Honey bee

A Boat at kumarakom

Today is Stinky's birthday!...

Molly, the oldest of my Irish triplets turns 16 today. It's a very happy happy/sad day.... I love the woman she is becoming but I miss the little girls she was.

When she was really little Molly thought all the hoopla on Halloween was in celebration of her birthday, and of course I did nothing to dissuade her from thinking that.


Let me share two quick stories that shows what kind of person my Molly is.

Story 1:

She was 6 at the time, had long hair, way down her back long hair and one day came into the kitchen and announced to us that she wanted to have her hair cut off so she should could "donate to the company that makes wigs for sick kids", then she turned and walked away. Her mom and I just looked at each other until one of us finally said "where did that come from?".

Our plan was to just wait and see if it was something she still wanted in a few days. Well, by the end of the week she had bugged us so much that I was ready to let her shave her head, get tattoos, and join a biker gang.

So down to the hair solon, off came the hair, and it was sent off to Locks of Love.

Story 2:

We really get into Christmas at our house, for weeks we'll tell elaborate stories about what we want most and why, and one year I wanted a telescope. We had marked the day on the calendar when Santa was going to be at the fire station (he lands on the roof and comes down the big ladder to see the kids) and when the day finally arrived it was cold and the line was long, long, long, so it took some time before we reached the big guy. When it was finally her turn with Santa he asked Molly what she wanted and without hesitation she said "I want you to bring my dad a telescope".

Ya, I was speechless.

Now she is taller than her mom, looks far more like a woman than I like, and has a man in her life other than me. But she still kisses me before she leaves the house, will sit next to me on the couch while we watch TV, she will say she loves me in front of her friends, and is still the same caring girl who gave her hair away and used her time with Santa for the benefit of someone else.

Happy birthday Molly, I love you!

Wandering off the reservation...

As our regular readers know, and all the new ones are about to find out, on weekends I tend to "go off topic" from photography and post on just about anything.

Things that are interesting, topical, or important (at least to me).

My daughter was reading a magazine and saw a short blurb about a new theme park that was designed for people with special needs and said "you should tell people about this".

I thought she was right.

Being the fortunate parent of children that don't have special needs I've never thought about the things those families don't have access to, the family trips (and fun) they haven't had.


So, todays wandering is to share with you "Morgan's Wonderland", it opened just 6 months ago, and is "the World's First Ultra Accessible Family Fun Park designed specifically for children and adults with special needs, their family members, caregivers, friends and the entire community".

Morgan's Wonderland is in San Antonio Texas, sits on 25 acres, and looks like such a fun place.

When I saw the eyes of this young boy I saw pure joy.


So please check out their website, the parks different attractions, and their live webcam.

But most importantly tell others about it.

A wedding video with a new twist...

Here is a wedding video that was sent to me, the twist for this wedding video is that it's done in stop motion/action, something I have never seen before.

I like the uniqueness of this but wonder about the long term viability of this style when it comes to wedding videos.

The video is posted below and I would love to hear what you folks think about this style.

For subscribers you will need to return to the blog as videos are not pushed through with your subscription email, sorry.

Nikon D60 book review...

This is the second in a series (of 3) book reviews done by our readers.

All three books were kindly provided by "Stay Focused Press", todays book is for the Nikon D60, and the review is done by reader Paula Apro.

From Paula:

"I really liked the way “Stay Focused Nikon D60” was organized by problems and solutions to those problems, rather than a step-by-step rundown of all the features. It groups the most common problems that people experience and puts them into different chapters. Each issue offers several different solutions depending on the specific conditions. For instance, a photo can be too dark for several different reasons and each one is fully explained with its individual solutions. The sample photos do a great job at illustrating both the problem and the fix. This makes it easy to jump around reading the items that pertain to your most pressing needs.

Before the groups of problems and solutions, the book starts off with a really handy section called “Boost Your Camera IQ.” This is invaluable for those new to DSLR photography (which many people with the D60 are) and it’s also a great review and refresher for those more experienced shooters.

All of the biggest issues with taking nice photos are covered including, fixing pictures that are too dark, too light, blurry, using the flash, slowing motion, etc. Just about all the bases are covered for the amateur photographer. Each solution includes a page with illustrated step-by-step camera settings. These illustrations show the screens where the settings are to be made. Very handy indeed because most photographers are visual people and will appreciate these supporting graphics.

In addition to the graphics showing the camera settings, the most powerful illustrations are the side-by-side before and after pictures. One picture illustrates the problem and the next shows the result by making the suggested settings. It’s almost not necessary to read if you’re using this book as a reference. You have a problem picture, you pick up this book and look for a picture that resembles your problem, and then match your settings to the ones shown for that issue. Well-la, problem solved!

No matter how much experience you have you are bound to pick up a few new neat tricks. And the refreshers on the basics are always valuable. This book will be especially handy to keep near by when you need a quick reference to the correct camera settings to get that perfect shot."

You can get you own copy of the "Nikon D60" guide as a hard copy book ($22), a PDF ($19), as an iPone/iPod app ($4.99), or for your iPad ($9.99).

Thanks Paula and thanks Stay Focused Press.

Our "Sessions with JoeyL" contest...

Here are just a few of the (many) images that have been entered into this months contest to win "Sessions with JoeyL".

You can find all the details and rules for entering our contest here, and you can head over to our Flickr group to take a look at the fine work our readers have been submitting.

In the mean time, enjoy these images.

(click on any image to view larger and in a new window)