GavinJensen.net ~ gavin jensen journal photos projects

May 9, 2012 at 2:15pm

Soren and the Frog

Today While mowing the lawn I spotted a little frog hiding in the flower bed. I caught him and called Soren over so he could meet a real live frog for the first time. Here is the little bit of video I got of the event. More »

April 26, 2012 at 11:56pm

The Birth Day of Ian Boyd Jensen

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This past Thursday April 26th at 5:40 pm my second son Ian Boyd Jensen was born. Following is the story of his birth. On Wednesday April 25th at about 3:45 pm I got a call from Holly while I was at work. As with each call from Holly for the past week my heart skipped a beat when the phone rang. I picked up and she calmly told me that her water had just broken but that she was not having any signs of a contraction. Having carpooled to work that day I promptly grabbed my stuff, hollered to my ride that we were leaving and headed home. More »

April 22, 2012 at 10:01am

Happy Birthday Uncle Tad

Happy birthday to my little brother Uncle Tad. He turns 28 today. More »

April 2, 2012 at 9:04pm

4.0 Places 6th at Forest Grove Ballad Contest

My barbershop quartet 4.0 placed 6th this weekend at the Forrest Grove Ballad Contest. This was my first contest ever to compete in or attend and man was it fun! Everyone we met supporting the event was chipper and helpful and truly loved the barbershop craft. There were also some amazing quartets in the competition. What an honor to get to share the stage with them. We got lots of performance opportunities both on and off the stage during the weekend. More »

February 23, 2012 at 7:42am

Antidisestablishmentarianism

Last night I recorded some video of Soren at 2 year and 3 months saying "Antidisestablishmentarianism". I introduced him to the word the previous evening and got him to say it in two parts and this was the second time we worked on it. Yup my son is a genius. :P More »

February 12, 2012 at 11:01pm

4.0 Sings at Sweetie Pie Social

Today my barbershop quartet 4.0 performed for the second time together at a Jet Cities Chorus concert. There were several other great quartets and singing groups at the show today including the Illumni Mens Chorus who I sang with last spring on America's Got Talent. They did a bunch of their Popsicle (pop and classical smashed together) songs including the "Hit Me Baby One More Time". It was good to hear them sing again. We also got to hear the swan song (barbershop lingo for last performance as a quartet) of Live Wire. Our tenor Ted has a sister who sings baritone for them. More »

January 29, 2012 at 3:16pm

All The Way

I have been singing my barbershop songs all over the house and did not quite realize how often I had been singing them until Soren joined in singing with me. I was able to sing it again with him during lunch and got a bit of video of him singing it with me.

More »

January 21, 2012 at 1:59pm

Snowmaggeddon - Winter Ice Blast 2012

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We have officially survived what I'm calling Snowmaggeddon - Winter Ice Blast 2012 which is a combination of terms that I have heard on the local television news stations to describe such an event. They get pretty sensational when it comes to snow here. But it has been a pretty crazy weather week for us here in western Washington. The snow started on Monday afternoon and continued off and on until Wednesday. We took some time both Monday and Tuesday afternoon to take Soren out and play in the snow at the park down the street and in the back yard. On Wednesday the weather took a turn for the worse and the snow cranked up a level. More »

January 16, 2012 at 10:19pm

Soren's First Snowman

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With a few inches of snow falling the past few days in our neighborhood Holly and I took some time during my lunch break to head to the park and build our first family snowman. We bundled Soren up in his snow gear and slowly shuffled to the park over the ice covered sidewalks. We arrived to find ten or so kids enjoying the snow. Soren watched them with great interest as they ran around him throwing snowballs and sledding down the hills of the park. A few kids kindly offered to share their sleds so I could give Soren a ride down the hill a few times. After peeling Soren from the sleds we all took turns rolling the large ball of snow to the correct size for our little snowman. More »

December 14, 2011 at 8:21pm

Santa Visits Wildwood

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Today Santa visited Wildwood Elementary during lunch. Soren was lucky enough to see Santa and get a chance to sit on his lap. He even got a new toy truck before Christmas this year. Thanks to all the Wildwood Elementary teachers and staff for putting the event together. More »

November 13, 2011 at 9:36pm

4.0 Debut Performance

Today was the debut performance of my barbershop quartet named 4.0. We were invited to sing a few songs at the Jet City Chorus fall Community Concert. It was great fun to be performing with my brother Tyson singing bass, Ted Chamberlain singing tenor, and Chris McMafferty singing baritone. I am excited to be singing barbershop and have enjoyed beginning to learn the style and technique. I look forward to more opportunities to sing with these great guys. Thanks to the Jet City Chorus for having us sing at their concert and thanks to our families and friends for their support. More »

November 6, 2011 at 10:18pm

Soren's 2nd Birthday Party

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Soren turns two this week and Holly worked and planned a fantastic Thomas the Train themed party. We had train balloons, plates, cups, sandwiches, wooden train whistles, Thomas the train cardboard costume, Train painting activities, train shaped cookies and an amazing Thomas the train cake. The cake was awesome and looked just like Thomas would if he was made of cake and covered in frosting. We had a great showing of friends and family on hand for the event. The kids played with one another with Soren and Cameron practicing some sharing. Holly thought up a good way to use the Thomas the train costume that we made for Soren for Halloween. More »

October 21, 2011 at 5:40pm

Trip to the Emergency Room

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This afternoon as I was working from home Soren and Holly returned from getting some pumpkins for carving. Soren happily burst through the door and tripped passing the couch and hit his head on the corner of the coffee table. With lots of blood and crying we quickly realized we would need to take him to a Doctor. After the first ten minutes the blood slowed and we quickly rushed him to the Emergency Room at Valley Medical Center. We checked in and fed the little guy some crackers and cheese while we were waiting for the doctor to stitch him up. The nurse brought in stitching supplies including a mini stretcher / straight jacket to hold Soren down while they worked on him. More »

October 15, 2011 at 10:54pm

Soren's first Tractor Ride

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We arrived late to Mera Foster's 5 Year birthday party at the amazing Thompsson Family Farm (if you have not been go soon). Soren had been talking about riding a tractor all day and he was ready as soon as we arrived. The farm has a small pumpkin patch, tractor rides, a bubble table, farm animals and the list goes on. We spent all of our time between an old broken down tractor set up for the kids to sit on and play with and waiting in line for the tractor rides. Soren was super excited for the tractor rides but when I would ask him if he wanted to ride he would say "No". After watching several rounds of kids much older than him ride laps around the pasture he finally decided that he wanted to ride. More »

October 2, 2011 at 9:04pm

First Carousel Ride

This weekend we took Soren on his first Carousel ride at the Super Mall in Auburn. We decided to take a trip there to get the little squirt out of the house on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Upon arrival he was mesmerized for the first five minutes by the spinning lights and horses of all shapes and colors but was after that was convinced that he must take a ride. Soren choose the horse that he called "Bambi" that resembled a decorated reindeer complete with a four point rack. Holly and I took turns riding with him as he grinned and smiled the whole time pausing at the end to demand "more more more" whenever the ride stopped. More »

September 4, 2011 at 1:22pm

Splash and Play

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For most Sunday mornings this summer at 10am you could find us at the Henry Moses Aquatic Center for the Splash and Play for 0-3 year olds. They open the pool up just for the little kids and their parents to give them a chance to swim and play without all of the camotion caused by the older kids. I have really enjoyed this time with Soren. He has steadily improved his skills in the water. He started being fearless and trying to run through the water which caused him to trip and fall face first. More »

August 3, 2011 at 12:07pm

Cape Disappointment

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For our 8th Anniversary Holly and I decided to take a camping trip on Cape Disappointment. I know the name of the place is a bit funny especially for an anniversary trip but we were not disappointed at all. We left Soren with Grandma and Grandpa Johnson and were on our way. Our campsite was 50 feet from the beach and we could hear the waves crashing into the shore and smell the salt in the air. To the north were several different rock formations complete with caves that we visited on our second day there. We spend most of our first afternoon hiking some of the short trails on the south end of the peninsula. More »

July 9, 2011 at 6:44pm

Sliding Soren

Here is some video of Soren sliding all by himself today and swinging with Mommy at the park in our neighborhood. He loves to slide again and again. Hard to believe he is growing up so fast. We have really been enjoying this beautiful summer weather.

More »

June 26, 2011 at 10:31pm

Summer BBQ

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Yesterday Holly and I hosted our first Summer BBQ\birthday party. We had a handful of my friends over as well as our parents. The weather was cooperative and the sun even came out right as our guests starred to arrive. We had the swimming pool out for Soren and Cadence. Cadence spent so much time in tue pool that she was shivering and Kyle had to pull her out into the sum to get warm. Soren spent most of the time playing with his new bubble lawn mower that Grandma Johnson gave him. More »

June 16, 2011 at 10:05pm

Illumini on America's Got Talent

On Tuesday night the Illumini Men's Choir's performance of "Hit me baby one more time" was aired on NBC's America's Got Talent. We were only on the show for 30 seconds or so but it was super cool just to see the short clips that were aired. Here is the video of our short performance.

We even show up on a little ways down on the main page right now. http://www.nbc.com/americas-got-talent/

Singing on the stage with my Illumini brothers was an awesome experience. The Seattle audience was completely alive and it was quite a rush to sing on that stage in front of the judges. More »

June 5, 2011 at 11:16pm

Red Queen Theory

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Recently I had the privilege of shooting some photos for a local goth/metal band Red Queen Theory. Jennifer Chung a co-worker and friend of mine plays keyboard and sings backup vocals for the band and arranged for me to take some photos of them. We met down in Tacoma with the plan of shooting some shots on the 12th street bridge in the middle of the closed road and agaist the bridge and sky. It was going to be epic. When I arrived we quickly realized that the bridge was closed for construction. So we scouted a few other areas and landed at More »

June 5, 2011 at 12:25pm

Soren Playing with the Hose

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I couldn't resist posting a few photos of Soren playing with the hose again. Right now he loves getting wet and is so completely consumed with figuring out how the sprinkler and garden sprayer work. He will stand there for several minutes, a small miricle for the usually distracted toddler brain, pushing the sprayer on and off agian and again. This morning he wanted to head out so quickly that we couldn't even get him out of his pajamas. Holly and I are really enjoying Soren at this age. It is such fun watching him learn new things. More »

May 29, 2011 at 2:47pm

Soren and the Hose

With our new garden in place we have been watering it every evening. Soren loves helping out and insisted on learning how to operate the hose. I grabbed a little video with my phone of him investigating the sprayer. More »

May 15, 2011 at 1:23pm

Soren Strolling

Earlier this week when the sun was out I took a few small clips of Soren doing his newest trick pushing the stroller. Currently every time we go out to the park or on a walk Soren insists on getting a turn pushing the stroller. More »

April 15, 2011 at 7:46pm

Soren Signing

Soren has learned a few signs and started to use them more frequently. His first sign was more and he uses it to mean "I want" most of the time. And recently he has learned all done. I finally caught him using a these two together on my phone along with a few other clips of Soren being Soren. More »

March 7, 2011 at 10:25am

Soren Exploring the Park

I finally got a few minutes to put together some video of Soren that I shot on my phone last month of Soren exploring the park that is a block from our house. He loves the swing and had a great time kicking a ball we found on the basket ball court. He is fearless and determined to get to wherever he decides to go. More »

February 13, 2011 at 12:36pm

A Two Party Day

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Yesterday Holly, Soren and I got to go to two different party's. The first was a baby shower for Lisanna Smithhart who is very pregnant and having a girl in a month or so. The second was a one year birthday party for Cadence McClellan (Kyle and Lindsey's daughter). We got to meet several of Carter and Lisanna's friends and family as well as see all of the renovations that they have done to their new home. The baby room is complete and the house looks ready to welcome the baby. Holly and each took shifts chasing Soren up and down the stairs and from room to room. More »

February 2, 2011 at 11:29pm

Flying with Scott

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Today I got to go flying! ! A coworker of mine who used to be a pilot in the military and is currently brushing up his skills in the cockpit offered to take me up with him. We finally got some good weather and so today was the day. Scott wanted to do log a cross country trip so we headed north to a small airport is Skadgit landed and then promptly took off and headed back home. It is amazing how beautiful it is up there at a few thousand feet above the ground. More »

December 24, 2010 at 10:43pm

Christmas Eve at Home

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We had a small Christmas Eve get together at our place this year. Holly made a delicious dinner with one of the best pork loin that I have ever had. She brined, glazed then roasted the pork to perfection. Joining the pork loin was an apple compote, butter nut squash risotto, brussels sprouts with pecans, and an onion tart and pear salad as starters. And for dessert we got to sample the eight home made Christmas cookies arranged on a tower of plates. I'm getting full just recalling the whole meal. More »

December 24, 2010 at 10:18am

Christmas Cookies

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This Christmas season Holly decided to recreate several of the family favorite cookies that her Grandmother used to make every year. Holly and her mother gathered the ingredients and with Dennis babysitting they spent the better part of two days one at each home baking, cooling and stacking each of the eight types of Christmas cookies in their tins. The cookies included: Kringler Seven Layer Cookies (Magic Bars) Date crumble bars Russian Tea Cake Peanut Butter Cherry Balls Fudge Chocolate Butterscotch Haystacks Almond Roca Tonight she finished the last batch of Kringler just in time for our Holiday outings. More »

December 23, 2010 at 11:21pm

Soren's Drawer

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Recently Soren has discovered a great new toy in the Kitchen. Holly had cleared out one of our bottom drawers and placed a few kid safe kitchen things in it for Soren to play with. He quickly emptied the drawer and figured out how to climb into it himself. After accomplishing this feat with many grunts and much fussing he will sit there looking pleased with himself for a few minutes before attempting the more difficult dismount. Needless to say it is super cute to watch the events unfold. More »

December 18, 2010 at 11:00pm

No Power Day

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We awoke today to find our house without power at a brisk 52 degrees. The wind had apparently knocked over a tree that took out the power to our neighborhood. After realizing we were out of milk I headed to the grocery store through our black neighborhood while Holly started on the breakfast making efforts. We put Soren into a coat and hat over his two layers of pajamas and off he went happy to have time to play in the kitchen lit with candles.Breakfast by candlelight went good after we figured out what to make that did not require any electricity. We heated up water for bottles over the one burner on the BBQ outside and I chopped wood and had a roaring fire for the first time in our fireplace. I took a few photos of Soren during the mid morning as we were playing. More »

December 5, 2010 at 11:56pm

Holly's Birthday

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This year with our little Soren and all of his gear and with Holly's father fresh out of surgery on his sinuses we had a low-key celebration for Holly's birthday at her folks house. Carol served brunch with an always amazing and Holly favorite monkey bread. We mostly enjoyed the great food and took turns watching Soren crawl up and down the stairs and play with the Caroling snow family. We ended the event with a German chocolate cake that I exactly as Holly had requested, from the box. More »

November 28, 2010 at 11:00pm

The Soren Flyer

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For Soren's birthday my father made a beautiful biplane by hand from pine complete with spinning propeller and turning tail wheel. He brought it for Soren on the plane and we assembled it here once he arrived. Dennis and Carol also gave Soren a cute bomber jacket and hat without knowing about my father's gift. We finally had a chance to setup a backdrop in the kitchen, put the jacket and hat on Soren and get him on his "Soren Flyer" for a few photos. Soren loves to scoot around on the plane with made it difficult to capture him before he would scoot right off the backdrop and into me and my camera. Holly would then reset Soren and the plane and we would try again with Soren laughing and having a grand time playing this new game. More »

November 25, 2010 at 11:00pm

Giving Thanks

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Had a fantastic thanksgiving this year over at Holly's folks house. We got up early and packed the squirt and all of his stuff into the WRX and headed out. Soren got to try out his new front facing car seat. He was looking out the window and pointing for most of the ride. We arrived a bit early and had time to play with Soren and Grandpa even took him out for his first sled ride in the back yard. We were joined later for the feast by Carol's family Jim Barb and Barb's mother visiting from Germany, Fred-Bob, Dennis Carol and the three of our family. More »

November 24, 2010 at 10:13am

Snowy Days

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We got quite a blast of snow on Monday in the greater Seattle area and a total of 6 inches at our place. It took me six hours just to get home from work. I spent most of that time waiting in long lines that had been blocked by cars or semis that had slid off the road. Yesterday the weather was cold and clear so we took Soren out for a walk around the neighborhood in the snow. He was pretty wide eyed pointing and saying "Dis" at things he declared were interesting. He also started a new game of sticking his mitten into any mouth he could reach. More »

November 19, 2010 at 5:46pm

Soren in the Tub.

