Jamie is a player

Jamie can bat and.....

Jamie can pitch!

Jamie's Favorite Place

In my ever ongoing search of the hallways at school for my kids art I found this.

Click on the image to view it in a larger size that you can read.

BlogPress for iPhone

Snowman

GeoTagged, [N35.24653, E91.71873]

Jamie,Josie,Jackson,Jalen and I built a snowman today. The snow yesterday was too powdery. The snow that fell last night was very wet and perfect for a snowman. Later this afternoon Josie built her own snowman beside the family snowman. We had fun and memories were made. I hope someday they will build snowmen with their kids and think back to the fun we had today.

I don't really remember building a snowman as a kid but I remember the snowy morning my Dad came home with a brand new sled. We lived at the bottom of a huge hill and man did we give that sled a workout. I remember getting our go-kart out in the snow and having a big time with it as well.

Maybe my most fond snow memory comes from being with my Grandad. Every year he would set out a number of rabbit boxes in the winter. When it was cold the rabbits would go in the box for warmth and the trap door woulld close and we would find them the next morning and then we would have rabbit to eat. I guess it was the lazy mans way of rabbit hunting. One morning it had snowed a good bit and Grandaddy wouldn't go check the boxes with me. I bundled up grabbed my bb gun and headed out. We didn't get any rabbits. Checking the boxes was just not as fun by myself so I tripped one of the boxes and went home and convinced my Grandad we had a rabbit. I think he suspected I was not telling the truth but he got up and bundled up and went out with me. We hiked over to the box and and as he knelt down and saw that it was empty he grabbed a snowball and pelted me with it. We had a snowball fight all the way back to the house. The next morning he decided that he better just go with me to check the rabbit boxes. I never really remember catching too many rabbits but I always had fun checking those boxes with my Grandad.

More iPhone Photos

Sidewalk Art never gets old.

Montgomery Outdoor Christmas Tree.

Camille's Desk Christmas Tree

I Shoot Film

I shot this on the shore of Chautauqua Lake while waiting for the sun to set. I love how the trees diffuse the light and the park by the lake was beautiful. I was in NY for the UPAA symposium and we spent a beautiful afternoon at the Chautauqua Institute.
The bell tower at Lake Chautauqua after the sunset.
Three ladies in the airport in Detroit waiting on a plane to Memphis and talking about eating barbecue. I used zone focusing and depth of field to get this photo. I love how old cameras have depth of field scales on the lens. I also really love the tactile feeling of winding film. I am not so crazy about having to cock the shutter for each shot.
Birdhouse behind the Reynolds Building on the Harding campus.
Same tree looking up. I am really loving the 44mm lens perspective of this lens. Yesterday I drove to Wynne to meet Julie's parents and to pick up the kids and bring them home. While driving I was listening to Brooks Jensen, editor of LensWork Magazine, podcasts and he was talking photography being a form of memory and about cameras being our memory machines. Interesting ideas about memory, but the idea of the memory machine kept bringing me to this camera. I really like how this camera captures memories.
This is a memory to keep. Jackson and I on our first bike ride with his new bike. We rode all over the HU campus just the two of us. We stopped under this tree with the bird house to take a break and get a drink because it was really hot outside that day.
Me and Kodak Signet 35 camera.
Ribs on July the 3rd. Those rib racks were part of my Fathers Day present. We started cooking the ribs at 10 in the morning using one burner and hickory wood in the smoker box. At 3:00 we basted with Apple Juice and wrapped them up in foil to continue to cook up to the magical 165 degree safe point for pork. I have to give thanks to my brother Kelly for the BBQ cooking tips. If you are wondering they were great. Two racks were rubbed with Rainforest Cafe Mojo Rib Rub, two racks were Corky's Rib Rub, and the final rack had a very spicey Brazilian Beef Rub that I found at Sam's Club.
Being home all day on Friday and keeping an eye on ribs is relaxing. Jalen spent some quality heat of the afternoon time on the couch with his DS. I like how the backlight carves out the details of his profile.
Slipping ahead to July 5th when we celebrated the 4th with Julie's family. This is Uncle Charlie and Chris sitting out on the patio waiting for the annual parade to start.
There is always time for bb guns on the family 4th celebration. Jackson is putting the hurt on a coke can with his Daisy Buck bb gun.
Jalen taking a break from bike riding to do a few pull-ups as he waits for his turn at the empty coke can.

Josie and cousin Olivia are moving this big rock in the search for Rollie Pollies. As you can see below they found this giant black caterpillar.

Jamie reloading the music on her Disney Mix Stick. I found out later from Jenna that Jamie loaded up on Christmas music. You never know what Jamie is up to.

Finally Josie and one of her softball teammates.

Photos from Today

After my previous post, about high minded use of RF film cameras to brush up on my photography skills, I left the camera at my office yesterday.  So today I pulled out my original digital slr the Nikon D1X and  turned it to b&w and mounted my 35 F2 lens and got busy taking photos.

The card game of the weekend has been UNO.
We had friends over this afternoon and they got in on the action as well.
Jenna and Facebook on the phone.
Jenna also in the card game action.

