Stormy night in the Four Corners

Some rough images from tonight with little processing (just basic Lightroom) on a non-color corrected monitor.  It was a stormy night across the Four Corners.  We did not reach our destination due to extreme rain (which made many roads impassible) and lightening.  But we found an amazing spot to watch an incredible sunset over the badlands.  This color is 100% without any saturation filters (just underexposure).  In fact, I desaturated some of the images because the reds were just too much.  The compositions are not all that great, but I was running around like an idiot.

In Milwaukee…

We are in Alterra Coffeehouse in Milwaukee near the lakeshore as I type this post.  Last night, we saw the Brewers hold on for a 5-4 victory over the Blue Jays at Miller Park.  This is an image I took messing around as we walked into Miller Park in the late afternoon.  We met my college roomate Paul at the game, and then after we had a pint of Guinness at County Clare Irish Pub near our hotel.  I’m not usually a fan of Guinness (our any beer for that matter), but it was tremendous the way it was served, with a rich, creamy, foam top.  According to Liz, the Guinness was poured right, and that’s what made it so good.  Liz is a beer afficiando, so I trust her explanation.

It was a good day from the start in Madison until the finish in Milwaukee.  In Madison, we walked through the Farmer’s Market off the Capitol Square, walked again down State Street, had the red brats at State Street Brats for lunch, went to the Law School and climbed to the top of Bascom Hill.  We topped off our day in Madison with Babcock Ice Cream in the Memorial Union.  It simply is the best Ice Cream anywhere, and is the official king and queen of Liz’s 2008 Ice Cream Tour of Wisconsin.  RANT ALERT:  And for you latte-sipping weenies who had ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery or Ben and Jerry’s on State Street, what on earth were you thinking?  That stuff is admittedly good, but that’s like going to Italy and ordering Pizza Hut over the local Roman Pizza Stand. That stuff is not even in the same planet as either Babcock Ice Cream, made right on campus by students from the working dairy farm, or the other local ice cream parlor on State Street (the Chocolate Shoppe).  I guess it is part of the sad trend of chains over local places across the country.  RANT OVER.

Another Black and White from Door County…

Another black and white image from along the road near Jacksonport, Door County, Wisconsin.  It’s cliche, but I like it.

Greetings from Madison

Its been six years and two months since we left Madison for New Mexico.  We’ve not been back here once since that time.  Liz and I both had some apprehension of returning to a city we so dearly loved.  And as we pulled into town, my anxiety only increased.  What would our life be like if we had stayed? Did we make the right choice in moving to New Mexico?  Should we move back?  We are fortunate to live in Santa Fe, but purely as an urban, livable city, Santa Fe can’t touch Madison.  Unlike Santa Fe, we immediately felt at ease and at home in Madison.  We walked down State Street to Union Terrance, where we watched a fantastic sunset over Lake Mendota.  We walked back up around the Capitol Square and over to Lake Monona.  What we love about Madison is all the unique little neighborhoods spread over the city and the quality of life here.  There are no neigberhoods in Santa Fe other than poor and extremely rich.  We had to constantly remind ourselves that we are here in June, not January.  But still, compared to anywhere in New Mexico, Madison is a great town to raise children and we would be so much closer to family (not to mention one can afford to live here)…  So many things we’ll never know in our lives about the decision we’ve made and the alternative paths we could have walked.  I guess that is the mystery of it all.  A few more images after the break for your review.

Old Phone Booth, Door County

Thanks to Liz for seeing this Old Phone Booth in Jacksonport, Door County, Wisconsin.  I was looking for images of old things that might work well in black and white (I was having a rare day of seeing well in black and white).  I think this image works particularly well, especilly with the light streaming through on the ground behind the phone booth.

Happy Silver Anniversary!

One of the main reasons for our trip to Wisconsin this summer is to celebrate (albeit a bit early) my Dad and Rose’s 25th Wedding Anniversary.  We did that this past Monday evening at the Red Ox Supper Club in Appleton, which happens to be the same institution where they celebrated their wedding in 1983.  With good company and good food, we all had a great evening.  This a portrait I took of all of us before dinner.  Happy Anniversary Dad and Rose!  We were so happy to share it with you.

The Old Farm, Door County

Here is an image I captured yesterday along the road just north of Sturgeon Bay in Door County, WI.  It was a divine day in Door County, with Maritime Fog hanging just on the edge of the Lake Michigan shoreline.  I was focusing on black and white yesterday, although I did get some excellent color work done as well.  This image looks good in both black and white and in color.  I did a little special color desaturation processing in order to capture the feel of both, and I it also looks good.  I should mention though that I processed this image on my laptop, which still is not as color accurate as my monitor at home and did not apply any sharpening.  I have many, many more images from Door County I want to share (including a very cool servies from Cana Point Lighthouse), but I will be away from internet access for a couple of days so this will be the only one for now.