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I grabbed my camera and got a few photos of Soren and Holly playing in the bath tub tonight. I am his father and completely biased but boy is he one cute kid. More »

November 14, 2010 at 10:50pm

Soren One Year Portraits

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Tonight Holly and I tried to take Soren's one year portraits. We got all setup in the dining room with a backdrop and Holly dressed the squirt up in his new shoes and a matching outfit. The shoot only lasted for 15 min and we had one heck of a time getting him to hold still long enough for us to get a photo taken. We got a few that were worth posting but we will take another run at it in the future once we catch our breath. More »

November 7, 2010 at 11:56pm

First Birthday Party

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Soren's first birthday party had a "Lions Tigers and Bears" theme that started with the invitations to family and friends and completed with the hand frosted lions, tigers and bears cupcakes that Holly and Carol made. We had a good turnout with twenty or so family and friends for the event that started in the early afternoon. We served sandwiches, fruit kabobs, punch, and a green salad that Lindsey made. Holly had a great idea to plant a tree for Soren's 1st birthday. So the weekend before we got a tree from a local tree farm and we did most of the planting. On Soren's birthday we had all of our family and friends each help to finish the planting of the tree. More »

October 10, 2010 at 10:46pm

Pumpkin Hunting with Grandparents

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For the second year in a row we headed out to Thomasson Family Farm to get our pumpkins and enjoy some fall fun. The farm is less than a half hour from our house and has an amazing view of Mt. Rainer. Cora and Justin Foster invited us to tag along with their family last year and we had such a great time we decided to come back. This year we brought along Soren and Grandpa and Grandma Johnson and Gammie(my Mom). Soren was not old enough to enjoy all of the kids activities there that included a corn pit, corn maze, wooden cow rides, a hay ride among other things. More »

September 20, 2010 at 7:02pm

Soren Crawling Cam

Soren is crawling around the house with great gusto these days so I tried to capture his great efforts. I rigged the video camera flipped upside down on my tripod so that I could hold the tripod by the legs and have the camera at Soren level.

I love how his hands smack the hard wood and how you can hear his breathing and see just how much fun he is having and how hard he is working. He did on lap around the house on this shot complete with a few of his getting down the step maneuvers. More »

July 17, 2010 at 11:05am

Soren Crawling at 8 months

Here is a little video of Soren's first day of crawling. He stumbles a bit still but is very determined to move. We are so excited for him and at the same time we realize that we have just entered a whole new era of mobile baby. Time to baby proof the house and keep a much closer eye on our little creeper.

The video was shot and edited on my iPhone 4. More »

June 20, 2010 at 11:29am

A Party with my Mom

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Yesterday Holly and I packed up Soren and all of the Soren supplies and made the trip down to Shelton to celebrate my mothers and my birthday. My grandmother and her new husband Milt happened to be there on their way back from my cousins wedding in Livingston MT. My brothers also showed up each bringing an other (Jen for Tyson and Tads new 8 month old puppy Maebel). It was Gammie and Milt's first time meeting Soren and he put on a full show for the family. Complete with rolling over, lots of smiling, bouncing in his jumper and eating cheerios for the grand finally. It is always great to see my family but since Soren was born it has made me excited to share him and his changes with my extended family and also highlights how much time has passed since they have last seen him. More »

May 26, 2010 at 12:37pm

Senior Portraits of Nick

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A few nights ago I had the pleasure of shooting portraits of Nick for his Senior year in high school. Met up over at Seward Park just before sunset to try to catch some good light. Nick's father Pat was along and since he was not in the photos he quickly became my VALS (Voice Activated Light Stand) for the shoot. Most of these photos were taken with the help of one SB-28 off camera through an silk umbrella (held in position by Pat the VALS for the evening). This allowed us to get a bit of light on Nick and shoot against the setting sun for what I think turned out to be a cool set of senior photos. Thanks to Pat and Nick for calling me up for their portraits I had a great time. More »

May 8, 2010 at 10:07am

Hanging out with Soren

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I got my camera out and took some photos of Soren playing on a blanket on the floor of our living room last weekend. He has so many faces in such a short time. The little guy is getting much closer to crawling and he loves to spend time on his tummy. His first tooth has crested on the bottom and it should be visible in photos in a few weeks. We have also started feeding him rice cereal and he gets about 50% of it on his bib, 25% on his face and the rest we assume he is eating. More »

May 3, 2010 at 9:44pm

Loosing our Tree

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This afternoon in Renton the winds were howling and the large maple in our back yard had just finished leafing out for the spring. Holly being home with Soren heard a loud crack and then ran to the kitchen window to find it covered with branches. A major limb of the one large tree in our backyard snapped off and fell toward the house. After a trips to Ace Hardware and the gas station I was able to cut the branches against the house away and inspect for damage. We were Lucky in that most of the force missed the house and the worst damage was to the hot tub cover. It looks like we will be cutting down the tree to prevent further damage to our house but our tree will be missed and we will be planting another in it's place. More »

April 13, 2010 at 8:30pm

Xavier at 1 month

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Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of taking photos of Cliff and Sommer's new baby boy Xavier. He is quite the cutie and compared to our 20 pound 5 month old Soren Xavier was tiny. It was good to meet Xavier and I'm sure he will be destined for great things with such talented parents to guide him. More »

April 4, 2010 at 9:13pm

Easter

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For Easter we headed over to Holly's aunt and uncle's house Jim and Barb in Gig Harbor after a brisk walk around our neighborhood in the crisp spring air. We bundeled Soren up and ploped him in the Bob as the sun rose. Jim and Barb have a beautiful home on the water with an amazing view and it is always relaxing just to hang out there for a few hours. This was the second time many of Holly's family had seen Soren and they were all amazed by how much he has grown. Barb knitted Soren a super cute beret and a matching sweater that we were pleased to see still fit him. Jim and Barb had a wonderful spread of food and Holly and I took turns eating and watching Soren. More »

March 27, 2010 at 10:00pm

Jr. Daffodil Parade and Reuter Bread

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Today the family headed out after Soren's nap and met up with Cora and Justin at the Jr. Daffodil Parade in north Tacoma. We arrived just in time to watch the last few groups walk past and to get a few daffodils. Soren immediately tried to eat them but what do you expect from the little guy. We walked around the proctor district for a little shopping and then headed to Cora's folks house for some brunch and some of their famous Reuter bread. From what I gather the bread is a family recipe and several years back James sent the recipe to Martha Stewart to try. More »

March 22, 2010 at 10:00pm

Tummy Time

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A few photos of Soren kicking butt on his tummy. Well more of kicking and moving his butt while on his tummy. He has finally figured out how to prop himself up on his arm a bit. Up until now he would just wave them about his sides and grunt while lifting his head up. I can't believe how fast he is growing up. He'll be crawling in no time. More »

February 28, 2010 at 10:09am

Soren at almost 4 Months

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It has been a whirlwind of a ride with the new little one. I have been snapping photos of him whenever I get time but my free time really has taken a hit. Soren is really becoming interactive now. He smiles, laughes and giggles which brightens up my day every time he does it. Here are a few of the 200 photos that I took yesterday in a 15 minute session when Holly was washing his face. It is amazing how many expressions he can make in such a short time. More »

February 21, 2010 at 11:05pm

Sommer and Cliff

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I had the privileged of taking some maternity photos for some old college friends of mine. Sommer and I sang in the PLU Jazz Choir for several years together and cliff played in the Jazz band. Both of them kept gigging after college and are still playing and singing in the greater Seattle Tacoma area. Sommer was a bit anxious about the portraits but as soon as we got started she relaxed and we were able to enjoy the process. Cliff had some great ideas at the end and I had a great time laughing along with them. More »

February 12, 2010 at 11:33am

First time to St. Louis

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I recently had the opportunity to take a work related trip out to St. Louis. This was my first time in the great state of Missouri. In my time outside of work I got to taste some pretty authentic BBQ, and spend a sunset taking photos of the Gateway Arch and the St. Louis skyline. More »

November 11, 2009 at 1:32am

The Arrival of Soren

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Holly and I are pleased to announce the arrival of our son Soren! Soren currently does not have a middle name but one is in the works. It has been a long three days of labor birth and getting to know our son. I plan on writing up the whole story but tonight I'm just going to post some photos and the short version of the labor while Holly is nursing. Holly's water broke on Saturday afternoon around 3pm. We got to the Hospital around 6pm and Holly's contractions started in full at 1am on Sunday morning. More »

November 6, 2009 at 5:14pm

The Nursery

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Well Holly is officially one day past her due date. We had a midwives appointment on Wednesday and everything checked out OK. We have another appointment next Thursday so we are still just waiting for the baby to arrive until then. Holly reminded me that we never posted the final photos of the Nursery so here they are. We got the crib and dresser used on Craig's List and the night stand and bookcase are from Holly's room growing up. Holly painted the green, blue and did an awesome job of hand painting the clouds. More »

October 24, 2009 at 2:09pm

Holly at 35 Weeks

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A few weeks ago Holly and I spend a Saturday afternoon and evening picking out cool maturity photos on the web that she liked and we then tried to duplicate the lighting pose and setup of the photos in our living room. I had a great time taking photos of Holly and think she is one beautiful woman. We also ran out to the trail behind our house to catch a bit of that beautiful sunset light. Here are the results. More »

August 23, 2009 at 11:00pm

Gerrin and Rocelle's Wedding

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Gerrin and Rocelle are now officially married and what a cute couple they make. I have known Gerrin since my PLU days, we were both Computer Science majors, and we now both work at Boeing. I have take a few other photos of Gerrin back when he was a single guy on the hunt and more recently photos of the actual engagement last summer. I have always had a good time taking their photos and this occasion was no different. Their wedding was at the beautiful mansion in Gig Harbor called Kensington Gardens. The house was perched on top of a hill and surrounded by a well kept gardens and an elegant fountain just outside the main entrance. More »

August 4, 2009 at 6:41pm

Townhouse For Sale

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After a long month of house hunting and a tough few weeks of cleaning and moving Holly and I have officially changed addresses and are putting our townhouse on the market. It went up this morning and we are hopeful that all of our hard work will pay off. We already heard from our Realtor that we have a few people going to see the place tonight. Holly did a fantastic job of staging the place which made my job of taking photos pretty easy. I had fun stitching together the panorama of the living room to try and capture the "cathedral ceiling" as the listing puts it. Holly and I spent 5 years at the townhouse and have many fond memories of the place. More »

July 5, 2009 at 11:12pm

4th of July with Family

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Holly and I split the 4th of July between our local parents. We started at her folks house in the early afternoon for a BBQ and time to get caught up on Holly's parents recent trip to Denver to see Brett and Megumi. Holly and I took a bit of time to sneak away to the beautiful backyard and shoot some maternity photos of Holly at 5.5 months. I think we got several good shots and we may return to shoot some of the next ones there as well. We chatted for a bit and then sat down outside to eat some hamburgers with all of the fixings. It was a proper 4th of July feast complete with red, white, and blue fruit pizza for dessert. More »

July 3, 2009 at 5:11pm

Little Snail

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I found this little guy snacking on our Hosta this morning. In exchange for the meal he was kind enough to let me take a few photos of him (I insisted). I drug out my light box and set up for some table top photography. It was interesting watching him slither up to an edge and then reach and far as he could to try to find the next platform to continue on his journey. After the photos I thanked him and set the little snail back where I found him. More »

June 9, 2009 at 4:57pm

We are having a Boy!

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Holly and I just got back from the Dr's appt and we are excited to announce that we are having a baby boy. The technician was 100% sure and we have the ultrasound photos to prove it. We also got to hear the heartbeat again. What an amazing sound. 10 Second Heartbeat Clip. More »

April 3, 2009 at 1:37pm

David Brickley Memorial Service

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Yesterday I attended the memorial service of my uncle Dave Brickley. Dave died of a sudden and unexpected heart attack last Saturday march 28 in the middle of the night. On the flight to Billings I wrote a few of my uncles favorite memories down about Dave. Sandpaper Face Hugs - Dave used to greet me and my brothers, when we were kids, by grabbing us in a hug and rubbing his stubble covered cheek against ours much to our dismay. We always knew it was coming and we would struggle to prevent this greeting. Red Ryder - I remember one particular camping truck when Dave got a set of walkie talkies and insisted on calling everyone by a callsign. More »

March 14, 2009 at 7:40am

Planting some Daffodils

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Last weekend in an apparent attempt to urge spring forth, Holly planted some tulips in our back and front yards. Nature promptly responded with snow for the next three days. Just as we finished these beautiful dark impending clouds were moving over the house. The little flowers are doing great but I thought I'd post a few photos of the little adventure. More »

March 8, 2009 at 9:02pm

My Guitar

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Decided to attempt some photos last night. My mother was staying at my place in order to take a beginning photo class the next morning so we decided to try one of her assignments. The assignment was to select one object and take 36 photos of it. I didn't stop at 36 but got these four which I thought were worth posting. It was fun to get the camera and one strobe back out and get the creative juices flowing again. So I'm looking for some more assignments to try. More »

January 17, 2009 at 8:02pm

Foggy Golf Shoot

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Recently I had the privileged of shooting some promotional photos for a local golf course. The weather did not cooperate at all as it was foggy and cold for the afternoon. I met some amazing young golfers on the course and had a great time taking some portraits. I may get to return when the weather is better to focus on some more scenic shots with blue sky and everything. More »

November 22, 2008 at 12:33pm

52PP:29 Tristin One Year Old

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Last weekend I had the pleasure of taking Tristin's portrait just past his one year birthday. Tristin is an energetic boy and along with his parents we had a great time taking his photos. After setting up a mini studio in the livingroom we we started with several of Tristin's stuffed animals and got him to ride this large green dragon. Thanks to Tristin's mother and father for all of the wonderful noises and antics behind me to hold their sons attention. Here are the fruits of our labor. More »

September 21, 2008 at 11:21pm

52PP:28 Kevin Freitas Light Workshop

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While holding a little mini light workshop for a few photographer buddies of mine Kevin was kind enough to sit while I played with a few lighting setups that I had been wanting to try. All of these shots were taken against the same grey background. I was able to change the color of the background by placing a gel on the background light or just eliminating it completely for a smooth black. More »

September 14, 2008 at 11:54am

52PP:27 Maia One Year Old

photos(9) / comments(1)

This was my second portrait session with the lovely Maia who was turning one year old. Since the last shoot Maia had become much more mobile. We tried to keep her happy and entertained while in the correct spot for some photos. Sarah had the great idea of getting some shots of Maia as she dug her way into a little birthday cake. I had a great time taking Maia's portrait. She is a sweet girl and I look forward to the next time. More »

September 13, 2008 at 11:55pm

The Wedding of Nick and Jane

photos(176) / comments(5)

