for coffee, did some portraits of him, and then we headed to the beach. The ceremony was pretty short since it was just the couple and the officiant, and then we did a little shooting afterwards, and that was that.
From there I headed straight to the hotel where bride #2 was getting ready, with a quick stop for lunch along the way. Not too much to say about that wedding, really, but that's good because it also means I have no complaints. :) The bride is the daughter of a lady I work with, so it was always quite comfortable. The locations were great--the ceremony itself was at the base of a great old Southern live oak tree with the setting sun shining through its canopy, and the reception was in a great old building with scads of character. Everyone was nice, things went well, and I got some good shots. But it was a long day and my back was killing me before long, that hot-knife-right-between-the-shoulderblades feeling. But I recovered quickly so that was good.
Sunday Heather's parents flew in for a visit, and stayed with us for a couple days (and I took Monday and Tuesday off work so I could be around). We didn't do a whole lot, really, but it was a good visit. I like her parents well enough, though they're best in small doses. Both of them are hard of hearing, and they compensate with volume when they talk. But they're nice and they love their grandkids, so it was good to have them around for a few days. We didn't make it to Virginia Beach (where they live) this year, and I think the kids missed that since we go most years, so maybe next year that will be on the agenda. But I earn my 4th week of vacation next year, so we'll have more time for trips. Money will be the question!
Okay, time to call it a week and head home. 3-day weekend this time, next week I get Thanksgiving and Black Friday so that'll be a 4-day weekend, and then after that I still have 3 or 4 days to use so I might just take long weekends for the rest of the year, give or take. Nice! Hopefully the weather will get nicer so we can get out and do fun outdoor stuff.
Have a good weekend, people!
Anyway. I've been remiss at posting so I should catch up. When we left our intrepid hero, he'd just returned from a short work trip to Birmingham, which was pleasant. That weekend I was dreading a bit: photographing two weddings on one day, which I would never have signed on for on purpose. But it turned out pretty well.
I started out with a drive over to the coast, where I was to meet the couple at the office of their officiant, a lady who specializes in beach weddings. She was nice but talky and frankly a bit insipid. The bride and groom arrived and were very nice, and eventually the makeup artist made it too. So I did some getting-ready coverage, drove the groom to a shop for coffee, did some portraits of him, and then we headed to the beach. The ceremony was pretty short since it was just the couple and the officiant, and then we did a little shooting afterwards, and that was that.
From there I headed straight to the hotel where bride #2 was getting ready, with a quick stop for lunch along the way. Not too much to say about that wedding, really, but that's good because it also means I have no complaints. :) The bride is the daughter of a lady I work with, so it was always quite comfortable. The locations were great--the ceremony itself was at the base of a great old Southern live oak tree with the setting sun shining through its canopy, and the reception was in a great old building with scads of character. Everyone was nice, things went well, and I got some good shots. But it was a long day and my back was killing me before long, that hot-knife-right-between-the-shoulderblades feeling. But I recovered quickly so that was good.
Sunday Heather's parents flew in for a visit, and stayed with us for a couple days (and I took Monday and Tuesday off work so I could be around). We didn't do a whole lot, really, but it was a good visit. I like her parents well enough, though they're best in small doses. Both of them are hard of hearing, and they compensate with volume when they talk. But they're nice and they love their grandkids, so it was good to have them around for a few days. We didn't make it to Virginia Beach (where they live) this year, and I think the kids missed that since we go most years, so maybe next year that will be on the agenda. But I earn my 4th week of vacation next year, so we'll have more time for trips. Money will be the question!
Okay, time to call it a week and head home. 3-day weekend this time, next week I get Thanksgiving and Black Friday so that'll be a 4-day weekend, and then after that I still have 3 or 4 days to use so I might just take long weekends for the rest of the year, give or take. Nice! Hopefully the weather will get nicer so we can get out and do fun outdoor stuff.
Have a good weekend, people!
Sheesh, over a week with no posts from me. You'd think I've been busy or something. And you'd be right!
Mostly it's been a busy week at work--there are certain end-of-year things that always roll around and keep us pretty occupied, and this year it's even worse for me as more of the other markets I'm responsible for come on board with the shenanigans we've always done in Florida. So anyway, yeah--busy week.
Plus there was a trip to Birmingham (that's Alabama, not England), which concludes this round of visits to those other markets. It was a pretty good trip, and I even got a couple hours of sightseeing in: went to visit my old pal Vulcan the evening we arrived, and then we got out of the office early enough to take a little hike at an awesome park just around the corner from the office (which is where the photo up top was taken). It was a pretty new park, and is an old iron mining area, complete with defunct mines. I would have loved to check some of those out, but they were a bit farther afield than we had time to go before we needed to head to the airport. So maybe next time. Beautiful trails, though, nice and hilly and rocky with red clay soil down below and fall color up above. It could have been a little cooler for more of an autumnal feel, but it was still a lovely little excursion.
So this evening I need to head home and pack my gear for a looooong and busy day tomorrow. I start out with an early drive over to the coast and a small Cocoa Beach wedding ceremony. I'll spend a few hours with them and then off I go to a hotel in Lake Mary to meet up with the wedding party for #2, which is a full affair with ceremony and reception. Hopefully I'll have some time to grab a bite for lunch in there--better bring some granola or something just in case. I also hope the weather turns out nice, but the forecast is looking pretty decent. Warm but breezy, and the chance of rain that was starting to worry me seems to have tapered off. So hopefully it will be a good day, if exhausting. I'm excited, anyway.
But then I have Sunday to recuperate, and I'm taking Monday and Tuesday off of work so I can be around for Heather's parents' visit. I think her sister might head our way as well, so we may have a full house for a couple days! Would be fun, though. We don't have much in the way of plans, as far as I know, aside from a visit to Rock Springs, which is a really pretty spot. They don't care about visiting Disney this time around, I don't think, and that's okay. Although, the crowd calendar does look pretty good Tuesday. We'll see, I guess.
Okay, better head home and get packing! I also need a haircut, time to break out the buzzy clippers. Hope everyone has a great weekend lined up!
Rainy Monday.
Oct. 7th, 2013 01:24 pmMy office has no windows so I can't actually SEE the rain, but I hear it on the roof so I know it's there. I kinda like that.
Wow, so I won the LJ-Photophile poll! Not the one I mentioned a few weeks ago, this was a catch-up poll from a few months back. Funny how it works, I was WAY more proud of the seagull-at-sunset photo than I was of the passionflower photo, but people went nuts over the flower and it ran away with the poll. I find it interesting that the things I think are my best work and what other people think are my best don't always--or even often--overlap. In other news, I can't find a single photo I want to vote for in the latest poll. Most of them are snapshots, and the one that wants to be amazing was posted in quite low resolution as part of a massive dump of pics, neither of which I want to encourage by voting for it. If that makes sense. Anyway.
Speaking of seagulls at sunset, I just now booked my outbound flight for a trip to California next week! Kind of short notice, but I've had to wait for some other folks to get their shit together to pick dates and whatnot. So presently it looks like California next week, Birmingham and Detroit the week after that, and then Indianapolis in early November. Travellin man! Since California is such a long trip, I'm contemplating adding a vacation day to the itinerary so I can see some more sights out there. Maybe even a Disneyland day, I guess we'll see. I'd love to visit Sequoia Nat'l Forest, but hello GOP government shutdown. Anyway, I ran the idea by the wife, we'll see what she says before I book the return flights.
Weekend was pretty good. Saturday morning the wife headed downtown for some training on being a Girl Scout troop leader. Maybe I mentioned she's trying to get a troop going for the girls and some friends of theirs. The timing was bad because I had booked a photoshoot for the afternoon, way out in Christmas (about 45 minutes from home). But the Girl Scout training is only offered once a month, so she didn't want to miss it and have to wait a month. But she also didn't want to turn around and head to the park as soon as she got home--if she'd even get home on time, which was questionable. So that left me alone with the girls, and the prospect of dragging them along to the shoot, or leaving them home alone until she got back. Neither option sounded very good. But it thankfully worked out--luckily the client was an old acquaintance and a friend-of-a-friend, so I got that friend to meet us all at the park with her daughter, and she watched the kids play while I did the session. Whew. Good thing too, because before our friend showed up, Amy didn't want to even let me put her down. Would have made trying to work a photoshoot pretty darn tough, without even mentioning the utter-lack-of-professionalism angle! But it went well, and I even got everything edited by Sunday evening. Quick turnaround! And the client was ecstatic with the photos, so all's well that ends well.
