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An inflatable Statue of Liberty on a Plano lawn. Notice Chevy’s Americanized logo on the front of the truck.
Pic by Ben, on his first trip outside with his new Fisher Price Kid Tough Digital Camera. I’m already impressed with his composition skills. More of Ben’s pics (and mine) follow after the jump.
A few momentous occasions in the past few days:
- Ben’s fourth birthday
- Ben’s first camera
- Ben’s first bicycle
- USA’s Fourth of July
- Arrival of Ben’s cousin and her family
Consider this mainly a photographic roundup.
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That’s my boy, racing along on his new bicycle. This is only his second time riding it — his first being inside the store so the helpful employee could adjust the seat for him (I missed that trip). No, this was not taken with Ben’s camera. Those come later.
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Ben loved his new sword, and slid it just barely under his bed before going to sleep that night.
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Ben and visiting Cousin S blow out candles on their birthday cookie cake.
The Fourth of July was a great day for us. Now, here are more pics from Ben’s camera (click to enlarge any of them).
Our front yard (neighbor’s yard starts at the crooked cable TV access point).
Where Ben spends our road trips.
Ben’s hard-hitting coverage of our neighborhood’s diversity.
Extreme closeup.
Mental note….
If I ever meet Ben, make sure to stay out of his line of view when standing in front of him with his camera! Oh and tell him that if he made that image of you from behind off center it would really add drama! ;) Hehehe.
Great shots after a momentous few days!
Excellent pics from both of you!
Looks like Ben, with a bit of training will follow in his dad’s footsteps!
Ever think of giving him his own blog???
Anna – You cannot escape his plastic lens backed up by his 640×480 resolution sensor.
Dave – Da kidz got mad skillz. Blog title: Through Ben’s Lens
Mark, your son will benefit from increased longevity if he’s already so cautious as to sleep with a sword under his bed within easy reach. Good for him.
I like the ‘alt’ text on Ben’s car seat photo. You guys don’t pull any punches with him, do you?
I’d say “nice ass,” but that would be in poor taste — so I won’t.
*LOL* No, a real blog… you can post his words of wisdom, questions, and let him dictate to you what he thinks people want to know!
Might be a WHOLE lot of fun!
You are hilarious Mark! I did have the thought that his camera won’t do the “off-center” thing because it isnt a NIKON! HA!
Have a good day!
Wow! I’m really impressed with Ben’s skills! Like father, like son!
I’m impressed with Ben’s eye for capturing his surroundings.
At our wedding reception, we put out lots of disposable cameras and encourages our guests to capture the evening. Two things surprised me about this. First…most people take horrible pictures. And second, some of the most interesting shots came from a friend’s six-year old daughter. I say more children should have camera’s in their hands. And having a photographic hobbiest as a Dad can’t hurt either.
Welby…Cool pictures. We have one of those camera’s for C’s upcoming Birthday. I hope he likes it as much as Ben. Of course we’ve had it for awhile now, so I’m sure somehow it won’t be compatible with Vista, which will be another headache for me to overcome. :-( It took forever just to find one! We’d see the Pink one every now and then, but no way we were going down that path.
I like the new bike. I wonder if Ben can still jump ramps with training wheels? Have you tried the playing card in the spokes yet to add the motor sound? Ya gotta have that. How about a little horn on there to drive everyone crazy? Gotta have that too.
Be honest…doesn’t it still look a little strange to see people wearing helmets on bicycles? Where are the elbow and knee pads by the way? I’d wear a helmet when I rode my Mountain bike a few years back, and it just never felt right after all those years of exposing our melons to all sorts of daredevil stunts…and living.
Reminds me one of my all-time favorite comedic lines.
“So…have you seen these kids now days out riding their bikes and skateboards in what amounts to full body armor? They’ve got helmets, knee pads, elbow pads…geez. What’s up with these little pu_ _ ies? F_ _ _ it…when I was a kid, we had scabs for pads.”