I had the privileged of being the photographer for Nick and Jane's wedding at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. We had a beautiful sunny day with clear blue skies for an equally beautiful ceremony. I enjoyed meeting all of the family and friends that came to support and witness the event. Nick and Jane are truly blessed with many people who love them dearly. Congrats to the newlyweds. More »

August 31, 2008 at 11:13pm

52PP:26 Gerrin and Rocell's Engagement

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I had the honor of taking photos of the engagement of Gerrin and Rocell at the beautiful Point Defiance Park. I have taken both Gerrin and Rocell's portrait before but this time there was a plan underfoot. Gerrin had asked me about a month before about taking photos of his engagement and he wanted to use the photoshoot as cover to get Rocell all dressed up with a camera pointed at her without drawing any suspicion. Gerrin explained to Rocell that I had an portrait subject drop out on me at the last minute and that since they were going to be dressing up for dinner anayways that they would help me out and be my substitute subjects for the afternoon. I met the couple at the Park after scouting out a few locations earlier and we proceeded to take some portraits. After 40 minutes of so I gave Gerrin the queue with my camera ready and he popped the question. More »

August 31, 2008 at 6:55pm

My first taste of PAX

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Just got back from my first day at PAX. It was completely overwhelming and really brought out my inner nerd. Tons of games of all sorts from card, to rollplaying, to cell phone, and of course video games. Kevin and I attended the question and answer segment of the "How to Get Your Girlfriend Into Gaming" seminar that was lead by a panel of 6 or so women gamers who gave candid and enlightening answers to all sorts of girl and gaming questions. It made me chuckle a few times but the mood was positive and many of the answers empowering. Next we met up with Matt and moved through the Expo Hall full of commercial demo video games with consoles and wide screen displays set up everywhere. More »

August 11, 2008 at 10:39pm

Weekend at the Beach

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Kyle, Lindsey, Holly and I all piled into the car and headed to Seaside WA for a fun filled beach weekend. Our weekend started out in Cannon Beach where we rented recumbent tricycles. We all enjoyed zipping back and forth and circling each other as we worked our way up and down the beach. After a quick bite to eat we headed back to Seaside to check into our room. And what a room it was folks. Complete with kitchenette and two bed and two bathrooms we were not by any means roughing it. More »

August 9, 2008 at 11:55pm

52PP::25 Kyle and Lindsey

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Portraits of Kyle and Lindsey were taken at Seaside WA. Holly and I had a great weekend at the beach and Kyle and Lindsey were kind enough to let me take their portraits. We had a bit of a struggle with the wind but the beach is such a beautiful place to shoot portraits it was hard to pass up. More »

August 5, 2008 at 11:55pm

52PP:24 Lahaszow Family Portraits

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I had the pleasure of shooting some senior and family portraits for the Lahaszow family. We shot in their neighbors backyard which provided many different backdrops and even the sunset didn't cooperate with us we managed to get some good family portraits. I had a great time meeting their family and I think the fun shows in the photos. More »

August 2, 2008 at 10:15pm

5th Year Anniversary

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Our 5th anniversary celebration this year started with a brunch in the revolving restaurant in the Space Needle. The space needle has a special significance for us since I proposed underneath it and we watched the sunset shortly afterward from the top. The food was delicious and the view was constantly changing. We worked our way through all three courses and took two laps around the restaurant as we ate. After breakfast we changed into our bike clothes and boarded the fairy to Bainbridge Island. The plan was to take the ferry to the island and then ride our bikes to Kianna Lodge where were married. More »

July 26, 2008 at 11:00pm

52PP:23 Sarah and Cheri's Wedding

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I had the pleasure of shooting Sarah and Cheri's wedding this past Saturday. I have known Sara through Choral Arts where we have been singing together for several years. We even did a few wedding gigs as a duet. She has a beautiful voice and we have always got along. Sarah left Choral Arts to get her masters in Hawaii where she met Cheri. Thus the lei's for all the guests. More »

July 18, 2008 at 11:24pm

52PP:22 Jesper and Cara's Wedding

photos(148) / comments(4)

I had the honor of photographing my cousin Jesper's wedding to Cara in Bozeman MT at the beautiful Springhill Pavilion. The Pavilion is a turn of the century dance hall nestled at the base of the Briger Mountains surrounded by a private working ranch. It was an amazing setting to have a wedding. The ceremony started about 4pm and everyone looked great. The entire ceremony was well thought out and beautifully executed from the readings to their vows. The weather threatened to rain the whole time but held off just long enough for the ceremony to complete. More »

July 9, 2008 at 5:37pm

52PP:21 Gary Cannon

photos(9) / comments(2)

I took some head shots of Gary Cannon for him to use in his choral profession. Gary is a local conductor and singer. We have sung together a few times and it has always been a pleasure. I had the opportunity to try out a new grey seamless paper background that I recently acquired and was pleased with the results. It gave me plenty of room to maneuver and with one background light I was able to produce many moods out of the single background. Thanks for being a sport Gary and I hope the shots we were able to make work well for you. More »

June 3, 2008 at 10:59pm

Soar with Choral Arts

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The second fund raiser in Choral Arts history was an evening to remember. The event was executed with precision, care to detail, elegance, and style on Saturday night at the Museum of Flight. The evening started with the choir singing "Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine" under a replica of one of Leonardo's designs and continued in the wonderfully decorated banquet room on the second floor. There were flowers on the tables complete with foam planes. Two different sections of the silent auction with amazing baskets of goodies and beautiful art. First was the silent auctions with people peering at the prices and checking back on their favorite items some even guarding them with threats of removing pens and hiding bid sheets. More »

June 3, 2008 at 7:16am

Point Defiance Zoo - Kids' Zone

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The Zoo opened a new section of its Kids' Zone and I got to take photos of the event. The Kids' Zone is a great combination of playground, zoo, and interactive learning stations. There are zoo exhibits surrounding the sandbox, giant spiderweb, and other kids toys. If I had a kid I'm sure it would be a hit. The weather turned out to be great for the event. I shot the opening speeches, the ribbon cutting, followed shortly by the dash to be the first to play on the new playground and many shots of the kids enjoying the new space. More »

May 22, 2008 at 10:02pm

52PP:20 Todd and Stephanie

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Todd and Stephanie are engaged to be married in a few months and agreed to have their portrait taken for my project. We headed out on a cloudy evening along the waterfront in Seattle and had a good time making photos along the docks and some of the fountains in the area. Todd and Stephanie were great subjects and it was fun to watch them interact with each other. More »

May 18, 2008 at 12:39pm

52PP:19 Mayors of Tacoma

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Yesterday I had the privilege of shooting some promotional photos for Metro Parks Tacoma of six different mayors of Tacoma. The shoot was at Point Defiance Park on an unusually bright and hot sunny day. The photos are going to be used to promote the Wine and Roses benefit at the Taste of Tacoma where all six mayors will be there pouring some wine and enjoying the event. LeMay's provided beautiful example of a 1930 Duesenberg J for the photos. We put the mayors with the car in some more formal poses complete with top hats and sashes and then moved to some more lighter photos of the tossing their hats and joking around. The mayors were all great to work with and had an amazing ability to arrange themselves on the car as a group with little input from me. More »

May 14, 2008 at 8:09pm

52PP:18 Aaron and Lydia

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Week 18 of my project brought me Lydia and Aaron. I went to college with Aaron where we played a bit of ultimate together. He went on to become a much more serious player along with my brother Tad. It was good to see Aaron and to get to know Lydia a bit better. Lydia and Aaron are soon moving to NY on a great adventure where Lydia will be attending fashion design school I believe. So this was my last chance to shoot them. More »

May 10, 2008 at 8:54am

Seattle Flickr Light Painting at Gasworks

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Last night I attended my first Seattle Flickr event at Gasworks Park. There were about 40 photographers in attendance with an impressive volume of photography gear. It was fun to meet other folks who were interested in photography and off camera lighting. There were a few models who showed up to have their photos taken and I to hop in and shoot some photos of them. Molino (the guy in the blue shirt and suit) was a pleasant although cold chap with plenty of different looks. I tried a color shift with him to make the sky go blue and bring out his blue shirt. More »

May 5, 2008 at 8:14pm

52PP:17 Kelly Kirkland

photos(23) / comments(1)

Kelly is a Marketing and Project Assistant for a sustainable building company in Seattle. She is married to Matt Turner who was on of my first portraits. Kelly raises a few hens for their eggs so we tried to get some photos of her with them. They have some lovely color and plumage and they kept making the warning cluck when I would get to close with my camera. The weather was sunny and it smelled of cut grass in the air. We got out the hammock and took some portraits in the front and back yard before heading to the park. More »

April 27, 2008 at 10:45pm

Hiking Little Si

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This weekend has been a busy one For Holly and I. We have had a total of three rehearsals and one concert. We did manage to get a bit of hiking in and soak up some sunshine in the process. Holly and I headed up to Mount Si on Saturday after our morning rehearsal to hike the little Si trail. It took us about 1.5 hours to get up to the summit going at a leisurely pace and taking in all of the beautiful scenery along the way. About half way up as the trail progress along the side of a sheer rock face several hundred feet straight up we spotted a few climbers making there way down the face and we stopped to watch for a bit. More »

April 24, 2008 at 9:03pm

52PP:16 Jack Wilson

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Jack Wilson is the Executive Director at Metro Parks and I had the privilege of shooting his portrait for the upcoming Pierce County trail guide. All of the portraits were taken at Point Defiance Park, some in the gardens and some along a trail. Point Defiance is a beautiful place to shoot and I hope the photos fit the image that Jack and Nancy were after. Jack did a great job for his first time as a model and I had fun taking his portrait and am excited to see the trail guide in print. More »

April 20, 2008 at 9:57pm

52PP:15 Jen Mooney

photos(19) / comments(1)

Jen is an aspiring fellow photographer who graciously agreed to be my portrait subject for this week. It doesn't hurt that she is also dating my brother Tyson. You can checkout her flickr stream to see some of her work. We met in Olympia and took a few photos at a local park and then were pushed back into the car during a brief rain storm. Our session concluded on the steps of the capital building where we found a good wind block and shelter from the off and on again rain. Jen is a bit camera shy and recently got her braces off which explains a few of the teeth shots. More »

April 17, 2008 at 11:22pm

52PP:14 Cora Foster

photos(23) / comments(1)

Cora was great fun to shoot this past weekend. We had plans to hit a local park for some outdoor shots but the rain kept us inside so we turned her livingroom into a studio complete with black backdrop, a lamp for a light stand and a fan. I got to play with a new reflector and try some lighting ideas out some worked and some still need some work. I also used this opportunity to try out some new post processing tricks. Thanks for being my last minute model and being so flexible Cora. More »

April 7, 2008 at 9:21pm

52PP:13 Gerrin and Rocelle

photos(37) / comments(3)

This week I had the pleasure to shoot Gerrin and Rocelle. They were able to fill in on short notice and we had a great time trying to shoot between rain breaks. We would shoot until the rain started and then I would frantically pack my lights up and we would run for the car. They were good sports through the bad weather. Thanks to the cute couple. More »

March 31, 2008 at 7:40pm

52PP:12 Alicia Buechler

photos(27) / comments(6)

I am running one week behind on my portrait project because we had a death in the family and a funeral last weekend. I'll just have to do two some time to get caught up. This is Alicia's first time as a model and she did a great job. She brought enough clothes a great glitter makeup that we could have shot for three days straight. The green mask was awesome and with a few gels we were able to catch some really dramatic shots. The final sunset photos worked out well as it had been raining most of the weekend. More »

March 18, 2008 at 9:18pm

52PP:11 Tad Jensen

photos(13) / comments(3)

Tad is my younger better looking brother who agreed to let me take his portrait for my project. The original plan was to take some action/field ultimate frisbee shots since he was in town for a ultimate tournament. But the weather didn't cooperate and we did the shoot in a small apartment instead. We'll have to try the more epic shots another time. Tad is a man of many faces and I caught a few of them while a few of his friends poked fun at him in the living room with us. Thanks for helping me out Tad! More »

March 13, 2008 at 6:23pm

Bach to School

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Today I spent the afternoon singing Bach for two different Catholic schools with Choral Arts. In an effort to increase the groups outreach to the community Choral Arts decided to present two 45 minute interactive sessions with school kids aimed at introducing them to Bach and teaching them a little about the St. John Passion that the group is currently performing. The program was presented to St. Joseph's Catholic Church and St. Catherine's both in Seattle. More »

March 10, 2008 at 11:45pm

Choral Arts St. John Passion

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Tonight was the first rehearsal with the full complement of musicians for the St. John Passion. Performances are Friday night at Plymouth Congregational Church in Seattle 7pm and Saturday night at St. Leo's Church in Tacoma 8pm. The soloists were all amazing and the rehearsal got me excited about performing this piece again. I brought my camera and took some photos of the rehearsal that just might be in the paper some time soon. More »

March 9, 2008 at 9:35pm

52PP:10 Dennis Johnson

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Dennis is a hight school biology/chemistry teacher and my father in law. He has passion for plants and the outdoors which I tried to show in these portraits. Some of them were taken at wild woods park in Puyallup and the others were taken in the green house that Dennis build a few years ago. More »

March 7, 2008 at 9:13am

Deer in our Backyard

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Yesterday Holly saw three different deer in our backyard in the morning after I had left for work. She snapped some photos and showed them to me when I got home. This morning as I was eating breakfast we had our second deer sighting in two days. I ran upstairs to take photos from the 2nd story to get a better view. We saw two young deer happily munching on the new green shoots from a few of the bushes in our back yard. It was a pretty amazing sighting considering our proximity to the city. More »

March 2, 2008 at 2:55pm

52PP:9 Justin Foster

photos(26) / comments(3)

Justin is currently the VP of Professional Services at WhatCounts an email marketing company in Seattle. We tried to make some corporate business photos with the goal of sprucing up my portfolio as well and getting Justin some images he could use. Once Justin relaxed and started to have fun the photos began to happen. These were shot at the Olympic Sculpture Park and in an alley near Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle. More »

February 25, 2008 at 6:44pm

52PP:8 U W Students

photos(14) / comments(2)

For week 8 my portrait subjects were some students at the University of Washington all outside enjoying some of the amazing weather we had this past weekend. I had an hour to kill since Holly was attending a class on our way back from snowboarding. I was great to just wander the campus looking for good photos. All of these portraits were taken with permission and without any lighting gear. Let me know what you think. More »

February 23, 2008 at 11:02pm

Dennis turns 60

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My father-in-law turned 60 this weekend and his family surprised him with a 50's diner themed party. Dennis had been thrown off by the previous nights "fake" little party an another family get together. Brett and Megumi had kept Dennis occupied for the afternoon as all of the decorations and work was done to the house. He arrived and was greeted by Ginger, Holly and my mother Nancy in poodle skirts to escort him inside the house where the rest of the guest waited inside. There was great music, three blenders cranking out vanilla and chocolate shakes, and cheese burgers with all the fixings. Holly put together a great slide show of photos of Dennis from baby photo through childhood and on to being a Dad. More »

February 18, 2008 at 8:51pm

52PP:7 Kevin Freitas

photos(45) / comments(8)

Blogger/Photographer Kevin is quite the blogger and has been blogging before blog was even a word. His site kevinfreitas.net just recently celebrated its 10th year online and Kevin leads the FeedTacoma.com crew blogging everything Tacoma. Kevin is an amazingly talented photographer with an eye for design and all around great guy who I'm proud to call my friend. With all of Kevin's blogging I thought it would be fun to put him with his laptop and camera in a gritty downtown Tacoma setting. We ended up touring most of the Tacoma icons and got what I think are some pretty cool photos. More »