Sunday we had no plans, so mainly we stayed home and I sweated a lot. Hopefully that's the last summer-like weekend for a while! Anyway, I worked some more at unearthing a big plant from the pool area (we want to replace the stuff in that plant bed with butterfly-friendly things), helped the girls sand and stain our woodworking projects from a few weeks back, and worked at cleaning the garage. That was sort of a big deal, we cleared and rearranged enough stuff to allow us to fit both vehicles in there. It's extremely tight with both of them inside, but it makes me feel better. The main crime in our area is vehicle burglaries--usually unlocked cars, but occasionally smash-and-grab jobs--and my new car is too nice to subject to that sort of nonsense. So I'll sleep better knowing they're both snug inside. Plus it's better for the car itself, of course! While cleaning the garage I found a piece of wood countertop I forgot I had, so I came up with the idea of extending the surface in my workshop while also moving a metal shelving unit to a better location. Might work on that evenings this week, should be fun. :)
And that's about it for now, I guess. Work is going along despite my best efforts to do as little of it as possible. I've been steadily catching up on Breaking Bad and was quite sad when they demolished the Winnebago. Sorry if that was a spoiler! :) Back to it, hope everyone is having a swell day!
Wow, so I won the LJ-Photophile poll! Not the one I mentioned a few weeks ago, this was a catch-up poll from a few months back. Funny how it works, I was WAY more proud of the seagull-at-sunset photo than I was of the passionflower photo, but people went nuts over the flower and it ran away with the poll. I find it interesting that the things I think are my best work and what other people think are my best don't always--or even often--overlap. In other news, I can't find a single photo I want to vote for in the latest poll. Most of them are snapshots, and the one that wants to be amazing was posted in quite low resolution as part of a massive dump of pics, neither of which I want to encourage by voting for it. If that makes sense. Anyway.
Speaking of seagulls at sunset, I just now booked my outbound flight for a trip to California next week! Kind of short notice, but I've had to wait for some other folks to get their shit together to pick dates and whatnot. So presently it looks like California next week, Birmingham and Detroit the week after that, and then Indianapolis in early November. Travellin man! Since California is such a long trip, I'm contemplating adding a vacation day to the itinerary so I can see some more sights out there. Maybe even a Disneyland day, I guess we'll see. I'd love to visit Sequoia Nat'l Forest, but hello GOP government shutdown. Anyway, I ran the idea by the wife, we'll see what she says before I book the return flights.
Weekend was pretty good. Saturday morning the wife headed downtown for some training on being a Girl Scout troop leader. Maybe I mentioned she's trying to get a troop going for the girls and some friends of theirs. The timing was bad because I had booked a photoshoot for the afternoon, way out in Christmas (about 45 minutes from home). But the Girl Scout training is only offered once a month, so she didn't want to miss it and have to wait a month. But she also didn't want to turn around and head to the park as soon as she got home--if she'd even get home on time, which was questionable. So that left me alone with the girls, and the prospect of dragging them along to the shoot, or leaving them home alone until she got back. Neither option sounded very good. But it thankfully worked out--luckily the client was an old acquaintance and a friend-of-a-friend, so I got that friend to meet us all at the park with her daughter, and she watched the kids play while I did the session. Whew. Good thing too, because before our friend showed up, Amy didn't want to even let me put her down. Would have made trying to work a photoshoot pretty darn tough, without even mentioning the utter-lack-of-professionalism angle! But it went well, and I even got everything edited by Sunday evening. Quick turnaround! And the client was ecstatic with the photos, so all's well that ends well.
Sunday we had no plans, so mainly we stayed home and I sweated a lot. Hopefully that's the last summer-like weekend for a while! Anyway, I worked some more at unearthing a big plant from the pool area (we want to replace the stuff in that plant bed with butterfly-friendly things), helped the girls sand and stain our woodworking projects from a few weeks back, and worked at cleaning the garage. That was sort of a big deal, we cleared and rearranged enough stuff to allow us to fit both vehicles in there. It's extremely tight with both of them inside, but it makes me feel better. The main crime in our area is vehicle burglaries--usually unlocked cars, but occasionally smash-and-grab jobs--and my new car is too nice to subject to that sort of nonsense. So I'll sleep better knowing they're both snug inside. Plus it's better for the car itself, of course! While cleaning the garage I found a piece of wood countertop I forgot I had, so I came up with the idea of extending the surface in my workshop while also moving a metal shelving unit to a better location. Might work on that evenings this week, should be fun. :)
And that's about it for now, I guess. Work is going along despite my best efforts to do as little of it as possible. I've been steadily catching up on Breaking Bad and was quite sad when they demolished the Winnebago. Sorry if that was a spoiler! :) Back to it, hope everyone is having a swell day!
Ahh, October. I think this is my favorite month of the year. Around these parts it generally marks the true end of summer, and generally sees in the first of the pleasant fall weather. There's Halloween, and the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival, and the fall time change hasn't happened yet so there's still plenty of daylight left when I get home from work. Yep, October is where it's at. Of course, it's still too hot right now since October just started. But in a few more weeks, we'll be spending our free time outside and finding new parks to explore. Can't wait!
Especially now that Hallie's learned to ride her bike with no training wheels--did I mention that? Yeah, I did. Well, she's really got the hang of it now since she runs out to ride every chance she gets. :) So once the weather gets nice, I imagine we'll often load up all the bikes and go out to parks and trails to ride. That'll be fun too!
It's already Wednesday? Sheesh, this week is flying by. The weekend was busy too. Saturday morning Heather's VFW band had a concert, but after she got home we headed out for lunch at Fuddrucker's and then on to Disney's Animal Kingdom. It was still a bit too hot out, but we had a good time anyway.
Sunday we headed out bright and early, up to Gainesville. One of the weddings I have coming up, I was arranging the engagement shoot with the bride and she mentioned that they were headed up to Gainesville on the day we had in mind, so I figured why not meet up there? The girls love the Museum of Natural History on the U of Florida campus, so they could hang out there while I did the session. So that's what we did, and it turned out pretty well. The bride and groom were a lot of fun, so I'm really looking forward to their wedding.
Before the shoot, though, we checked out the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens up there. Pretty nice! The place had an old feel, but it's really not that old, having opened in 1987. Anyway, it was nice and I'd definitely go back. They have a big bamboo forest that was really nice, and the butterfly and hummingbird gardens were sweet too. Very cool overall.
And then work this week, same-old-same-old. I'm squeezing in Breaking Bad where I can, and I'm up to episode 9 of the second season. Still really enjoying it, and so far I've avoided spoilers for the finale. Hoping to keep it that way!
Oh, thanks to all who responded to my post about my grandmother. I went ahead and responded, kept it friendly but vaguely acknowledged our lack of closeness. Since then we've exchanged a few friendly e-mails, which is good. I'm not going to call it a mended fence just yet, but it's a little better, at least. Now the issue is my girls, who are rather shy and tend to not talk to people they don't know. So she finds that offensive too. I replied look, they're kids, not miniature adults. They aren't refusing to answer questions as a matter of rudeness, they're doing it as a strategy to avoid future questions, and it works for them. But it bothers me too, so we do need to work on that.
Anyway, have some photos from the weekend!
( Under here! )
And that's all for now!
Especially now that Hallie's learned to ride her bike with no training wheels--did I mention that? Yeah, I did. Well, she's really got the hang of it now since she runs out to ride every chance she gets. :) So once the weather gets nice, I imagine we'll often load up all the bikes and go out to parks and trails to ride. That'll be fun too!
It's already Wednesday? Sheesh, this week is flying by. The weekend was busy too. Saturday morning Heather's VFW band had a concert, but after she got home we headed out for lunch at Fuddrucker's and then on to Disney's Animal Kingdom. It was still a bit too hot out, but we had a good time anyway.
