Random and occasional thoughts on

My 2 dogs like to play. The 8 year age difference and 60 pound advantage make no difference to the Young Pup (YP) and he will still try to to get the toy away from Old Dog (OD). Sometimes he even wins, or maybe OD just lets him win or gets tired. Maybe it is true what they say: It is not the size of the dog in the fight It is the size of the fight in the dog that matters most Remember that the next time you think you have bitten off more than you can chew.

No, not just the English greeting or a toast. Cheers was one of my favorite sitcoms so while in Boston I stopped by the Bull & Finch which was the inspiration for the show. That's me next to the famous stairs down the the bar "where everyone knows your name". I enjoy barfood, after all, what's not to like about greasy fries and a grilled burger. Since I am a bit cynical, sometimes I think that "landmarks" don't have great food. Maybe it is because they get a sizeable chunk of their business from tourists that won't be back for the next weekly special they don't feel the need to try to make their food special. Maybe the demanding nature of some tourists make it hard to keep good kitchen help. Whatever the reason, I have seen it more than once and accordingly was not planning on anything special at Cheers. I was surprised! The cheeseburger I had was probably second only to a great place in Minnesota. (I think it was called the Lion's T...

Giovanni arrived to the world late last week allowing my little brother to finally become a fellow member of the "Fathers of boys" club. I am sad to report that none of Giovanni's cousins that have met so far wanted to spend any time with him. Just kidding. Not since the arrival of the Wii game system in our house have I seen my boys argue over sharing this much. Giovanni's parents also seem to be pretty taken in with him which is a good thing since they will be spending a lot of time with him for the next 15 years or so. A few more pictures over at my photoblog if you still have not gotten your fill of baby pictures. Clicking on any picture will take you to a bigger version.

But there are some contests that you can enter (for free) and possibly win something (for free). One of the blogs I regularly read, The Pipers are participating in " A Requirement-free Giveaway: Make Your Favorite Picture a Poster ". This post is the hardest thing I've done to enter and there are other ways to enter that are even easier. You can also send a tweet on Twitter , click that link to see mine and you can ReTweet it if you want. If I win, I will probably decide between this one: and this one: What do you think? Leave me a comment and let me know which you think would look best on a big wall. Or visit my photography site and see if you think a different one would be a better choice. Spread this contest around and say hi to me over on Twitter if you get a chance.

WooHoo! What a great way to end a weekend. Saturday, I drove up to Prescott for a portrait session with my cousin, Frankie! She is a doll and had a great time. My aunt had a great spot picked out and we had a lot of fun. I hope to put a few of the pictures up on my photo site later this week. Then, later in the day, I went for a 5 mile run. Same as last weekend only with newer shoes. No soreness today at all! Just over 15 miles again. Sunday afternoon, DS#2 took me out for a run so he can stick to his c25k plan. Just as we started running after our warm-up walk, he asks me if that is a woodpecker. Go take a look and let me know what you think. Or you can cheat and go to my photoblog site when it posts and see it there. What a fun way to end a week (of course, I'll pay for it tomorrow since I am up so late, but that is the price of playing with Lightroom for hours on end). How was your week? Leave me a comment here or say "Hi" over on Twitter .

I just read this blog post about perfection and really liked it. No, I usually do not beat myself up over perfection in most areas of my life. The bed does not need to be perfect when I make it in the morning (and if I'm in a hurry and it does not get made, I don't spend the day worrying about it). The Sunday newspaper can be on the couch next to my seat past Wednesday without giving me an ulcer. I can write an email and not worry that the grammar police are issuing a warrant for my arrest. When I do my work, it is important for me to do what is needed to keep my employer in business. That does not always mean the best database design or the most efficient SQL, and I have to be ok with that. When I work on my photography though, I tend to put a lot more effort into making things look the way that I feel is professional. Sometimes that means I delete a picture that is 95% great. Other times that means that I spend way too many hours getting it from 95% great to 99% grea...