February 11, 2008 at 8:48pm

52PP:6 Shooting Myself

photos(3) / comments(0)

I am a day late and without a proper subject but at least I got some photos up. Here are a few self portraits that are harder to take than I thought it would be. I thought I would take some pictures of how I might look taking a picture. I added a few hard lights to the mix and a blue gel one one side. The model leaves a bit to be desired but it will have to do in a pinch. One of the shots the focus was completely off but it turned out to be my favorite. More »

February 9, 2008 at 8:40am

Uptown Glass Works

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Last Monday a friend of mine from work invited me to shoot some photos of a glass blowing class that he has been taking at Uptown Glass Works in Renton. It was interesting to watch the molten glass on the end of a metal rod be slowly worked into a bowl or vase by a team of guys. If you have never seen glass being blown it is quite the process to watch and learn from. The amazingly hot ovens gave off this orange glow that added a lot of warmth to the photos. All of the guys were friendly and seemed to be having a good time creating their art. The gallery was filled with some amazing pieces well worth the stop if you are in downtown Renton some time. More »

February 3, 2008 at 10:20am

52PP:5 Josef Fukano

photos(5) / comments(1)

Josef Fukano / Break Dancer Josef has some amazing moves. During the first part of the shoot he was spinning on his hands and head so quickly that I could not capture it with my camera. After I asked him he slowed down and did some poses for me. Thanks to Josef for repeating the same poses over and over while I tried to get the light and camera angel just right. Here are a few of the shots that I thought were worth posting. More »

February 2, 2008 at 10:13pm

Carla, Byron and Max

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This morning I headed over to Carla's house to take some portraits of her son Max. Max is 18 months old and has tons of energy. We set up a backdrop and lights in the living room all of which Max was very interested in playing with and we tried to get some shots of Max. This was my first time photographing someone Max's age and it was challenging. Max pretty much ran the schedule and I followed around with my camera. We took went inside and outside taking tons of photos of Max being Max. More »

January 28, 2008 at 8:19pm

52PP:4 Maia

photos(12) / comments(2)

One month down only 11 to go! Here is Maia she is almost 6 months old and already so photogenic. Sarah and Marcus are two proud and loving parents with one cute little daughter. It was a pleasure to take Maia's portrait. More »

January 20, 2008 at 9:51pm

52PP:3 Megan, Josh and Sean

photos(14) / comments(3)

Some family portraits for week three of my portrait project. Megan, Josh, and Sean were gracious enough to let me shoot some outdoor portraits in Tacoma of them. There was a freezing cold wind on the waterfront so we only stayed as long as we could stand before rushing back to the car and then heading for a less windy spot next to the museum of glass. Thanks for being such a great trooper Sean. More »

January 20, 2008 at 8:45pm

A Mediterranean Murder

photos(17) / comments(3)

Last night Holly, Matt and I hosted a Mediterranean themed murder mystery dinner in order to celebrate Kelly's (Matt's wife) birthday. There were 10 guests each playing a part of a crew member aboard a cruise ship all with puny names. I played Bary Glitter the ships entertainer, Holly was Fifi Galores a chorus girl. It was everyones first murder mystery dinner so we took it slow and everyone figured out the event together. There were several courses for dinner each with its own set of clues. The clues let the story unfold and gave everyone the chance to roll play their characters a bit. More »

January 19, 2008 at 6:49pm

Northwest Trek

photos(44) / comments(0)

I had the pleasure of shooting photos at Northwest Trek for Metro Parks with the goal of getting photos of people enjoying the animals. The weather was quite overcast and rained a little bit on us but not enough to send me packing. The photos were quite the challenge since I was at times trying to take photos of animals and kids in the same frame. The kids seemed more interested in me with my lights and large camera than the wolves and wolverines that I was shooting them with. If you have not been to Northwest Trek I think you should give it a try. The staff was friendly and the animals were great to see up close. More »

January 13, 2008 at 10:17pm

52PP:2 Matt Turner

photos(8) / comments(3)

Matt Turner / 3D Artist / Matt's Studio Here is my second offering for my portrait project. This is my good friend Matt Turner a lover of hot sauce, computer animation and his recently married wife Kelly. Matt was willing to try anything from laying on the floor with his head arched up like a seal for long chunks of time to his adoring looks at SPAM. I had great time taking photos of him. We included a bit of his recent artwork for his demo reel. Go check it out. More »

January 5, 2008 at 2:01pm

52PP:1 Kerri Beebe

photos(3) / comments(5)

Kerri Beebe / Pianist / Studio This is week one of my 52 Portrait Project (52PP) and Kerri Beebe a friend of my wife's stopped by and agreed to have some photos of her taken. Kerri needed some head shots to use in program notes for her upcoming performances. She is currently studying to get her masters in a piano performance and pedagogy program at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and has a new studio called Capriccio Piano Studio in Dallas as well More »

December 30, 2007 at 9:39am

My 52 Portrait Project

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As we are about to start the 2008 year off I have decided to attempt my first 52 project. What is a 52 project you ask? Basically it is a project that you complete in 52 pieces usually one a week for a year. So I'm going to take and post to this site, one (hopefully interesting and creative) portrait a week for each week of 2008. My 52 Portrait Project Rules: 1) One portrait per week to be posted by the time I go to bed on Sunday Night. (weeks start on Monday and end on Sunday night). More »

December 29, 2007 at 10:39am

Cora and Violin

photos(38) / comments(3)

Last night I had the chance to take some portraits for and old college friend of mine Cora Foster. Holly and I had a great salmon dinner that Cora prepared and then Holly helped Cora and I shoot some photos for her violin teaching/gig website. Cora is an amazing violinist and I think that she would be a great teacher. We had fun trying to come up with some edgy artsy photos. I think that we got some fun shots and a good variety considering we were in here home the whole time. Next time we will have to try some location shooting. More »

December 24, 2007 at 11:43pm

Merry Christmas

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Each year seems to pass by more quickly, and time never allows us to see loved ones as much as we'd like. As the New Year approaches, we look forward to reading your letters and catching up a bit. We want to share with you some of our highlights from 2007. Leo and Max have taken over the house. We now own five lint rollers, and have considered purchasing more. We also have two failsafe alarm clocks, one set on "meow while standing on chest" the other on "burrow under covers and bite toes." But really, we love them dearly. More »

December 16, 2007 at 12:29pm

A Choral Arts Christmas

photos(10) / comments(1)

Last night was the final performance for the 2007 year of Choral Arts. The season has started off strong with our new director Robert Bode. I enjoyed last nights performance and look forward to our next two concerts. Here are a few songs from last nights performance titled "In the Silence" along with most of "O Nata Lux". Filming was done by my father-in-law Dennis Johnson. Not too bad for his first time behind the camera. More »

December 10, 2007 at 11:32pm

Holly's 30th Birthday Weekend

photos(38) / comments(1)

My lovely wife turned 30 last weekend and boy did we celebrate. Holly's mother came over on Thrusday the 6th for Holly's actual birthday where she gave Holly her birthday presents and we all enjoyed some ice-cream cake. I took Holly to dinner at Salty's to celebrate her birthday and her student teaching coming to a close. On Saturday we had a great wine tasting party hosted by our friend Kelly May Kirkland. Kelly did an amazing job and organized 6 dessert wines with corresponding dessert pairings for everyone to taste and rate. We had about a dozen people at the party. More »

December 4, 2007 at 9:08pm

Zoolights - Point Defiance Zoo

photos(25) / comments(2)

I had the opportunity to shoot Zoolights tonight at the Point Defiance Zoo. The weather was a bit iffy but we decided to do the shoot anyway. I arrived at the zoo around 5pm and was greeted by Sheelah who guided me around the park and even stood in as a model for a few shots. Thanks for the help Sheelah. I started to rain for just a bit about half way through the shoot and I thought I was going to have to come back another time to finish. But it stopped as quick as it started and I was able to get most of the shots that I wanted. More »

November 25, 2007 at 8:27pm

Self Portrait

photos(1) / comments(3)

I was a bit board today and wanted to practice some portrait lighting. So I decided to use the only person who would not complain about the photographer. Here is one of the shots that I pulled out of the bunch. This was also a bit of a photoshop exercise for me as well. You know, ya gotta look you best for the web. This was shot in my kitchen with a sheet of poster board over the window as a backdrop. More »

November 22, 2007 at 10:00pm

Turkey Trot

photos(130) / comments(3)

Thanksgiving day for Holly and I started rather early as we drove over to the Turkey Trot put on by Metro Parks. The Turkey Trot is a family fun run event with a 5k run, a shorter walk and a kids dash. It has been running for 12 years now and I was asked to shoot photos for the event. Holly signed up to do the walk so she would have something to do while I was working so we could leave directly for my mothers house is Shelton WA. The Trot was great fun. Several people had thanksgiving costumes and there were over twelve hundred people who signed up for the event. More »

November 19, 2007 at 10:51pm

Ollie

photos(19) / comments(2)

I recently heard that my family dog was hit by a car and killed. Ollie was a black toy poodle that we got when I was living back in Montana and going to Jr. High. He was thirteen years old when he died having slowed down a bit but still full of life. We we went to pick a dog from a new litter Ollie followed Tad around the room and wouldn't let him out of his sight. Once he was large enough to get a tennis ball into his mouth he always had one there. More »

November 12, 2007 at 9:05pm

Fort Nisqually Living History Museum

photos(87) / comments(8)

This past Saturday I had the pleasure to shoot photos for Metro Parks Tacoma for the second time at Fort Nisqually in Point Defiance Park in Tacoma. The fort had a frontier feel to it with dozens of volunteers dressed in period clothes showing off trades of the times. There was a blacksmith, some women spinning wool, cooking, carving, and woodworking. It felt a bit like one had stepped back in time. With tons of great photo opportunities the time flew by and here are some of the 423 photos that I took for the event. More »

November 7, 2007 at 10:51pm

Panoramas

photos(4) / comments(0)

Just reprocessing a few of my old photos into panoramas tonight. I really like the wide format and need to take some more of these type of shots. All of these are from 2005 odd enough. More »

November 5, 2007 at 9:22pm

Choral Arts: To Walla Walla and Back

photos(54) / comments(0)

Yesterday was spent traveling from Renton WA to Walla Walla WA, singing and then heading back for a total of 548 miles. I was able to carpool with friend and fellow tenor Layne who drove his trusty gray VW Beetle. We were having a grand time with the tunes cranked and enjoying the sun rising as the terrain rolled on in front of us. We realized about twenty miles after Ellensberg that we had missed our turn off I-90 onto 82. With a quick consult to the map and a little spirit of adventure we decided to press on to Vantage and take the 243 south as an alternate route. The route we chose took us down the Columbia River valley past many grape and fruit tree fields and through a dry barren section before getting to Richland. More »

November 3, 2007 at 11:55pm

Rollin' with Matt

photos(41) / comments(0)

Matt Turner turned 29 recently and we celebrated by going to Tiffany's Roller stating rink in Puyallup. As I was walking in to the rink the smell of the place brought back all sorts of middle school memories. They played the chicken dance, YMCA, and the hokey pokey. It was as if I had stepped back in time. For the hokey pokey Matt had to stand in the center of the circle with five other kids each celebrating their 10th or 12th birthday. It was so much fun. More »

October 31, 2007 at 8:59pm

A Walk on All Hallows Eve

photos(6) / comments(2)

Holly and I went for a little walk tonight around our neighborhood to stretch our legs and get some fresh air. We saw a few houses with decorations up and a carved pumpkin here and there. While we were out for forty five minutes we only saw one kid dressed as a pirate with his mother and father. I remember Halloween as a lively time in my neighborhood growing up. There were all sorts of creatures prowling around looking for candy. Many of them laughing and running from house to house. More »

October 24, 2007 at 11:24am

Wyoming Sunrise

photos(33) / comments(0)

Before the sun rose on my last day in Wyoming I awoke to take photos with my cousin Skyler who had flown in for the memorial on Tuesday. Skyler is making his living as a painter in New York and we both were excited to catch a bit of that magical sunrise light. With our cameras and coats on we hopped into the car heading from Powell towards Deaver. Skyler had seen a row of five broken VW beatles all in a row on the road the previous day and wanted to get some photos of them. We stopped a few places on the way one of which was a pasture on the side of the road where two horses caught our eye. The sun was just coming over the horizon and the horses walked right into the warm rays of light. More »

October 23, 2007 at 10:39pm

Chester Lewis Zwemer's Memorial

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The obituary as it appeared on the back of the memorial service program.

"Memorial services will be conducted today (Tuesday) at 2 p.m. at the Powell Church of Christ for Chester Lewis Zwemer, 84, Powell, who died peacefully Friday Oct. 19 at New Horizons Care Center in Lovell of complications from diabetes. He was born April 22, 1923, in Frannie to John and Etta Zwemer. He graduated from Deaver Hight School where he participated in all sports. More »

October 22, 2007 at 11:18pm

Preparations for the Memorial

photos(41) / comments(0)

After hearing that my grandfather had passed away on Thursday night I quickly made arrangements to fly to Billings to be with my family and to help with the memorial service. I had quite a time getting there as my first flight attempt was canceled after spending seven hours in the airport waiting including one hour when we were boarded and had to go back off of the plane. My first full day was spent catching up with my extended family. One of my cousins I had not seen for over ten years. It was really wonderful to have lots of family under one roof for a meal again. We also spent a good deal of time sifting through boxes of amazing old family photos. More »

October 14, 2007 at 11:45pm

The Seahawks Defeat

photos(44) / comments(2)

My friend from work, Dion has season tickets to the Seahawks and asked me to go todays game with him. I don't much follow football and have only been to one game last year but I enjoy the spectacle that is an NFL game. The Hawks lost and badly to the Saints. Right out of the gate we had a funble that was recovered and run in by New Orleans. The fans were disgusted and many left before the first half of the game was over. I am amazed at how personal it becomes for many fans when their team is loosing. More »

October 13, 2007 at 8:51am

Create Your Own Sunset

photos(12) / comments(1)

Last night I finally got my camera out to take photos of our beautiful maple that has been turning many shades of red and orange as it looses its leaves. I threw on my longer lens to isolate the leaves and headed out to the front yard after getting home from work. I took some great shots with the sun back lighting the tree but the sun sinks fast and soon its golden light was gone. So I dragged out a flash and put an orange gel over it to simulate that golden sunset light and continued shooting. I had to eventually stop when I could no longer see well enough to manual focus but I feel that I got a few cool additional shots out of my simulated sunlight. It feels good to capture some of the beautiful colors this time of year. More »

October 6, 2007 at 7:48pm

Puget Park Opening

photos(89) / comments(2)

This morning I had a shoot for Metro Parks in Tacoma. They were opening up four newly renovated parks and were holding a ribbon cutting ceremony at Puget Park. The park is located at the corner of N 31st St. and N Proctor St. I was a bit worried that it would rain and prevent kids from showing up to the opening. The weather turned out to be great for a fall morning. More »

September 24, 2007 at 4:45pm

Luke - Senior Portrait

photos(25) / comments(4)

Yesterday was a busy day which in retrospect is the reason why I have not felt so well today. I took photos on a boat of Byron wakeboarding, then took photos at a Choral Arts function, and finally shot a senior portrait session with Luke in Olympia. My brother's girlfriend Jen set up the shoot through someone she works with. We arrived at Luke's house to find a beautiful backyard full of great backdrops. Just after setting up a bit of wind caught my light stand and sent it crashing over. There was not much damage but a shoe off my favorite flash got broken. More »

September 24, 2007 at 4:11pm

Choral Arts at The Ruins

photos(50) / comments(0)