Sunday we headed out bright and early, up to Gainesville. One of the weddings I have coming up, I was arranging the engagement shoot with the bride and she mentioned that they were headed up to Gainesville on the day we had in mind, so I figured why not meet up there? The girls love the Museum of Natural History on the U of Florida campus, so they could hang out there while I did the session. So that's what we did, and it turned out pretty well. The bride and groom were a lot of fun, so I'm really looking forward to their wedding.
Before the shoot, though, we checked out the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens up there. Pretty nice! The place had an old feel, but it's really not that old, having opened in 1987. Anyway, it was nice and I'd definitely go back. They have a big bamboo forest that was really nice, and the butterfly and hummingbird gardens were sweet too. Very cool overall.
And then work this week, same-old-same-old. I'm squeezing in Breaking Bad where I can, and I'm up to episode 9 of the second season. Still really enjoying it, and so far I've avoided spoilers for the finale. Hoping to keep it that way!
Oh, thanks to all who responded to my post about my grandmother. I went ahead and responded, kept it friendly but vaguely acknowledged our lack of closeness. Since then we've exchanged a few friendly e-mails, which is good. I'm not going to call it a mended fence just yet, but it's a little better, at least. Now the issue is my girls, who are rather shy and tend to not talk to people they don't know. So she finds that offensive too. I replied look, they're kids, not miniature adults. They aren't refusing to answer questions as a matter of rudeness, they're doing it as a strategy to avoid future questions, and it works for them. But it bothers me too, so we do need to work on that.
Anyway, have some photos from the weekend!
( Under here! )
And that's all for now!
Monday Morning Rambling.
Sep. 23rd, 2013 11:44 amWhew, my day started with an 8:30am conference call and has been busy from there. But productive, I am happy to say! Now it's already almost my lunchtime, but I thought I'd toss out some random updates and whatnot first.
-Weekend was good. My sister-in-law came over for a visit Friday evening, and left Saturday afternoon. She's great, so that was fun. She took the older girls out mini-golfing Saturday morning, and Heather and I took Amy to Lake Lotus for a stroll. It was still too hot, but Amy fell asleep in her stroller and sorely needed the nap, so it was still worthwhile. We took a path we don't usually, which winds through some fairly swampy woodland. Only AFTER we emerged from the woods did we learn that there's been a 6-8 foot alligator stalking that part of the park lately. But we didn't see him/her, or the black bear family that's also been spotted. Didn't see much of anything, actually! Heard some purple gallinules in the distance, but they were too far away and obscured by grass to see. Ah well, it was still a nice walk.
-For AMA people, is it just me, or do you also immediately mentally answer YES to any question starting with something like, "Has anyone ever...?" I know what the questioner means, of course, but my brain always immediately replies "Why yes, I have no doubt that someone, somewhere, sometime, has done that very thing." Just a thought.
-So one of the wedding gigs on my horizon is the sister of a girl whose wedding I shot several years ago. We met up for an engagement shoot at EPCOT a while back and that was all good, but then she pushed the weddings back from this October to (tentatively) next February sometime. Well, she e-mailed me today to say guess what, we moved the date back up! The date she picked (without, of course, asking if I was available)? November 9, the day I'm already booked for two other weddings. Which is REALLY unusual, in fact unprecedented. Any other weekend in November or December, no problem. She has to pick literally the ONE DAY that is no good for me. So I replied to let her know, and I'm hoping she can still move the day (again), because we could use the money. If not, I can't feel too bad about it since she picked the day without checking my availability, you know?
-Hallie (my daughter who turned 6 last month) finally learned to ride her bike without training wheels! We'd tried a few times before and she'd get scared and give it up. But this time I raised her training wheels so they'd catch her if she started to tip but wouldn't touch the ground when she was balanced right, and she got the hang of it pretty fast. So she spent as much time as she possibly could outside riding her bike up and down the street, and yesterday afternoon we took the training wheels off completely. She's still working out the best way to get herself started from a stop, but once she's going she's doing fine. She even got the hang of making wide turns, so a little more practice will make her a pro. And that's just in time! Once the weather cools off, we'd love to load up all our bikes and go ride at state parks and other trails and whatnot. Training wheels made her ride soooo much slower, and probably more tiring too, so it'll be awesome that she can ride along and keep up without wearing herself out so much. We're proud of her! Shaky video here. :)
-Sunday was that newborn photoshoot, which went okay. It's another one where I'm sure I got images they'll love, but I didn't feel like I was living up to my potential. I was taking pictures and not MAKING them, if that makes sense. I need to work on that, because it makes me a bit bummed, and it makes me feel like even more of a fraud than I already know I am.
-It's my birthday week! Wednesday I'll be 38. Creeping up on 40, which seems so strange to me. After 32 or so, every year seems to bring another age I just never pictured myself being, and it's odd. And of course by now there's not much special about my birthday. I'm not even planning to take the day off from work, though maybe I should. Nah, it's still too damn hot. I'll save my days for better weather--one thing my birthday means every year, at least, is that cooler weather isn't too far away. Not to mention the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival and the cool concerts that come with it!
Okay, that's about all for now. Hope everyone's Monday is off to a good start!
-Weekend was good. My sister-in-law came over for a visit Friday evening, and left Saturday afternoon. She's great, so that was fun. She took the older girls out mini-golfing Saturday morning, and Heather and I took Amy to Lake Lotus for a stroll. It was still too hot, but Amy fell asleep in her stroller and sorely needed the nap, so it was still worthwhile. We took a path we don't usually, which winds through some fairly swampy woodland. Only AFTER we emerged from the woods did we learn that there's been a 6-8 foot alligator stalking that part of the park lately. But we didn't see him/her, or the black bear family that's also been spotted. Didn't see much of anything, actually! Heard some purple gallinules in the distance, but they were too far away and obscured by grass to see. Ah well, it was still a nice walk.
-For AMA people, is it just me, or do you also immediately mentally answer YES to any question starting with something like, "Has anyone ever...?" I know what the questioner means, of course, but my brain always immediately replies "Why yes, I have no doubt that someone, somewhere, sometime, has done that very thing." Just a thought.
-So one of the wedding gigs on my horizon is the sister of a girl whose wedding I shot several years ago. We met up for an engagement shoot at EPCOT a while back and that was all good, but then she pushed the weddings back from this October to (tentatively) next February sometime. Well, she e-mailed me today to say guess what, we moved the date back up! The date she picked (without, of course, asking if I was available)? November 9, the day I'm already booked for two other weddings. Which is REALLY unusual, in fact unprecedented. Any other weekend in November or December, no problem. She has to pick literally the ONE DAY that is no good for me. So I replied to let her know, and I'm hoping she can still move the day (again), because we could use the money. If not, I can't feel too bad about it since she picked the day without checking my availability, you know?
-Hallie (my daughter who turned 6 last month) finally learned to ride her bike without training wheels! We'd tried a few times before and she'd get scared and give it up. But this time I raised her training wheels so they'd catch her if she started to tip but wouldn't touch the ground when she was balanced right, and she got the hang of it pretty fast. So she spent as much time as she possibly could outside riding her bike up and down the street, and yesterday afternoon we took the training wheels off completely. She's still working out the best way to get herself started from a stop, but once she's going she's doing fine. She even got the hang of making wide turns, so a little more practice will make her a pro. And that's just in time! Once the weather cools off, we'd love to load up all our bikes and go ride at state parks and other trails and whatnot. Training wheels made her ride soooo much slower, and probably more tiring too, so it'll be awesome that she can ride along and keep up without wearing herself out so much. We're proud of her! Shaky video here. :)
-Sunday was that newborn photoshoot, which went okay. It's another one where I'm sure I got images they'll love, but I didn't feel like I was living up to my potential. I was taking pictures and not MAKING them, if that makes sense. I need to work on that, because it makes me a bit bummed, and it makes me feel like even more of a fraud than I already know I am.
-It's my birthday week! Wednesday I'll be 38. Creeping up on 40, which seems so strange to me. After 32 or so, every year seems to bring another age I just never pictured myself being, and it's odd. And of course by now there's not much special about my birthday. I'm not even planning to take the day off from work, though maybe I should. Nah, it's still too damn hot. I'll save my days for better weather--one thing my birthday means every year, at least, is that cooler weather isn't too far away. Not to mention the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival and the cool concerts that come with it!
