New Nat Geo video!

Video on one of the discoveries that was made in the Yucatan expedition i was on:


http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/latest-news/maya-zenith-passage-vin/

Doggy Cave Trip

Just a little photo to play catch up with some of my photos. This is from the beginning of the this summer in May when i got to take my 11-year old pup on her very first caving trip!

More from what was Panoply

Just a few more photos of some work i did for the Panoply that wasn't. I have an opportunity coming up to try the Polly Crockett Festival in a couple weeks - hoping to try it out!

Back But Not Back.

So I'm back. Back in the land of shopping malls, cable TV, air-conditioning, hot showers, bath tubs, wall to wall carpeting, washers, dryers, phones, grocery stores, running water, paved roads, yards with grass, trash pick up, firefighters, computers, internet, cell service, closets full of clothes, shelves full of books and odds and ends and stuff.... so so so much stuff.

But... i'm not back. I can still close my eyes and exist in that other world. - still enjoy the Milky Way, the sounds of the birds and frogs and crickets and Mot-mots as i fall asleep and wake and all through the day, bike rides to the pyramids, sketching and mapping caves simply oozing with history, walks to the tienda for a strawberry soda, fixing everyone pancakes on the weekend, hiking out thru the monte, stretching out in my hammock after a hard days work, lessons for words in Spanish and Maya, people and kids that smile and wave and invite you into their homes for no other reason than to be friendly.

How To Be Alone

Came across this really neat little video tonight and would like to share....

Food Porn

Just a pretty dinner plate from the other night....

Strawberries and vanilla yogurt, Horseradish chicken wrapped in a cresecent roll and topped with cheddar, Peas from the garden, and a veggie medley of mushrooms, tomatoes (from garden) squash and zucchini! Yum!

Great Duo!

Laurel and Hardy in a little bub for your Tuesday morning pleasure!

Clouds

Here I am... neglecting my poor blog again. And I have a backlog of cool photos and stuff Ive done all waiting to post. Been super busy and it seems like the summer is going to be no different.

Found a pretty cool sight this evening thought it would be fun to share it: Clouds 365

MOOOOO!!!!

Driving Home

Tried something a little odd on the way back from the NAPG (North Alabama Photographers Guild) meeting this evening.... a bit of driving photography - straight from the dash board. Had kinda mixed results but at least I can say I've tried it! I know some of you are probably cringing at the thought of driving and photography - but I set a timer - my camera just rested on the dash board - punched the button and left the shutter open for about 15 to 20 seconds. So don't panic - it was probably even less distracting then say changing the radio station on my stereo.

I took several more... but I really liked this one the best of the straight driving.

This one was a double exposure of my speedometer and me sitting at a red light and then finally turning.

Some really bad Silliness

Lashisse from Molly Sims

Tennessee Renaissance Festival

Michelle, Tommy, Paul all had a great time when we went to the Tennessee Renaissance Festival on May 17th. I brought my new camera and had quite a bit of fun with the long lens - especially with the falconry & jousting.

The lady falconer that I've seen for several years and some of the birds.


They had to spear a small cork heart in one of the competitions - which is what you see here

And then there's my favorite bit - full tilt jousting. I know its a show but its really quite impressive and its full contact. There's nothing quite like horses and men in full armor rushing past you at a gallop.



Paul in his dashing and debonair hat -


Michelle all smiles -


Tommy -

A Caving We Will Go!

So I think I just set my personal record for caving in a one month time span - measured from grotto meeting to grotto meeting. Been so busy printing and caving haven't had time to tell you all about it until now. So when the question is asked tomorrow night at out grotto meeting - "Who's been caving?" I'm going to have to bust out a flippin list to remember all of them!!

1. Crossings with Stephanie and Nathan on 4.2.09

photo by Nathan Williams

We went during a serious storm - while we were there - water stared pouring from all sorts of wild places... this shot is cool because you can see all the little water streams...CF-SIT.

photo by Nathan Williams

Another great shot by Nathan - Steph and the haystack were lie with 3 firings of a Lumedyne strobe as an in-camera mutli-exposure

2. Buggy Top with the Huntsville grotto on 4.4.09 (first time trying out my new Pentax in cave!)


3. Blevin's Gap with Nathan on 4.8.09

This is Nathan looking through the squeeze to get down to the lower level. Yeah - that'd be an 8-1/2 inch gap there.

photo by Nathan Williams

And I don't normally post photos of me - but I actually really like this one - and anyway this is part of the gorgeous pool of water on the lower level.

4. Jess Elliot with Angela, Andy, Al, and a bunch of other nice folks from the Dogwood City Grotto 4.11.09

Angela hanging out in a cool portion of Jess. I used two CF-SIT lights for this shot - one on the side and then the other next to me.

5. Hooper's Well with Nathan and Stephanie on 4.14.09 (Steph's 1st pit)

So this is most definitely the wackiest shot I've taken so far, I climbed up the rope about 20 feet, Nathan set up a slaved flash to sidelight Stephanie and himself and then got on the opposite rope. I had my camera set to bulb in one hand, a manual flash in the other, lens cap dangling out of my mouth.... and then I started spinning and twirling...bleaugh. Steph even sat on the rope to keep me from spinning but I still did..ended up attaching my QAS to the other rope and standing in my foot loops to stop spinning for a few moments... finally got one with enough light and without my boots or kneepads in the frame... really like the angle down the rope on this one.

