Week 19 of 52 - May 2010

This past week was filled with events for my youngest son, so this week's post is all about Roy! We started off with his final orchestra / band performance of his middle school days as he is completing the 8th grade and moving on to high school next year. The first capture is of him receiving the outstanding orchestra award! The next is of him leading the "bone" section of the band. He was also awarded the outstanding band student award that night! :-) He sure got his mom's genes!





The week ended with his 8th grade promotion ceremony and fun night/dance. The first two pics were a couple I took before the ceremony and the last is a lightroom play of I pic I took before he went to the dance. He wanted it for his facebook page.

Week 18 of 52 - May 2010

Finally getting last week's action up. For the first full week in May I have to post probably the last tulip shot of the season as they are about done for. And a couple of shots from my son's orchestra concert. I will most likely have more shots of him in the next few weeks as he will be finishing his middle school concerts and have 8th grade graduation to celebrate. I tried a black and white conversion on one of his concert shots.

Week 17 of 52 - April /May 2010

This week's post are some captures of my youngest son and some of his 8th grade friends enjoying a bright sunny afternoon in our backyard. They have converted our trampoline into a mini basketball court! All I can say is thank goodness for the safety net on this thing. And, if there was any warranty left on the tramp, these pictures most likely have voided it! :-)

Week 16 of 52 - April 2010

This weeks post is a couple of shots of tulips growing at our place. Tulip shooting has been a challenge as we have had an abundace of wind. The first picture is my favorite of the two. The second had the tulip in bright sun so the lighting is a bit challenged!

Week 15 of 52 - April 2010

This week's post is a couple of captures of an orchestra honors concert my youngest auditioned for and was selected to. Seating for the concert was pretty limited so I didn't get any outstanding shots of him performing. The first shot is his section (he is back left in the shot) and the second shot is of the entire orchestra.

Oh and something I learned from the first picture, if you watch orchestra and cross your legs; it is definately right leg over left leg.

Week 14 of 52 - April 2010

Getting caught back up on the posting today. This post is a series of pictures of a couple of wind generators situated behind an old limestone fencepost. When my part of western Kansas was first settled limestone which lies in shallow beds in this area was a primary building material and was also used for fenceposts as trees are few and far apart out here. The posts still line many of the fields and pastures in this area. All three shots were taken with a Canon 70-200 at 70mm, I just varied the aperature. The first is at f2.8(my favorite) the next at f8 and the last at f14.

Week 13 of 52 - March / April 2010

My posts for this week are from Easter Sunday morning. Our great nephew stopped by to see us and the first capture was taken in our house. He spent the morning with us while mom and dad went to church as we had already attended mass. I took him to a neighborhood park for a couple of hours and the last two shots were taken there.
All the captures were taken with a Canon 50mm L prime on a Canon 5D. He is such a cute little guy!

Week 12 of 52 - March 2010

OK getting caught back up with the photos I took for week 12. On Sunday of that week I attended mass with my youngest and oldest sons at a CYO youth gathering for our Diocese. My boys play in the Lifeteen band at our church which provides the music at mass twice per month. Their group has been invited to play at the mass for this gathering two years in a row. There were about 600 kids in attendance plus a bunch of adults as well. A great experience for the boys and well worth the 1.5 hour one way drive. Always challenging pics for me with the crazy lights in gyms. I believe these are ISO 800 to 1250.

Here's some pics of the group and my boys!

My oldest on drums.


And my youngest on violin


And a couple of shots of the group

Week 11 of 52 - March 2010

Well trying to get caught up on the blog post! I shot these pics two weeks ago but had not had time to get them off the camera card and uploaded! These captures are all of work by a local artist / carver. He has done quite a bit of work throughout our state and region as well. His work is scattered throughout our town and is quite interesting. His favorite medium is our native limestone but he also works in wood as the one capture shows. The day was overcast and drizzle when I shot these. Hope you enjoy his work!





This carving has quite a bit of moss on it, my processing attempted to enhance this.





Hope to have my current week's post up more timely!

Week 10 of 52 - March 2010

This week brings some new and different signs of spring for me. One of the many enjoyable elements of spring is the return migration of birds especially waterfowl. This first picture is a somewhat unique capture for my area of a drake canvasback duck in the foreground with a drake redhead duck right behind it. Canvasbacks are still fairly uncommon in my area although conservation efforts have done wonders to restore their numbers. I always am amazed at their unique qualities from the shapes of their heads to the red eye of the canvasback and gold eye of the redhead.