Okay, that's about all for now. Hope everyone's Monday is off to a good start!
I should be working.
Sep. 19th, 2013 10:22 amBut I don't wanna. My boss is visiting a call center in Jamaica, mon, so I'm being an egregious slacker. As if that's unusual. Anyway.
What to update about.. I took our kitten in to get spayed yesterday. All our other cats were shelter cats and fixed when we adopted them, but this one was a feral kitten who showed up at the back door while I was away on a trip and made herself right at home. And it was just after another of our cats died, so it seemed like uncanny timing. She's been a pretty good cat, but she hit puberty and started going into heat, and that's just not a pretty picture. So the time had come. It seemed to go well, I dropped her off in the morning and picked her up in the afternoon, and the girls have been keeping her in their bedroom with a towel and little toy teacups with food and water. It's cute. :)
Speaking of bedrooms, we really need to figure out how to kick Amy out of ours. As with all our kids, we took the front off the crib and set it up as an extension of our bed, so she could fall asleep with us and then sleep over there for the rest of the night. But that was only supposed to be for her first year or two, and it is getting old, especially when she interferes with, er, marital relations. :) Currently the older girls like to sleep together, and the idea was for Hermione to move into her own bedroom and then Amy would move in with Hallie. But no one wants to put this plan into effect. Hermione doesn't want to sleep alone, Amy doesn't want to leave our bedroom, and Hallie probably prefers Hermione to Amy anyway. So it's a fight on all fronts, and so far we haven't pushed the issue because we like sleep. But something's gotta give! Ideas, anyone? Just force it? Bribery? Tranquilizers? What?
I know I mentioned Hallie's love of Indiana Jones. I've been having fun scouting eBay for bargains on the retired LEGO sets. So far I've picked up 4, which are currently on the way. They're all used and missing pieces, but hopefully whatever's missing are things I already have or can replace, so I'm not too worried about that. And the prices people ask for unsealed in-box retired sets are insane. Out of curiosity I did a search for the Green Grocer, one of the nice big modular buildings. New it was probably $200, maybe $250. The cheapest used/open one I saw was $475, and for new-in-box? Anywhere from $800 to $1,500. One person had that and another nice one, the Cafe Corner--$2,750 for both. But hey, free shipping! What a deal! I need to get into the LEGO reselling racket, methinks.
I'm sure I have things to say on the political front--Syria, the DC Navy Yard, the upcoming game of government-shutdown chicken. But to hell with it, it just ticks me off.
Working to set up that newborn photoshoot for this weekend, and then next weekend I have an engagement shoot (I think--need to drop her a line to make sure!). Had an inquiry for another family shoot too, hoping to make that the following weekend. Then I'm clear until the weddings in November. Need to try to book a couple more now that the weather is getting nicer, though. I should try an ad for vacation photos, but I don't know how many visitors think to look at CL. I get a lot of that sort of business, but I think they just find my blog/website. That usually picks up around Christmastime, anyway.
Okay, gonna try to actually do some work. I hope everyone is having a good week!
What to update about.. I took our kitten in to get spayed yesterday. All our other cats were shelter cats and fixed when we adopted them, but this one was a feral kitten who showed up at the back door while I was away on a trip and made herself right at home. And it was just after another of our cats died, so it seemed like uncanny timing. She's been a pretty good cat, but she hit puberty and started going into heat, and that's just not a pretty picture. So the time had come. It seemed to go well, I dropped her off in the morning and picked her up in the afternoon, and the girls have been keeping her in their bedroom with a towel and little toy teacups with food and water. It's cute. :)
Speaking of bedrooms, we really need to figure out how to kick Amy out of ours. As with all our kids, we took the front off the crib and set it up as an extension of our bed, so she could fall asleep with us and then sleep over there for the rest of the night. But that was only supposed to be for her first year or two, and it is getting old, especially when she interferes with, er, marital relations. :) Currently the older girls like to sleep together, and the idea was for Hermione to move into her own bedroom and then Amy would move in with Hallie. But no one wants to put this plan into effect. Hermione doesn't want to sleep alone, Amy doesn't want to leave our bedroom, and Hallie probably prefers Hermione to Amy anyway. So it's a fight on all fronts, and so far we haven't pushed the issue because we like sleep. But something's gotta give! Ideas, anyone? Just force it? Bribery? Tranquilizers? What?
I know I mentioned Hallie's love of Indiana Jones. I've been having fun scouting eBay for bargains on the retired LEGO sets. So far I've picked up 4, which are currently on the way. They're all used and missing pieces, but hopefully whatever's missing are things I already have or can replace, so I'm not too worried about that. And the prices people ask for unsealed in-box retired sets are insane. Out of curiosity I did a search for the Green Grocer, one of the nice big modular buildings. New it was probably $200, maybe $250. The cheapest used/open one I saw was $475, and for new-in-box? Anywhere from $800 to $1,500. One person had that and another nice one, the Cafe Corner--$2,750 for both. But hey, free shipping! What a deal! I need to get into the LEGO reselling racket, methinks.
I'm sure I have things to say on the political front--Syria, the DC Navy Yard, the upcoming game of government-shutdown chicken. But to hell with it, it just ticks me off.
Working to set up that newborn photoshoot for this weekend, and then next weekend I have an engagement shoot (I think--need to drop her a line to make sure!). Had an inquiry for another family shoot too, hoping to make that the following weekend. Then I'm clear until the weddings in November. Need to try to book a couple more now that the weather is getting nicer, though. I should try an ad for vacation photos, but I don't know how many visitors think to look at CL. I get a lot of that sort of business, but I think they just find my blog/website. That usually picks up around Christmastime, anyway.
Okay, gonna try to actually do some work. I hope everyone is having a good week!
Photographers Ahoy!
Sep. 11th, 2013 02:36 pmPlease excuse this crass and blatant pimping, but since I've added some new friends in the past few months I figured what the heck. :)
If you consider yourself a photographer of any stripe or skill level--especially a photographer interested in discussing techniques and sharing photos for constructive criticism--please consider joining the community I started a while back,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
shutterbuggery. The idea was to create a community for sharing photos, but with a bit more depth and interaction than the other LJ photographer communities. It's a small group right now, and hasn't been particularly active for a while, but I would love to see some more members and activity. We run the gamut from hobbyists to professionals, and it's a very friendly and knowledgeable group of people. Plus I think I'm the only male in the group, and feel really outnumbered. Though I live with my wife and 3 daughters so I should be used to that. Anyway.
The community info is here, if you like. :)
We now return you to your regularly-scheduled Friends page, already in progress.
If you consider yourself a photographer of any stripe or skill level--especially a photographer interested in discussing techniques and sharing photos for constructive criticism--please consider joining the community I started a while back,
shutterbuggery. The idea was to create a community for sharing photos, but with a bit more depth and interaction than the other LJ photographer communities. It's a small group right now, and hasn't been particularly active for a while, but I would love to see some more members and activity. We run the gamut from hobbyists to professionals, and it's a very friendly and knowledgeable group of people. Plus I think I'm the only male in the group, and feel really outnumbered. Though I live with my wife and 3 daughters so I should be used to that. Anyway. The community info is here, if you like. :)
We now return you to your regularly-scheduled Friends page, already in progress.
And in other news...
Sep. 11th, 2013 09:47 am...I didn't get the job after all. The lady doing the hiring called me over to her office Monday morning to break the news. When Friday came and went with no word, I kinda started thinking they'd made the offer to one of the other candidates instead, and were waiting on that person's acceptance before notifying the others. Oh well. It's actually a mystery who got the job, too--I figured it was the one other person I knew was among the 3 finalists, but she didn't get it either, so it must have been Mystery Candidate #3.
