In looking back through some of my old pictures, I find that many of those taken with very inferior equipment, before I knew anything about taking pictures, are more enjoyable to look at than some of the best quality pictures I've taken with my fancy new one.  I thought I'd share a sampling of the ones I enjoy the most.  Some have stories and some capture a moment, but I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.  So here's a slice of my life through the lens taken from pics I've previously uploaded to Xanga. 

                                                           

                             

  

 

Last Friday, I was working on the second day of a hellacious cold, but I had promised to be a chaperone on Isabel's field trip to Port Discovery in Baltimore, so I drug myself out of bed, drugged myself and jumped in the car.  So many parents had volunteered to chaperone, they couldn't fit us all on the bus, so I would be meeting them up in the city.  I was given charge of my Isabel and a little girl named Erin.  (I got lucky and was given a child who knew how to behave herself and listen, so our trip was a joy)  After checking in at the school, I ran back home to change out of my sweater b/c it was already past the forecast high of 60F. I then made a fairly uneventful trip to Charm City, found a spot in a parking garage and walked around the corner to the rendezvous just as the buses were setting their air brakes.  I picked up my charges, listened to the plan of attack, and we were off to discover.

First, of course, was the huge climbing toy in the middle, where, halfway up and stuck in a tower, I was informed by a disdainful teenage employee, "Of course there's no way out at the top!  Can't you read?  The sign specifically says, "TOWER"."  Despite a little muttering under my breath about the ambiguity of a sign around the corner and the attitude of a service employee who obviously didn't understand the meaning of the word service, we soldiered on and began to have a blast.

Learning how to put gas in the car's tank.

 It was funny to watch, b/c not a single boy child was able to walk by and resist the urge to lift the tail and make a dumb comment about the horse's butt, but the girls all understood the purpose of the display was to groom the horse's tail.

Making butterflies from coffee filters and clothespins.

Pulling the "ferry" across a river.

 

Making masks.

Making HUGE bubbles!

Using magnification devices.

 

 After the field trip was over, I gave Erin back to her teacher, saw the  class off in the buses, and Isa and I set off to explore the Inner Harbor.

Isa took one picture all day, and then was content to talk about what she was seeing while we walked and her Daddy took his own pictures.  Here's Isa's.

And here's Isa in front of the US Coast Guard Cutter Taney, a ship that was present in Pearl Harbor on the day of the infamous Japanese attack.  

Since it was the middle of the day and the light was the worst possible for photography, I got to practice learning ways to make pictures work despite the poor conditions.  The light was the only poor condition, though, as the day had turned out to be very warm and breezy with very few clouds in the sky.

Sunrise, sunset...swiftly fly the years.

The world is her runway.

Wildlife, even in the city.

Trying on hats at Harborplace.

We saw a bird that I haven't yet identified, but I'm assuming it to be a loon or cormorant.  I saw him thinking about taking off, and I caught him, but not well.  Still happy to have caught it.

   

Isa and the USS Constitution.  A lot of these pictures made me think the pictures I took of Flat Stanley a few years ago, just with Isa in his place.

Some candid shots of unsuspecting people who were also enjoying the beautiful weather.

 

A rare busy moment in the harbor.

Beauty, even in the midst of the construction and traffic.

Isa talked me into crab appetizer and cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory, then when we got back outside, she was cold.

 

...and then it was time to walk back to the parking garage and make the trip home.  On the way, we saw a few last sights.  The Dominos Sugar factory,

and the restaurant where my wife and I enjoyed our first married supper.

It was a good day.

 

I did our taxes last night, and the results were the first refund we'll have received in years.  Today, I was getting ready to send them off, when I realized that we had neglected to sign them.  I grabbed the papers and jumped in the car to get my wife's signature at work, then remembering an exchange I had just had with @fauquet about not being prepared when you came upon an adventure, I ran back into the house and got my camera.  I turned out of the driveway, only to see a car swerve around something in the road.  I pulled onto the shoulder and this is what I found.

I used the snow shovel (not yet removed from my work stuff after winter) to pick up his hind legs and encourage him onto the grass, and he then (I suppose in thanks for my saving his life from the corn harvester which had to wait while he finished his crossing) posed and allowed me to take a few pictures before we both had to be on our way. 

