16-JUL-2008
Braces
My oldest got her braces today. She's the only teen I've ever known who has wanted braces for so long (well, she's wanted braces since before she was a teen). What we are looking at is about a 5D, another 40D, & 70-200 F/2.8IS ;-)
15-JUL-2008
Freezer Surprise
Here's another strobist shot. I did a similar shot with my daughter a little over a month ago, placing the flash (with eBay trigger) in the freezer. My wife added the bit of drama to really pull this photo together... (I think she should keep her day job)
14-JUL-2008
Marshwood Colors
I got out late this evening to the most beautiful sky. I was searching for a subject the whole ride home, bypassing areas that just wouldn't cut it. This is the gateway to the Marshwood High School Athletic fields, just around the corner from my house. My oldest will be attending the High School next school year (that would be school year 2009) but will be on these fields next month when she starts the High School Marching Band. They allow 8th graders to join the Marching Band as there is plenty of room.
I tweaked the shadows setting in LR to bring out the purplish sky, which is Marshwood's color (and white).
13-JUL-2008
Road Trip - Day 11 (We are back home)
Some 3100+ miles, 12 States, 7 hotels, 22+ fast food stops, unknown number of pit stops, and some 72+ bottles of water later, we have returned back home.
It didn't take nearly as long as I'd thought it would to clean up the car (Tahoe) either. I was expecting it to take an hour+. It took less than 30 mins, shedding hundreds of pounds of gear and junk.
On the way out, we averaged 20 MPG. On the way back, for some reason, we got 19 MPG.
It was a fun family trip, all 5 of us in close proximity for pretty much the entire trip (save for an evening when mom & dad got away to a 'Shcmantzy Hotel'). It is definitely NOT our normal trip. We are normally a camping family, this hotel thing is pretty new to the family vacations.
12-JUL-2008
Road Trip - Day 10 (Fast Lane)
(Still catching up)
There is a shared service plaza (
Angola Travel Plaza) between East and West bound traffic. You park on your respective sides of the highway and walk across an enclosed bridge to meet at a McDonald's controlled eating establishment. There are some great views through the windows on the bridge. I just happened to be walking across when a State Trooper went screaming under with his lights on. I just missed him on the other side for a head on shot, this was an afterthought and I thought the photo was blown in the preview screen. Turns out this shot works for me. This was taken with my S2IS through a finger-print-smeared window so I am pretty impressed with how it came out.
Oh yeah, we got back onto the highway shortly after this photo (like within 90 seconds) and never did see who he had gone after. We figured he was either rushing to a call off the highway or he chased someone onto an offramp.
11-JUL-2008
Road Trip - Day 9 (Happy family at indoor waterpark)
(Again catching up from the Road Trip)
Off camera flash directed at us, camera (in photo) directed at mirror.
Day 9 found us at the new Kalahari in Sandusky, Ohio. While they claim it is the largest indoor waterpark, we disagree. We think that that other Kalahari in the Dells is either larger or just plain better designed. The lazy river is pitiful at the Sandusky location, there is one entrance that is basically hidden. It is a simple small loop, hardly worth riding on. The Kalahari in the Dells is a large '8' with lots of locations to enter and exit. You can use the lazy river as your means of transportation to the next ride. You have to walk everywhere in Sandusky. I think the wave pool is 1/2 the size of the one in the Dells. It was too overcrowded for the small numbers of people there. The rides themselves were slow, you'd wait for 20 minutes for one ride when the line wasn't large at all. I'd estimate the resort was 1/3 to 1/2 booked (based on the parking lot and people in general). I would not want to be around if the park had more people, it would be way too crowded.
Also, there was no outside park in Sandusky, they had a pool and that was it. In the Dells, there was basically another park outside.
The hotel was wild, I don't believe security was present, there were kids jumping in the halls and nearby rooms until 12:45 at night (Despite calls to the front desk to ask for help).
The other issue I have is that they charge you a lot of money for the room and park fees, then charge you for every little thing on top of that. Food was very expensive ($4 for a kids hot dog).
On top of all my 'peeves' we did have a good time. After all, it is an indoor water park.