But you know, my primary emotion when she told me was actually relief. Yes, it would have been an interesting role, but it certainly represented a big change, and that part of it was scary. The part of it that concerned me most was that it would be a direct supervisory role over a team of 6 (and probably more over time)--not that I couldn't do that part of the job, but it's been many years since I was directly over that many people, and it's not my comfort zone. And it turns out that was why they went with someone else--while they were "dazzled" and impressed with my other talents, they felt they needed to go with someone who came from a supervisory position and who could really slide right into the leadership role. So anyway, while the change might have been nice and the potential raise definitely would have been nice, I'm not particularly upset that I didn't get it. Life goes on, and now I get to plan my next round of visits to our other offices around the country. :)
On the photo-business front, I took some time last week to update my client tracking spreadsheet, and was surprised to see I'm up to 16 bookings for this year! My soft goal is an average of 2 gigs per month, so I'm right about on track for that. November is stacking up, though, including one day with two weddings. One is a short ceremony with a couple on the beach before they hop on their honeymoon cruise at Port Canaveral, and then I'd rush over to Deland for a more full-fledged afternoon wedding and reception. Fun, but I may need to order a couple more memory cards (and maybe a spare battery or two) to be safe! Might not be a bad idea to borrow a tilt-shift lens from Canon to try out on those too. Right now I'm waiting to hear from a new Mom (the maternity shoot I did a month or so ago) for a newborn shoot--she was scheduled for delivery yesterday, so maybe next weekend I'll go to their place for that. I should invest in some props before then! And work to get some more gigs, I'm pretty clear between now and then.
Well, not true, I have a family shoot at the Magic Kingdom on Friday, so I'm taking the day off for that. Hopefully it will be okay--it sounded great until the lady dropped the fact that her son is on oxygen, which might make things interesting. I guess I'll find out! It's also at mid-morning, hopefully it won't be too brutally hot. Not quite as humid, looks like, that's good. Bring on fall!
But you know, my primary emotion when she told me was actually relief. Yes, it would have been an interesting role, but it certainly represented a big change, and that part of it was scary. The part of it that concerned me most was that it would be a direct supervisory role over a team of 6 (and probably more over time)--not that I couldn't do that part of the job, but it's been many years since I was directly over that many people, and it's not my comfort zone. And it turns out that was why they went with someone else--while they were "dazzled" and impressed with my other talents, they felt they needed to go with someone who came from a supervisory position and who could really slide right into the leadership role. So anyway, while the change might have been nice and the potential raise definitely would have been nice, I'm not particularly upset that I didn't get it. Life goes on, and now I get to plan my next round of visits to our other offices around the country. :)
On the photo-business front, I took some time last week to update my client tracking spreadsheet, and was surprised to see I'm up to 16 bookings for this year! My soft goal is an average of 2 gigs per month, so I'm right about on track for that. November is stacking up, though, including one day with two weddings. One is a short ceremony with a couple on the beach before they hop on their honeymoon cruise at Port Canaveral, and then I'd rush over to Deland for a more full-fledged afternoon wedding and reception. Fun, but I may need to order a couple more memory cards (and maybe a spare battery or two) to be safe! Might not be a bad idea to borrow a tilt-shift lens from Canon to try out on those too. Right now I'm waiting to hear from a new Mom (the maternity shoot I did a month or so ago) for a newborn shoot--she was scheduled for delivery yesterday, so maybe next weekend I'll go to their place for that. I should invest in some props before then! And work to get some more gigs, I'm pretty clear between now and then.
Well, not true, I have a family shoot at the Magic Kingdom on Friday, so I'm taking the day off for that. Hopefully it will be okay--it sounded great until the lady dropped the fact that her son is on oxygen, which might make things interesting. I guess I'll find out! It's also at mid-morning, hopefully it won't be too brutally hot. Not quite as humid, looks like, that's good. Bring on fall!
Busy week--sorry for the general lack of postiness and commenting. Not that there was all that much of note, really.
Well, there's last weekend, I guess--Saturday was Hallie's (middle daughter) 6th birthday, so we went out to LEGOLand Florida as a treat and present. We had passes for the first year they were open, but let them lapse at the end of last year. So we hadn't been since they opened the new Chima boat ride, and we got to check that out for the first time. Not bad--it's just a sedate boat ride, really, but with a pretty high soak factor from waterfalls and people shooting water cannons at you from the sidewalk and the other boats in the ride (you can shoot back, of course, so that's fun). Aside from that, we spent most of our time in the water park because it was a scorcher of a day. And even that wasn't all that refreshing because the water was all pretty warm. And I got a heck of a sunburn. Still a good time! And we got our customary milkshakes at Webb's on the way home. Mmmmm.
Sunday I met up for a photoshoot with a family who I've been shooting for 4 years now. Very nice folks, definitely some of my favorite clients. Kinda fun to watch the kids change from year to year, and it's always a good time.
This past week at work has been a blur, though I still can't say I got nearly as much done as I'd have liked. That's my own fault, though--I'm waaaaay too much of a slacker lately.
So the weekend is already upon us! Tomorrow we're heading over to the coast--I'm going to drop Heather and the girls off at our friend's house to hang out and play while I go out to the Space Center. My pass expires in a week or so, and I've been meaning to get back out there to do another tour and check out the new home of Atlantis, one of the retired Space Shuttles. Should be pretty cool, and of course there will be lots of photos. After that we're going to stop by my Mom's--the girls love to play there. Then we'll probably take Mom out to dinner since it was just her birthday yesterday. And that will be a full day! Sunday I plan to take the van to get a new pair of front tires and an alignment. Exciting stuff, right?
So that's how things are shaking out around here lately. Anything exciting in your upcoming weekend?
Well, there's last weekend, I guess--Saturday was Hallie's (middle daughter) 6th birthday, so we went out to LEGOLand Florida as a treat and present. We had passes for the first year they were open, but let them lapse at the end of last year. So we hadn't been since they opened the new Chima boat ride, and we got to check that out for the first time. Not bad--it's just a sedate boat ride, really, but with a pretty high soak factor from waterfalls and people shooting water cannons at you from the sidewalk and the other boats in the ride (you can shoot back, of course, so that's fun). Aside from that, we spent most of our time in the water park because it was a scorcher of a day. And even that wasn't all that refreshing because the water was all pretty warm. And I got a heck of a sunburn. Still a good time! And we got our customary milkshakes at Webb's on the way home. Mmmmm.
Sunday I met up for a photoshoot with a family who I've been shooting for 4 years now. Very nice folks, definitely some of my favorite clients. Kinda fun to watch the kids change from year to year, and it's always a good time.
This past week at work has been a blur, though I still can't say I got nearly as much done as I'd have liked. That's my own fault, though--I'm waaaaay too much of a slacker lately.
So the weekend is already upon us! Tomorrow we're heading over to the coast--I'm going to drop Heather and the girls off at our friend's house to hang out and play while I go out to the Space Center. My pass expires in a week or so, and I've been meaning to get back out there to do another tour and check out the new home of Atlantis, one of the retired Space Shuttles. Should be pretty cool, and of course there will be lots of photos. After that we're going to stop by my Mom's--the girls love to play there. Then we'll probably take Mom out to dinner since it was just her birthday yesterday. And that will be a full day! Sunday I plan to take the van to get a new pair of front tires and an alignment. Exciting stuff, right?
So that's how things are shaking out around here lately. Anything exciting in your upcoming weekend?
Photos and stuff!
Jul. 31st, 2013 09:07 am
I already did a weekend update this weekend, really--the only thing after I posted last was the family photoshoot that evening, which was okay. I was a bit late because a thunderstorm was moving through and it only takes a little rain to cause accidents and bring I-4 to a standstill. Once I got there the weather held, though--a little sprinkle here and there, and overall fairly gloomy, but nothing that kept us from our appointed rounds. They were nice enough folks, but the lady who hired me had her mind set on beach photos so she wanted me to try to frame things to make it look like they were at the beach instead of at an inland resort. Not really happening, especially with a group of 13 people, but oh well. They should be happy enough.
And now it's already Wednesday! Back to the grind. Yesterday was our staff meeting over in St. Pete, so that was a nice long drive to take in my new car. Felt much more comfortable than the old Scion. And the satellite radio is nice too. Still chuffed about the car, obviously! Waiting on a couple more things to arrive and maybe this weekend I'll install the Bluetooth/USB interface for the stereo. And hopefully plan out how to do the ambient lighting while I'm at it. I decided against the Ford aftermarket kit, it just doesn't seem worth the money for what it includes. So I'm gonna get a long strip of RGB LEDs and rig up my own. Should be an interesting project!
Anyway, I'm avoiding work and I should quit that. But have some pics from the weekend first!