At this point, I suggested maybe a few head shots

and though he kept a watchful eye, he never snapped at my lens, even when I brought it to within inches of his face.

What a gracious fellow! 

Ever notice that when you come up with the perfect idea to pose a picture, it just never comes out right? Of course, since it was spur of the moment, the natural lighting was terrible because of the time of day, but I thought it was a fun pic anyway. 

Here's one I shot off the cuff.  That's my 8 yr. old, Rebekah.

Another I got of Samantha.  I loved the lighting in the woods.

Another, as we were heading to the head of the trail.

Another of Rebekah at the top of the slide.  We used to beg our parents to take us out to Tuckahoe just so we could slide on the twisty slide.  The one we slid on finally got too old and treacherous, so they replaced it with a similar, new one.

 

At the lake end of the park, someone came up with an ingenious, human powered ride, built with three telephone poles, three u-joints like you would find on a driveshaft and a bunch of old tires.  Sandra took this one.

We take turns riding and powering, but Daddy and the older teenagers end up doing a whole lot more powering than riding.

 

 

 

Brother and sister.  Considering their choice of hairdos and wardrobe, it might be difficult to tell which is which some days.

Another photo idea that will have to wait for better light.

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep..." ( I think Sam took this, but she thinks I may have.)

There is even beauty to be found in a vine of poison ivy shooting out its first leaves of the season.

Someone left a bottle in the woods.

Gracie getting her turn in the car before we found the snake.

Some pics the kids took of stuff they found interesting.  

First a tree that fell, pulling its whole root system out of the swamp with it. ( I think Sam took this one.)

An tangle of new vines.

A tree bearing testament to loves long forgotten. (Taken by Danny)

A gumball that got caught in a spider web while on its way to the ground. (Taken by Samantha, who wished she'd thought to use the flash. I bet that's a lesson she'll remember.  I try to tell them that they can read and study, but the only way to really learn is to get out there and shoot and then find out what works and doesn't.)

 My kids absolutely love to go to Tuckahoe State Park.  From the 18 year old, right down to the baby, they'll drop everything, and with no shred of diginity, beg and plead if they think there's a chance we'll relent and let them go.  Who knows why, but it's a place I've loved since I was a child, too.  Tuesday turned out to be a beautiful day, and though Mama had to work, all the rest of us had the day free, so I mentioned the fateful word to my wife, just loud enough for the kids to overhear and the excitement spread through the house like wildfire.  "We might be going to Tuckahoe!"  So we got Tina off to work, made the house presentable, grabbed the camera, some balls and bats and loaded up in two cars.  We started on one playground, hiked through the woods to another, and before we knew it the card was full of pictures and we were switching to a backup.  The hike was where the "snake incident" from the previous blog occurred.  Anyway, we ended up with so many good pictures it'd be ridiculous to try to put them all in a single blog, so I suppose I'll make a couple long ones, and here's the first. I'll start off with some pictures of the "baby", Isa.  Though I told them all to dress in long pants with shoes and socks (so they would have less chances of picking up ticks), instead of the sandals they love to wear, I neglected to check and we ended up with kids in all sorts of compliance, which meant Mama (who had worked all day) got to do tick checks on three little girls when they got home.

 

Three shots in quick succession, show the speed with which this child passes from one emotion to the next.  I paused just long enough to change the settings between shots.

Added a little flash to balance out the bright sun from the back for the last two.  It's here I can see the need for an off camera flash, but I think they came out pretty good anyway.

  

At the other end of the trail from where we park is a playground with a huge slide.

Along the trail the kids love to run across the bridges.  Don't know why, but I loved it too as a kid. This was an attempt to stage a shot I had in my head, but it didn't happen quickly enough and I wasn't going to ruin a good day trying over and over to make it work.

 

At the "sliding board end" of the park the sun started to fall behind the trees, allowing me to play a little with the effects of bright, low sunlight on my lenses.

Resting for just a second to catch her breath.

Chimes made out of lengths of pipe, with blocks of wood on rubber tubing for mallets.

Riding a wild ride made out of old tires. (Wild until Daddy or big siblings run out of energy to power it.)

Many more pics to come.

Ever notice how difficult it is to get your teenager to do anything quickly?  

