My New Toy

It's a Nikon CoolPix S3000. I bought it because I've been looking for a great pocket-sized camera that I can take with me pretty much everywhere.

I love my Canon Rebel XSi but it's just not practical to carry with me all the time and my camera phone just doesn't take the quality of photos or offer the features (i.e. zoom, flash,...) that I need.

I'm loving it. It's a great little camera for a great low price.

Little Snow

We got a bit of snow overnight, but a lot of it has disappeared already.

That was just ahead of a cold front that's moving through now. We've already hit our high temperature for today and the temp is dropping quickly. We're expecting more snow tonight.

Blogger is pissing me off

It's not letting me post pictures from Flickr or my computer.

Too cute

Caroline Stratton, 10, left, and her two sisters Jackie, 7, and Maddie, 16 stand at attention with Cadet Squadron 37 while Caroline and her family were Cadet for a Day at Air Force Academy Friday, Oct. 15, 2010. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)

B Photo Posted at A to Z

Don't forget to visit A to Z Photo Blog today to see my latest post and to post links to your photos. Can't wait to see them.

Photo gallery test II

Photo gallery test

Yikes

This was actually not as bad as it appears, but I'm sure it frightened the woman who was driving.
It happened during a dedication ceremony for a new EMS station on the property of a local nursing home.

I guess the woman wanted to test the first responders' response time.

I left before someone towed her out of the ditch. I didn't want to see "Bubba" rip the poor woman's bumper off or something.

Have you seen this boy?

(Photo by John Fletcher)

Last seen on Blogger March 4 (two months ago).

Hell Is Life Without Spellchecker

I Drink Alone

...Yeah, with nobody else.

I drink alone, yeah, with nobody else.

Yeah, you know when I drink alone,

I prefer to be by myself.

Random Photo

Halloween Charleston Style

Shrimp boats on Shem Creek.

Colleen and I met her friend Emily in Charleston, S.C., this past weekend for a much needed getaway. We usually go down in the spring for the Cooper River Bridge Run the first Saturday in April, but we decided since we had a great place to stay in Mount Pleasant, S.C., for a great price we should go down more often.

When we planned the trip we didn't even think about it being Halloween weekend, but boy are we glad it was. It was a nice break from reality and a lot of fun. The Charlestonians were pretty creative with their costumes.
Emily, who is obsessed with all things related to Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" book series and HBO's "True Blood" TV series, went as a vampire with some really fearsome fangs.
Col went as a cutthroat pirate from hell. She literally was telling people on the street she was "from hell" when they asked where we were from. It was quite funny later in the night when a woman at Southend Brewery asked, "Aren't you the one who said you from hell?"


I was also a pirate, alas, not a very good one, and I don't have any pictures worth sharing. Too bad for you.


Speaking of Southend Brewery, that is apparently where Santa Claus likes to unwind after a hard day of pushing the elves to produce. Christmas is coming up scary fast.

We went on a pub crawl with The Original Charleston Walks, and wound up with the same tour guide we had a year and a half ago. Nice bloke, good storyteller, but we were hoping for some fresh young blood.

The crawl did introduce us to some new Charleston bars: The Griffon, the aforementioned Southend Brewery and The Blind Tiger.

The Blind Tiger was cool. It has a great outdoor area, and on Halloween, the costumes were hysterical. There was a Michael Phelps, the news crew from Will Ferrell's "Anchorman," Shaun from "Shaun of the Dead" and several Sarah Palins, including the one below with her moose, a Todd Palin and a Joe the Plumber.

And oddly enough there were three Jesuses (Jesi?) at The Blind Tiger, including one female and one bartender, below.

We had such a great time Halloween night. It seems like everywhere we went people were just out having a good time, and nothing malicious happened. Everyone was in good spirits, including $5 footlong man:

We're already planning on going again next Halloween. Can't wait. Gotta start working on my costume.

Short-Lived

This photo was taken about 2:30 this afternoon. The photo below was taken about 8:45 this morning. It was nice while it lasted.

Snow Day

Shelton House, home of the N.C. Handicraft Museum, Waynesville, N.C.

We got our first snow of the "winter season" today. It was actually a lot more than I expected we would get. I thought we might get just a dusting if we got anything at all, but we had more than half an inch.
Check out more photos at HaywoodCountyNews.com.

Now I know why painters never feel like they can never be completely finished with a painting. They have to just tell themselves they're finished and resist the urge to keep touching it up.

I shot this last week inside the greenhouse at Bethel Middle School, and I think it's great...except I wish I had spent more time thinking about what was actually reflected in the trophy. I did think enough to know I didn't want me reflected in the trophy, but now I wish I had done more thinking.

