Natural Born Ham
Geno is always great for entertainment. I mean the kid is a natural born actor and entertainer and I always enjoy every moment we get to spend with him. Now granted he is my nephew and I might be a little biased but I think he is a 1 in a million personality that just shines through in everything he does.
We spent the night with Geno, Camille and Dan and as usual Geno was the hit. Another great Friday night in San Diego.
Wobbly knees
Ukulele and guitar song writing this week with a goal to finish a full album of newer stuff by the end of the week. I’ve got about 16 songs so far – what do you think of the ukulele tunes?
Shooting Elk
It’s fun to shoot Elk. By shoot I mean with my camera and of course never with a gun. I knew a pretty bad guy once and that was his hobby – shooting and hunting Elk. He was so bad in fact that he was locked away in jail in Montana and called the worst Poacher in US history. He was actually accused of hunting Elk in Yellowstone National Park. That is pretty outrageous if you ask me. This guy, his name was Steve, was supposed to do a bunch of work on my house. He ended up taking a bunch of money from me and never doing the work. I knew he was pretty much a con-man and a crook but I never knew he was such an idiot to shoot and hunt Elk in the most protected National Park in probably the world.
In Yellowstone, while we were there. Keven spotted two Elk crossing a river and drinking from it. We were on a hike and it was a pretty amazing moment to be so close to wild creatures and they didn’t seem so afraid of us. I thought back to Steve and how he hunted perhaps these very same animals and how he possibly damaged the serene wild calm that they called home. I guess that is why he got locked up for the next 25 years. Good riddance. In any case I was really happy to come across these Elk in their natural habitat.
The Bubbling Mud of Yellowstone
In the middle of Montana, Yellowstone National Park sits on what is now considered the largest Super Volcano in the world. All around this park, signs of internal distress within the earths crust is evident. No where is this more evident than in the multitude of bubbling mud pots that collect almost everywhere within the park. Mud Pots are sorts of acidic hot springs that contain a limited amount of extremely hot water and lots of mud. What you get when these mud pots develop is a little bit of boiling water under the crust of the earth and lots of mud. The mud pots because they have various colors within the park are also called paint pots because they resemble artist pools of different colored paint. The only difference is that the mud pots are boiling and mud is flying everywhere. The mud pots produce this really cool steam but the steam smells like boiled eggs and actually makes your eyes burn. You want to stay around the mud pots, but the tremendous amounts of steam, fog and general bad smell make you want to leave after a little bit.
These mud pots spell trouble for dogs and travelers to the park. Just a couple of months ago, a dog jumped into the area where the mud pots were and cracked through the crust and literally boiled himself alive. The owners friend, jumped in the pot to save the dog but alas he fell to the same fate. One generally does not want to venture off the beaten path in Yosemite because it is quite easy to break through the ground and end up in one of these boiling mud soup pots. It is quite an amazing place, full of beauty and danger.
Welcome to the Crack Motel
Stopping in Baker Nevada we came across this place. It was a bit of a mess. Looks like it has been abandoned for years. Abandoned by everyone but the crack addicts.
This old abandoned Pepsi Machine was probably the only cool thing left in abandoned resort. Too bad someone had scrawled “neckface” on the front whatever that meant.
This room looks like it could use a little maid service. I just wonder who has been sleeping here every night since it looks like someone was there recently.
I wonder if this place ever turned on the No Vacancy sign. From the looks of it, I highly doubt it.
Someone decided to splurge and get the Bacardi Gold which is the good stuff evidently.
Pretty much every room looked like this in the whole place. There must have been 100 rooms and they were all smashed.
The only place to sit comfortably was in the empty pool which was only slightly filled with old trash. This place was a dump.
Taking Gym Photos
I have been going to the gym almost everyday for the past 8 years. I rarely miss it, if I do miss a day I just don’t feel the same. A couple of weeks ago, the gym heard that I did a little amateur photography and asked me if I would take pictures for the new website that they were putting up. Seeing as a rarely decline the chance to take pictures I took on the project. We started yesterday and the first phase was taking portrait photos of all of the trainers against a white background. They wanted a super clean look that they could use on the website and something that would be easy to layer text and trainer bios up over. Photographing against a white background can be tricky and is actually one of the hardest things to do. To create a truly floating image you really need to over-expose the white background while getting the exposure on the subject just right. I have tried various methods to achieve the look but my favorite at the moment is to use continuous fluorescent lights to brighten up both the background and the subject. I have just found flashes to be too slow and do let me shotgun photos which I really like doing. Photographing against a white background can be hit or miss but it definitely provides a clean and distinct look for websites. Here is what I came up with for them.
In front of the camera
It is rare that you will find photos of me lately. I spend a lot more time behind the camera than in front of it. Kevin took this cute picture of Tu about to give me a kiss. We were trying to come up with a new cover photo for Facebook for her and she wanted one with both of us in it.
