Friday, December 21, 2007

Celebration



They all said I wouldn't make it. They all said it couldn't be done. But here it is, my 100th blog entry. I originally started this blog just so I could keep some of my favorite pictures in one place. I don't print many pictures anymore (that's so twentieth century); I made a coffee table book for myself but I no longer have a coffee table on which to put it; and that wall-mounted 2x3 foot electronic picture frame is still a few years away. So for now, I will continue to use this blog as my digital shoebox.

Camera: Nikon D70s
Location: Walt Disney World, FL

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

One Big Happy Family



For anyone that didn't see our family Christmas card from last year (oh crud, now people are going to start wondering why they didn't get a Christmas card last year), here it is. I was so proud of how it came out that I had to share it with as many people as possible. I was not only proud of my Photoshopping skills (the light sabers were added in post-production), but also of my boys, who were able to pose correctly while pretending to hold weapons in their hands, all while being glared at by the bad guys. I know you can't see them glaring under their masks, but trust me, they were glaring.

Camera: Nikon D70s
Location: Walt Disney World, FL

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Summer Is Over Already?



Yes, I know that this is a familiar refrain for my regular readers. Both of you. But it's pictures like this and thoughts of warmer days that keep me going through the long winter. (I used to love winter when I was younger -- really I did...)

Camera: Nikon D70
Location: Port St. Lucie, FL

Friday, November 02, 2007

It's Amazing What a Professional Can Do



I have several talents. Gardening does not number among them. While some people can take a bush and turn it into a recognizable cartoon character, my bushes walk all over me. I'm just hoping that I don't have "that house". You know, the house in the neighborhood that everybody drives by and points (and not in a good way).

Camera: Nikon D70s
Location: Walt Disney World, FL

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Biggest Pumpkin Wins



For some people, everything is a competition. In my house, some of the phrases you will hear quite often are:
  • Last one is a rotten egg
  • Second one in the car wins (usually spoken by the second one in the car)
  • First one is a rotten egg because today is "opposite day" (also spoken by the second)
I guess this must have been "Biggest Pumpkin Wins" day and the red head wasn't going to let anything stand between him and victory.

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Just Pucker Up and Blow



That phrase is supposed to refer to whistling, but I suppose trumpet playing can be considered a close second. I play piano, which has 88 keys. How do you make all those notes on the trumpet with only three stinkin' buttons and a spit valve?

Camera: Nikon D70s
Location: Northport, NY

Sunday, September 09, 2007

A New Hero?



I assure you that this photo has not been doctored by me in any way. If you look at it closely, you might notice that the red head is floating about three inches above the ground. That was weird enough, but then I thought that he was also not casting a shadow. This led me to one of the following conclusions:
  1. I am such an amazing photographer that my subjects appear to be standing in mid-air.
  2. Luke is a Hero
  3. Luke is a vampire.
I am discounting number 1, and the missing shadow turned out to be my mistake (it is in the picture), so that eliminates number 3. That leaves number 2. Maybe he'll get to save the cheerleader.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

A Long Way Down



A few years ago, I decided that I was too old for things like this. I used to love the whip-you-around-and-scramble-your-brains rides, but at this point in my life, I sometimes get a little nauseous when going through a revolving door. While my days of flying down almost 90-degree inclines are done, I'm sure my kids are eventually going to want to do it. I just hope they don't ask me to go with them.

Camera: Nikon D70s
Location: Hershey, PA

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Curse You Red Baron!



Just like adults, some kids just watch life go by and some are ready at a moment's notice to hop into their Sopwith Camels and head off into battle. I'll let you guess which category the red head falls into.

Camera: Nikon D70s
Location: Hershey, PA

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Chocolate Love



I don't think I was supposed to see this. I was playing paparazzi and caught these two young stars making out in the corner. They weren't too happy about being caught, either. Let me tell you, it's no fun being chased by a bunch of angry Milk Duds (they were hired as security). After seeing these two, I wondered -- is this where Reese's Pieces come from?

Camera: Nikon D70s
Location: Hershey, PA

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Birthdays



Some pictures caption themselves. Now if only I could figure out how to get my office work to do itself...

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Playtime



Isn't it great how kids play together? You just get a few kids, give them a ball or a stick or a box and off they go. Such imagination; such creativity; such interaction. It boggles the mind.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Bring on the Fighters



So after the measly, little propeller planes did their thing, the big, burly fighter jets came in to do theirs. I'm not sure what it takes to fly one of these monsters, much less fly them in tight formations with their wings almost touching, but whatever it is, I don't have it. I'm as manly as your average American male, but if these guys ever ran low on jet fuel, they could probably just mix in some of their excess testosterone and keep going for few hundred extra miles.

Oh, and for Thunderbird #4, I would now like to give you the finger for flying about 20 feet over my head at Mach 27*. F-16's are kind of loud and have been known to make small children (like my son) cry.

* Note: The plane was not really flying at Mach 27, since the FAA has banned supersonic flight over the continental United States.

