Resolutions & My "Kids" & More Resolutions

OK, so the whole New Years Resolution thing was not such a good idea obviously. In my defense I did kind of predict this, from the last post: "I have heard something like 95% of them are not kept past February" Thanks to you all who reminded me of my failure! I think it is time to move on to a new post and forget the past.

It has been too cold even for a native Minnesotan who doesn't mind the cold to get out much to take pictures lately. Even my camera acts weird when it gets to the single digits and below zero, not to mention the wind chill. So I dug through the "archives" and am answering a request this time around.

I was talking to a co-worker a few weeks ago about my "kids", by kids I of course mean my dog Scamp and cat Missy. I have to start out by saying that I can not take credit or blame (depending on what you think) for either of the names.

Scamp, a Chocolate Lab/Weimaraner (according to the vet) mix used to be my Uncle Jim's dog. When he got divorced he no longer had the room for Scamp. I was still living at my Mom's house at the time and we decided that we could take him in. Jim had originally gotten Scamp when he was a puppy, after he was found in a ditch along a road in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. These 2 pictures are of Scamp when he was about 2-3 years old.

My cat Missy was also a rescued pet. We got Missy in about 1993 or 1994 after she was found in the window well in the middle of January, the temperature that week was about 10 degrees. My sister, Amy had wanted a cat for a long time and when a co-worker told my Mom about this cat he had found she jumped at the chance to take her in. My sister gets credit for naming her and in fact took care of her almost exclusively. I was always more of a dog person but after moving into an apartment after graduation and then moving back home Missy became very attached to me. When I bought my townhouse it was decided that I would take both Missy and Scamp with, by that time Amy had another cat already (more about her in a minute). This picture was taken in my kitchen while Missy was playing with her Christmas present from my Mom.
I mentioned Amy's new cat. She was actually my old roommates cat. She has had a number of names (again none that I take credit/blame for): Fauker (my favorite name!) , Perky and the most recently, Princess. When Amy moved to California she took Fauker with her. Here is Fauker and Missy at my Mom's house looking out onto the deck.

For the record this post is listed as being made on 2/14/07 however it was "in progress" for a month and a half, it was completed on 03/29/07. I knew that New Year Resolution thing was a bad idea!

New Year's Resolution

2006 is almost over, time for new year's resolutions. I don't usually make a resolution for the new year because I have heard something like 95% of them are not kept past February. This year is different though. My resolution is to keep this blog more updated. I am sure the peer pressure alone will give me a good chance of success.

In the interest of starting the new year off right here are a couple pictures I took tonight. We got our first real snow fall of this winter today. The snow was that really wet stuff that is good for snowballs and sticking to trees (is it good for snowmobiling?). I did not get the chance to go out during daylight today to get some pictures (tomorrow maybe).


And one last picture from inside my house. It actually feels like Christmas Day here, the snow helps. I worked on Christmas Day, so my Mom, Dad, Sister and I are celebrating on New Year's Day. Since Mom lives in Florida and Amy lives in California we have Christmas at my house.
Merry (late) Christmas and Happy New Year!

My Camera is Back!

My camera is back from Nikon service. The blinking green light of death has been fixed. Thankfully it was a free fix and only took two weeks. I have already taken some new pictures and will post them once I finish a post I have started about my trip to Seattle.

Seattle

These photos were taken on a trip that I took with my dad in August of 2003. We took the Amtrak Empire Builder from St Paul through North Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Washington into Seattle. We took the trip more for the experience of the train ride then for the destination.

The Empire Builder starts the trip West every morning from Chicago and takes about two days to get out to Seattle. On the Westbound trip it arrives in St Paul at about 10:30pm. After getting settled into our seats (much more comfortable and roomy then a plane) we went to sleep for the night ride through Minnesota.

We woke up going through the North Dakota plains in the morning.
Along the way the train stops in several cities. Some of the stops are long enough for everyone to get off and walk around. This gave me a chance to get a couple pictures of the outside of the train. These were taken while stopped in Minot, North Dakota.

The highlight of the train portion of the trip is going through Glacier National Park in Montana. We got to Glacier National Park a couple hours before sunset on the second day of our trip. The winding tracks follow the contour of the park so the train goes very slowly allowing for some time to get some decent shots. The only problem shooting while on the train is that the glass is very dirty and thick, which makes focusing difficult.

Once arriving in Seattle we stayed at The Warwick Seattle Hotel. It was a very nice hotel right in the heart of Seattle. We were only blocks away from the water and not far from the space needle either. We had a small balcony that had some nice views of downtown Seattle buildings too.
We spent two and half days doing the typical tourist things before heading back home on the train.