Yesterday I had the pleasure of taking photos for Choral Arts at a donors event at the Ruins near the Seattle Center. Upon setting foot in The Ruins it was quite an adventure. Each room was beautifully decorated with paintings and great antiques everywhere. It felt a bit as if we had stepped back in time. Robert Bode was introduced as the new Artistic Director and there was a wonderful performance by a young tenor new to the area. There was great food, drink and conversation about the exciting future of our group. More »

September 23, 2007 at 10:50pm

Wakeboarding Photoshoot

photos(80) / comments(2)

Carla and I have been trying to coordinate our schedules to get me out on her boat taking some photos of them wake boarding. It finally happened early this morning on Lake Washington. I met up with Carla, her husband Byron, son Max, and a family friend at the water and within a few minutes we were off. Byron was a brave man to get into the cold water and it didn't take long for him to pop back up on the wakeboard and begin tearing up some water. I had great fun snapping photos in an effort to capture some of the action and to freeze the water. I think we got a few good shots and I learned what I could do to improve if given another opportunity. More »

September 12, 2007 at 5:21pm

Portraits at Greenlake of Chrissie Graham

photos(47) / comments(1)

Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of meeting up with a college friend of mine in order to take some portraits of her. The portraits are mainly for my portfolio but I think Chrissie will be able to use them for some other things as well. I arrived at Greenlake thirty minutes early to scout out some good places to shoot. When Chrissie arrived we walked around to the north side of the park where I had found a great little cove of trees that provided some back light from the sun and great green cover all around. We shot some photos there and then headed back to the east side of the lake for some photos on the dock. Next it was back to some giant trees for a few ambient light only photos and some crazy hair toss shots. More »

September 9, 2007 at 8:40pm

Gerrin Inman the "Talent"

photos(42) / comments(3)

This afternoon I had the pleasure of shooting some portraits of a friend from work. Gerrin is a great guy who graduated with me from PLU in the computer science program. Somehow we got hired to Boeing a few weeks apart four or so years ago and have been friends since. We headed over to Seward Park to take some shots of Gerrin. We walked around the loop and stopped in four or so locations to shoot each with different backgrounds and different lighting. Gerrin took it all in stride as I kept teasing him about being the "Talent" of the shoot. More »

September 9, 2007 at 8:38am

Cora and Justin's Wedding Reception

photos(103) / comments(0)

Yesterday afternoon Holly and I headed over to Cora and Justin's house for their wedding reception. They got married on August 14 in St. John (U.S. Virgin Islands) right on the beach where they got engaged. How romantic! The reception had a tropical theme and the house had been decorated up with photos from the wedding covering the walls along with maps, wedding programs, and tables full of photo albums. More »

August 28, 2007 at 7:22am

Max - Specular Highlight Photo

photos(4) / comments(2)

This weekend I took a few photos of my cat Max for the strobist lighting 102 assignment. After reading it again I should have taken a photo of a person but the principle and exercise was still good for me. The technique that we were supposed to practice and use for this exercise involves a bit of geometry and understanding of a specular reflection. It is laid out pretty well in the assignment but I'll take a stab at explaining it. This technique uses one light to light both the subject and the background. The background should be dark and fairly smooth (ie wood, leather paneling, dark headboard of a bed). More »

August 19, 2007 at 10:23pm

Last Day at Sea

photos(22) / comments(0)

With the wedding now over and the tightly scheduled day on Cozumel Holly and I were looking forward to a little rest and relaxation, a day without plans. We slept in a bit, had a lazy breakfast on the edge of the boat watching the blue gulf waters wash past us. It was great. Around noon I decided to try out the miniature golf course on the top deck with some of our new friends from the wedding party. After a few phone calls we had a group of six of us ready to play some mini-golf. There was an added element of difficulty with this particular course given that it was on a boat. More »

August 18, 2007 at 10:38pm

Cozumel by Jeep

photos(47) / comments(0)

Holly and I had only a single day in Cozumel and we had decided to book an excersion through carnival. We chose the one titled "Amazing Snorkeling, Ruins and Lighthouse View". We started the tour at the docks just after 10am in the morning. We met our two enthusiastic guides and then split into groups of four. We teamed up with a mother and son pair who were great company. Each group got into their own jeep and tuned their radio to 88.1 where our guide would be broadcasting a running commentary and directions during the trip. More »

August 17, 2007 at 11:08pm

The Wedding of Mandi and Paul

photos(243) / comments(3)

On the wedding day I got up and got ready early in order to scout the final locations of the photos. Since this was my first attempt at shooting a wedding solo I wanted to be as prepared as I could be. I wandered the boat and found several cool places to take photos and then grabbed a good breakfast since I would not be eating until the wedding was over. I met Mandi and Paul in their suite just as Molly (Mandi's sister) was doing Mandi's hair. I hung out with them and shot several prep photos of Mandi and Paul getting dressed and ready for their big day. Once ready both Mandi and Paul looked great and Holly had arrived to help me carry gear and to be an extra set of eyes looking for better poses. More »

August 16, 2007 at 11:20pm

Boarding the Fantasy

photos(64) / comments(0)

After a great day in New Orleans we started the next part of our journey. The cruise. A group of us who had stayed at the hotel all piled into a small bus to get dropped of at the boat. We waited in several lines for the check in process. One of which was the security line much like the airports. With all of my photo gear in toe they had a heck of a time letting me through. More »

August 16, 2007 at 8:30am

New Orleans in one Day

photos(55) / comments(0)

We are packing to check out of our room in the French Quarter this morning so this will be quick. Yesterday we got a little taste of the big easy. The highlights include some traditional shrimp complete with heads and skin. Not quite what I was expecting for lunch but interesting all the same. A stroll down Bourbon Ave. quite tacky but I can imagine the party scene at night from the size of the drink glasses and the frequency of the bars. More »

August 15, 2007 at 8:27am

Arrival in New Orleans

photos(8) / comments(1)

Holly and I arrived last night in New Orleans for the start of our vacation. We spent most of the day on the plane or in an airport so were glad to get to our room. We are staying at the Bienville House in the French Quarter one block from the Mississippi river. It is hot and humid here and we have just finished our list of things to explore in the French Quarter. While on the second flight of our trip yesterday we had an interesting experience on the plane. Just after the flight attendant gave us our drinks we started to hit some turbulence. More »

August 11, 2007 at 10:52pm

Choral Arts Summer Party

photos(60) / comments(2)

With the selection of a new director for Choral Arts, Robert Bode, we decided to have a summer get together. Lorin Wingate was a gracious enough to offer up his beautiful home on Bainbridge island for the party. It took a bit of travel to get there but after a ferry and getting a ride from Lorin I finally arrived. There was great food, drink, company, dessert and weather for the event. I did a bit of photographic practice and spent much of my time taking photos of the event. Below are a few photos that I thought worth posting. More »

July 22, 2007 at 10:14am

White Salmon River Raft Trip

photos(22) / comments(1)

For many years my mother has wanted to take her three sons white river rafting and we were finally able to make it happen. Upon recommendation from a buddy of Tad's we decided to go with a company called Wet Planet. We showed up in our swimsuits and they geared us up with wet-suits, helmets, boots, paddles and life vests. With a full boat of seven (Tyson, Jen, Mom, Tad, Holly, Myself and our guide) we headed off. We had a 15 minute lesson on how to paddle together forward and backward and then we hit our first class 4 stretch called tripple drop. It was great fun! More »

July 14, 2007 at 10:54pm

Kent Cornucopia Days

photos(20) / comments(2)

Tonight Kyle and Lindsay invited us over to their newly built house to check the place out and then to attend the Kent Cornucopia Days with them. First off the new house is amazing with a super cool fireplace in the master bedroom and a great layout for the downstairs. Sort of makes me want a bigger place. So after checking out their new house we drove down into Kent to check out the Kent summer fair thats called "Kent Cornucopia Days". There was lots of tents set up along the downtown streets with clothes, jewelry, balloons, hemp tattoos, and all sorts of other random booths. Some of the signs made me laugh out loud. More »

July 12, 2007 at 10:57pm

Olson Family Portrait Session

photos(26) / comments(1)

This evening I was able to practice my first family portrait shoot of Holly's cousin's family. Christine, her husband Kerm, and their two kids Bo and Abby all dressed in white looked great. We met at the Tacoma lawn and tennis club which is where they spend many of their summer days together and holds many fond memories for them. We tried several poses and I was pleased with the results. I hope the Olsons enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them. What a handsome family. More »

July 4, 2007 at 11:45pm

Freedom Fair, BBQ, and Fireworks

photos(156) / comments(0)

My fourth of July was divided into two major parts this year. For the first half Holly, my mother, and I met in North Tacoma to walk down to the waterfront for Tacoma's Freedom Fair. We have been a few times before and I think it is a lot of fun to go. They have lots of fair type food, Corn on the cob, lemonade, ice-cream, to name a few. They also have lots of other booths selling crafts and an assortment of folks playing music or entertaining. But the main reason that I like to go is for the airshow. More »

July 3, 2007 at 6:20pm

Cleaning My Camera's Sensor

photos(6) / comments(0)

In preparation for the 4th of July fireworks where I will be taking photos of lots of sky I decided to attempt to clean my camera sensor with the copperhill cleaning method that I had stumbled upon the internet. I purchased their $30 basic cleaning kit with Pec pads, elicpse cleaning solution and a little sensor swipe. The problem is that with a digital SLR camera that can have its lens removed is that you will eventually get some specs of dust on the piece of glass that covers the sensor. These specs can only be seen when the aperature is at its smallest. F-stop 16 to 22 is usually a good place to find them and when you shoot against a uniform bright background they will right jump out at you(ie the sky or a white wall). More »

June 24, 2007 at 10:40pm

My 29th Birthday Party

photos(30) / comments(1)

In order to celebrate my 29th birthday Holly invited Kevin, Sarah, Matt and Kelly over to go on a hike. Since I am a rather fair weather hiker and it was raining pretty hard we decided to have a BBQ and play games instead. I put the grill to good use and made some hamburgers for everyone and Holly made some rather tasty mojitos using the mint that we had gotten from the previous day. After feeding we all gathered around to try out the interactive dvd trivia game "Scene It". It was a good time but there were quite a few questions where we all just let the timer run out with blank expressions on our faces. I guess it is harder when some of the questions are about tv shows that were playing before you were born. More »

June 23, 2007 at 10:23pm

Whistling Train Farm

photos(4) / comments(0)

Holly and I have signed up to do support some local farmers by purchasing a share of their crop for the summer. Truth be told this was Holly's idea and I was just along for the ride. So we headed down to Kent to the Whistling Train Farm to pick up our produce. We eventually found the place and no one was there to help us pick up our food. We did find some particularly picked over bins of veggies and eventually got to talk to the owners. They explained that the first week was usually a confusing one and that there had been a rush on the food earlier in the day. More »

June 15, 2007 at 2:59pm

Jamie Balducci Maternity Photos

photos(43) / comments(1)

Tonight Holly and I went over to the Balducci's house for some pizza, to get caught up on each others lives and for me to shoot some maternity photos of Jamie. Jamie is due on the 6th of July and has the tummy to prove it. We all had a good time shooting photos and came up with some keepers for Jamie and Anthony. Some of which I'll be adding to my portfolio and using to try to convince other people I really know what I'm doing with the camera in my hands. Thanks Jamie for being my test subject and I hope to shoot some newborn Balducci photos soon. More »

June 5, 2007 at 6:38pm

Potential Improvement

photos(1) / comments(2)

Ever since I discovered the strobist and David Hobby (the author) started his "Reader Hotshots" I have had the goal of having one of my photos selected. Well that day has come and I'm proud to say that my most recent photo entitled "Potential" has made the cut. I realize that this is a small achievement but it is something I am excited about none the less. So here is a copy of that photo along with a link to my flickr stream where I currently submit all of my strobist photos into the pool. Check out the Reader Hotshots if you have time. There are some quite amazing photos in there. More »

June 2, 2007 at 11:17pm

The Dance Academy Recital

photos(77) / comments(1)

Holly has been teaching ballet and jazz to three different classes at the Dance Academy for the first time this year. Tonight I got to take photos of the culmination of the yea the dance recital. The recital was in two separate performances. The first was the wee little kids who all look cute as a button in their puppy and rain hat costumes as they try to keep up with the music and are a bit wide eyed being on stage for the first time. The second was the older more advanced dancers who for the first half of their show performed their rendition of Cinderella. The second half was different classes performing decades of dance. More »

May 27, 2007 at 11:05pm

Dinner at Ray's Boathouse

photos(12) / comments(0)

To celebrate our Memorial Day weekend Holly and I were originally going to take a road trip and stay in a bed and breakfast. We were unable to book anyplace that we really wanted to stay so instead we treated ourselves to a massage and a fancy dinner and Ray's Boathouse. The massage that we had was at The Dream Clinic in north Seattle. I would go there again as they had reasonable prices and you got quite a good massage. Now I'll admit that I'm no massage expert having only a handful in my lifetime but this was the best one that I have had. On to dinner. More »

May 19, 2007 at 11:03pm

Strobist practice with Dion

photos(17) / comments(0)

Dion and I had a little strobist practice today over and his house. We started out trying to emulate one of the on assignment articles that David Hobby had written about how he had shot and lit a cake. We didn't have a cake but did manage to find a cool little tea set that Dion had recently acquired that was also the same yellow and white of the cake we were trying to emulate. In the Spring Desserts article David Hobby had placed the cake on a table with a window behind it. He then placed a flash on a stand with an orange gel over the flash which makes the flashes usually white light the same orange color as a regular tungsten light bulb. He then set the camera's white balance to tungsten which makes the orange light of the flash seem white and the light coming in from the window behind seem blue. More »

May 12, 2007 at 12:00am

Matt and Kelly's Reception

photos(98) / comments(0)

After printing a photo of Kelly and Matt of their wedding the previous night, Holly and I drove to a Park north of Seattle on the Sound for the wedding reception. We headed to the banquet hall and helped set up for the guests. After setting up the Kelly and Matt's guests arrived. There were lots of extended family, friends and great food. The reception included brunch, some great toasts by Kevin, Mandi, and a real tear jerker by Kelly's father. After the Brunch there were many games to be played. More »

May 11, 2007 at 11:01pm

The Wedding of Matt Turner and Kelly Kirkland

photos(84) / comments(2)

I took the day off work to help out with Matt and Kelly's wedding day. I had planned on sleeping in but the kitties would not hear of it. Since I was up early anyways I decided to wash my car since it was in need of a good spring cleaning. I washed myself up after the car and Kevin and I headed over to meet the groom and lend a hand. We arrived at Matt and Kelly's house loaded up my car with wedding video gear for the reception the following day and followed Matt and Kieth (Kelly's brother) over to a pool hall in Seattle to meet up with the other guys and kill a bit of time drinking and shooting pool. I played one game and got beat soundly by Kelly's father and then had a great time shooting pictures of the other guys games. More »

May 10, 2007 at 9:40pm

Matt and Kelly's Rehearsal Dinner

photos(39) / comments(0)

Tonight I participated as a groomsman in Matt Turner and Kelly Kirkland's rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal came first at the Woodland Park Zoo just north of downtown Seattle. Kevin, Sarah and I arrived quite a bit early and got to walk around the zoo and check out the gorillas, penguins and a bit of tropical birds. It was quite amazing to see the gorillas playing with one another. After we found the rest of the wedding party waiting outside for us the rehearsal went into full swing. Complete with imaginary table and real wedding props we walked through the ceremony a total of two times. More »

May 5, 2007 at 10:35pm

Little Portraits

photos(23) / comments(0)