Greetings from America’s Dairyland (aka Rainland)…

We went through a ferocious lightning storm yesterday between Minneapolis, MN and Appleton, WI.  As we looked down on the waves of neon green farmland and forest, we noticed standing water in nearly every farmer’s field.  For the first time in a long time, we were in a small propeller plane.  The place bucked with every blast of wind and every rumble of thunder.  Just about the time the pilot lowered the landing gear, Liz and I were looking out to our window to the right when a bolt of lighting seemingly struck right next to the plane.  We were sitting right in the front of the plane, with the Flight Attendant immediately buckled in next to us.  Even the flight attended audibly gasped and had a look of complete fear.  She realized the look on her face was scaring the passengers, so after a few moments she said something about the plane being able to withstand lightning.  Fortunately, the pilot did a good job landing the plane in the storm.  After we landed, we had to wait a little bit longer than usual in the plane until the airport personal could safely attach the metal jetway to the place in the storm.  The pilot and co-pilot opened the flight door and were talkative to the flight attendent and some of the passengers in the front.  The co-pilot mentioned the bolt of lightning immediately to the plane’s right as we made our final approach for the lightning.  He said something about just closing his eyes for a moment and hoping…

Once on the ground, the storm absolutly pounded the area.  At least a dozen tornados were reported across the area.  And torrenential rains flooded rivers, roads, city streets, and parking lots.  In Ripon, Wisconsin (home of Ripon Good Cookies), manhole covers shot into the air due to water pressure.  In Oskkosh, Wisconsin, where they received 4.6 inches of rain during the storm, cars sat on the street with water above the tire wells.  And as I understand, the worst of it was still further to the south near Madison, Milwaukee and Fond du Lac, where the area was already heavily flooded from this past weekend’s storm.  We intend to visit my Madison, but now I’m sure if we will be able to do so, especially with rain in the forecast everyday in the near future.

I’ve Switched…

After an entire lifetime of using Windows (and DOS) based PC’s, I’ve purchased my first Apple Mac, a MacBook Pro 15″ laptop.  My beloved (and very long lived) Thinkpad died recently.  I’ve had one IBM Thinkpad or another since 1999.  I thought long and hard about getting another Thinkpad, but for two reasons, I could no longer pull the trigger.

First, IBM sold the Thinkpad line to Lenovo a couple of years ago.  Lenovo is a Chinese company.  The two instances where I’ve needed support since the Thinkpad sale to Lenovo have fallen short of IBM’s previous impeccible standards.  Although I personally like China, I also figured that enough of my money goes to China in so many other purchases.  I know my computer was still manufactured in China, Taiwan, and/or Mexico.  But at least some of the purchase price went to one of the few remaining innovators left in the American market.  The American economy is in deseperate need of vision/innovation.  See Detroit, SUV crazed Auto-Industry for examples of lack of innovation/vision.  So I decided to reward a company that once struggled severely but has risen again through vision and innovation.

The other reason is much more practical and direct.  Although for years I enjoyed the challenge of tweaking and customization that Windows-based PC allowed, I no longer have the time (and thus the patience) to spend coddling an operating system.  When I’m on a computer now, it’s to get something accomplished, not to mess around adjusting settings and answering a never-ending stream of prompts and queries.  Quite simply, the Mac is a machine built to get things done.  Sure, I lose a little flexibility, but at the end of the day I believe I will be more productive on a Mac.

So far, I’m thrilled with this laptop.  To help the transition, I’ve installed Windows XP natively using the Boot Camp option.  Other than to install Windows, I’ve yet to use Windows at all.  The transition has been remarkably easy and satisfactory.  The LED screen on this laptop is stunningly beautiful (by far, the best screen I’ve ever seen on a laptop).  While no laptop screen is good enough for critical color work, this one, after calibration, at least appears to be somewhere in the ballpark needed for fast in the field tweaks.  Apple’s attention to detail and design really makes using this laptop a pleasure.  Something as stupid and basic as a cleverly designed power plug that makes traveling easy puts to shame every other laptop I’ve seen and used before.  After a long day of travel to stormy Wisconsin, I can’t begin to tell you how such a small detail as a functional and cleverly designed power plug can make a difference when you’re already carrying 25-pounds of photography gear.   I’m still working on learning some of the keyboard shortcuts, and dealing with a new keyboard layout (where’s the backspace button!?  Oh, use the fn key with delete, etc.)  But so far I’d give the switch nothing but the highest praise.  More updates on the switch (and Wisconsin) later…

Never Too Late to Remember: Memorial Day 2008

Sorry about the long absence. My work schedule has been ferocious of late, and I just have not had the energy or will to spend time in front of the computer. Anyway, I thought I would share a couple of pictures from Memorial Day weekend 2008. Liz and I spent in hour at dusk in the National Veteran’s Cemetery in Santa Fe. Liz found the tombstone of a women who had served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. We speculated that this woman served as a nurse through three wars, and imagined the horrendous images of suffering that must have ran through her mind over the years. It was quite a powerful evening, walking among the thousands of headstones with the American flags blowing the in breeze. Enjoy the images…