We of course had to take the elevator up to the observation deck of the Space Needle. From the top of the Space Needle you could see quite far and got a good look out over the water and the city. Businesses have obviously found a different way to advertise to people at the top also.I had to get some pictures from ground level too.
Another must visit area is Pike Place Market. It is a public farmers market that seemed to attract both tourists and locals.It is home to Pike Place Fish Co, they are famous for throwing the seafood over the counter to be wrapped after you select it from the case.

One of the most popular items to sell at the market seemed to be peppers in various states of drying. The peppers went from very vivid colors when fresh to some dull but still amazing colors as they dried.
We also went to the first Starbucks which is located at the market.

Along with the stores in the market there were several street vendors selling everything from pictures of Seattle to head massagers that looked like coat hangers. There were also several musicians and a guy with a trained bird wowing little kids.
Seattle seems to have a lot of parks and open spaces. Two of my favorite photos form the entire trip were taken in parks. The first photo was taken not far from Pike Place Market.

The second photo was taken at the base of the Space Needle. If I remember right the trees in the park were a gift from the Japanese government to the city of Seattle.

We also spent some time at a mall, they were having a festival out in the street including a sand sculpture contest.

After two busy days in Seattle it was kind of a relief to get back on the train to come home. On the trip back I decided that I had already taken pictures of what I wanted to on the way out. I sat back and enjoyed the view without a camera in hand which is rare for me on vacation.

Minneapolis at Night

I was hoping to have some new photos to post here but, I my camera actually died on me this weekend. While it is off being fixed I will post some older photos and the reason they are some of my favorites.

Last Fall I realized that I had lived in my townhouse for over a year and still did not have anything hanging on the walls. I didn't really want to pay for somebody else's artwork or photos so I decided to print some of my own photos. I found a frame at Michaels Crafts that had room for three 5x7 photos that I liked. Now the hard part was finding three photos that I liked. I have somewhere around 7,000 photos saved on my computer that I have taken since April 2003 when I got my first digital camera. Needless to say finding three photos that worked well together and that I wanted to look at everyday was not easy. After looking for pictures for about a week I decided on doing a set of photos with a common theme. The photos I finally decided on were of Minneapolis at Night.

The first picture is of the Minneapolis skyline taken from Lake Calhoun.


The second photo is of the Stone Arch Bridge over the Mississippi river.


The third photo is of the Hennepin Ave Bridge also over the Mississippi.

After ordering the photos online and getting them into the frame I was very excited it had turned out better than I expected! I figured if I like them other people might too. Christmas was not far away and I thought the set would make a nice gift for my Mom & Dad. They both really liked them and both have had them hanging on walls since Christmas.

It turned out to be a good thing I made the set for my Mom. She had my Aunt Vicky over to her house in Florida for dinner one night and Vicky saw the set of photos. Vicky was looking for a birthday present for her son Jason (who recently moved to Minneapolis). I got an e-mail form Vicky within a couple days wanting to buy the photos from me to give to Jason. Only problem was she needed them faster than I could order them online and get them in a frame and to her in Wisconsin. I was excited that I might actually make some money from my hobby for the first time. I wanted to get the photos to Vicky in time for Jason's birthday so I actually gave her the frame that I had hanging on my wall (yeah, it is kind of a used gift I guess). I have heard the Jason liked the photos a lot and now they are the only thing hanging on the walls at his townhouse.

I have not yet replaced the photos on my wall, but have printed some other photos including two additional sets of photos.

First Entry

Welcome to the first entry of my Blog. While some people might start a blog because they think they have something interesting to say that others will want to hear about, that is not the case here. While I intend too make entries to this blog on a regular basis the main focus will be photography. I have chosen this technique because as you will soon learn I am not great at writing, grammar or spelling.

I have been interested in photography since I had to take an elective my freshman year of high school. That however is a story for another time.

I have to thank my friend and coworker Dave for my first exposure to the blogging world. His blog - Father of Five - is meant for his kids, but I got hooked while reading about a deck building project he was doing on his house. Another friend and coworker, Bill also got hooked and we started pestering Dave for more frequent updates and pictures. Well it did not take long before Dave started pestering Bill and I to start our own blogs. Bill beat me to the punch - by a few months - with his blog King of Clubs. I was now being pestered (I mean that in the nicest way possible, by the way) by both Dave and Bill to start my blog. After thinking about what to call the blog - you'll notice both of their blogs have cool names with stories behind them - for a couple months I finally settled on the ever exciting name we see today. While there is no story to accompany the name I hope that anybody who finds the time to read my blog enjoys looking at the pictures that will soon be here. I spend a good chunk of my non-working time either taking pictures or trying to better those that I have taken in some way. I also spend plenty of working time reading about photography and looking at how others take pictures. I plan on sharing what the results of what I learn with you.