Camp Tahkodah

 Every summer since 1992, I have spent at least one day at Camp Tahkokah shooting photos.  Josie is at camp this session and Jalen was at Camp last session.  Camp Tahkodah has been a blessing to me and especially to my kids.  I am really thankful for all the people that spend their summers out at camp investing in kids.

 I got lucky and caught the bullet.  I had fun taking a couple of turns shooting myself.

Camp tradition- you get thrown off the bridge if it is your birthday.

Josie and her cabin.

                   
I really enjoyed the basketball games.  This time I really enjoyed the basketball.  I sometimes miss shooting sports in the summer.

 Josie and her friends.

This is what happened when you asked Jordan Ashmore for water at the canteen.

Jalen went to Camp with me and he wanted a camera. His photos were not half bad.  "Not half bad" is code for really good.  It comes from Statler and Waldorf, the grumpy old men muppets.  One would say something "was not half bad" and the other one would respond "it was all bad."

                          

This is Jalen with my friend Sam Jeffrey.  

Back over Christmas break while the boys were out of school and Jackson was recovering from ACL surgery Jalen used Sam's name to win an argument.  The boys were fussing over something that really didn't matter and it eventually boiled down to Jalen saying at least my knee works and Jackson accusing Jalen of thinking he is tough because he has an Apple Watch and then said only sissies wear Apple Watches.  I was watercoloring at the time and had had enough of their nonsense and said so you calling Coach Simmons (HU football coach) a sissy?  It was a total bluff on my part as I have no idea what kind of watch Paul Simmons wears.  Jackson looked at me for a moment and then bluffed back at me with " is Coach Simmons the toughest guy you know?"  Jalen said, " I am pretty sure Sam Jeffrey is the toughest guy I know."  Argument over.

1-16-2014 Josie the Wildcat

I love seeing my kids playing sports.

125/365 Pitching a strike

5-5-2013

Pitching practice on a Sunday afternoon in the back yard.

124/365 Josie Napping

5/4/2013

I am loving shooting photos with the Leica M8.  I shot this photo at F1.4 and it is so difficult to get the focus sharp at 1.4.  The thing I like about the Leica is that it is a completely capable camera but it depends on me to make the photo.  I have to focus and set the exposure and decide where to aim it and when to push the button.  It sounds simple but getting all of that to come together in a fraction of a second is challenging.  I like the challenge and I love when you get a photo that just works.  I love this kid too.

96/365 Pitching Practice

4-06-2013

Spent the morning with Josie at pitching camp.  We had fun and she learned some things.  I spent the afternoon shooting the Bisons playing baseball.

Good Buddies

These two go way back and I really like the way Josie sleeps.

Base/Softball is Fun

Last night was a beautiful night for baseball and softball. I took a few photos of Josie's game, that is her playing 1st base.
Josie on the rare occasion that she actually missed the ball on the first pitch. Here she is starting to swing on the second pitch which she whacks over to the second base-girl for a single.
Photo techniques work with my little camera just like with the big ones. Panning is always a good thing to try with base runners.
The boys watching Josie's team lose a tough game in the bottom of the last inning.
Finally, a little fun with my friend Zac Muncy. Zac and I are constantly harassing each other on FB. We call each other brother because people actually get us confused. How in the world a handsome dude like me could be confused with an ugly mug like Zac Muncy is beyond my ability to understand. So, I noticed this sign and decided that a little Photoshop magic and I could have a little fun at my friends expense.

Time-Effort-Reward

If you have ever read my blog you know that Josie does everything at 100%. This includes anything she does from sidewalk chalk art, playing dolls, drawing, sleeping and playing basketball with a soccer ball. The thing is we probably have 4 or 5 basketballs in the deck box but its so much easier to just use the soccer ball that is out of the deck box.

The thing I love the most is how this series of photos shows the true Josie spirit, she will not give up until she gets what she wants and when she is successful she celebrates. I've especially seen this as she works to conquer the letter "R" is speech. I love how she will say some word that has an "R" in the middle like dork, example- "Jenna your a dork", and then she stops says dork a little slower just to make sure she gets that "R" sound correct. I love when she realizes that she made the sound correctly and she says " Hey Dad, did you hear me say dork, it has an "R" in the middle and I said it right, Yes!"

I would like to thank Jamie for the example above of the word Dork and the accompanying sentence.

I love the fact that she shoots, misses and gets her own rebound and shoots again until she scores. My photography text book suggested a similar routine to improve your photos.
Shoot a photo.
Look at the photo.
Evaluate the photo.
Shoot another photo.

As long as we are talking photography, I like these photos for another reason, as Josie was practicing basketball, I was working on Henri Cartier Bresson's idea of the Decisive Moment.

