Mondays

I thought I'd share a quote by my friend Patrick Johnson (who is married to one of my long-time friends, Merrily).

"The way I see it is that there are 52 weeks in a year. That means there are 52 Mondays in a year. If I went around hating Monday and ... wishing it was already Friday, I would be guaranteeing myself at least 52 bad days in a year.
My coarse of action to change that is Monday is an official "visit a friend or family day". Enhance somebodies life that day. That make both your day and their day that much better. I happened to see both family and friends today. And had a great time doing it."

I've never really complained about Monday's in my adult years (I will admit, it would tough to like them when I was in high school, it meant another long week of homework and waiting for the next weekend for fun). However, I do like what Patrick said and will see Monday's just a bit differently now.

God Light Paints too

It's called lightning and it's quite deadly, but lots of fun to photograph. I was out for about 20 minutes last night and got my "holy grail" of a picture before the rain started to pour. Here are my two best shots.....



This next one looks like it struck a house - you might need to click on it to see it a bit larger, but the house is there....


If you want details on how I got these shots, then visit my photo blog where I give pointers.

In other news, I was asked by the local photo club (also the largest in the northwest) to be one of thirteen officers. It's a huge step for me, I get to hang out with some of the best photographers in this region and help plan meetings/trips. My first meeting was last night, it was interesting to see how things work from the inside and I love having a little to add from my perspective.

The Finley Ghost.... revealed

The boys begged and begged to see the Finley Ghost again during the daytime so they could see what it really was. We agreed to make a quick trip out there (of course, we don't have a Finley Ghost schedule to know when it goes off). We sat for about 20 minutes and threw rocks into the water when it finally made its appearance. This is a lucky shot so we have a clearer picture of what the Finley Ghost is all about... can you see why this would be so scary at night?



The funniest part is that the boys screamed again, although I think most of David's scream was fake. The boys were brimming with excitement and trying to get us to plan our next trip out to the Finley Ghost. I think I'll wait until I can bring some unsuspecting person along. :)

The Finley Ghost strikes again

I've been thinking about taking the kids to see the Finley Ghost for awhile now. It wasn't until yesterday when I got a call from a friend that I made a more serious attempt. I mostly wanted to be sure I still remembered how to get there.

Larry and I decided to take the boys. They love stuff like this, I told them the scary story of poor Adam, how he drowned and likes to scare people away from the water. It took some wrong turns before we found the place, a lot has changed since I took Larry about 9 years ago. They gated the road so we had to park at the gate and walk a little ways. We meant to get there when there was some daylight, but all of the wrong turns made that impossible. Maybe someday we'll go back and get a better shot of the water blasting into the air so you can see how scary that might be at night.

We got down to the edge of the river, I noticed immediately that the rocks were wet so I knew where to position the kids (insert evil grin here). After waiting for about 30 minutes, it happened so quickly that I didn't have time to catch the splash. I did manage to get the last bit of the kids screaming.... darn slow camera!



Just in case you are wondering how much therapy the boys may actually need.... we did tell them the truth and they laughed about it. My boys have nerves of steel. We thought they'd have nightmares, but this hardly phased them.

Light painting at the park

About a week ago, a few members of the local photo club planned to meet last night for some light painting at the park. It's something we all heard about at one of our meetings and something I've always wanted to try. The weather is great in the evenings now and we couldn't have asked for better conditions for playing with our cameras last night.

Light painting is fun! It requires a camera, tripod, and a light source. I had 2 different flashlights and a flash that I could turn into a strobe. It also should be dark outside. In a nutshell, I set my camera to be open for 30 seconds (slow shutter speed) and just jump in front of it with my lights. I can draw in the air with the flashlight pointing at the camera or "paint" something else I see. Here are my results......



I friend showed up with her friend so I asked her to play dead for me. Originally, this was just a white flashlight, but I turned it colors in photoshop.


We came across some skater boys, they were very interested in what we were doing and I asked them if they'd hold my flashlights while skating. They were awesome!




The love tree


When I'm spelling in the air, I had to keep in mind that in order for it to show up the right way, I needed to spell backwards. I messed up a few times on the "a" before getting this shot.... I guess I'm reverse dyslexic?


One of my favorite shots, I painted the bridge with my bright light.


And there's a story behind this one.......

Originally, I was going to paint a white SUV. I got all set up and turned on my flashlight. Suddenly two teenagers got back into position, started the SUV and drove off. I guess I should have checked to be sure the vehicle was abandoned before painting it. It had me laughing pretty hard. So this time, I walked around to be sure this car was empty before having my fun.

If you want more details on how light painting works, then visit my photo blog.

Children of the Corn

I heard that movie is scary - I've never seen it, but the title fits the images. Every year there is a new crop across the street from my parents house and we always do some pictures in them. This year it's corn and the boys let me dress them up for my enjoyment.








Somehow, Jared had the idea that he needed to look really serious for this next one and told David to "look like a tough farmer."




I had lots of fun and the boys got a treat for being my models. This is the second year in a row that they've worn their overalls. I may have to retire them soon, they are shrinking.

Another prank

Clearly we have too much time on our hands, this classic was recommended by my mom.



In other news, the boys are in swimming lessons for the next 2 weeks and they had a lot of fun today. It was only $20 per child, score!

Snake Eggs

I was in the middle of a re-organization project when I stumbled across an old gag. I found a little envelope labeled "Rattlesnake Eggs" and it made me smile. All of the memories of me pranking my friends and family came to the surface. A big evil grin spread across my face. I grabbed the video camera, handed it to Larry and called out to the kids. I told them about some snake eggs I found and being the curious little boys that they are (regardless of the potential danger), they wanted to see........

Poor David!

Yesterday the boys had a lot of fun playing at the park with other kids from church. It was a primary activity with lots of fun in the water. They had water gun fights, blew bubbles, played in the sprinkler and ate popsicles. It couldn't be a better day, but then again, it wouldn't be a primary activity without some kind of injury right? One boy split his lip and ended up getting stitches (poor little guy!).

After playing in the water for about an hour, David's hands were really tender - you know that wrinkled soggy feeling on your hands when you've been in the bathtub for too long? Well he decided to play on the park toys and held onto some bars to swing a little bit. I'm sure you might guess what happened to the palms of his hands.... he tore lots of skin off of them. It wasn't enough to make him bleed, but it was a big layer of skin and it has left him pretty raw. I wrapped up his hands in gauze and surgical tape. He also requires lots of TLC so he's been getting plenty of that. I sort of enjoy that he is letting me give him so much attention. Spoon feeding him his oatmeal? That's fine with me! Taking care of business for him in the bathroom.... well I could skip that.

Funny Story

Just a few weeks ago, I got a call from my neighbor who lives in back of us. She started off by saying she wasn't mad, but had to share the story because she was very amused (I'm thinking.... "what did they do now?"). She told me that the boys rang the door bell a few times and ran off. On one occasion, she was ready for them. She opened the door just as they rang the bell and told them not to do that anymore. She also asked them for their phone number. Without thinking, David just blurted our phone number out. I think that he's very proud of his memorization skills so he went into 'robot-mode' and rattled it off. Jared looked at David like he was an idiot and he realized his mistake. Before running off, David quickly added "oh, but don't call it!" Of course, I had a talk with them about ringing door bells and running away, but we all had a good laugh over this one.