The next two pictures involve one of my favorite spring activities; the spring turkey hunting season. From the pursuit of spring turkeys to their amazingly great taste on the table it is one of my favorite things to do. Every year I try to add a new turkey call or two and I had a couple arrive in the mail. Both are made by the same gentleman. The first is a box call hand-crafted of solid maple. The inlays are done by hand as well. This call really sings and the hard wood makes a loud high-pitched yelp; perfect for getting the attention of Kansas turkeys in our wide-open windy conditions. The second call is an owl hooter and does just that, replicates the hoot of an owl. Turkeys respond to these sounds which helps in locating them. These calls are crafted and tuned like a musical instrument and many of the top callmakers have one or two year waiting lists for their calls.

Wish me luck this spring, I wish I could have you over to enjoy the results. My favorite recipe for wild turkey is a cajun style that is served over rice and includes lots of spices, garlic, jalapenos, onions, bacon, and lots of butter! To quote the chef that shared it with me "don't get any on your forehead, your tongue will beat your brains out"! Hopefully I will have pics of this tasty treat come April / May!

Week 9 of 52 - March 2010

March arrived this week with typical early March weather. Rain/snow mix, clouds and windy. There are glimpses of spring around. I found this early blooming flower poking through the dried leaves in my backyard. The wind did not allow for a great shot but it is a glimpse of spring.



The rest of my post is of my almost 2 month old great nephew. My wife and I had the pleasure of watching him while his mom and dad took in a movie and dinner. He napped for a while and then woke up all smiles! Love the dimples on this little guy!

Week 8 of 52 - February 2010

This week's post is one of the main reasons I got interested in photography. I enjoy being outdoors and one of my favorite activities is hunting, specifically waterfowl hunting. I really enjoy studying the birds; the harvest is secondary to me. Photography allows me to extend the season. With spring approaching, birds are starting to migrate back from the south. I found this group of Canada geese about 5 minutes from my home loafing on a small farm pond. The day was a cloudy, overcast day with a dull grey sky. I did some editing of these in Lightroom 2 using presets from Presetopia.

Week 7 of 52 - February 2010

My post this week is in two parts. The first is three captures from buzz around our town this weekend and share a common theme... COLD!!! Temps in the teens and off and on snow just make things look cold. It doesn't matter if you are a limestone statue carved by a local artist, a buffalo at our park or a bird catching a high protein snack; all look cold!







The second part of this week's post is a couple of captures of my great nephew George. George is about a month old. These pics have an * by them as I did not actually take them; my wife did. After about 2 minutes of instruction with my camera and one tip of focus on the eyes she got these and several other keepers. I did run them through Lightroom but not a lot of editing. Meet George!

Week 6 of 52 - February 2010

This week's post are captures that technically are not outstanding but one's that I am glad I had the oppurtunity to capture. The gentleman in these captures is my youngest son's 80 year old violin instructor, Fritz. Fritz was born in Germany and survived the horrors of World War II. As a 10 year old boy in 1939 Fritz was part of the "Hitler Youth" and could have easily progressed through the system to become a German soldier. Even at that age his Faith told him that the things he was witnessing were wrong and he became less and less involved in the youth program. By luck and timing he was not quite old enough to see active duty but his story of surviving the war as a German are quite amazing. He was seperated from his family, was captured and beaten by both German soldiers as a traitor and Russian soldiers because he was German. His father was actaully a POW in Russia for 2 years. The hardships endured and atrocities witnessed by him and his family are truly unbelievable. His family ultimately reunited and settled in a different part of Germany were he started music school. They ultimately immigrated to the United States in 1950 when Fritz was 21. Fritz learned English as a US citizen and ultimately received his masters degree in music eductation. He married, raised a family and taught at the high school and college level until retirement. He has given private lessons to many of the local violinists. He had retired from this as well but we asked him to work with our son and he agreed.

Fritz has been giving a presentation of his life experience to various groups locally as our ancestors are primarily German. My son played some duets with him after he finished his talk. At yesterday's presentation Fritz mentioned that this would probably be the last time as it is just too emotional for him to relive the things he has endured.

Fritz is truly an amazing man and my son just admires him. Fritz is tough but always encouraging and really motivates my son. As my Roy always says, after hearing Fritz's life story it is pretty difficult to come up with a good reason for not practicing!









The captures were taken at pretty high ISO in poor lighting so a bit noisy and I wish I had a longer lens with me. I plan this spring, to go to his studio and get some better captures of the two of them.