Makeup Fourth of July
Posted in Uncategorized on Aug 14th, 2007
An image from Saturday night’s show (cropped)
(click any image to enlarge and improve)
The next several entries here might be brief (but might not) while my writing time is diverted to my latest short story (it’s been a while, I know). To continue reading “Off Planet,” please click here. Anybody fairly new to this space, please understand it’s perfectly normal for me to start a story here and finish it elsewhere. Don’t be alarmed.
With Ben’s mommy out with the girls for a wild and woolly birthday celebration (two of her group of four have birthdays on the same day), Ben and I were left to our own devices on Saturday afternoon and evening. We rode our bicycles Saturday morning and then hung around inside, napped, and got ready to go see fireworks with Sir J and Lady J.
My original plan for Saturday night was to drop Ben off at his grammy’s and then go see a movie with Sir J. He called and said that he had his schedule a little mixed up and so we adjusted the plan.
I’m glad I didn’t ditch the boy; we had a blast (click Continue Reading to get the effect of the pun/foreshadowing).
One of my favorite fireworks photos I’ve taken.
Before Shannon left, Ben and I went for a nice bicycle ride.
Ben and I tempt the ladies of the neighborhood.
Ben has become pretty good on his bicycle, but there comes a point where the training wheels are counter intuitive to the learning process. When he rounds a curve (on the sidewalk) quickly, he almost tips over. So, right now he’s getting good at the pedaling and the steering. While those are vital to riding a bike, the balancing part is pretty important, too. I’m sure he’d crash a lot at first if I ripped the training wheels off right now, but as quickly as he’s picked up on other things, I don’t think he’d take long to get the hang of it. We’ll see.
We played inside the rest of the very hot day, and then headed out to meet the J’s and Madame C for the show.
Ben enjoys a Goldfish on the drive to “Forever Free.”
After I doused us with insect repellent (I recommend Cutter Skinsations, by the way), Ben and I walked to the spectator area to the live musical stylings of a country band whose name escapes me. They were playing a pretty good version of “Gimme Three Steps” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, if there is such a thing.
We saw a group of four soldiers sitting in a circle, wearing desert fatigues. Ben asked, “Are they nice soldiers?” So, I walked us up to them.
“He wanted to know what you do,” I said.
“It’s simple, son, we rend terrorist’s heads and poop down their necks.” Okay, so that is NOT what anybody said. I had to break up the monotony here.
The man directly to my left spoke up. “I’m the company commander.” Of the others, one of the women was “in supply.” The other man and the other woman were in personal security (means they are bodyguards). All were speaking of their posts in Iraq. I thanked them for their service to our country and we headed for the corn dog stand.
Ben sweats off the pounds.
How wrong is it to pick up a corn dog one drops on the bare-ass grass and then wipe off the contaminated mustard and eat the corn dog anyway? (It was delicious.)
A month and a week after the Fourth of July, the city made good on its rain date and put on a great show. I’ve never been so close to a major pyrotechnic display. With each report the flames cast light on the crowd of people, their faces turned upward in awe.
Here are two more I liked.
Sir J got a pretty good shot, too. Shows what fun effects a little camera shake can add to a fireworks picture. Click the thumbnail over at Weekly Entries (which really aren’t but we forgive him that).
We said our goodbyes, the glowing necklace people unloaded their leftovers on Ben, and we got home for a late little boy bedtime.
I wouldn’t trade it for any viewing of any movie.
Sunday we went to a park and played, and I purposely left all my cameras at home.
(Photo info: All fireworks pictures above were taken with a 2-second delay on my self-timer, with a manually set exposure of five or six seconds at f/11, f/16, or f/22. Fill flash used in the top shot. Tripod used.)
Shannon’s birthday celebration from last Friday night (you ever heard Bob Marley’s version of “Edelweiss?”) is coming soon.
Who said they were thumbnails? I realize it may take some time to load a 5 Megapixal into a 200×200 pixal space. I really should put the smaller size one up though you’re right. Your red pic is cool, but I think the palm tree one is the best. Probably just reminds me of home or something. You think it’s possible the last one you put up here is the Fire Surfer with no motion blur?
Impressive, Mark. The two you posted big are certainly my favs. Th etop one becasue of the people in it and the bottom one because…well…it just looks cool. I’ve never tried firewoks pictures, but I have to assume this level of cool is hard to capture.
A little grass never hurt anybody. ;)
The five second rule always applies outside, and since it was grass, you were probably good for about 10 - 15 seconds or so.
Gorgeous firework shots. That red one is way cool, indeed. But those golden booms up top are pretty sweet too.