Imagine a peaceful scene in the woods.  We were walking along a path and remembered that just off to the side a bit is a car that was abandoned to the elements long before I ever walked the path as a child.  Hmm...let's go see it and take some pictures.  Gracie had to be first and climbed carefully in after I warned her to be careful of the sharp edge on the disintegrating roof.  

Samantha was next, and climbed in very carefully, taking her sweet time so as not to get too dirty.

...but then, a scream and an inglorious but lightning fast exit....

...leaving her brother laughing and me wondering what might have motivated her to move so much faster than I've ever seen her move. 

Upon further inspection, we found her motivator.

When she leaned back and looked up just above where the sun visor used to be, she found herself looking into an eye about 4 inches away.

I'll post more pics from our trip out to Tuckahoe, soon.

 

 

Since the weather was so beautiful yesterday, and I got home too late to go to church, we asked the kids if they wanted to go down to the park to play and play with the camera.  Of course the response was a hearty and unanimous, "Yes!".  As usual, I had the camera first.

Here's a shot of Rebekah on the playground.  Gonna have to learn to work on these in lightroom, b/c I think this would be an ok pic if I could reduce the exposure a little.

This little boy saw me taking pics of my kids.  "Hey Mister!  Hey mister!  Take my picture, too!"

He turned out to be the youngest of seven, and my wife and I had a good time talking to mom and one of the older daughters while both sets of kids took a walk down the river path.

One of their other kids.

That's my boy, Danny caught climbing on the outside of the slide where he wasn't supposed to be.  When I called him on it, he asked if he could take a walk with the camera and most of the rest of the kids took off with him.  That's my Isa trying to keep up.  Danny got a lot of pictures from behind the group.

That's my Isa and their littlest.

Interesting what kids find to shoot.

He finally thought to catch their attention and got a good one.

 

That's my Gracie.

Gracie again.

...and again. I thought this would have been phenomenal if her hair were back just far enough to see her eyes, but I still like the shot.

One of the kids from the other family.  Not sure if Danny or Grace took this one.

Again, interesting what they find interesting.

 

One of Gracie's friends who went to the park with us.  Gracie took this one.

Danny got several shots of mallards.

When they got back, we had been talking about our kids learning photography and had found out that their 14 y/o liked shooting too, and she asked if she could take a few pics.  I was impressed. She did a pretty good job, too.

I'm not terribly fond of in camera effects, but I like the shots anyway, maybe because of the expressions she caught on their faces.

 

 

  My brother lives a couple towns over from us and this afternoon after church, Gracie went home with a friend and we dropped the two oldest girls off to watch the Hunger Games movie in the same town.  With a couple hours to kill, I called my brother and asked him if he wanted to go out to a fancy mexican restaurant with us for lunch.  We all had a blast at Taco Bell, and then I asked him if he wanted to go out to Easton Point with us to kill the time 'til we had to pick the girls up.  Easton what?  he asked.  Somehow I know about a lot of obscure, beautiful places to kill time without spending money, so I told him to follow me and I'd show him what I was talking about.  It's literally only a mile or less from his house.  Once again we had a good time hanging out and shooting pictures.  

 

That's my brother, David rolling up in his Camaro with my two youngest girls.

David threatening to throw Rebekah in the river.

That's my brother and me and Danny, Rebekah and Isa. The owner of the marina came out and offered to take a pic of us all.

Someone had just put a new telephone pole in the ground with a platform on top for an osprey nest and two pair of osprey were squabbling over who was going to get to nest there.

Taking a minute to rest on a the excavator at the nearby stone pit.

I was tickled to get this picture of them fighting in midair, one right side up and the other upside down.

I love the mini trawler in the middle.

Uncle David and Isa.  She adores him.  He has a huge soft spot for her, too.

A buzzard flew by.

While I was following some osprey, hoping they would come close enough for a good picture,  my screen flashed dark for a second and after a second to recover,  I grabbed a few pics of a passing heron.   I was a little angry that I didn't think to open the aperture a bit to get the whole bird in focus, but it passed so quickly I had to shoot reflexively.  Gonna have to learn to be quicker on my feet.

 

 

Gonna show my ignorance here, but I'm not even sure what I did to get the surreal quality to this picture.   I focused on the top right hand side of the cockpit, then held and framed the shot.  Maybe it's the same thing that screwed up the heron pictures, the very shallow depth of field.  Who knows, but now I have some more experimenting to do.