10-JUL-2008
Road Trip - Day 8 (Fun with the sprinkler)
(Catching up now that we have WIFI)
It was a hot day in the city, a perfect time for bringing out the sprinkler, watering the lawn, and watching the kids create a mess or two. I didn't catch the whole lead in to this shot, somehow my son convinced my youngest daughter to walk over to the sprinkler for some reason. At that time, the water was barely coming out of it. When she got near, he cranked it up and got her pretty good. There was nothing dry left on the kids after this progressed a little further. I am quite sure the lawn was either killed off as a result of all the water, or is going to be fine for the next month or so should the midwest somehow get a dry spell.
09-JUL-2008
Road Trip - Day 7 (Stump Carvings)
(Late post, we've been away from WIFI for a number of days)
On our way into Spring Green for a breakfast, we stopped at a place my father-in-law mentioned to us. This guy had all these elaborate stumps in his front yard. Now we are from Maine, so a yard full of stumps is nothing to be impressed with, however, this guy had done some real nice work carving a lot of them. Interesting concept, he turned something that most of us spend a great deal of time, effort, and money on getting rid of, into something that he lists at $10,000. Yes, you read that correct, $10,000 list price for a few of the carvings.
08-JUL-2008
Road Trip - Day 6 (House on the Rock - Carousel)
We visited
House on the Rock today. This is my second time here in the past 15 (or so) years. I'd not been all that pumped to go to this, but I decided to Schlep the camera gear with me and I'm glad I did. We got there right as the opened (9am) and there were about 9 cars there (the parking lots must hold about 500 cars?).
With a small crowd, this place is a great place to practice Strobist principals. I was hiding my flash everywhere, trying to get interesting lighting effects. This shot was sans flash, it was of the main carousel (there are about 4 to 6). I hand held this with IS off. I figure the nude form will help boost my PaD hit count ;-).
A note about the House on the Rock, as a museum, it falls a little short of explaining what they have on display. They certainly have a lot to display, it is an eclectic historical, sometimes nautical, collection of historical memorabilia from all over the world. It was about a four hour walking tour, possibly more if you looked at everything (well, definitely more). If you breeze through everything, it could be done in 3 hours.
We leave from here tomorrow (land of the cheap beds) and onto Milwaukee.
07-JUL-2008
Road Trip - Day 5 (Slow Lane)
Another day of driving, we left St Louis late, just after checkout time at 11am. Spent the day meandering (well at highway+ speeds) north to Southwestern Wisconsin to Dodgeville. We stayed (Staying) at The House on the Rock North Lodge, an establishment that is NOT the Drury in St. Louis. I believe we have located the Drury's polar opposite. The building we are in doesn't have WIFI (or any kind of Internet access). About 1/10 a mile down is the Main Lodge which does have WIFI (Which I am using right now).
Anyway, we had to check in at the Main lodge, inside the carport are these two old cars (display) that were in need of photographing. This is the more colorful of the two (the other is your standard "Old car black").
06-JUL-2008
Road Trip - Day 4 (Mississippi Rising)
This was a tough PaD today. I had from about 400 shots to select from between an outdoor art exhibit and the streets of St Louis. We took a walk around the hotel this evening and it actually felt like we were in St Louis. I am slowly processing all the photos from today and will most likely wind up with a couple of extra galleries out here from them.
This was the shot that stood out, for me, as a PaD shot. They haven't actually roped off the flooding areas, you can actually walk right down to the water line. There is a little bit of mud from the receding waters, but very little, my guess is that the waters haven't receded much. Beside the area that I took this photo is a parking garage that is about 1/2 under water.
We are leaving St Louis tomorrow, only two days here. I think we need to come back, stay at this same hotel (Drury Hotel), and take in a ball game or two at some point down the line.
05-JUL-2008
Road Trip - Day 3 (We arrive in St. Louis)
We made it to St Louis. We arrive to the crowds swarming to catch the Cardinals play the Cubs. Somehow the fact that the Cubs were playing today and tomorrow, here, one block from our hotel, escaped me during my St Louis research. So we aren't attending the games, just about everyone else in the hotel is though.
While asking the park rangers (I am on the Arch train of thought now) I found out that they had fireworks tonight. I was simply hoping to find out if the Arch was lit at night so that I might try a night shot. What a pleasant surprise to be staying about 100' from the park where we could view the fireworks. Save for a TV station's obtrusive antenna in front of us (I asked them if they'd be dropping it during the fireworks, like they couldn't move to the side?) it was a great spot.
I might post some of the other firework shots, I saved 45 out of 162 shots tonight.
We made it up into the arch today too, 630' high. My teenager was freaking out, your ride up in these little tram things, it is a bit claustrophobic.