Thanks to their perch, these photographers at the Dallas White Rock Marathon finish line were about the only things I could see besides the spectators. (click pic to enlarge)
Nikon D50
200mm Nikkor manual focus
f/4 (best guess)
1/1600 sec
Manual Exposure
Benjamin enjoys his backyard slide on Christmas Day 2009. (click any pic to enlarge)
I’m not sure I believed that a group of moms could go from not running at all in July to running a half marathon in December, and in a few cases the whole enchilada.
A few years ago my wife, Shannon, helped start a local moms’ group when some sought more personal connections than they found in a fast-growing group with 250-plus members. A number of them exercised on a regular basis, but few considered themselves runners.
Sound Clip – Ben explains how some spiders catch their prey.
It wasn’t what I had in mind when I started the car Sunday morning.
After my son and I played catch and other games in the back yard early, I decided we needed to get out of the house, to one of the places I recently discovered while wandering away from work.
On past walks and bicycle rides to the donut shop, Benjamin had toted along books in his backpack. The tradition became this: move a while, then stop and sit on the sidewalk for me to read him a book. Benjamin decided to continue this tradition on trips that don’t involve deep-fried breakfast food.
This time there was a twist that, while initially undesirable, turned out to be pleasant. (as usual, please use headphones or earbuds for maximum immersion)
As one who brings his lunch to work, I rarely get out of the office until quitting time. When the weather’s right, however, I can be found wandering away from work. I have made a few discoveries along the way.
On the way into work Thursday morning a stream caught my eye, but I didn’t have time to stop and take pictures. Come lunch time it was a welcome break for someone taking his midday meal two hours later than usual.
I parked my car next to the suburban street curb, finished my lunch, and then wandered over to the stream to see what my camera and I could do. In the picture above, note how clear the water is all the way to the bottom, and the curvature of the water where the surface tension holds up the leaves.
Because the clouds and the wind combined to give me a variety of lighting situations, I’ll be using this trip for examples in instructional posts. I haven’t written anything like that in a while.
As one who brings his lunch to work, I rarely get out of the office until quitting time. When the weather’s right, however, I can be found wandering away from work. I have made a few discoveries along the way.
Wandering last Thursday, I drove to the spot where Plano holds its annual Balloonfest. If nothing else, I wanted to see the area without all the crowds, food and drink vendors, and other accoutrement of a summertime festival. The signs told me it was Oak Point Park, which I recognized from earlier online research of potential local hiking destinations.
I worked my earbuds into my ears, pressed “play” for some Rilo Kiley on my music player, grabbed my camera gear, and hit the paved path toward the woods. Just a hundred feet short of a bridge crossing a wide creek, I spotted and veered onto a trail leading into the trees.
As one who brings his lunch to work, I rarely get out of the office until quitting time. When the weather’s right, however, I can be found wandering away from work. I have made a few discoveries along the way.
This area is a challenge for finding fall colors. Most trees featuring colorful leaves are very young ornamentals — a bit of a letdown considering the beautiful forests aflame with red, orange, and yellow back in our Arkansas home. Doing my best with the noon light, I captured a tree with yellow leaves beside a white fence.
A few days later, I noticed a path running through a narrow strip of woods near a stream. I made my way there by way of a bank parking lot. Although I didn’t come away with much, I enjoyed the 75-degree weather.
Rewarding photos or not, I escaped the four walls of the office just long enough to stretch my legs and focus on things more distant than 18 inches.
We had a great weekend visiting my family in Arkansas. Shannon and her mother, who already had plans with other family in the area, joined in for part of the festivities. That’s why she wasn’t in the above picture.
I included a couple more pictures for this teaser post, after the jump.
With an unlikely first crop, our son has proven to have quite the green thumb.
Our six-year-old has told us for years now that he wants to be a farmer when he grows up. Just when we started worrying about what that would entail, he added, “and a veterinarian.” So, at least he has something to fall back on when the harvest goes bad.
One day while enjoying fresh cantaloupe at his local grandparents’ house, Benjamin said that he would like to plant one of the seeds. Encouraging any effort to learn by doing, G helped by providing a small ceramic pot that she probably had used for seasonal flowers. They buried the seed and, with the summer sun still beating down, set the pot on a baker’s rack on the back patio.
(click any pic to enlarge)
Alvis and I enjoyed a much more relaxing time the next morning, right about sun-up. Fog lingered in the launch field, so some in this photographic round-up are a bit hazy.
Enjoy and, as usual, click any pic to enlarge it (none of these were cropped).