On Saturday I headed over to my buddy Dion's house to shoot some photos of his son Harry. Some other mothers showed up with their kids for a grand total of three baby subjects volunteers. Dion had set up a make shift studio and we happily clicked away learning a bit about lighting as we went. I think I came away with a better understanding of what shooting baby portraits is about and maybe got a few shots for the portfolio. Here is the fruit of my labor. Let me know what you think. More »

April 28, 2007 at 8:12pm

Max being Max

photos(1) / comments(1)

While cleaning today I happened to open the closet where we keep, among other things toilet paper. When I returned to close the closet door I was greeted by our cat Max doing his "lets see if I can fit into this" thing. So I ran and grabbed this cute photo of the little guy. More »

April 22, 2007 at 8:45pm

The Tulip Festival

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Today I spent the day with my mother. We headed up to Mt. Vernon with cameras in hand to get some pictures of the tulip festival. The weather started a bit threatening but turned out to be a great day. The clouds cleared and by mid afternoon we were warm in the sun. This being my second trip to the Tulip festival I knew what I would be getting myself into but was amazed again by how beautiful the fields of tulips can be. More »

February 18, 2007 at 8:49pm

Tide Flats with TPG

photos(87) / comments(3)

I saw a post on kevinfreitas.net earlier in the week about a group of Tacoma photographers getting together to take some shots of the tide flats. So not having taken any photos for a couple of weeks I jumped at the idea even though I was feeling a bit under the weather. We started out at an old abandon drawbridge and worked our way under and over it taking photos of lots of gritty things. Someone in the group of us took a group shot of everyone standing in front of the bridge which should be a pretty cool shot to see. I found an abandon white livingroom chair under the bridge falling apart that looked like someone had set it up to use recently. It made for a great subject and I spend a good chunk of time shooting it. More »

January 27, 2007 at 11:48pm

Know when to Hold'em

photos(21) / comments(0)

Holly competed for the first time in a Texas Hold'em tournament put on by my friend Carter and his friend Cameron. Folks gathered around 6 at Cameron's house and the first hands were underway by 7pm. Before arriving since Holly had never played Texas Hold'em seriously (ie for money) I walked her through a few hands so she would have a bit of time to digest the game without lots of people there to watch. We stepped through five or so hands playing for butterscotch chips and she had it. Back to the tournament. There were about 35 players or so and everyone was in with $15 to get their stack of $1000 worth of chips. More »

January 25, 2007 at 11:40pm

Megumi Performs with UW Orchestra

photos(16) / comments(0)

Tonight Holly and I went to hear Megumi (my sister in law) play a saxophone concerto with the University of Washington Orchestra. The concert included a cellist, a flautist, and a pianist also performing with the Orchestra. Megumi was the second to perform and was great. She had a smooth tone and amazing control of phrases and the piece. It was a pleasure to listen to. With a quick congrats out in the lobby we got to meet Megumi's saxophone teacher, snap a few photos and head back home. More »

January 20, 2007 at 11:10pm

Kelly's 30th

photos(36) / comments(2)

My friend Kelly turned the big 30 and had a great bowling party at West Seattle Bowl. I had not gone bowling for at least a year but managed to score pretty well. I got the turkey (three strikes) in my second game. What a turkey has to do with getting three strikes is still beyond me but I'll take it. Holly and I had good time throwing balls at the pins and meeting some nice friends of Kelly's. After bowling we were to walk a few blocks to Cupcake Royal to get some birthday cupcakes. More »

January 20, 2007 at 4:27pm

Moms Got a New Car

photos(13) / comments(0)

My mother stopped by today on her way from a class up north to say hi and show me her new car. This is the first new car she has ever owned and I think now she will be forced to stop giving me a bad time for always washing my car. She didn't want to take photos of in because of all of the dirt on the car but I managed to persuade her to pose with her car. Congrats Mom on your new purchase. I for one am glad you are now driving a more reliable vehicle. We'll have to take more photos when its clean next time. More »

January 10, 2007 at 11:00pm

Walk in the Snow

photos(10) / comments(2)

Snow is falling again here in Renton. We got about 5 inches so far and Holly and I took a late evening stroll since my choral rehearsal and her dance class were canceled. The snow always reminds me of growing up in Montana and it was great just to get out and be in it. The quite and bright evening was a walk down memory lane for me. When we returned I recruited Holly to be a second light stand and I took some flash photos of the tree out front. They were taken quickly as the snow was still falling and as a general rule is not good for camera gear. More »

December 24, 2006 at 9:04pm

Christmas with the Jensen Family

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Holly and I did our traditional house hopping during the Christmas season this year. We spend the first part of the holiday with my side of the family at my mothers house near Shelton WA. My brothers Tyson and Tad were there along with Tyson's girlfriend Jen and my Mom. We arrived in the afternoon on Sunday, Christmas Eve with a car full of gifts and food. My mother made a wonderful turkey on the BBQ which was super easy to clean up and tasted great. There were cookies, candy, sweet bread among other treats all over the kitchen from which to snack on. More »

December 18, 2006 at 9:31pm

Strobist Challenge: Water

photos(6) / comments(2)

Below are some highlights of the photos that I took for the strobist bootcamp: water. I used a mirror laid on the table in my kitchen that was sprayed with a bunch of water to start off. There were two flashes used. The first was pointed at the bottle of water to light the label the second I set an empty blue wine bottle on the top of the flash pointing up. This way the second light gave the room a dark blue glow and shown up very well in the mirror. I'm having a great time completing these assignments and feel that I am learning some photography tricks along the way. More »

December 15, 2006 at 11:56pm

Paul Kawabori In Concert

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I had the pleasure of seeing my good friend Paul Kawabori perform at a small church in Mukilteo Washington. Paul has released his first CD this past summer and has been working his way up the adult contemporary charts and was at position 18 the last time I checked. Paul's wife Amy was delayed in getting to the concert but finally arrived about half way through. Paul stopped in between songs to give her a hug. I managed to get a few shots of the impromptu embrace. Paul sang a number of Christmas songs, classical, traditional and threw in his hit song "Don't Stop Now" which blew the hair back of some of the congregation members but I thought it was great. More »

November 26, 2006 at 6:27pm

Holly's Portrait

photos(14) / comments(3)

Tonight I got the chance to set up and shoot some photos of my wife. She needed a headshot for a new job teaching dance and I have been itching to try out some new lighting tricks I have read about. Before we got started the new kitten Max got on the chair and I was able to get a few shots off of him. Man they get big fast. We got off to a rocky start but after some chocolate and music Holly was ready to snap some photos. It can be a nerve racking experience to have a camera umbrellas and lights all pointing at you driven by a guy who is still learning what he is doing. More »

November 23, 2006 at 11:07pm

My Thanksgiving

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My Thanksgiving this year was spent at the Johnson's house with the Schaffeur side of the family (Holly's mothers side of her family). Carol did most of the cooking and boy was the food great. She had a wonderful table setting with a beautiful centerpiece of which I spent some time shooting. There was all sorts of food. Some of my favorites include the potato rolls, fresh cranberry sauce provided by grandma Alice, and the apple and quince pie that Holly made for desert. Near the end of the evening being that I'm a budding strobist. More »

November 19, 2006 at 4:39pm

Meet Max

photos(13) / comments(5)

Well we have decided to name our second and final kitty Max. He comes from the Bellevue Humane Society, is two months old, and weighs in at just over two pounds. Our hope is that Max and Leo can become the best of friends and keep each other company when Holly and I are at work. We have started the introductions and so far Leo seems to just growl and hiss at Max. We had them playing in the same room today for a few hours until it got a little too heated and Leo and Max were taking a few swipes at one another. We have high hopes and this is only day one. More »

November 18, 2006 at 11:09pm

Leo's new Playmate

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Today Holly and I had decided to go to a humane society just outside of Bellevue to look for a possible playmate for Leo. Since we have adopted Leo he has been lots of fun but we were worried that he has been getting too board during the day when we both were away at work. Many people have told us that two cats are better than one. So we decided to try a second cat on for size. Leo's new playmate is 2 months old and was called "Cricket" during his stay at the shelter. We are still working on a better name but we have already fallen for the little spunky guy. More »

November 13, 2006 at 9:01pm

Shooting with my Mother

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This past Saturday I spent time with shooting photos with my mother at her house. She shares an interest in photography and being that I am a bit further along in the learning process I was happy to teach her some fundamentals of exposure. We shot and learned for most of the day and into the evening. I borough along my $10 DIY light box that we used on some random household objects. I also shot some pressed leaves that we lit from behind and boy did the colors pop on some of those shots. My mother had also recently been to the beach and had some shells that were great subjects against a black background. More »

November 5, 2006 at 7:22am

Learning Off-Camera Lighting

photos(37) / comments(1)

Recently I have been reading a great blog called Strobist. The blog is all about using small shoe type flashes off camera and you brain to elevate the quality of light in your photos. I had been on a quest previously to find this sort of information and this is the place to get it. On Strobist the author Dave puts together a "Starving Student" Off-Camera lighting kit. After reading everything I could find on the blog I excitedly decided to get my own kit. The final piece of the kit fell together on Friday night with a great find of a 1990's vintage Nikon flash called the SB-28. More »

October 30, 2006 at 7:50am

Adventures in Lighting

photos(16) / comments(2)

While I've been recently home a lot with the flu I have been scouring the internet for any good information on good flash photography. Well I think I hit the jackpot with this one. The blog is called Strobist and has a lot of great examples of how to use off camera light to increase the quality of your photos. There is a gear list on the site of which I have already ordered my first umbrella and stand. There are also a ton of DIY (Do It Yourself) articles on all sorts of lighting accessories. So while waiting for my new gear to arrive I decided to try my hand at the DIY Macro studio. More »

October 29, 2006 at 11:51pm

3D then Pumpkin Carving

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This afternoon Holly and I spent some time with my friend from work Kyle and his wife Lindsey. We had two events planned, 1. See "The Nightmare Before Christmas" in 3D, and 2. Get and carve some pumpkins. We were able to accomplish both of them with much enjoyment. We caught an afternoon show of the Nightmare Before Christmas. More »

October 7, 2006 at 11:00pm

Oyster Fest 06 - Shelton WA

photos(93) / comments(3)

Today was spent with my Mom, my grandma (Gammie), and Holly. We met about mid morning and went for a run on the Huff and Puff trails in Shelton and then headed over the the Oyster Festival near the airport in Shelton. Being that none of us had ever gone to the festival we didn't know what to expect. We were surprised at the number of people that turned out and Holly and I had quite a walk from our cars to the gate. It cost three bucks to get in to partake in the seafood goodies and other events. The first place that we stopped was at a BBQ oyster stand run by some local boy scouts. More »

September 30, 2006 at 8:53am

28 at the Steak Out

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This past Thursday Evening Holly and I met Kevin, Sarah, Steve and Angela at Gary's Steak Out and Bar in Tacoma on 6th Ave across the street from Chopsticks. The occasion was the 28th Birthday of one Kevin Freitas. We all sat down to a wonderful meal together. I got the 16 ounce New York steak and ended up eating the whole thing. Kevin opened a few presents. We gave him a home made coupon for a lift ticket so we can all go snowboarding together as Kevin is getting into it a bit this year. More »

September 20, 2006 at 6:20pm

Leo at Play

photos(27) / comments(3)

Here is a collection of photos of our kitty Leo at play. The photos were taken at three different times and show how fast kittens can grow. Leo is fitting in great here and is getting to know the house rules. He loves to play with any waistband ties or similar and also enjoys steaking up on me and attacking my leg as I walk by. He has not gotten into too much trouble... Yet. More »

August 17, 2006 at 11:57pm

Back in MT - Lunch with the Grandfolks

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Today we drove into Columbus to meet my grandparents for lunch. It was good to see them in good health and good spirits. My grandfather has been having some passing out episodes the last few years every few months for almost five years now. The doctors have him on some new medication and he has not passed out for over six months which is good news! My grandmother is sharp as a tack and I hope to be in as good of shape as she is when I reach her age. There was a beautiful sunset this evening that I was able to get some photos of as a summer thunder storm moved in. More »

August 16, 2006 at 11:25pm

Back in MT - Deer and the Fleet

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This morning the deer were out so I grabbed the long zoom lens that my buddy Shane had lent me for nature photography on the trip and headed out the door. The first deer I saw was a Doe eating right next to the neighbor’s house while the dog watched the whole thing. Once she saw the dog she slowly crept away. Down closer to the water there were four more females all eating breakfast together and I saw one shy fawn poke its head out of the grass. I spend about an hour shooting the closest Doe who didn’t seem to mind me creeping up on her one step at a time. I got a few funny shots of her with her tongue out which made me laugh. More »

August 15, 2006 at 11:10pm

Back in MT - Air to Air Video

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This morning my Dad wanted to try some air to air video. He has a large powered glider called the Butterfly that has a RF camera mounted on the shoulders of the plane. This allows him to record his flights form the point of view of the plane. So what he wanted to do is to get some footage of my plane in the air with the Butterfly. It is a bit tricky to fly your own RC plane and keep track of where someone else is flying but we were able to do it and we got a few flights recorded with the little white Shockflyer darting about in the frame. It was a lot of fun to watch the footage after the flights as we spotted the Shockflyer each pass around the field. More »

August 14, 2006 at 10:51pm

Back in MT - Mini Funtata Taking Shape

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This morning was spent on another photo talking walk but in a new direction from my Dad’s house. We headed downriver and took a mini tour of some of the neighbors houses and cabins. On the way back we stopped to visit a few friendly horses and then headed home. Once home the remainder of the day was spent in the garage assembling my new electric plane the Mini Funtana. The first task was to strengthen the landing gear supports to make sure the gear does not come off. With a nonstandard motor we had to attach a custom motor mount that my Dad’s friend had supplied. More »

August 13, 2006 at 10:48pm

Back in MT - Seize the Good Weather

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Much of today was spent with my Dad doing a pastime that we both enjoy model RC. Since the air was calm in the morning and rarely is in Nye MT we thought we had better jump on the good weather and make the most of it. My Dad got out the old eagle trainer which I learned to fly on and I grabbed my trusty Zagi and ShockFlyer from out of my car and we were off. I forget the total but it was somewhere around 13 flights for the day. The weather held and we flew on into the early afternoon. It was awesome to fly off of the makeshift model runway right in Dad’s back yard. More »

August 12, 2006 at 9:53pm

Back in MT - Driving to Dad’s

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Today was spent on the road. I pretty much woke up with my car already packed for the trip to Nye MT to visit my father. I got on the road at 6:30 am PST and arrived at my Dads cabin at 8pm MST for a total of 829miles in 13.5 hours. I made a total of 4 stops, three for gas and one to go to the bathroom. I’m a slave driver when it comes to road trips. At any rate it was great to finally get out of the car and my Dad was waiting to give me a hug when I arrived. More »

August 11, 2006 at 6:51am

The New Member in Our Family

photos(29) / comments(3)

Three days ago just as Holly and I had shut the lights out and were headed off to sleep we heard a rustling in our back yard. It sounded like leaves and sticks were being pushed around. After awhile it stopped and we went back to bed. The next night we heard the same rustling but this time it was followed by a small kittens cry. The crying went off and on through the evening but we couldn’t see the kitten making the noise. In the morning I awoke, started my morning routine and after I got out of the shower I saw Holly sitting at the back edge of our back yard smiling. More »

August 5, 2006 at 5:10pm

The Blue Angles

photos(50) / comments(2)

Today Holly and I hopped into the car and headed to Seafair to see the Blue Angles. We took the shuttle from Boeing down to the Genesee Park. I was under the impression that the event would be open to the public and free but was a little shocked when one needed tickets to get down to the water for $30. So we just sat in the park and enjoyed the air show. The Blue Angles were great! ! More »