Sounds EXACTLY like us. “Great crash. You shoulda seen that one. Anything broken?” “Nope, just a scrape or two…but don’t tell Mom.” Because we HATED Methiolate.
Do they still even make methiolate? Probably pulled it due to law suits by kids against their parents. :-) Could pouring alcohol on an open wound hurt worse than Methiolate? They should have re-named that stuff “Red Sting.” “Just blow on it”….yeah, whatever. Now I just have cooler stinging. Thanks….
Great pics, Ben and Dad. Thanks for sharin’. I hope you saved me a piece of that cookie cake.
I still think Charles should blog.
Simon – I asked the wee lad if he was keeping it there for safety, and he said, “Yes.”
Dave – It’s not for lack of trying. Just tonight, in fact, when I too a few minutes to comment on Moksha’s blog, Ben tried to boot up the other computer in here and he said, “I’m going to e-mail on my blog.”
Anna – He will have a Nikon when the right time comes. I can’t wait!
Lan – Thanks for chiming in. The secret is that I show only the 5 or 6 out of 61 that he took! My father told me long ago that the secret to being a good photographer is only showing your best pictures. Some of these folks with online photo albums get diarrhea of the upload and splatter their whole memory card on the web.
Moksha – I’ve seen that disposable camera trick before. I know what you mean about most people taking bad pictures. The picture on the upper right corner of this blog happened to be the one great picture we’ve had a friend snap in a long time. I cropped it for the stamp-sized dimensions here, but it didn’t need any cropping to be a great picture.
Charles – I think it will work with Vista. Windows just sees it as a drive, kind of like when you attach a card reader. No special software to install at all.
Merthiolate. Ouch! Did you know it had mercury in it? Me neither, until just now.
Linda – For someone who never got into reading very much, my bro has a pretty good way with words.
The cookie cake? I had some after lunch today, too. We’re all so full after Papadeaux that I don’t think anybody will eat any tonight. If you can get down here quick, you might get some.
Charles – I was thinking EXACTLY the same thing about helmets yesterday. We did some crazy stuff on our bicycles without even considering helmets.
The minute we started those motorcycle/three-wheeler engines, though, we donned them without question. Pretty funny, really.
Mark…Yeah it is pretty funny, because at times I think we rode our bicycles faster than our motorcycles could go! Those 50′s probably topped out at around 20 mph, and on a good hill I think we probably went faster than that on bikes. Oh well…we lived through it.
Have you seen those new little motocross 60cc bikes? Unreal. They have at least 8-12 inches of travel on the front and rear suspension, and they will flat move! We had one 50 that didn’t have a lick of rear suspension…just a curved frame with the axle bolted right onto it. That was a tooth rattler right there. It also had the muffler cut off too…sounded like a Harley. We always wanted to ride the one with the gold gas tank, because it had rear suspension and it was faster.
I’m flattered by Linda’s comments.
I can’t consistently put something out there that would interest anyone. I have to pick my spots. I’m what you would call a “casual” blogger. Of course I just made that up, but I thought it sounded cool. Kinda like when people say they’re “casual drinkers,” or they only smoke when they are out drinking. They enjoy it…just lack committment. LOL
What I possess is a lack of originality. I’m like a counter-puncher in boxing. I need to have someone set the table first.
Which reminds me…I think I was the only person who commented on “Pabst Smear.” That was the best original pun I’ve heard in a LONG time, and it should have garnered more appreciation.
Charles – I thought the “pabst smear” was original, too. So, does that mean that it was, as long as I didn’t see it anywhere else first?
Anyway, here it is on urban dictionary’s site. A couple different definitions. Pretty funny, even if one is a little gross for some.
Ah, Papadeaux. We don’t have ‘em up here and it was always a treat when we went down to Dallas or Austin for work. I remember an Oyster goop that we dipped chips into…much more delicious than I’ve made it sound. My network admin still waxes nostaligically about that place from time to time.