photograph – CameraCourage

January 6, 2012April 11, 2012

Visiting my Sis

One of, what I would say is becoming tradition is when I head home I typically fly in via DC in order to spend a day or two with my sister. Unfortunately we don’t see each other more than about 2 times a year but it is always fun to explore her turf with her.

I didn’t take nearly as many photos as I have in the past but we had a chance to do a bit of exploring. One of the places that we visited was the Crime and Punishment museum. This place has a lot of memorabilia from famous gangsters, mobsters and of course devices of torture back to the earliest times. Parts of it are fascinating, parts of it are horrifying but it is pretty interesting. Turns out that is also where Americas most wanted is filmed as well so we explored the set a bit as well.

(sorry about the quality on this one, that’s what happens when you are ramped up to 6400 ISO, 60×4.0!)

Oh and of course the “CAUGHT!” pic

After leaving we were left to our devices at night in DC. I can’t say that I have explored monuments at night there before but it was pretty interesting to check out. We wanted to check out the brand new MLK memorial and on the way we saw the sights. The WWII memorial is a very beautiful structure at night. I really enjoyed seeing it all lit up.

The Washington Monument is also very impressive and after the earthquake it is apparent that it has some damage. We could see some of the chunks that had fallen out, some cracks that were apparent as well, though you had to get pretty close to see that stuff.

Onward and upward we arrived at the MLK memorial. I think it is a great monument, the detail is incredible in the carving but more important in my mind is the quotes that line the memorial.

I quickly became pretty fascinated with the silhouettes of the other people who were reading the quotes. I enjoyed seeing them become part of the memorial as they enjoyed it.

Oh and of course, this little girl was awesome, she kept saying “I want to see Dr King!” I think she found him!

After a couple days in DC, Meg, Val and I headed up to Pennsylvania to enjoy the holidays. It’s always great to spend a couple days catching up!

August 20, 2011December 7, 2011

There is something about a Hot Air Balloon…

Yeah, I don’t know what it is, but there is something about a Hot Air Balloon that will bring the neighbors out of their houses. People who have lived next door to one another for years will actually say Hi to one another because of this little event. Every once and a while they will fly from or land at my house. I am sure it is more often than I know, but there are some big fields nearby and they tend to make use of them when they can.

Today they flew in again and as I sat in my livingroom sipping my coffee I thought to myself. What is that sound? Then it occurred to me exactly what it was. I stepped outside and 4 balloons were in the sky and one touched down just 200 yards away. I looked outside and the neighborhood was beginning to emerge from their houses and I stepped out and grabbed my bike to go explore.

I passed by the first to touchdown because it had already been deflated when I got there so I rode onward to the next. I could see it just touching down in the distance and it was definitely a bit of a race to get there before they deflated the balloon. Of course the maze of streets that I was unfamiliar with in that direction proved to be a bit of a challenge. When I arrived the balloon was still inflated and the pilot was just beginning his sequence of deflating it. He hopped out and grabbed a rope then started tugging on it as another passenger in the basket was pulling a separate cord.

As the balloon quickly deflated it was pretty impressive to watch. One person seemed like a small crew to be able to handle such a large beast of material. I mean, I kite can be a handful for one person and here is a guy manhandling hundreds of square feet of material blowing in the wind. Pretty impressive.

When I began to ride away I looked back. It was interesting to see how many people had gathered! The crowd was pretty impressive and the pilot probably could have started signing autographs with how many people were approaching him!

Now as a side note. The last time that I shot some photos of a balloon landing by my house was a couple years ago. That time I woke up to a balloon probably 40ft over my house which ended up landing just 100 yards away in a field. Imagine waking up to a large pig flying over your roof as your house is engulfed in shadow…

July 13, 2011December 7, 2011

Another day another storm

Wow, we have really had some amazing lightning these last couple weeks. Mother nature has really been letting loose. I don’t know what exactly the science is behind this because I haven’t seen storms this consistantly with this much rain at any point in my time here in Colorado.

Yesterday I was in Denver when the storm began. It was intense and we stood and watched as lightning struck all around the building we were in. Center stage for an amazing natural light show. The thunder was so intense that car alarms were triggered and the lightning was so intense that it hung in the sky pulsing as you watched. Later I arrived at my house and the rain was dumping. I wanted to take a photo, but I just couldn’t bring myself to go out with my nice camera and take that risk. The rain eventually let up and I decided to try to get a quick photo off. During the middle of my only exposure the rain began again, slow at first then heavier and heavier… I shielded the camera with my jacket as the exposure counted down and finally was able to run down the street and back into my house. When I finally got a chance to look at the photo I saw that I had actually captured a bit of lightening, 3 bolts from my count and a very interesting scene. It, to me, almost appears as though the light from the city is competing with the lights from nature. Take a look for yourself and click on the photo for a larger image too.