The school won this trophy in 2006 and 2007 for the chrysanthemums raised at the school and entered in the N.C. Chrysanthemum Society's annual Mum Show. It's quite a nice and shiny trophy, maybe cup would be a better term for it.

Anyway, the more I look at it, the more I wish I had taken more time to think about what is actually reflected in the cup. I should have turned it so more of the mums were reflected, or better yet, I could have gotten the students reflected in the cup.

I actually shot this just sort of playing around before the class got to the greenhouse, so it was just me in there and once they and their teacher came in the solitude was lost. It was a great place to shoot photos though. Kind of like a giant diffuser. Very soft light.

I don't know. I like the out of focus wood grain in the right-hand portion of the photo and I like the focus on the inscription on the cup. But then there's the hard edge of the table. I guess that's what really bugs me. I don't know. I'm probably being too critical. I like the greenhouse elements in the photo since that IS where it was shot and was part of the story.

I guess I just need to tell myself that it's a good shot, which it is, and leave it at that.

Junaluska photos

Curly and I went for a walk around Lake Junaluska yesterday afternoon, and I actually thought to bring my camera with me this time. We go there often, but I've always either left me camera in the car or at home and wished the whole walk around the lake that I'd had it with me.

We've gotten to the time of year where we get some fantastic golden late-afternoon light coming over the mountains. Yesterday was a bit cloudy, so the light wasn't as good as it was the last time we went walking there a day or two before.

The photo above was taken at the end of our walk, when we made it back to the car. Not much golden light. I guess I could play with them in Photoshop and make it look that way, but I just don't have the time right now. Enjoy.

What a Photo

Sorry... I got sidetracked by the McRib and completely forgot what I came here to blog about.

I was looking at reader submitted photos on the Houston Chronicle Web site and came across this one:

(Source: Kelley1: chron.commons)

Can you see that house down there? It's amazing that it's still standing. I can't tell if there are supposed to be other structures around it, but I imagine there were some.

It's an interesting photo gallery. Looks like a lot of folks down there are trying to keep a sense of humor in the midst of a tragedy.

And I thought this was an interesting phenomenon:

(Source: Leslie Thornhill: chron.commons)

I saw a similiar thing occurring in photos taken in Nacogdoches, Texas. Folks grabbing their lawn chairs and watching the tree removal. I guess there's not much else to do when the power is out and there's nowhere to go.

(Source: Christy Wooten/The Daily Sentinel)

Nac took a pretty good lick from Hurricane Ike. You have to remember that Nacogdoches is deep in the piney woods of East Texas. Lots of tall trees.

September 11 remembered

I remember my fifth grade history teacher, Mrs. Murray, talking about remembering where she was when President Kennedy was shot, and I wondered what it was like having been a part of such a national tragedy that it stuck with you like that. That a person could actually remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard such terrible news.

Well, a few years later, I experienced my own moment when I first heard about the space shuttle Challenger exploded. I was a student at Copperas Cove Junior High School and the school had televisions in the hallway near the concession stand and in the cafeteria for the students to see what was going on. I imagine the TVs had been brought in for students to watch the liftoff, and weren't brought in just so we could learn about the tragedy, but I can't be sure.

I also remember turning on the television 17 years later and learning that another shuttle, the Columbia, had exploded while returning to earth. It was a Saturday morning and I had just turned on the television to see what was going on in the world. What a weird thing to wake up to.

Well, today, of course is a day of remembrance for another tragedy that touched most of the world. I remember getting out of my car to begin the workday at Wyatt's Office City in Nacogdoches, Texas, seven years ago this morning. Matt from the print shop was getting out of his car and told me he heard an airplane had hit the World Trade Center. We both figured it must have been a small private plane that had flown too near and clipped the building. Little did we know that American Airlines Flight 11 would be followed 16 minutes later by United Airlines Flight 175.

I remember where I was that morning and where I was most of the rest of the day. I don't imagine there are many people over the age of 20 who don't remember where they were.

Dozens of people gathered Sept. 11, 2008, in front of the Haywood County Courthouse in Waynesville, N.C., to pray and remember the events of 9/11.

It's Sad When it Affects the Children

(AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune, Katie Drake)

Pyper, 7, and Sadie Vance, 9, hold signs in downtown Salt Lake City on Monday, June 23, 2008 to protest against high gas prices. The sisters decided to demonstrate after their mother was unable to pay the cable bill for their cartoons due to high fuel costs.

I think it's probably a good thing their mother's "monny" is no longer going for "cabel."

I wonder what Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker has to say on the subject. That's whose campaign sign Sadie has chosen as the canvas for her protest sign.