Many, many years ago, soon after Al Gore finished creating the first release of the internet, I made a few web pages. Nothing fancy, just some text and pictures to prove I could do it. About a year later, I was in a new job and was responsible for our corporate network. As a result, I learned about configuring routers and understanding more about the technologies to access the internet from a corporate network. At my next job a few years later, part of my job was taking care of the servers that maintained my employer's DNS information. That put me in close contact with some of the core operations of the internet. Other than those periods of time, my experience with the internet has been mostly as an end-user. I surf, I email, I game. From time-to-time, I would also dabble in looking up information with a "whois lookup" to find out who was behind a web site, but usually I have been away from the infrastructure of the internet for about 8 years. Having recently regist...

Ironman is a hard event. Ironman requires intense training in multiple disciplines including biking. Look closer and you will see that this guy is multi-tasking. While biking, he is also spitting? Of course. Every serious biker knows that you need a way to clear your nose and/or throat from time to time without losing speed.

Well, April of last year I volunteered at IMAZ. I rode my motorcycle on the course in front of the lead male rider. It was a tiring day and I didn't have to pedal. When April 2008 rolled around, it was my turn . I had done my training, established realistic goals and was ready. I had a tiring, but fun and successful day. I was proud to have finished my first Ironman, especially given the very hot conditions that resulted is one of the highest DNF rates of any Ironman in North America. The organizers of the race decided to move it to November to try for better weather conditions. This weekend was the first of the new "Fall Edition" of IMAZ and I decided to head out with my camera to see Ironman from a new perspective. Some of the highlights included seeing the lead bikes racing out of transition and getting a picture of the guy who finished the swim in first place and the bike in second place: Watching these athletes fly by on their bikes was both humbling and motiv...

I set out very early this morning to get some shooting done. I had heard about a place where I had a good chance to see some wild horses around sunrise. I left the house around 5:30 in the morning and drove out by the river. It was starting to get a bit light by the time I got there and started to walk down to the river. I saw lots of evidence of horses like this on the road: More pictures at Flowing Desert Photography That one belongs in the "not my job" category. Down at the river, I watched the sun rise over Red Mountain. I also got some neat cactii pictures, but I haven't finished cleaning them up yet so I'll show them off another day. I've got a busy day planned for tomorrow. I'm going to go shoot another triathlon. Ironman Arizona is in town for a second time this year. Last year, I volunteered. This spring, I raced. Now I will photograph it. I guess that makes me a well rounded Ironman. I will try to get those pictures up by Tuesday, at least...

Here are a few more of the shots that I took this past weekend. Hope you like them. They call this mountain King Kong. Do you see why? The pillars just make you wonder why they are still standing when the rest of the valley eroded over time. Visit my photography site for more pictures from this trip and others.

The family decided this past Saturday was a good day for a road trip. We packed a lunch and when everyone was ready, grabbed our cameras, jumped in the car and took aim on Sedona. Partway up there, we decided to take a detour and head to Crown King. The last time I was there was several years ago and we had taken the back way up. That is a 4-wheel drive only way, so we took the "road" in. It was a bit slow going at times, with progress hindered by the road (bad in some places and only one car wide in others) as well as my willingness to stop anytime I saw something I wanted to get a picture of, even if it was just an old stone house. More photos at Flowing Desert Photography There were a few places where I really wished we still had the Durango so we could have gone to Sedona the rest of the way instead of back-tracking after our stop in Crown King to get some fudge. As we got to Sedona, we stopped for the mandatory pictures at all of the scenic overlooks. Bell Rock was...

I probably never would have said that in middle or high school. I know I never said that about most of my college classes. I have finally found a school that is cool. Digital Photography School is a great forum for photographers of all experience levels. I discovered it this past summer as I was considering getting a newer, better camera. It is a great place with a lot of areas. One of my favorite areas is the forums critique section. People post their pictures along with some information about what settings they used to take it and ask one or more questions. Then, other people provide feedback. Generally speaking, this feedback is of a positive, supportive nature. Sometimes, that feedback means saying "I don't like it" but even so, that is done with a positive spin. Usually, someone providing that feedback will suggest something the photographer could do to improve the shot. Usually though, the feedback is overwhelmingly positive. Not artificially so, but in ...