August 1, 2006 at 12:45pm

Back in MT – Lunch with the Grandfolks

Today we drove into Columbus to meet my grandparents for lunch. It was good to see them in good health and good spirits. My grandfather has been having some passing out episodes the last few years every few months for almost five years now. The doctors have him on some new medication and he has not passed out for over six months which is good news! My grandmother is sharp as a tack and I hope to be in as good of shape as she is when I reach her age. There was a beautiful sunset this evening that I was able to get some photos of as a summer thunder storm moved in. More »

July 15, 2006 at 11:41pm

Kauai - The Wedding Day

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Holly and I awoke bright and early on our last full day on the island with an ambitious schedule ahead of us. With a better forecast we had decided to drive up to the north side of the island in order to swim in some choice snorkeling grounds. We were up, packed and on the road in no time. We worked our way around the entire island following Kuhio highway through Princeville and a bunch of small towns along the way. The north side of the island was lush and green and from the greater amounts of rain it receives. We stopped at a lookout to see flooded rice patties along the valley floor surrounded by green mountains. More »

July 14, 2006 at 11:50pm

Kauai - Eggberts and the Rehearsal Dinner

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After getting up and ready for the day we hopped in the car and headed toward the north side of the island with the intensions of going snorkeling. Much to our dismay the clouds thickened and the rain proceeded to fall. So with the weather turned sour we decided to stop in Kapaa and eat a late breakfast at Eggberts. Holly had read about their famous pancakes and wanted to try them. We each had two huge pancakes. Mine were both macadamia nut, with a side of ham while Holly had one banana and one macadamia nut and a side of spam. More »

July 13, 2006 at 11:44pm

Kauai - The Na Pali Coast

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I spent the first portion of my morning sleeping in. Holly and I then went for a run while the air was still a bit cool. We headed down to the beach along a trail heading east and ended up at shipwreck beach right in front of the Grand Hiatt Where the wedding is to be held on Saturday. The grounds were in a word paradise. There were waterfalls and a series of pools, bridges, lush trees, plants and flowers everywhere. What a beautiful place to have a wedding. More »

July 12, 2006 at 11:17pm

Kauai - Waimea Canyon and Smith's Luau

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Today Holly and I arose early yet again made some lunches to take in the car with us up to the Waimea Canyon before meeting the wedding crew for the luau. The drive headed along an uncharted section of the island for us. We saw some of the sugar cane fields being harvested to expose the bright red swaths of earth and some of the coffee bean fields. We then left the coast and began the ascent along the east ridge of the canyon. The landscape was dry and in stark contrast to the rest of the island we had seen. More »

July 11, 2006 at 11:24pm

Kauai - Hiking the Sleeping Giant and Roy's

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We arose early to met up with the wedding crew to hike The Sleeping Giant. After arriving at the start of the trail at 8:30 am we applied sunscreen, packed water and sandwiches for lunch and headed out. The trail was covered with dead leaves and was a bit wet making for slippery footing for the hike. We hiked through lush forests with a thick canopy of trees covering us for most of the time. On the way up there were a handful of lookouts with a covered picnic bench and a great view of the surrounding mountains and valleys. Each time the view got higher and better. More »

July 10, 2006 at 11:35pm

Kauai - Lidgate Park then Koloa

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After a breakfast of yogurt and toast with coconut mango jam we dawned our swimsuits, threw the beach gear in the trunk and hopped into our rental camery and headed toward Lidgate Park. Today was a bit overcast and windy as we pulled into the park on the east coast of Kauai. We found the wedding party crew met some folks that had not been at the meet and greet the previous evening and proceeded to play some horseshoes and just general get to know you conversations. At one point we all had to take cower behind a small covered picnic table from a rather nasty ten minute storm. We all ate hotdogs, chips and the other standard picnic fare all the while making sure not to let the wind blow our half emptied paper plates away. Once the sky cleared we decided to take a swim in the man made cove to see if we could spot any fish. More »

July 9, 2006 at 10:45pm

Kauai - Getting to Know the Island

photos(49) / comments(1)

After a long day of travel the previous day Holly and I awoke with a sense of excitement eager to explore our surroundings. Our new home at the Sugar Mill cottages was clean and well equipped with a tile floor and a window out to the back yard. It had all the amenities you would expect, bathroom, bed, and shower, and some other ones that we weren’t expecting. Much to our pleasure we had a full featured kitchenette complete with mini fridge, sink, coffee maker, blender, toaster, and a full set of pots pans silverware and dishes. We headed out to explore the grounds since we had arrived in the dark. The grounds outside the house were beautiful! More »

July 4, 2006 at 11:52pm

Tacoma Freedom Fair Fireworks

photos(69) / comments(2)

Here are some of the Fireworks photos that I took on the forth down in Tacoma. For now I'm just throwing the photos up and I will add a better entry describing the event in a bit. Enjoy! More »

June 27, 2006 at 5:53pm

Broken Big Toe

Well it has finally happened to me, I have officially broken my first bone. Although it is only a fracture man does it produce a lot of pain. I am on Vicodin as I type this and my head is spinning just a little bit. It happened this past Sunday night as I was happily hooking up my new home audio system that I had just got for my birthday. When unpacking the boxes we realized that our little TV stand was not going to cut it and we headed to Ikea to pick out a roomier unit. After returning home and assembling the unit without incident I went to move the old stand out of the way. More »

June 3, 2006 at 11:06pm

Paul and Amy's Shower

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Today Holly and I drove up to Bellevue to celebrate the approach of Paul Kawabori and Amy Mcfarlane's wedding. We met at the Papadakis’ beautiful house on Lake Washington in south of Bellevue. After meeting everyone the guys headed out so as not to disturb the women’s bridal shower. We hopped into two cars and headed out to the Seattle center. We all met at the center house grabbed some food and a seat around a table. In getting to know one another the married guys were asked to tell the story of their wedding day. More »

May 29, 2006 at 9:35pm

Flying at Flaming Geyser

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Today I got the chance to sneak out to Flaming Geyser to fly my RC planes. I took a total of seven batteries, my trusty Futaba transmitter, my Shock Flyer and my Zagi and arrived at noon to a field full of planes. It is always fun to check out what everyone is flying and today there was quite the variety. There were a few war birds, some 40 – 60 sized glow fueled pattern and sport planes. My friend Mike brought his new ME-109 little electric war bird along with his electric helicopter among other things. Norm showed up with a new foamy that he has been enjoying that is similar to my shock flyer but a bit larger. More »

May 14, 2006 at 10:11pm

A Day with Mom

photos(40) / comments(7)

My mother’s day was spent with none other than my mother. We met in Olympia at the farmers market to browse, enjoy the water and each others company. We milled around in the market until it closed admiring the plants, produce, and other hand crafted wonders. We then headed by foot over to the docks where we found a wooded boat festival just finishing up. There were some amazing boats with some interesting people. We also met “Skipper” who is a white standard poodle who patrols his boat and protects it from such water dangers as rowboats and buoys. More »

May 7, 2006 at 11:57am

Choral Arts Farwell to Sparks Party

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Last night Choral Arts had their end of the year party and this time we had to say farewell to Dr. Sparks. The party was held at Alice’s beautiful house. Every room looked like you had just stepped into a magazine. I’m not any good at describing these things but it has inspired me to think about making some plans to paint/decorate my own home. There was tons of great food and lots of people showed up to celebrate. More »

May 5, 2006 at 10:54pm

M’s are 0/3 with me

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I have been to three Mariners games and while I’m not a devoted fan they have let me down on all occasions. Tonight was no different as they lost with a score 9+ (we left after 9 to catch the bus home) to 3. Even if the Mariners lost the company was great. Holly and I went with Brett and Megumi who had managed to come across the free tickets. We caught a bus from their house up to the Safeco Field and arrived there a little after the game started because Megumi worked late that evening. While there Holly and shared a hotdog (a must at any baseball game) and some nachos. More »

April 22, 2006 at 11:05pm

Tads 23rd Birthday

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Today we celebrated my youngest brothers 23rd birthday complete with a Frisbee golf tournament, punch balloons, pin the tail on the donkey, cake and ice-cream. The weather was amazingly sunny so Tyson, Jen, Mom, Tad, Sunny and I all met at a park down in Lacey to enjoy the sun. We gathered our vast outdoor toy resources of 3 frisbees and since there were six of us we decided to play some very unofficial Frisbee golf. The teams were Mom and Gavin vs Tyson and Jen vs Tad and Sunny. We would be taking turns throwing the Frisbee and in an effort to hit a tree or some other “hole” with the least amount of throws. It is great fun and very inexpensive and if you have not tried it well you should. More »

April 21, 2006 at 10:01pm

So Long Freq Man

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Today at work the Frequency Management team finished rewriting a large piece of code from scratch and successfully testing it. And in honor of the occasion we decided to celebrate with lunch at Salty’s on Redondo Beach in Federal way. The food was great and the company was just as good. For me this small team has been a real pleasure to work with. It was great to see so many people being able to work quickly and efficiently together to solve a complex problem. More »

April 20, 2006 at 9:20pm

Tobacco Hornworms

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For one of Holly's education classes she has had to raise some tobacco hornworms. We have all of the stages from the eggs, larva, pupa, and one full grown moth. They are eating machines and tonight a couple hundred more hatched and plowed into the auger food cubes that Holly had prepared for them. It has been interesting to see them grow and eat and eat. They latch onto their food and eat the whole cube until there is nothing left. The small ones can be a little aggressive when the air around them changes or they sense a vibration they all stand on their back legs ready to fight. More »

April 10, 2006 at 6:19pm

Spring Flowers

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A few weeks ago Holly spent a good chunk of her day planting flowers all around our house. I have finally taken the time to take some photos of her lovely work and post them here for everyone else to enjoy as well. They provide me with a warm greeting every time I come up the driveway and make the house more welcoming. Way to go Holly M! More »

March 26, 2006 at 10:55pm

Choral Arts Last Concerts with Dr. Sparks

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This past weekend represented the end of an era in my life as a singer as I sang the last two concerts with Choral Arts under the direction of Dr. Sparks. The first was on Saturday night on our home turf at Pacific Lutheran University inside the beautiful Lagerquist Hall. The concerts included several of my favorite pieces that we have sung as a choir including Rheinberger Kyrie, Rutter’s Hymn to the Creator of Light, and the first movement of the Russian Schnittke Choir Concerto. The music came off without a hitch and was a joy to sing. Each concert ended in a standing ovation from the audience with the Choir heartily joining in the applause as Sparks was presented with flowers. More »

March 20, 2006 at 5:00pm

Salish Lodge, Snoqualmie Falls - Day 2

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After a wonderful fist day filled with relaxing and romance Holly and I awoke at a leisurely 9 am and started preparations for the last indulgence of our trip. We were to have the famous “Country Breakfast” in the Attic Bistro. Once we were dressed and packed up we wandered through the Hotel until we found the Attic Bistro for breakfast. Upon arriving the waitress informed us that in 10 min the reservation for the window table would expire. Being in no rush we waited and boy was the view well worth the wait. The table that we were seated at was against the windows overlooking the falls to our left and the huge bowl that they poured into front and center. More »

March 19, 2006 at 11:45pm

Salish Lodge, Snoqualmie Falls - Day 1

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Today Holly and I packed up our bags and headed to the Salish Lodge for a romantic weekend away from home. With reservations at four we arrived at the falls a few hours early so we could enjoy the wonderful weather with a hike down to the base of the falls. We started at the top of the falls and worked our way down a steep trail to the river below the downstream. From there we got a close look at three large feeder pipes that shoot water into a little hydro electric plant. You could hear the water rushing through the pipes and into the turbines. The next leg of the trip was on a boardwalk following the river upstream to the base of the falls. More »

February 27, 2006 at 7:55pm

Happy Birthday Dennis

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Yesterday we celebrated my father-in-law's birthday with some a wonderful homemade seafood chowder dinner. We were able to celebrate with Curt and Myrt, Dennis's mother and father along with Carol, Brett, Megumi and Ollie. The evening was filled with casual conversation, good company, and great food. After we all licked our bowls clean from the chowder we were greeted with the difficult choice between banana cream pie and coconut cream pie for dessert, and Dennis with his many years of experience in these matters wisely selected "Both! ". Simply put the pies were wonderful. More »

February 4, 2006 at 2:39pm

Ultimate in the Wind

Today I awoke at the ungodly hour or 7 am (this is a Saturday) in order to play some winter league ultimate. I play on a team with a few guys that I work with called Delicious Demon (or Savage Drip but that’s another story). The team is pretty new together and only has a few experienced players. Everyone who would play in this sort of weather is not out there to win but just to have some fun and play the game anyway. So Kyle arrived at 8 am to carpool up to the Bobby Morris fields in Capital Hill for our double header. The weather was amazingly awful. More »

December 31, 2005 at 11:59pm

Snowshoeing at Gold Creek

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My new years eve started bright and early as Kevin, Sarah, Matt, Kelly, and myself piled into a pair of subarus and headed for the snow. We were off to Gold Creek with snowshoes in to plod around in the snow for the day. We arrived at start of the trail at around ten and dawned all of our snow gear. Holly had to run to the bathroom which turned out to be a half mile hike there with a car ride back. We later found a bathroom just up the trail that would have worked much better. At any rate the 6 of us were off. More »

December 25, 2005 at 11:00pm

Christmas Day

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Christmas morning started at the Johnson house with everyone gathered in the living room around the Christmas tree. We opened presents with Brett, Megumi, Carol, and Dennis until the living room was covered in wrapping paper and there wasn't a gift left under the tree. I received some wonderful gifts and it was fun to watch other people open the gifts that I had picked out for them. We moved on to a wonderful Christmas breakfast made by Carol. There were these sticky bun type things in a large wreath shape on the plate that were just delicious. In the center of the table was a large wooden carousel that was powered by candles. More »

December 24, 2005 at 11:00pm

Christmas Eve at the Johnson’s

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My Christmas Eve started with preparations for the next few days where Holly and I would be traveling to see family and celebrating a few birthdays as well as Christmas with our families. With my Subaru sleigh packed with fresh cookies and lots of presents we headed toward Puyallup with a stop at Curt and Myrtle’s (Holly’s grandparents on her mothers side) house to say hello. We had a few cookies and chatted with the grandparents before heading to Holly’s parent’s house for the night. In Holly’s family there are a ton of birthdays in December. The month starts off with Holly’s birthday on the 6th followed by Carol’s on the 24th and Brett’s on the 25th. So when we arrived and everything was unpacked we had a wonderful seafood fondue and celebrated Carols birthday. More »

December 21, 2005 at 10:36pm

Breakfast with Paul and Amy

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Holly and I awoke early to meet Paul and Amy for breakfast at Plum Delicious. The newly engaged couple was in town for a few days to see family and we managed to get a little time on their schedule to try to catch up. Paul is working on launching a singing career and has some financial backing so that he is able to work full time on this effort and will be releasing five songs in a few months. Go Paul! Amy works for a large consulting company and keeps busy by shooting weddings with Paul on the weekends. Their wedding is in July this summer in Hawaii and Holly and I are planning on attending. More »

December 18, 2005 at 11:00pm

Choral Arts Christmas Concert

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Part of my Christmas traditions is to sing with Choral Arts in our annual Christmas Concert series. This year was no different with three separate performances spread out all over the Seattle/Tacoma area. This years concert included some audience carols, a trio of pieces with classical guitar, my personal favorite, a few Norwegian traditional carols and a Mosses Hogan spiritual to top it all off among other selections. The first concert was a bit shaky but the second and third evenings were splendid. It is a pleasure to sing with a group of such high caliber every year. The final concert was held in Lagerquist Hall which always feels a bit like home to me from my years at PLU. More »

December 17, 2005 at 12:03am

Power Rings

Recently I purchased a set of gymnastic rings called power rings. Now the first thing that I picture when anyone mentions gymnastic rings is the short muscle bound gymnast floating in mid air in the iron cross. Now that is not quite what I am aiming at when I bought them but there is an amazing amount of upper body abs and core strengthening that can be done with these simple rings. The power rings come with a tennis overgrip that you wrap over the metal rings for better gripping and general hand comfort. They also each come with an adjustable strap so that they can be lengthened or shortened quickly during the workout to accommodate several different exercises. To install them I bought two ½ inch steel eye bolts and with drill in hand had the straps bolted to a beam in my garage in about 15 minutes. More »

December 14, 2005 at 10:33pm

Irony of Ironies

As Holly has been completing her first quarter of classes in her masters program we have both come across what I believe is one of the most absurd ironies that exists in higher education today. I have stumbled upon this particularly frustrating irony in the past during college and at the time grumbled about it a bit but since it has reared its head again I thought it was high time that I write about it so here goes. Holly is working on getting her masters in teaching and learning about the different ways that a teacher should present material to class in order for it to be more palatable for the students. There are many methods and angles that a teacher could use to get the students more involved, group work, guided exploration, incorporating visual, auditory, movement, and textile elements into the lessons can have a huge impact on the students. The huge irony comes in to play when you consider exactly how some of her classes are presented to the group of soon to be teachers. Yup you guessed it, the whole class is one long lecture after another. More »

December 12, 2005 at 11:00pm

Congrats Tad!