Camera: Nikon D70s
Location: Jones Beach, NY

Thursday, May 31, 2007

It's a Bird, It's a Plane



I only took pictures of the planes, not the birds. I went to an air show at Jones Beach, which is now an annual event on Memorial Day weekend and I saw a lot of displays like this. There were propeller planes doing all sorts of stunts, like steep climbs, dives, stalls, and corkscrews. These pilots are obviously very talented and they are there to put on a show, but as performers, they miss out on any kind of reaction from their audience. Most performers feed off of the energy of their audience, but with these guys, it's just "do your job and go home". I suppose the pilots could buzz the crowd* to see if they were clapping or smiling, but that might just scare people off.

*If you don't know what "buzzing the crowd" is, please go watch Top Gun with Tom Cruise. Normally I wouldn't recommend a Tom Cruise movie because I think he's a jackass, but maybe he made that movie before he became a jackass. If you can watch it with a pilot (or someone who used to be in the Navy), it's even better.

Camera: Nikon D70s
Location: Jones Beach, NY

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Moving On



At the end of March, I celebrated my twelfth anniversary of employment with Nikon. At the end of April, I celebrated my departure from Nikon. Everybody keeps telling me that the change will be good for me. I'll have to take their word for it because I'm still a little uneasy. Nikon was a great place to work and I met a lot of nice people there. Just as importantly, Nikon is also where I got bit by the photo bug. (Normally, bugs are a "bad thing" for software developers, but this is the good kind of bug.) I love taking pictures and I now look at the world with a different eye than I did before my rendezvous with Nikon. I also love my D70s.

Camera: Nikon D70s
Location: Melville, NY

Monday, April 02, 2007

Chocolate World



Wouldn't you like to live in a place called Chocolate World? This brings to mind Homer Simpson's trip to the magical Land of Chocolate:


In Chocolate World (which is actually a real place in Hershey, PA), they have the "Hershey's Chocolate World" song playing all day, and it goes something like this:

Hershey's chocolate, Hershey's chocolate,
Hershey's Chocolate World,
Wherever you go, near or far,
You're always near a Hershey Bar.
Hershey's chocolate, real milk chocolate,
Hershey's -- the great American chocolate bar.


Repeat ad infinitum.

The chocolate is good, but the song will drive you nuts (no pun intended).

Camera: Nikon D70s
Location: Hershey, PA

Does this mean my son is a Republican?



Not that I really care about his political affiliation. Just wondering, s'all. My son can grow up to be anything he wants. Anything, that is, except a lawyer. You have to draw the line somewhere.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Playing Catch with Endy



Not everybody gets to have a catch with Endy Chavez of the New York Mets, but yup, that's my boy out there in the outfield at Shea Stadium. Way cool. The worst part was that it was the father that really wanted to be on the field. The son was somewhat ambivalent about the whole thing.

Camera: Nikon D2X
Location: Shea Stadium, Flushing, NY

Monday, March 19, 2007

Where Does One Find Blue Raspberries?



According to George Carlin, there is no true blue food. And the last time I saw a raspberry bush, the berries were red. My best guess is that someone with too much time on his hands decided that red raspberries were just too "yesterday" and needed a push into the twenty-first century.

Next up for discussion: pink lemonade.

Monday, March 12, 2007

More Icy Goodness



In the second part of my series, "Why Can't the Rest of the World Be More Like the Bahamas?", we will discuss this poor specimen. Being encased in ice can't be a lot of fun. Imagine that you are this tree. Then imagine that you (as the tree) have a nose. Now imagine that it itches.

Camera: Nikon D200
Location:

Monday, March 05, 2007

It's not always sunny and warm



Some of my more outspoken readers (okay, you can take the "s" off that last word) have expressed some concern at the lack of winter-weather pictures that I feature. Well, maybe I do subconsciously avoid "cold" pictures. I think I have made it clear that I am not happy until the mercury hits at least 75° F. Living in New York, however, I do have abundant opportunity to catch the less-tropical side of life. This was taken after a recent ice storm.

Camera: Nikon D70s

Monday, February 12, 2007

You Have to Start Young



Everybody knows that the musicians and the jocks get all of the girls in school. Well, there are no jock genes coming from my side of the family, so I'm counting on those musician genes. And it's never to early to try to give those genes a helping hand.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Where have all the flowers gone?



It was 12° Fahrenheit this morning. That's -11° Celsius if you were wondering. That's about 70° F (21° C) colder than I would like it to be. Where is global warming when you need it?

Camera: Nikon D70s

Monday, January 29, 2007

Monday, January 15, 2007

Mirror, Mirror



I have a lot of respect for people that can draw (probably because I can't). I am amazed at the amount of effort it takes to create a likeness of someone using a pencil. All I do is press a button on my camera. At least when drawing by hand, you don't get a picture of someone with their eyes half-closed (unless you want to).

Camera: Nikon D70s

Monday, January 08, 2007

How to Pick Up Girls



Okay, someone is going to have to tell my boy that this is NOT the way to pick up girls. If you look closely, you will see the facial expression on the target of my boy's affection. It is completely passive and uninterested. Ah, that takes me back -- to when I used to try to pick up girls. It didn't work for me either.