I found this video showing a neat camera holding technique video. It is a bit hard to use at first, but it makes sense and is a good idea to keep the camera more stable and help get sharper pictures, without a tripod. A tripod is always a good idea, but there are times where it is just not practical to use a tripod (busy areas or fast-paced action) and this is a good way to get the best shooting stability possible.

I went out to the SOMA triathlon this past Sunday to take some pictures. I managed to take some pictures (about 400 before I reviewed them and deleted the worst of the missed shots). I wanted to practice my Sports Photography and give some of my fellow triathletes some photographic alternatives. Besides my own club, ESCKTC (East Side Cool Kids Tri Club), some of the people I caught decent shots of included members of Tri Club of San Diego (TCSD), Team In Training, AZ Tri Club, Banas, Tribe and Freak Factor in their pink uniforms. If you know people from these clubs, please have them check out my site. I will keep the SOMA pics up for a month. BTW, the SOMA pictures are basically "at cost", my profit is under a dollar per shot, which when you factor my time (over 6 hours not counting travel time) means I am really giving these away for my love of triathlon. It is all worth it when I get a shot that I love like this one: If you were in the race, if you know someone that ...

Jeff over at PhotoWalk Pro recently did an article on Must Have Accessories for your Photography The short version is here along with how I feel I am doing in each category: 1. Filters -- A+, UV/skylight filter on every lens for protection and a polarizing filter moved to different lenses as needed. 2. Flash -- F, but that is not really my fault since it is on my list as soon as I can afford another accessory. 3. Tripod -- A, I have a great tripod and an older more compact tripod. If I start doing more serious portrait work, I'll probably need another to hold off camera lighting. 4. Camera Bags -- B, The bag that came with my camera just does not work for me. The backpack I bought is pretty good, but it is a pain to get things in and out without putting the pack on the ground and unzipping the whole thing. 5. Cleaning Supplies -- B-, I have a lens cloth, but still need to get a blower of some kind and probably one of the other items mentioned in the comments to the article...

Last week , I asked for opinions on which picture I should donate for a church auction. The voting on the survey was fast and furious and it was a ton of fun for me to read all the positive comments from people. I closed the survey and printed the winning photo. The race was close with several photos taking the lead and only a few votes separating the top contenders at the end. The winner was Waterfall : Hopefully the picture brings in some money for the auction.

You may know by now that I enjoy photography. Always have, ever since I was given a little 126 camera when I was in 6th grade. I still have photo albums from those pictures. Not too long after that, my dad started teaching me how to use a 35mm SLR camera and I started learning about ISO and F/stops and shutter speed. It was not a cheap hobby and we didn't have a lot of spare money laying around, so I took very few risks and stuck to trying to make good exposures. The right amount of light and a good focus point were my goals and my main subjects were friends and family. By the time I graduated from high school, I decided to continue my photography and I used graduation gift money to buy a new Minolta SLR. Over time, I added lenses and accessories and spent a fair amount of money and time taking snapshots. I also started trying to take photographs. A snapshot is simply a nice picture, usually appreciated most by people who know the subjects. A photograph usually will have a ...

Our church is having a silent auction and I thought I would donate a picture. I am thinking 8x10 in a plain black wood frame. Please take a look at the candidates and let me know what you think with the survey to the right. Also, feel free to add comments as well if you think a different size or framing choice would be better. BTW, please pass this link on to others so I can get as many votes as possible for this survey. Thanks!

When we were in MN last month, my oldest son allowed me to take some pictures of him. This was one of my favorites. I think it has a senior picture feel to it. While I don't like his hair (it was a windy day) I decided to play with this a bit more. I found a tutorial on how to selectively colorize part and change the rest to black & white and thought this would be a good one to try it out with. Here is the result: I will definitely be doing more of this kind of thing.