6. Limrock Blowing with Danielle, Stephanie and Nathan on 4.16.09

A bit of Dynamic CF-SIT on the downstream side.

7. Limrock Blowing with Peri, Michelle and Tommy on 4.18.09

Multiple photo composition of Michelle here - because I was working with only flashes - but I like the way it ended up.

Someone made the comment on Flickr that this looked like the caving mafia.... I'm going to go with it - the caving mafia -Don Michelle, Don Tommy and Don Peri

8. Blevin's Gap with Stephanie and Nathan on 4.23.09

Nathan and Steph after 30 different alignments of flashes and "a little to the lefts"... "no, an inch to your rights"

9. Iron Hoop with Michelle, Tommy, Nathan, Angela, Andy, Stephanie, Josh, Colin and Randy on 4.26.09 (topped out at 11-1/2 hours on this one!)

A very happy Stephanie in Iron Hoop. (And by the way instant mashed potatoes are incredibly yummy as a hot in-cave food..... mmmmm....taters! But do watch out - they can be rather hot.)

Check out Colin's photos of the trip.


And then go to the Realms Flickr for all the cool 3-D photos that Nathan took with both of our cameras - bring your red/cyan glasses with ya!! And be seriously prepared to be AMAZED!!!

10. Neversink with Nathan and Stephanie on 4.28.09

This would be the dead rat we found at the bottom of the pit... ewww.

11. Blevin's Gap (yes, again) with Buddy, Joe (their first pit), Don and Nathan for the premiere of SIT 2.0 in-cave (which was very cool and a great success!) on 4.30.09

Here's Joe - man he was so cool - had no problems at all!

12. Stephen's Gap with Stephanie, Danielle, Casey and Nathan (and Fred + 1 later on) on 5.2.09 for Paul and I's first anniversary. (Paul was sick which totally sucked - so he didn't get to go - he let me go anyway) He is feeling MUCH better now and on the road to recovery - albeit a bit spacey from the codine laced cough syrup.

Nathan, Steph, Danielle and Casey ready to hike up to SG.

Man oh man was there a lot of water - and it was simply gorgeous. Here's a little behind the scenes shot I took per Nathan's request. I think this was a 6 second exposure using all natural light.
And then here's a 3 photo panorama of the main waterfalls.

I took some other photos on some hikes and out and about and such - be sure and check them out on my flickr.

Pentax Play

I decided to shoot Preston (my 1924 Chandler and Price Letterpress) Tuesday night in the garage with Nathan's SIT method. A bunch of trial and error with f-stops and speed and such ensued and a bit of frustrated consultation with the manual for a certain setting until I finally got it just right. And then I was tempted to make a 1am run to Wal-Mart for some cool-toned compact florescent bulbs (instead of the warmer-toned ones I had)...but I didn't think Paul would really want me making a late night run to the store for bulbs and all. So I used a flash unit in combination with the fluorescent. And then stole my fluorescent lamp off of my desk as a last resort. As it was my head didn't hit the pillow till 3am anyway. I was WAY too excited and had to post the photos to Flickr.



And then this afternoon I played around with some daytime photography and a setting or two.

The tulips in the front yard are up and showing off their colors

Some of the settings on the Pentax are way crazy as I found out - crazy - but kinda cool!

The cheapest model there is - paid in treats!

Pentax K20D

Well folks had to introduce my new camera in a spiffy sort of way!!
Have a laugh on me.

Kicking for.... wait a sec....WHO?

So it seems as though this week has been something of an odd signage week. Paul and I were out geocaching today when I spotted this sign opposite the Sam's club parking lot off of University Drive:



Adam's Academy of Martial Arts... "Kicking for Jesus"

Oh really now. Uh.... my dear Adam, if Jesus walked into this place today - what exactly do you think he'd say? From what I remember... he was kinda against the whole violence thing... or did I miss something?

Used Tire World

So Paul and I were out picking up some paper I had cut, and we're driving out of the parking lot and Paul says "Mechanic on Duty at All Times, please don't spit on concrete." I laughed and then I looked over at Used Tire World's sign... sure enough...

click on picture to read the fine print...

Apparently these folks have customers with some serious expectorant problems if they actually had to put up an actual sign that says please don't spit on the concrete.

Giraffe in Quicksand

The Ghost of Christmas Past #1

Oh wow do I have a lot to tell about Paul and I's trip to FL for Christmas. In the two weeks we were there we did a lot, drove a lot, saw a lot, laughed a lot, ate too much, hung out with friends and family and as usual it was all over way too quickly.

We went to a little dinner theatre that my cousins - Virginia and Dennis - put on for their church congregation.


I swear these were THE coolest Christmas trees ever. I have to make one of these tree costumes for Halloween!!


Some of my family on my Mom's side.


Paul and My Dad and I headed to Webster - the Monday flea market town. I love looking, haggling, and finding treasures. Flea markets are always so full of life and color and interesting people. Much better than a mall. You'll see the latest rage next to fantastic pieces of history. Webster is the only place I know of where you can you go to see ancient dinosaur fossils and "Jingle Jugs" (yes - this is a relative of "billy bass" - the singing fish - the items in question jiggled while music played - I couldn't believe my eyes! - I had Paul cover me while I took the photo but I think my hysterical laughter kinda gave me away) all in one place.





These bottles were just gorgeous - had to snap a pic.