Tonight we went to Jackson's baseball game.  This is Cade the catcher who by the way has a brother named Catcher.
Jalen is our kid with the most nicknames.  We call him Boo, Boo Dog, and many other things but when we are at Jackson ball game Jalen becomes Batman because be he is the batboy.
Coach Craig gets animated between innings.

The last at bat pep talk.

Space Camp

GeoTagged, [N34.71349, E86.65541]

Jamie and I are at Space Camp this week with all the other 5th graders from Harding Academy. Here are a few facts for your consideration.

To orbit the earth you have to be traveling at 17,500 mph.

It takes 3-4 days for a spaceship to get to the moon.

Next year all of the Space Shuttles retire.

The cameras used to take the moon landing photos were specially modified Hasselblads.

Jamie's Birthday

Jamie turned 11 this week. It is hard to believe that she is growing up so fast. Jenna and Kathryn Phillips made her birthday cake on Thursday afternoon since all the kids were out of school for parent/teacher conferences.
This is the cake that Jenna decorated for Jamie. Julie and I went and picked up Jamie who was at Kids Stage and took her to eat supper. Jamie picked Casa Brava for supper, but it was a hard decision, Chili's, Chinese, or Huckelberry's for fish. Jenna came up with this design on her own and did all the cake with zip lock bags no other cake decorating tools. Earlier this year during Cats Week she took a cake decorating class with Cheryl White and she loved it. I think we may have a cake baker in the family. Jenna and Jamie with the birthday cake. We invited the Turners over to have cake with us after we went to Jackson's Little Dribbler event at the HS basketball game.

Lucy can Spell

photo by Julie Montgomery's iPhone

Jamie was the 5th grade alternate on the Harding Academy Spelling Bee Team this past week. She has studied and studied and I am so proud of her. I didn't get to go because of an annual office planning meeting. One night when Jamie was studying she gave me the word edidermis ( which I just looked up because my spelling was so bad Spell Check had no idea what I was talking about) and I thought about how to spell and I went with my usual method which is to think of another word that means the same thing so I spelled it s-k-i-n. We had a good laugh and went on, she knows I can't spell.

When I was in 5th grade we all got to try out for the spelling bee. I was such an idealist, I thought that sounded fun. I was the first person in my class that had to sit down- the word was address which I spelled a-d-r-e-s-s.

Jamie's Blog

My middle daughter Jamie has started blogging and I think you might enjoy it. Clicking on the title above will take you to her Jammin Journal.

Jamie, Ellie, and Sophia

Jamie and her friends pose for a photo before the Wildcats Jr High Football game.

Tooth Fairy Times Three

When you have a big family you learn to do things in a big way. Well, last night the tooth fairy came in a big way. Jamie, Jackson, and Jalen all were visited by the TF.

Saturday Afternoon at Harding Park

Saturday afternoon our friends the Ramsey's call and say their kids are going exploring in Harding Park. That sounded like fun so Jamie, Josie, the boys and I rode our bikes to Harding Park to meet the Jacob and Jordan. Harding Park is a big grassy area in the middle of a small loop of houses right off of the campus. During the school year many games of football and ultimate frisbee are played out on the big grassy area. As you can see from the picture above there is a small creek that runs through the park and the boys were having a big time exploring the creek.
The girls also explored the creek and they were a little more willing to pose for a photo than the boys. As we were leaving to go to the park Josie decided we should take the frog bucket just in case she found some frogs. She did find a huge toad and a caterpillar. If you are wondering what a cute cheerleader might be doing standing in the middle of a creek like this, well Josie decided her caterpillar would enjoy a boat ride down the creek on the lid to the frog bucket.

I did some exploring myself with my camera. I love leaf patterns. My friend Terri Lee blogged a photo of leaves similar to these and she said as a child she used them as play money. I also found grass hoppers to photograph.

My photo equipment for the park consisted of a Nikon D200 a Tamron 28-200 and a Vivtar 285 flash with a Calumet Radio Slave. I won the radio slave as a door prize at the UPAA Symposium this summer. Last week as I was reading some of the blogs that I try to follow I read about someone who was talking about the color modes on their Nikon camera and shooting in vivid color and more vivid color mode. I normally leave my color balance on neutral so I don't get jacked up skin tones- but today is Saturday and I am not at work so who cared if the skin tones are a little jacked up.
Exploring a creek can only last so long before one brother decides he needs to splash his little brother. Jackson starting splashing Jalen and then Jalen started splashing back.

Jalen ran Jackson out of the creek. A quick word of advice : never underestimate Jalen. He is a tough little kid and he will never ever quit.   This is Jackson trying in vain to establish some ground rules for splashing. Needless to say the water war continued until everyone was completely soaked and worn out from having so much fun.
As i look at this picture I think of a wooden plaque that hung in our house growing up that had a poem on it entitled " Why God Made Little Boys" I think this picture would be the perfect one for that poem.
Finally, I got Jordan and Jamie to pose for a portrait and I used my flash and slave to try a little strobist lighting. This past Saturday afternoon was what all Saturdays should be like.