"There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative," he said. "Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever."

Finally, there is nothing like celebration. We both put in the time and effort and we are both rewarded.

Tonight, I am thinking of my neighbor and former secretary Pat Lawrence who lost her husband this past week. Gerald has fought the good fight, finished the race, kept the faith. He will be missed, but I imagine that there is some celebration going on up in heaven with Gerald and those who have gone on ahead of him.

Josie Notes

Sometime after I went to sleep last night Josie snuck into my room and put this note on my night stand. I always love getting a Josie note and there is nothing better than Josie Humdinger Hug.

Humdinger Hug
I like hot dogs. I like hats.
I like hula hoops too.
But what really makes me happy
is a humdinger hug from you.

I am working on a garden

I hope we have tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and sweet peppers before the end of the summer. I have never had much of a green thumb but here we go anyway. Josie and Jalen helped me plant the seeds and Jalen took the photo of Josie and me.

Josie is a baller and the boys

Today has been a basketball day and its still not over.
Jamie played for the school this morning and Jalen,
Jackson and Josie played Upward as well. Tonight I
am shooting the Bison games. This short slide show is
Josie coming down the court after stealing the ball, shooting
boxing out and then chasing down her own rebound coming
back and shooting and scoring. She was a beast today on the
court.



The boys can play pretty well themselves

Girl Scouts

We have a Girl Scout in the family as of tonight. I guess I will have to think up another derogatory term to call the boys when they are acting like sissies.

I'm thinking Josie

Whenever I see a Lady Bug I think of Josie. If there is a Lady Bug anywhere around Josie can find it. Julie told me that Monday Josie came to the door and asked for a box to hold her Lady Bugs. Julie brought her a box and she said she was stunned to see Josie's hand covered with about 20 Lady Bugs. So you see, when I see a Lady Bug I am always thinking Josie.

Saturday Frog Hunt on Film

There is nothing like Frog Hunting with Josie. Saturday afternoon after the Razorback game we went over to Harding Park and trolled around the creek to see if we could find any frogs. We heard a bunch of frogs croaking but we didn't catch any. Still we had fun.

I was having fun as well shooting our Frog Hunt on film. Shooting film is like giving yourself a surprise present. I love the anticipation of waiting to see the film at the lab and seeing if you got anything. I also love using film cameras and on this shoot I was using my rangefinder Hasselblad Xpan. Funny story about this roll of film. I finished it while standing on a rock in the middle of the creek as you can see from the photo above. I was thinking I ought to get out of the creek before I change film so I don't drop it in the water. Well, I dropped it, but thankfully it landed on a tuft of grass at the edge of the water and only got the bottom of the case a little wet. I still didn't know for sure that no water went in the cassette and ruined the film until this morning when I got the film from the lab.

Even if the film had been ruined, I still had an afternoon Frog Hunt with my baby and that is more important than the pictures. Thankfully I have both,

Pictures for 100 years from now

Tonight Josie and the boys and I went for a bike ride on campus. I took a film camera and I took several photos of them around campus. Someday, one of my Great Great Grandkids will send those photos to Harding because the landmarks in the photos are HU. The photographer will look at them and say "look it's the McInteer Building, they tore that building down back in 2xxx, it would have been cool to have seen that building. " I get that feeling when I look at photos of Godden Hall. I wonder sometimes what photos of mine will be important to people in the future.

Location:E Center Ave,Searcy,United States

Alabama Capitol

Jackson loves State trivia and not stopping in Montgomery today to see the Capitol was not an option. We took a few photos by the statue of Jefferson Davis. We even went in and looked around and bought some Alabama playing cards in the gift shop. There was a statue of Helen Keller inside the Capitol. I had no idea HK was from Alabama. The strangest statue outside the Capitol was of a Doctor who is considered to be the father of modern gynecology. Surely there are more famous people from Alabama to build statues of.

Alabama State Line

This morning we started our road trip to Disney World. We had to stop at the state line for Jackson. The kids decided to call the Hogs just to let everyone in the state know we were on the way.

Asleep with Leo

Shot this a few minutes ago with my iPhone and The Best Camera App.

Josie and Leo

Tonight Josie has Leo the 1st Grade Lion. We took photos and now I'm off to Scouts.

Freezing at the Soccer Fields

I am currently waiting for faculty members to come and get photos made so I am blogging some old photos.

Jalen and Josie both play soccer and love it. Usually in the Searcy soccer world you bake in the fall soccer season and you freeze in the spring soccer season. This year we have frozen a couple of weekends in the fall. I'm predicting that if it doesn't stop raining soon we might be playing water polo on the spring instead of soccer.