( Clicky! )
I have a little downtime this weekend, finally, so I thought I'd make a quick post. I'm keeping an eye on the weather because I'm supposed to have a photoshoot this evening--outdoors, of course. I must come up on Google searches for this sort of thing, because a lot of the business I get for my part-time professional photography is family reunion vacations--extended family groups converging on Disney World, generally. It's not a bad gig at all, though there's not much repeat business to be had from it. I'm supposed to meet these folks (13 in all--thankfully no small children, who can make working with large groups difficult) at their resort down around SeaWorld, and it looks like a nice place. So it should be a fun shoot, as long as the weather cooperates. So far so good. I figure I'll head down there regardless, and if it does rain hopefully it'll be a little shower that we can just wait out.
Had a photoshoot yesterday morning, too! I can't even remember that last time I had two in the same weekend--I really haven't been doing too many paid gigs this year, for one reason or another. The shoot yesterday was a couple whose wedding I shot last year--always nice when people want to work with me again! She's pregnant and due in a few weeks, so yesterday was a maternity shoot, and then once little Madison makes her appearance I'll head their way for a newborn shoot. They had sort of decided to save money and kibosh the maternity session, but I cut them a good combo deal and they were happy. I'm not about the money so much as working with good people, and I really enjoyed their wedding, so.. yeah.
Otherwise I've been doing some work around the house. Homeownership is a neverending job, I tell ya. Had to fix a toilet, and also the ceiling fan in the girls' bedroom. They managed to yank the pull-chain out of the speed switch, so that needed replacing. Unfortunately the switch I got to replace it doesn't seem to be the right one--now it basically has two speeds instead of 3, and only the high setting spins fast enough to feel the breeze. So I'm going to have to call tomorrow and see if the manufacturer can send me the right switch. Did a little gardening too, mostly pulling weeds and finally planting the plants my Mom gave me for the butterfly garden. Speaking of, there were SO MANY butterflies out there this morning! At least 2 or 3 dozen, mostly Gulf fritillaries. And there are caterpillars everywhere, and I spotted at least a dozen cocoons on the side of the house, and 4 or 5 more in the papaya tree. The girls even found a couple in the back yard, which is nowhere near the passionvine--those caterpillars made quite a trek to find a spot to pupate!
This morning we went out to a nice big splash pad/playground for the girls to enjoy--I'll have to put up some photos from that. They had a blast. Then we did lunch at Fuddrucker's, which we like a lot. The wife's birthday is this coming Tuesday, so she got her free birthday burger coupon and wanted to use it. :) Speaking of food and stuff, yesterday evening we went to a new place called Dippity's--they had a Groupon and I thought it would be nice to try them out. They have all kinds of stuff, mostly desserts--Italian ice, gelato, ice cream, shakes and floats and malts, mmm. The girls tried some of the Italian ices, Heather had a malt, Amy had some soft-serve chocolate (she claims to only like chocolate ice cream, weird kid) and I had a mochaccino milkshake type of thing. All quite good, we'll definitely go back there!
A few of the toys and add-ons I ordered for my new car have already arrived, and I have a few more things in mind. I changed my mind about ordering the Ford ambient light kit, because what little detail I've found about it online says that it isn't as good as the factory-installed ambient lighting, so not really worth the additional cost. So instead I'm going to get a reel of self-adhesive LED strip, cut it up and scatter it around. Much cheaper, and I should be able to rig up plenty of it for a neat effect. Probably need to add a dimmer too, to keep it from being too bright. Still need to do some research on that, I think. Anyway, no time to install any of the stuff this weekend, except maybe the rear license plate frame. I should do that, actually, it'd only take a minute. Too bad it's a thousand degrees outside.
And on that note, back to the weekend. Hope everyone out there is having a good one!
Had a photoshoot yesterday morning, too! I can't even remember that last time I had two in the same weekend--I really haven't been doing too many paid gigs this year, for one reason or another. The shoot yesterday was a couple whose wedding I shot last year--always nice when people want to work with me again! She's pregnant and due in a few weeks, so yesterday was a maternity shoot, and then once little Madison makes her appearance I'll head their way for a newborn shoot. They had sort of decided to save money and kibosh the maternity session, but I cut them a good combo deal and they were happy. I'm not about the money so much as working with good people, and I really enjoyed their wedding, so.. yeah.
Otherwise I've been doing some work around the house. Homeownership is a neverending job, I tell ya. Had to fix a toilet, and also the ceiling fan in the girls' bedroom. They managed to yank the pull-chain out of the speed switch, so that needed replacing. Unfortunately the switch I got to replace it doesn't seem to be the right one--now it basically has two speeds instead of 3, and only the high setting spins fast enough to feel the breeze. So I'm going to have to call tomorrow and see if the manufacturer can send me the right switch. Did a little gardening too, mostly pulling weeds and finally planting the plants my Mom gave me for the butterfly garden. Speaking of, there were SO MANY butterflies out there this morning! At least 2 or 3 dozen, mostly Gulf fritillaries. And there are caterpillars everywhere, and I spotted at least a dozen cocoons on the side of the house, and 4 or 5 more in the papaya tree. The girls even found a couple in the back yard, which is nowhere near the passionvine--those caterpillars made quite a trek to find a spot to pupate!
This morning we went out to a nice big splash pad/playground for the girls to enjoy--I'll have to put up some photos from that. They had a blast. Then we did lunch at Fuddrucker's, which we like a lot. The wife's birthday is this coming Tuesday, so she got her free birthday burger coupon and wanted to use it. :) Speaking of food and stuff, yesterday evening we went to a new place called Dippity's--they had a Groupon and I thought it would be nice to try them out. They have all kinds of stuff, mostly desserts--Italian ice, gelato, ice cream, shakes and floats and malts, mmm. The girls tried some of the Italian ices, Heather had a malt, Amy had some soft-serve chocolate (she claims to only like chocolate ice cream, weird kid) and I had a mochaccino milkshake type of thing. All quite good, we'll definitely go back there!
A few of the toys and add-ons I ordered for my new car have already arrived, and I have a few more things in mind. I changed my mind about ordering the Ford ambient light kit, because what little detail I've found about it online says that it isn't as good as the factory-installed ambient lighting, so not really worth the additional cost. So instead I'm going to get a reel of self-adhesive LED strip, cut it up and scatter it around. Much cheaper, and I should be able to rig up plenty of it for a neat effect. Probably need to add a dimmer too, to keep it from being too bright. Still need to do some research on that, I think. Anyway, no time to install any of the stuff this weekend, except maybe the rear license plate frame. I should do that, actually, it'd only take a minute. Too bad it's a thousand degrees outside.
And on that note, back to the weekend. Hope everyone out there is having a good one!
Updatery, Bullet Style.
Jul. 19th, 2013 02:40 pmI had my mid-year (actually more like 3/4-year) review with my boss this afternoon, and it went well enough, but I still am feeling like not working much for the rest of the day. So instead I will update. Aren't you glad? Of course you are.
• Work. So while I'm on the subject, work has been.. okay. But that it isn't better is pretty much my own fault, because I've been having a rather lazy few weeks. There's lots to do--too much, actually, which is maybe the problem. It's almost like there's so much on my plate that I hardly know where to start, so instead I launch Chrome and zone out on the Internet. Don't get me wrong, I do enough work to keep me acceptably productive and sufficiently out of trouble. But getting ahead? Ha. I'm working on it.
• Exercise. Not happening, but I really need to do that. My day job is just way too sedentary, and that's bad. I read somewhere that no matter how much exercise you get otherwise, there's really no making up for the ill effects of sitting on your ass for 8 hours a day. It needs attention.
• Mental State. Is okay. I dunno, I've been feeling a little.. disconnected, I guess? Not from my wife and kids, at home everything is fine. But otherwise, I just feel a semitone out of tune with people somehow, both IRL and here on the interwebs. It's like I really WANT to relate to people, and have more friends online and off, and be someone people look forward to interacting with, but I'm just not. I've never considered myself particularly remarkable, in any way, shape or form. But I know I'm not average, either, not really. It just doesn't convey. It all comes back to wanting to be more awesome, of course. But how?