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My youngest brother graduated today and heads out into the world seeking employment with a fresh Bachelors Degree in Business. The ceremony was held at the Memorial Gym with almost 150 graduates in attendance. Everything was quick and sweet and my uncle Danny, Gammie and Grandad were there to watch the event. I got a few photos of Tad as he received his diploma. Apparently the night before he had had long hair when my family saw him and had shaved it shortly after they had left. So when his name was called and he walked they did not recognize him and did not cheer. More »

December 11, 2005 at 11:00pm

The Graduation Party

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Today was spent at my mother’s house to celebrate Tads graduation from PLU. Gammie and Grandad were up from Wyoming to celebrate with us and they brought my uncle Danny with them as well. The party was pretty low key with people dropping by through the afternoon to wish Tad congratulations and to drop off gifts. My mother had some pretty tasty treats including a pumpkin based spread for crackers. It was rather tasty I might add. Tad opened his gifts and I was able to gather everyone up for a group photo before the night was through. More »

December 3, 2005 at 9:28am

Great Figgy Pudding!

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Last night Holly and I met up with the Balducci’s (Jamie and Anthony) in downtown Seattle for the 18th annual Great Figgy Pudding Street Corner Caroling Competition. This is a competition where groups of carolers line the streets and sing their hearts out in order to get donations to raise money for the Pike Market Senior Center and Downtown Food Bank. There were several groups there singing of different abilities but all were having a great time. Between the four of us we saw several people that we had sang with in the past performing. We saw some shake note singers, some workers union all singing with their hard hats on, and a very caffeinated tenor singing his mouth off with the rest of his fellow starbucks workers. Afterward we had a very tasty dinner in West Seattle and got caught up with Jamie and Anthony who are starting to entertain the idea of having kids. More »

November 24, 2005 at 7:25am

Happy Birthday Myrtle / Welcome back Holly

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Yesterday was the 82nd birthday of Holly’s Dad’s mother Myrtle. So to celebrate we went out to the Keg and had dinner with the six of us (Me, Holly, Dennis, Carol, Curt and Myrtle). Dinner was excellent the company was good and we had a grand time hanging out with the grandparents. We even returned to Dennis and Carols house for some birthday cake after dinner. On another related note Holly has just finished a combination of a rather lengthy paper and a series of other assignments that have been keeping her up for almost two days straight. I just wanted to welcome her as she emerges from the second bedroom of our house and back into the world in general. More »

November 23, 2005 at 11:00pm

Waldorf Salad

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Today I made a waldorf salad for a little thanksgiving day celebration that we are having at work. It was not as hard as I thought and tasted rather good I might add. There were about 100 people all from wedgetail that showed up each bringing a dish with them. Along with the 5 turkeys it was quite the feast. It was a welcome break from the grind and I think the best lunch that I have had while at work. More »

November 20, 2005 at 8:13pm

Flying at Flaming Geyser

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Since I have not had to work overtime recently I have had time to get back into flying model planes. With the recent closure of my former model field that Boeing sold I decided to go out and try some other fields on for size. Flaming Geyser State park has a flying field about 25 miles away from my house and upon recommendation form a friend I decided to head there today to see for my self. The weather was foggy and cold when I arrived at the field but the air was still. I unpacked my plane and found an instructor so that I could get my certificate to fly solo that the state park requires for all pilots at the field. The tests were easy maneuvers and I was soon certified and on my way. More »

November 13, 2005 at 8:21pm

Go Seahawks!

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This afternoon I went to my first Seahawks game in the new Quest Field. My friend and coworker Dion was nice enough to give me his season tickets that he would not be using since he is in Australia. Tad and I took the Sounder to the stadium to beat all of the traffic and arrived with plenty of time to locate our seats. We sat about half way up on the North east corner. The seats gave a great view of the field. The stadium was an impressive structure to behold for the first time. More »

November 5, 2005 at 11:00pm

International Auto Show

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With cameras in hand Kevin, Luke and I attended this years International Auto show at the Quest Stadium. Every major auto maker was at hand with few exotic cars there for show as well. Some of the highlights were the Lotis Elise, the 300+ thousand dollar Rolls Royce, a very red Ferrari, a full sized lego Volvo, and the James Bond car of choice Aston Martin convertible. I had a good time shooting photos with my friends and look forward to more photo outings. Below are the spoils of our trip. More »

October 28, 2005 at 11:00pm

UPA Nationals – Day 2 - Disappointment

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We arrived for the second day of the Ultimate Players Association National tournament to watch my brother Tad play for Shazam. Shazam is a Seattle based coed team that won nationals last year and entered the tournament with high hopes of placing again thin year. After a non-eventful plane flight from Seattle my mother and I arrived in at the amazing facility for this years tournament in our cool freely upgraded rental convertible. The tournament was held at a huge polo club in Sarasota FL. As you arrived on the field there was lines of grass fields as far as the eye could see. I would guess there were at least 30 if not 40 fields there. More »

September 24, 2005 at 11:00pm

New York Day 3 - Miss Liberty

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Our third day in NYC started bright and early with a trip on the now familiar subway train. We took a route right past ground zero to battery park on the south tip of Manhattan island. We purchased some ferry tickets and were boarded and on our way in no time toward Liberty Island, the home of the Statue of Liberty. The weather was beautiful and as the size of the statue increased the famous skyline of New York stretched out behind us. With a breeze in our faces we took some choice photos and just enjoyed the view. The boat took us past the front of the statue and docked on the south side of the island where we hopped off and, with camera in ready headed for the statue. More »

September 23, 2005 at 11:00pm

New York Day Two

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The second day of our trip started out a little late in the morning being that we all needed to recover from the marathon first day in the city. We disembarked from the hotel at around noon and headed for the nearest subway stop just a few blocks from times square. There we purchased a metro ticket good for six one way trips for ten dollars each and we were off. Our first stop was ground zero. It was a eye opening experience to stand there in person and be able to begin to see the scale of the two towers relative to the other large buildings. There was a large timeline that detailed the days events of September 11th 2001. More »

September 22, 2005 at 11:00pm

New York, Here We Come!

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Holly and I awoke at the wonderful hour of 4 am in order to meet Kevin and Sarah and catch our 7am plane to New York City. Half awake but excited Kevin and Sarah arrived and we all headed off to SeaTac. We were flying with a new airline called Song. Upon boarding the plane had colorful orange, blue, and green leather seats. One thing that stood out from the usual flight events was the administration of the flight safety routine. Usually this is a time when the flight attendant droans on about emergency exits and seat cushion floatation devices but Song did it a little differently. More »

September 20, 2005 at 9:21pm

Bashful Mountain

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Today Holly and I packed up the little white neon and headed for Mt. Rainier for some light hiking and photo hunting. More specifically we were headed for Paradise. Getting our proper vacation beauty rest put us at the mountain at about noon. We took a restroom break, stopped by the hiking trail map and decided upon a six mile trail to take. The skyline trail consisted of a loop that would pass by the Nisqually Glacier and summit at Panorama Point. More »

September 18, 2005 at 3:42pm

Doing the Puyallup

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Yesterday Holly, Kevin, Sarah and I headed to the Puyallup Fair for some food, fun and in my case some photos. We spent almost 5 hours at the fair and got quite a lot accomplished. We all rode a few rides which always puts a smile on Holly's face. Kevin and Sarah did some research into a sun room options for their newly purchased house. Holly had some henna work done to on her wrist. I just enjoyed the sights, smells, sounds and pictures that I found while I was there. More »

September 12, 2005 at 8:05pm

Learning Dvorak

I have been having problems with my hands hurting while typing and mousing. Being that my career is in computer field I figured that it would be good to put a stop to the pain real quick-like. I have since studied up and purchased a new ergo mouse and keyboard along with making adjustments to my posture and the positioning of my body while typing. Another adjustment that I am in the process of making is to learn a new keyboard layout name Dvorak. The idea behind it is to put the most commonly typed keys on the home row or closer to a stronger finger. You can learn more about it here. More »

September 11, 2005 at 8:37pm

Digital SLR Envy

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A buddy of mine let me borrow his Canon Digital Rebel for the weekend. It shoots fast feels smooth and produces wonderful photos. I gotta get me one of these. Thanks Luke! More »

August 29, 2005 at 10:32pm

New WebCam

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This weekend I picked up the latest edition to my digital arsenal my very own webcam. I excitedly tore open the box and within a few minutes was waving at myself image on the screen. The object of this purchase was to add a live webcam to my website so anyone can stop by and take a look out my window. I plan on automating some timelapse videos of each day and possibly week and month videos as well. With my little linux server up and running all that is needed is to get it configured to serve from a dynamic ip and then we'll be in business. So here are a few shots from my new webcam to tide you over until the launch of the real thing. More »

August 20, 2005 at 10:30pm

Cora and Justin's Housewarming

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Holly and I went over to Federal way to stop by and see Cora and Justin’s new house for their party. The house is large and the first thing that grabs your eye is the amazing collection of flowers and colorful plants that lined the entrance to their home. It inspired me to do more yard work on our own house which is really saying something. Way to go Cora! We bumped into some old college friends and ate some wonderful food and got to meet lots of family members. Cora’s dad even let me play with his huge Nikon professional digital camera. More »

August 14, 2005 at 10:16pm

Picking Blueberries with the Girls

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Sunday Holly and I awoke early to meet my mother in Olympia at a local farm to do some U-Pick blueberries. After many wrong turns, my mother was having trouble remembering the correct way to get there, we arrived at the blueberry patch. We all grabbed pails and tromped off into the field to collect our fill. I took photos for awhile and then settled into picking with Holly and my mother. We picked and chatted away for about two hours and left with 9 lbs of berries in our buckets and a little in our bellies. Nothing beats fresh fruit. More »

August 13, 2005 at 12:26pm

Rain in the Living Room

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Yesterday around half past four as I was working from home and Holly was doing laundry I heard an exclamation arise from the utility room. I ran to see what the problem was and quickly discovered the origin. The utility room had about a half inch of water on the floor. At about the same time we heard water gushing onto our wood floor in the living on the first floor below the utility room. Holy crap! I ran downstairs to see where the water was coming from and pushed my guitar and our TV out of the way. More »

August 10, 2005 at 12:06am

Carded by My Wife

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Tonight Carol Dennis and I went to Stanfords where Holly works waiting tables to surprise her and have her wait on us for dinner. When we arrived she had just gotten off the floor and was not taking any more tables which we thought was odd considering that she had only been working for about one hour. Carol talked to Holly's manager and convinced her to let Holly wait on one more table. We sat down and placed our drink order and the waitress asked to see my ID. Carded by my own wife! I thought she was kidding at first but she proceeded to look at my drivers license. More »

August 7, 2005 at 9:27pm

No Birthday Boy

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Tonight we drove over to my mothers house in Shelton WA to celebrate my brother Tyson's birthday with my grandparents who are in from Powell, WY for the week to visit. We arrived around 3pm and spend most of the afternoon sifting through the 4 hours of wedding footage from last weekend that Tyson took. Tyson did a great job of capturing all of the wedding events from the rehearsing before hand throughout the ceremony and to what we dubbed as the "fly on the wall cam" at the reception. It was fun to watch the ceremony from different angles and see some of the things you may have missed during the whole thing. More »

July 31, 2005 at 10:00pm

Play Ball

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Holly and I awoke tired after the all of the previous days wedding events and got ready to head out to a Mariners game with our new relations. After helping Dennis clean up some of the rehearsal dinner rented tables and chairs we headed for the train station. Megumi's family met us at the Sounder station and we all enjoyed a smooth traffic-less ride up to the Safeco field. We plodded along with all of the other spectators converging on the entrance the field. Our seats were just behind right field where Ichro plays. This being my first Mariners game it was impressive to see the stadium and the bright green grass all manicured to perfection on the field. More »

July 30, 2005 at 10:00pm

The Wedding of Brett and Megumi

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The wedding preparation started for me as I rolled out of bed around 7 am and loaded up my car with all of the audio equipment and camera gear that would be employed during the ceremony. I had a video camera for Tyson to operate during the ceremony, an amp and speakers for the reception, and an electric guitar and separate amplifier for Megumi's brother Kazu's song during the ceremony. I arrived early and helped the florist arrange some of the sunflowers lining the isle and dropped off the equipment at the reception hall. The sun shown bright as the families and wedding party arrived in tuxes and red dresses for the pre-wedding photo shoot. The guests arrived and everyone took their places for the ceremony. The ceremony was hand crafted by Brett and Megumi and contained elements of both of their lives and heritage. More »

July 24, 2005 at 11:22pm

Home Improvment

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My day was spent working on improving the lighting in our kitchen by adding some little halogen 20 watt lights under the cabnets. The lights were purchased at home depot for a reasonable price and with my tools spread out all over the kitchen I was quickly head deep in the project. One wouldn't think that mounting a few simple lights would take that long but it took me the majority of the afternoon and into the evening to get all five of those little buggers mounted with wires rouned and hidden inside the back of the cabinets. I had fun doing the install, getting to use my power tools and drawing up plans to best route the wires. There is a great sence of satisfaction that comes from completing a project on your own home. Holly and I finished the evening with some BBQ'd brats and a beer. More »

July 23, 2005 at 4:52pm

Afternoon spent flying

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I was able to spend a little time at the flying field this afternoon while Holly was working on an assignment. The weather was great and there were quite a few guys at the field. A few mini funtana's were out which was fun to watch the maiden flights for me since I have still to put my kit together. I was trying to learn as much as possible about any problems they have had so I could try to aviod the same thing. So I was able to get some photos of a few planes in the air. I ended the day on a sour note as I crashed my shock flyer yet again. More »

July 16, 2005 at 10:58pm

Down Up Down

Today had many ups and downs. The first part of the day started with a rather quick down followed by a snap as the foam of my shock flyer split into two rather large cracks upon meeting with the ground. I was flying with Kevin filming and being a bit of a bold pilot I decided to fly close to the ground. A quick gust of wind and an over correction on my part led to the second major crack of my shocky. The damage to the plane will be repairable but I think I lost a little confidence and learned a valuable lesson about how quick something like this can happen when flying model planes. I'm just glad it wasn't with a larger more expensive and delicate balsa plane. More »