Back to the Afterglow Mausoleum

It never ceases to amaze me all the fascinating structures we came across while we were sailing around the Pacific North West. But by far the Afterglow Mausoleum ranks up there in the top 5 of these finds.

As the story goes McMillin had this built to honor his family.  The entire structure is symbolic.  The winding stairs, the number of pillars, the seats, etc.  My favorite would be the intentionally broken pillar which represents mans unfinished work.  According to literature the structure was intended to have a dome ceiling, but I can’t recall at the moment why it was left open.

Getting to the mausoleum is a short hike through the woods on a very well groomed  trail.  The trail head starts at a cemetery and ends at the mausoleum about a mile back through a very serene forest.  I have only had the opportunity to visit twice now, but would love to come back and photograph this amazing structure again.

Afterglow Mausoleum

Springtime in January

It doesn’t seem to matter how long I live here, Texas weather just amazes me.  For the second time this month we have been blessed with a mid 70 degree day.  This time I made sure to take a couple hours for myself and go out to the park for some photography.  I have been wanting to shoot mountain bikers and climbers for some time now.  Fortunately for me I live near many bike trails.

River Legacy Mountain Biker

Equipment: Nikon D700, Nikon 70-300

Post Processing: Aperture, Nik Color Efex Pro, Photoshop

 

My experience today taught me that like most other aspects of photography, when you think your close enough, get closer.  I got a few shots that I feel are all right, but I definitely picked up some knowledge and can’t wait to go back out and see if my next attempt brings home a few more keepers.  If it does what I think it will for the images I will write up a post on it.

River Legacy Mountain Biker

Equipment: Nikon D700, Nikon 70-300

Post Processing: Aperture, Nik Color Efex Pro, Photoshop

 

The hardest part of the day was the battle within myself.  To take photos, or to ride.  I don’t get out on the trail nearly as much as I use to, and photographing these guys sure didn’t make that any easier. 

New Years Resolutions

How many people do you know who make New Years resolutions?

I usually don’t simply because I know that for the most part they just don’t stick.

Nope, I am a list person.  And not just a beginning of the year list person, I make them all year long.  I create them and they usually become living documents that grow as one completed item regenerates into two or more.  But this year while listening to my family and coworkers discuss their resolutions I did a little soul searching, looking for what I may want for myself and my family so we may have an even better 2012 than 2011.

What I want is more vacations more events and just more time together.  These don’t have to be exotic or expensive.  Just not the normal sit at home honey do weekends.

Of course these thoughts of fun with family made me look through many of the photos I took on our vacation this last summer and find so many images that I haven’t yet shared with you.  So until I can go capture something new and cross another location off this list I wanted to share a few more from our last trip.

Roche Harbor Washington, I simply love this place.  There is so little to do that can take so much time at such a relaxing pace to get done.  I could easily sit on the dock for hours enjoying a hot cup of coffee and sharing stories with friends or family.  Peering down into the crystal clear ocean watching starfish and crabs searching for their lunch.  I’m not sure why, but I feel like I could just hang out in this little community for a month.  Our Lady of Good Voyage Chapel is a very small church located just a rocks throw up the street from the hotel and the few little shops that occupy Roche Harbor.  It is only open on Sundays and for special occasions.  It’s a very simple church that in some ways reminds me of my growing up.  Enjoy.

Our Lady of Good Voyage Chapel

Equipment: Nikon D700, Nikon 24 – 70

Post Processing: Aperture, Nik HDR Efex Pro, Nik Color Efex Pro, Photoshop

 

Additional shots from Washington can be seen in my gallery.

Wooing Wed Widing Hood

This last weekend my daughter performed in her first school play.  As is the norm I was as close as I could be with my camera in hand.  And as is also the norm my youngest only gave me about 10 minutes of shooting before making it well known that he was no longer happy to be sitting in his stroller watching this soon to be summoned to Broadway play.

Since I was only able to grab a handful of shots I decided I would process them with the newly released Topaz Adjust and have a little fun with it.  Having adjustment brushes built into the new app was definitely handy.  But I did find myself still going to Photoshop for some of the clean up.

Wooing Wed Riding Hood

I chose to push the edgy look a little more on the guys while leaving the girls a little softer.  I really like the look and it was really super easy using the Topaz software.  I still believe this is one of the best plug ins you can by for the price.

Wooing Wed Riding Hood

You can check out the rest of the images in my gallery.

A Thanksgiving to be Festive

What a wonderful holiday Thanksgiving is.  A time to reflect on everything in your life to be thankful for.  For me I am most thankful for my family and the time I get to be with them.  After having the traditional Thanksgiving dinner at home last year with hours of cooking and an equal number of hours watching football Christmas specials I pitched the idea that we consider using our four day weekend next year to take a trip.  As we came closer and closer to this day of thanks we began making our preparations to attend the Texas Renaissance Festival for their Celtic Christmas Celebration.

The whole family loves Ren Fests and this looked to be an optimal scenario to travel down to south Texas  to partake.  We began our Journey on Thursday at a leisurely pace stopping frequently as there was absolutely no need for us to rush.  The only discouraging factor in our travels was the very limited number of options we had for Thanksgiving Dinner.

The Texas Renaissance Festival was absolutely fantastic.  In so many ways it dwarfed Scarby to the extent that it is going to be difficult to not expect more when we return this spring.  The number of shops alone was awesome and so very time consuming to muddle through.  But the increased number also provided a huge selection in both quality and price.

I didn’t fire off as many exposures as I had wanted and with the very wet, windy and cold weather that fell upon us on Saturday I opted to just leave the camera in the car.  It was nice being able to just enjoy the fest and spend time with the kids.