The top photo is my favorite, too, now that I cropped it. I eliminated quite a bit of dead space between the ladies and the rest of the image. I didn’t have time to lower my tripod and get the up-angle shot during the show.
Funny thing is, fireworks are one of the easiest subjects to photograph. It’s just a matter of having a tripod. It’s a crapshoot, because you never know what you’re going to get when you start that self-timer, but I only shot about 10 shots and got three or four I liked a lot.
Josh - Yeah, man, that “thumbnail” took a long time to load.
MG and Simon - I don’t know exactly how to take MG’s comment, “A little grass never hurt anybody,” considering his checkered past. But, I agree with Simon’s assessment that the time limit is longer out in Nature.
Cool firework pictures. That’s one instance where photography can actually make something that was impressive live, look even more impressive.
Sounds like you had a good time with Ben. The whole bike ride with Ben thing looks cool, but please admit that unless you were out romping on trails or doing some curb jumping, you wouldn’t be wearing the helmet if Ben wasn’t around. Even if it’s not true, just say you wouldn’t so that I’ll feel better about it. :-)
Ben has to wear his helmet, so if you don’t wear one, it makes for a pretty tough explanation. I get that part. “Do as I say, not as I do,” will only get you so far I guess. How did you find a bike helmet that would fit your melon? Special order? Sorry…couldn’t let that go. Bad brother.
If you want him to start working more on balance, adjust the training wheels. You can raise them, assuming yours work correctly, and create a situation where they aren’t flush with the ground while the rear wheel remains grounded. That way he will be leaning over if he relies on the training wheels. It should teach him to balance on the rear tire. If he’s riding at a good pace, it shouldn’t be any problem. I started that with Charles already, and he’s doing it pretty well.
Be prepared for some crashed though. Charles continues to crash when he turns too sharply, because he’s used to turning quickly on his Big Wheel trike. He’s got a black X-games helmet, elbow pads, and knee pads, so at least he looks cool when he crashes. LOL
We sold our Mountain Bikes a few years back, so we’re going to have to buy new ones. I’m shocked at the level of bike you can get at Wal-Mart now. I’m sure they’re a little heavier and not quite what the high-end bikes are at the bike shops, but they’re still better than our ‘96 model Trek bikes were I’m sure. You can get a Shimano geared and braked Aluminum frame Mtn. Bike at Wally World for less than 2 c notes! Can’t be that bad for a nearly 40 has-been….
I’m with Simon… 5 seconds, but outside in clean grass, maybe up to 20.
Beautiful pictures…. wish I could take firework pics like that.
Mark, you take a lot of flak from your brother, don’t you? Or, at least he tries to dish it. I know how that works. You could just tease him back about having the level of creativity where he had to name his son after himself. I wouldn’t dare do that, seeing as how I don’t even really know the guy. :)
Charles - I’m always telling Shannon how I hate that helmet. When we rode by some neighbors, I made a crack something like, “Hey, you wish you had a helmet like this,” but it came out as a sad attempt to get attention, because they probably weren’t even looking at us.
Until Ben proclaimed, “Hi, I’m Benjamin, and my daddy douches every night!”
(see, when I can laugh at myself, it rolls right off — because the emotional scarring from childhood makes a smoother surface)
Pads? My kid doesn’t need pads.
Dave - Of course you could. I told you how!
Simon - It’s just flak, and that’s the beauty of it. If I didn’t know he had my back no matter what, I would worry about it.
You know what’s funny? Re-reading his post and pretending that he’s just referring to himself in the third person when he uses the word “Charles,” instead of talking about his son.
Um…ok…I’m trying to figure out what Ben was really meaning to say…but I got nothin’. And yes…Charles’ comment is much funnier now, Moksha is laughing.
MG - Ben didn’t really say anything beyond “Hi, I’m Benjamin.” I added the joke about the “douche” comment in an attempt at self-deprecating humor.
A feeble attempt, it seems, despite the parenthetical remarks following it.
Hey Mark!
These shots are great! I love the fireworks in the top shot. Great. They have so much depth and interest. The color in that second one is very cool.
Take care!
Oooooh. I thought the self-depricating humor was just that you were willing to post Ben’s comment. Color me dense (apparently grass can have some longer effects than previously claimed)
Markus….Funny stuff. I shouldn’t have taken that jab about your melon, but I hope you know it’s not malicious. I was joking about wearing it, because I know you wouldn’t be wearing it if it weren’t for setting an example. You’re to be commended for that.
When I went back and read my post as you suggested, it was hilarious! It reminded me of the times when George did that in Seinfeld. Still the best show ever…