 I liked the "stuff" of this photo.  Blossoming trees and the oil tank in the background, the boat and tractor in the middle and the trash and pallets and dunnage in front.

Two shots of my baby.  Can you believe she'll be seven this summer?

My second to last, Rebekah.  She was really scared she'd fall in because the piling was cut at an angle slanting down toward the river. She did well to control her expression though. 

More pics of the girls with their uncle David.  (He's single, and looking for a wife. He's held down the same job for a long time, too.  Maybe five years?)  Oops, he's gonna kill me for that little plug!  That's what big brothers are for, though ain't it? Plus he killed me on our last bike ride so I have to get back at him somehow. 

 

 

And finally, as we were preparing to leave, two herons flew by and perched in the top of a tree.  Just one was visible, but I think he perched like this just so I could get his pic.

Here's the best shot of the heron, cropped and sharpened a little.

 

 

 

   One of the reasons I'm currently doing well working only two days a week is I'm training a guy.  This particular job, though, requires me to work enough hours by myself  so that he can finish the route without running out of time, then work the rest of the day with him driving while I stay awake to observe his driving and help with deliveries.       

Yesterday, for example, I got up at 1:45 am, drove to work, got the truck checked out and began our route at 4 am.  I drove 'til around 10 am with him in the sleeper, then he took over.  We had 27,000 pounds, 400 miles and 12 stops, and we unload everything by stacking it onto dollies and rolling it off the truck and into the stores, so working our tails off, we got back to our terminal around 10:30 pm.  

After flapping my jaw with one of the bosses for the better part of an hour, I headed home.   The last half mile before turning into my driveway is sort of foggy.  I can't remember if it was really the fog or just that I was fading fast.  I pulled in, laid the seat back and fell asleep.  Around 2 am, I woke, got my bearings and grabbing my overnight bag went in the house to shower and fall into bed. 

Problem was, I glanced around on my way in and saw a beautiful, surreal landscape.  I thought, "That would make a good picture if I wasn't so tired", and promptly went in ran a hot bath and relaxed.  After a little relaxation and a good scrub, I brushed my teeth and headed to bed...except I had to take one more look outside. 

 "What the heck, I'll grab the gear and see if I can get one decent shot." So in my towel, I grabbed the tripod, checked to see I had a workable lens on the camera and went outside.  A couple cars passed by as I was shooting and I'm sure they had to do a double take if they were awake enough to see a guy in a towel in his driveway with a camera on a tripod. 

 Anyway, here's the results.  I shot at different shutter speeds from around 1 second to 30 seconds. 

The camera had been set to take pictures of the sunset by one of the kids, so I'm assuming that would explain the reddish tinge.  At that time of morning, in that state of exhaustion, I noticed the tinge, but couldn't figure out what would be causing it. Got up this morning and figured it out in 10 seconds flat.

The only lights in the pictures are streetlamps.

 

 

 

Took the kids back down the wharf today to try to get some more practice with the new camera.  My mantra is, "If you wanna get good, practice practice practice!"  I thought maybe we'd see the bald eagle again, but he was the only wildlife that was uncooperative tonight.  Couple shots of the kids, too, but mainly a beautiful, calm evening and fun nature watching.  We didn't even catch everything we saw.  The osprey caught several fish while we watched, as did one of the herons and several other animals flew or swam lazily around as if to allow us every opportunity to shoot.  Of course, I got a few of the kids, too. (as any proud Daddy would)

The osprey taking off in search of fish.

Gracie instructed me that I was to take her picture on the bridge, but when she got ready to pose, she noticed a couple of herons.  Here she is pointing them out.

 

 

 

 

 

Here I played a little bit.  Slow shutter in sunset lighting to get blur on reeds in the foreground. It was almost calm with a touch of breeze just teasing the tallest reeds.  Not even enough to disturb the water.  I had to focus manually, but I like the effect.  I thought the movement of the reeds in front which allowed a clear, if dimmed, view of the whole bird which would otherwise have been partially obscured conveyed the motion of the reeds while still showing the calmness of the water. 

Got a couple hundred pics, but these were the ones I liked after first review.  May post more later, but my wife's gonna kill me if I don't turn this computer off.  G'nite all.