Texas Renaissance Festival Joust

Additional photos can be seen in my portfolio.  More to be added shortly.

A Celebration of Harvest

This year was so busy that we just didn’t have time to get the kids out to a pumpkin patch.  This was a bit unfortunate as we all wanted to spend a relaxing day goofing off, finding a nice pumpkin for carving, wandering through a corn maze.  But with the planning of a killer 13th Birthday Party for Ariana, a Boo Bash school dance, Band performances, Halloween and the planning for Brady’s second birthday bounce house celebration the time just seemed to escape us.

So while most people are working on their Christmas sets I have spent my time throwing together a quick harvest theme to get some shots of the little ones.  Well the littlest one anyway.  Must be the age but the 13 year old didn’t seem as interested as she use to.

My fear was that Brady would only give me his normal thirty to sixty second of attention before he would lose interest and want to take off.  To my surprise he seemed to actually enjoy this set.  Might have been the joy of throwing gourds at the photographer.

Brady Harvest Photo

Equipment: Nikon D700, Nikon 24 – 70

Post Processing: Aperture, Nik Color Efex Pro, Photoshop, OnOne Perfect Photo Suite 6

Torque and Togs

This last Saturday I went to a local area meet and greet for photographers, models and make up artists.  Our models for the evening were a Harley and a Honda.  We played with lighting, angles and some creativity and props from around the studio.

Overall it was a very relaxed evening of shooting and experimentation.  We had a lot of fun trying new things and getting to know each other.

Honda VFR with Beautiful Cowgirl

Equipment: Nikon D700, Nikon 24 – 70

Post Processing: Aperture, Nik Color Efex Pro, Photoshop

As always, you can click the image to see it at larger sizes.

Arania Kills….. Again

Fall is upon us again and with it Six Flags brings us another year of Fright Fest at the park.  And nothing screams Halloween spirit like Ariana killing of husband number 14.

But this year I don’t plan on ranting and raving on how great of a cast Six Flags has performing this show.  This year I am going to blog about how tired I am of it.  I can’t remember how many years I have been sitting through this show, but I know it’s at least 3 years too many.

Now I’m not suggesting they kill the show off.  quite the contrary.  I suggest they take it on the road.  In fact I think they should take all their shows on the road.  I don’t know how many parks they own, and of them how many have theaters of equal size.  But my suggestion to Six Flags is to retrofit their parks so they could move their shows from park to park.

My recommendation is for their creative department to come up with four or five good productions and after each season break set and move them to the next park.  As far as the incredible talent that Six Flags has, they could either travel with the shows or learn a new show each season.  Either way I bet this would  provide incentive for this great talent to stay with Six Flags longer.  Just a guess on my part, but I can’t imagine they enjoy performing the same shows year after year.  Most of the people I know who have a passion for the performing arts like to explore new rolls and extend their reach.

As a customer and year after year season pass holder this would be a very welcomed change.

Enough of my rant.  Please enjoy some shots taken of this years stellar performers of Arania’s Nightmare.

Vincent Causey, Niaps Spain - Arania's Nightmare

Arania's Nightmare

Additional images can be seen in my gallery.

One Day for Mourning

A Joke

Curiosity

Shock

Disbelief

More Shock

Sadness

…

A few of the emotions I felt the moment I saw the text message that Steve Jobs had passed away.

An icon who without ever meeting me was able to sculpt my life.

I had always wanted to meet the Great Steve Jobs, but never really put forth any effort to do so.  I’m not sure I ever really felt the need, it would have just been nice.  Obviously it wasn’t the man who influenced me so much as his vision.

But today I feel a sadness that I never expected.  Almost as if a very close friend or family member had passed away.  It doesn’t seem logical to me that the loss of one person whom I have never met could have such an emotional effect on me.

My love for Apple came easily.  It’s hard not to love something that works.  That’s logical.  That’s complete.  I assume that is what drew me towards this fruit company.

Like so many others my experience began sitting in front of a green screen typing if then statements.  And I enjoyed programming, but it was the complete experience that really excited me.  Within a few years I had upgraded to this wonderful all in one computer called Macintosh.  This was my first portable computer and it accompanied me every where

I’ll not bore you with 20 years of how I got here.  But simply acknowledge that Steve’s persistence of Apple evolution was behind it all.

The glass of Kool-Aid is still half full.  It’s no secret I am an Apple fan boy.  It’s hard not to be when you have dedicated your life to supporting and advocating their products.  But I have no disillusion that Apple is far from reaching their ceiling.  Like any and all other companies their products still have room for improvement.  And it is in this arena that I  feel that Steve’s candle was extinguished too soon.

It doesn’t matter what your personal feelings towards the man or the company are, the fact remains that he had vision and let nothing stop him from going after it.  This is what made him great.  This is what will be truly missed.

Thank you Steve for having the passion to push the world we live in to constantly innovate to be and produce something greater.

Steve Jobs

Rest In Peace   1955 – 2011

Time to HOWL Again

It’s that time of year again when we really enjoy going to Six Flags.  This very well could be due to the demise of the unbearable heat our summers normally bring.  Or it could just be that having a theme makes the norm a little different.

With the change of seasons comes a change of shows.  Howl, a musical performance, has become my favorite during Fright Fest.  This year new outfits freshened the show along with a few song changes.  The intro is performed to Lady GaGa’s Bad Romance with additional choreography with The Dead Man’s Party, who in my opinion have the best costumes.  Although I wish they would bring back the style of costumes they had in 2009.

Howl - Six Flags over Texas 2011

Additional shots can be seen in my gallery.