• Music. Being more creative is high on my list of how to be more awesome, so I happily report that I actually had a chance to use my musical equipment last week! My employee said he'd love an instrumental version of a particular tune to use as a cell phone ringtone, so I took the song and sliced and diced it a bit, added some MIDI drums and bass, and popped it out as an mp3. I thought it was middling, but not a horrible attempt. He seemed to like it, so that's good. It was nice to try out my gear, though, and I learned a lot even through just that couple hours of playing. So I need to do that more often too. Problem is, I feel like I no longer have any idea how to write lyrics, or take the various musical fragments I come up with and turn them into full-fledged songs. I just need to do it, though, and practice to rediscover those abilities. I used to have em!
• Photography. Not too much going on there, really. Lots of macro shooting in the butterfly garden, but not many paid gigs lately. I do have a maternity shoot scheduled for tomorrow evening, with a couple whose wedding I did a year or two ago. They were a lot of fun to work with, so that should be good. And repeat business is always nice! I sold the Rebel I bought while on vacation, and I'm actually trying to sell my other backup body too. With the weddings I have coming up later this year I'm hoping to finally upgrade to a full-frame dSLR, probably a 6D (though I'd prefer a 5D Mk III, of course--we'll see if the price comes down a little more as the year wears on). I'd also like to replace my workhorse zoom lens. I keep seeing good things about Tamron's new 24-70mm f/2.8, which I think is the only stabilized lens in its class (and seems optically very good too). I need to book some more gigs to put money towards this stuff!
• Vehicles. Been trying to sell the truck, and had a couple bites but no takers yet. I'm tempted to just take it and the Scion both to a dealer and trade them both towards something rather than trying to sell them privately. I'm just not sure the hassle is worth the potential extra money, you know? I just don't know what I want to get instead. I think I'm still leaning towards a Ford Fusion--![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
planetgeorge, how's yours working out? Could be something to do this weekend. :)
• Politickin. Leaves me feeling pretty discouraged lately. I mean, it's always bad. But there just seem to be so many steps in the wrong direction lately, even when the way forward seems so clear. Take economic policy as one example of many. There are basically two positions in play. One says that any growth in government spending is bad, as is aggressive monetary policy, because it will lead to shaken investor confidence, high inflation and rising interest rates. The other side says look, we're in a liquidity trap with persistent high unemployment and low aggregate demand, and we need more government spending to offset all that and get us back on track. Pretty much all the evidence says that the former view is wrong and the latter is right--but the people who hold the former belief are still taken seriously, and the people who espouse the latter view are still seen as kooks. And I just want to take some of these people and shake them until they turn blue. Don't even get me started on the anti-abortion and anti-voting-rights stuff going on at the state level. Or the legislator in Utah who would like to do away with compulsory public education. Or the gubernatorial candidate in Virginia who wants to outlaw oral sex even for consenting adults. Or the Prism/NSA fiasco. Or..
• The Zimmerman Trial. Okay, what the hell. Since this all happened literally 4 exits up Interstate 4 from my home, I may as well weigh in. Obviously around here we've been saturated with the case since the shooting happened, so getting the trial over was a relief. I am of two minds about the verdict. On one hand, I think it is a miscarriage of justice. On the other, I do not see how the jury could have come to any other conclusion based on the law and the evidence. Florida law is pretty clear, and we obviously encourage the shoot-first-ask-questions-later mentality that's been foisted upon us by the NRA and ALEC. So yes, it sucks. Yes, it needs to change. But it was really the only possible result in this particular case. What bugs me is how the case touches on so many of the fundamental problems with our society, from race relations to gun control to criminal justice--but none of that will change, so it's much ado about nothing, and a tragedy without any sense of redemption. That makes it all the more sad.
Aaaaand I guess that's about it for now. Hope you're all well and looking forward to a lovely weekend.
• Work. So while I'm on the subject, work has been.. okay. But that it isn't better is pretty much my own fault, because I've been having a rather lazy few weeks. There's lots to do--too much, actually, which is maybe the problem. It's almost like there's so much on my plate that I hardly know where to start, so instead I launch Chrome and zone out on the Internet. Don't get me wrong, I do enough work to keep me acceptably productive and sufficiently out of trouble. But getting ahead? Ha. I'm working on it.
• Exercise. Not happening, but I really need to do that. My day job is just way too sedentary, and that's bad. I read somewhere that no matter how much exercise you get otherwise, there's really no making up for the ill effects of sitting on your ass for 8 hours a day. It needs attention.
• Mental State. Is okay. I dunno, I've been feeling a little.. disconnected, I guess? Not from my wife and kids, at home everything is fine. But otherwise, I just feel a semitone out of tune with people somehow, both IRL and here on the interwebs. It's like I really WANT to relate to people, and have more friends online and off, and be someone people look forward to interacting with, but I'm just not. I've never considered myself particularly remarkable, in any way, shape or form. But I know I'm not average, either, not really. It just doesn't convey. It all comes back to wanting to be more awesome, of course. But how?
• Music. Being more creative is high on my list of how to be more awesome, so I happily report that I actually had a chance to use my musical equipment last week! My employee said he'd love an instrumental version of a particular tune to use as a cell phone ringtone, so I took the song and sliced and diced it a bit, added some MIDI drums and bass, and popped it out as an mp3. I thought it was middling, but not a horrible attempt. He seemed to like it, so that's good. It was nice to try out my gear, though, and I learned a lot even through just that couple hours of playing. So I need to do that more often too. Problem is, I feel like I no longer have any idea how to write lyrics, or take the various musical fragments I come up with and turn them into full-fledged songs. I just need to do it, though, and practice to rediscover those abilities. I used to have em!
• Photography. Not too much going on there, really. Lots of macro shooting in the butterfly garden, but not many paid gigs lately. I do have a maternity shoot scheduled for tomorrow evening, with a couple whose wedding I did a year or two ago. They were a lot of fun to work with, so that should be good. And repeat business is always nice! I sold the Rebel I bought while on vacation, and I'm actually trying to sell my other backup body too. With the weddings I have coming up later this year I'm hoping to finally upgrade to a full-frame dSLR, probably a 6D (though I'd prefer a 5D Mk III, of course--we'll see if the price comes down a little more as the year wears on). I'd also like to replace my workhorse zoom lens. I keep seeing good things about Tamron's new 24-70mm f/2.8, which I think is the only stabilized lens in its class (and seems optically very good too). I need to book some more gigs to put money towards this stuff!
• Vehicles. Been trying to sell the truck, and had a couple bites but no takers yet. I'm tempted to just take it and the Scion both to a dealer and trade them both towards something rather than trying to sell them privately. I'm just not sure the hassle is worth the potential extra money, you know? I just don't know what I want to get instead. I think I'm still leaning towards a Ford Fusion--
planetgeorge, how's yours working out? Could be something to do this weekend. :)• Politickin. Leaves me feeling pretty discouraged lately. I mean, it's always bad. But there just seem to be so many steps in the wrong direction lately, even when the way forward seems so clear. Take economic policy as one example of many. There are basically two positions in play. One says that any growth in government spending is bad, as is aggressive monetary policy, because it will lead to shaken investor confidence, high inflation and rising interest rates. The other side says look, we're in a liquidity trap with persistent high unemployment and low aggregate demand, and we need more government spending to offset all that and get us back on track. Pretty much all the evidence says that the former view is wrong and the latter is right--but the people who hold the former belief are still taken seriously, and the people who espouse the latter view are still seen as kooks. And I just want to take some of these people and shake them until they turn blue. Don't even get me started on the anti-abortion and anti-voting-rights stuff going on at the state level. Or the legislator in Utah who would like to do away with compulsory public education. Or the gubernatorial candidate in Virginia who wants to outlaw oral sex even for consenting adults. Or the Prism/NSA fiasco. Or..
• The Zimmerman Trial. Okay, what the hell. Since this all happened literally 4 exits up Interstate 4 from my home, I may as well weigh in. Obviously around here we've been saturated with the case since the shooting happened, so getting the trial over was a relief. I am of two minds about the verdict. On one hand, I think it is a miscarriage of justice. On the other, I do not see how the jury could have come to any other conclusion based on the law and the evidence. Florida law is pretty clear, and we obviously encourage the shoot-first-ask-questions-later mentality that's been foisted upon us by the NRA and ALEC. So yes, it sucks. Yes, it needs to change. But it was really the only possible result in this particular case. What bugs me is how the case touches on so many of the fundamental problems with our society, from race relations to gun control to criminal justice--but none of that will change, so it's much ado about nothing, and a tragedy without any sense of redemption. That makes it all the more sad.
Aaaaand I guess that's about it for now. Hope you're all well and looking forward to a lovely weekend.
So I've started to post a trip recap a few times, but I just couldn't get excited about it. It was a really good trip, we had lots of fun and saw lots of stuff (and did lots of driving!), but I dunno. I posted the best photos over on Shutterbuggery, so you're welcome to head there to see them. But other than those and a few others, I wasn't all that thrilled with the photos I got. I'm sure some of it was that I was using a camera that was unfamiliar to me, and maybe not as good image-wise (though I think it has the exact same sensor as my 7D). That, and of all the gear I brought, again I leaned most heavily on my 11-16mm ultrawide. I adore that lens, but I find I use it too much. I need to leave it behind more often. Problem on the trip was, my standard zoom (28-75mm) was on the lost camera, so I didn't have it, and I didn't want to rely too much on the 18-55mm kit lens that came with the emergency camera. It was better than I expected, and way better than the 1st-gen 18-55mm that came with my old Rebel XT, but still not great. Plus there was the usual not wanting to hold everyone up while I snapped photos, so I missed some opportunities that I would have liked to shoot. All excuses, really--I just don't feel like I've been on top of my game photographically (or in any other way) for a while.
I do have some shoots coming up, though, which tends to help. I have one at Downtown Disney this weekend, and a couple more in the near future that I just need to put dates to. And then a few weddings shaping up in the fall: one short beach wedding, a couple work-related folks, and the sister of a bride from a few years back. All good stuff, hopefully. I need to book a few more family sessions, though, at least to help pay for the trip!
Otherwise life continues apace. Getting back into the swing of things at work, where there's always lots to do. My keyboard has gotten icky and my mouse button is acting up, though, so it's time for a new desktop set. Hoping to get that ordered today. At home I finally got sick of Windows 8 and reinstalled Win7 last night. 8 was okay, but it had just enough quirks that I wanted to go back: namely, the computer wouldn't go to sleep on its own, and when I put it to sleep it wouldn't wake back up unless I pushed the power button. With 7 I could just move the mouse to wake the thing up. And some other stuff, but the final straw was that I installed Bejeweled 3 and it wouldn't run. AW HELL NO. ;) So I still have some setup to do, but I'm back to 7.
This morning I took the dog to the vet--just a routine checkup, rabies shot and heartworm booster. She's such a wuss, though, standing there quaking. Same as she does whenever there's a thunderstorm around. She's a sweet dog, and not dumb at all, but she has emotional issues for sure. :)
What else.. not much, I guess. Oh, Heather's sister moved to Tampa while we were out of town, so she's in the state now! That's nice, we look forward to seeing more of her. Their mom came down for a few days too, to help her buy stuff and get settled, so they came to visit over the weekend. I imagine we'll get to Tampa a bit more often now to do some of the stuff over there--the Tampa zoo is really good, and there's the aquarium and MOSI that we've never checked out. Some good parks, too. And Busch Gardens!
Okay, better get some work done this morning. Hope everyone is having a good week so far!
I do have some shoots coming up, though, which tends to help. I have one at Downtown Disney this weekend, and a couple more in the near future that I just need to put dates to. And then a few weddings shaping up in the fall: one short beach wedding, a couple work-related folks, and the sister of a bride from a few years back. All good stuff, hopefully. I need to book a few more family sessions, though, at least to help pay for the trip!
Otherwise life continues apace. Getting back into the swing of things at work, where there's always lots to do. My keyboard has gotten icky and my mouse button is acting up, though, so it's time for a new desktop set. Hoping to get that ordered today. At home I finally got sick of Windows 8 and reinstalled Win7 last night. 8 was okay, but it had just enough quirks that I wanted to go back: namely, the computer wouldn't go to sleep on its own, and when I put it to sleep it wouldn't wake back up unless I pushed the power button. With 7 I could just move the mouse to wake the thing up. And some other stuff, but the final straw was that I installed Bejeweled 3 and it wouldn't run. AW HELL NO. ;) So I still have some setup to do, but I'm back to 7.
This morning I took the dog to the vet--just a routine checkup, rabies shot and heartworm booster. She's such a wuss, though, standing there quaking. Same as she does whenever there's a thunderstorm around. She's a sweet dog, and not dumb at all, but she has emotional issues for sure. :)
What else.. not much, I guess. Oh, Heather's sister moved to Tampa while we were out of town, so she's in the state now! That's nice, we look forward to seeing more of her. Their mom came down for a few days too, to help her buy stuff and get settled, so they came to visit over the weekend. I imagine we'll get to Tampa a bit more often now to do some of the stuff over there--the Tampa zoo is really good, and there's the aquarium and MOSI that we've never checked out. Some good parks, too. And Busch Gardens!
Okay, better get some work done this morning. Hope everyone is having a good week so far!
Pics and stuff.
May. 14th, 2013 10:18 amAs is my custom, a few photos from the past week or so!
The weather was really nice last Monday, so I came home early and we went back out to the Magic Kingdom for a bit. There's so much great photo potential in the Haunted Mansion alone, but it's pretty dark in there. Maybe when I finally upgrade to a full-frame dSLR I'll have better luck. :)
( More, of course! )
And that's it for now! Last night I had that engagement shoot at EPCOT, but we got home past our bedtime and I haven't touched the photos yet. I'll maybe share some here or over onshutterbuggery before long.
Later on today I'll munch a quick lunch here, then go watch the girls (and take photos, of course) in gymnastics class. And then I'll go shopping for my new Android tablet! I decided on a Google/Asus Nexus 7--seems like a good value for the price, and it has GPS, which not many tablets seem to include. Can't wait!
The weather was really nice last Monday, so I came home early and we went back out to the Magic Kingdom for a bit. There's so much great photo potential in the Haunted Mansion alone, but it's pretty dark in there. Maybe when I finally upgrade to a full-frame dSLR I'll have better luck. :)
( More, of course! )
And that's it for now! Last night I had that engagement shoot at EPCOT, but we got home past our bedtime and I haven't touched the photos yet. I'll maybe share some here or over on
shutterbuggery before long.Later on today I'll munch a quick lunch here, then go watch the girls (and take photos, of course) in gymnastics class. And then I'll go shopping for my new Android tablet! I decided on a Google/Asus Nexus 7--seems like a good value for the price, and it has GPS, which not many tablets seem to include. Can't wait!
Tags:
Always bring the camera!
May. 8th, 2013 11:14 pmYeah, that's my big lesson from this trip so far. I should always bring the camera, even if it's just with my little 40mm pancake lens attached. On the flight out of Orlando we took off to the south, and when we looped around to the north we passed right over EPCOT, the Magic Kingdom, and the Mickey forest! Woulda made for some neat photos. Then here in the Indianapolis airport there was an Indy racecar and an awesome old 1930s Essex Terraplane sedan. Oh, and in the Birmingham airport there was a cool old motorcycle. And who knows, maybe I'll have a little time to roam around in the morning before we go to the office. Perhaps a quick climb up the Soldiers and Sailors Monument? No, doesn't open until 10:30am. Still worth a walk to visit!
So anyway, the lesson is to always bring the camera! Oh, and don't leave my tablet PC on the plane. Oops. Hopefully some good samaritan will turn it in, or leave it in the seat pocket for the crew to find. I submitted a lost & found request, so maybe I'll get it back. Luckily it wasn't that expensive, but I'll definitely need to replace it before my next trips if it's lost for good! The wife's not gonna like that.
Okay, better turn in. Long day!
So anyway, the lesson is to always bring the camera! Oh, and don't leave my tablet PC on the plane. Oops. Hopefully some good samaritan will turn it in, or leave it in the seat pocket for the crew to find. I submitted a lost & found request, so maybe I'll get it back. Luckily it wasn't that expensive, but I'll definitely need to replace it before my next trips if it's lost for good! The wife's not gonna like that.
Okay, better turn in. Long day!
