It's Not Only A Passion But An Addiction....

So, I googled myself today, for the first time in a rather long while.

Several years ago, it seemed that the majority of hits under my name were, in fact, related to me.  No more.  In fact, some pretender even has a web site registered at my-name.com!!  The audacity!  Here's a screen capture from his banner, maybe I should co-opt his slogan?

Anyway, googling my name brings up over 15,000 resuls.  The first one that is me is #3, which links to my LinkedIn page.  Only 4 of the page one results are me, including a technical paper I wrote a few years back and a stock-photo agency.  On the other hand, almost 40% of the first 50 responses do refer to me.  Most are related to some sort of photography, which isn't too surprising since that's probably my top on-line activity.

A couple of fun finds were examples of my photos being used, like here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Winter On The Way

As the weather is turning colder, I changed the image on my computer desktop. Here you go:

This was about 5 years ago, in the Land-Between-The-Lakes area of Kentucky.  Sadly, I cannot remember exactly where.  I've studies the satellite images from Google Earth and looked around on subsequent trips to the area.  No luck.  If it looks familiar to any of y'all, let me know.  We drove from Murray KY, across LBL to Lake Barkley Lodge. 

Record Review: The Neil Diamond Collection – Neil Diamond

Rank: 222 (Rolling Stone Magazine’s November 2003 ranking of the Top 500 Albums)
I own this on CD


It often seems like a cop-out to include a hits collection in a “greatest albums” listing, but in this case it fits. At his best, Neil Diamond was (is?) a hit-maker, and this set covers his most successful period. This disc does a pretty good job of covering Diamond’s output from 1968 through 1972, including 12 of his 13 Top 40 hits in that span. It also includes 2 singles that missed the Top 40, and a live version of a pre 1968 hit.

 Neil Diamond is a member of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame (Class of '11), and deservedly so.

     1. Sweet Caroline – #4 in 1969
     2. Cracklin’ Rosie – #1 in 1970
     3. Song Sung Blue – #1 in 1972
     4. Play Me – #11 in 1972
     5. Brooklyn Roads –#58 in 1968
     6. Shiloh - #24 in 1970
     7. Crunchy Granola Suite – did not chart
     8. And The Grass Won’t Pay No Mind – did not chart
     9. Holly Holy – #6 in 1969
     10. Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show – #22 in 1969
     11. Stones (live) - #14 in 1971 – #30 in 1970
     12. Soolaimon - #30 in 1970
     13. Walk On Water - #17 in 1972
     14. Cherry Cherry (live) – live version of hit from 1968
     15. I Am I Said - #4 in 1971
     16. Done Too Soon - #65 in 1971
     17. Morningside – did not chart
     18. He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother - #20 in 1970

Overall, this is a very strong collection from a specific window of Neil Diamond’s career. Personally I would’ve liked to have see 2 changes. Drop “And The Grass Won’t Mind” and “Morningside” in favor of 1970’s “Do It” (#36), and Diamond’s cover version of his own “I’m A Believer” (#51 in 1971). But it is still a worthy offering.

Gracie

Latest picture of my Granddaughter.  One of the many gifts for which I'm thankfull!

Take Your Pick

Songs starting with “pick”, from my iPod:

• Pick-Up – Brian Protheroe

• Pick ‘Em Up – Lynyrd Skynyrd (post-crash)

• Pick Me Up (Big Chicken) – John Entwistle

• Pick Up The Peace – The Who

• Pick Up The Pieces – Average White Band

• Pickin’ To Beat The Devil – Pure Prairie League

• Pickin’ Up The Pieces – Poco

For what it’s worth…

Fantasy Racing

Congratulations to Tony Stewart for winning the 2011 NASCAR Championship. Unfortunately, I didn’t do nearly that well in my fantasy league. 2011 was my 7th season playing fantasy racing (at Yahoo), and only the 2nd time I finished out of the top 10%. The other time was 2007, when I was changing jobs and basically quit mid-season. My scores, ranked:

• 2008 – 99th Percentile

• 2006 – 96th percentile

• 2010 – 95th percentile

• 2005 – 95th percentile

• 2009 – 94th percentile

• 2011 – 87th percentile

• 2007 - dnf

On the other hand, I paid less attention to NASCAR this year than I have for several years. So that’s my excuse, at least. Oh well, 3 months until Daytona…..

Ralph Eugene Meatyard

I was reading through a recent issue of Smithsonian magazine, and saw an article on Ralph Eugene Meatyard.  Who?  Turns out Meatyard was a "dedicated amateur" photographer from the 60's and early 70's.  I decided to check out my local library system, and found a book on Mr. Meatyard.  Very interesting stuff.  Most of his work is not my style, but it's all interesting, and some I quite like.  A couple examples hot-linked from the web:

Down On My Knees

So, yesterday was my Arthroscopy.  My first knee surgery since the late 80's.  Yee haw.  I guess it went OK, they were able to do some clean up of some of the issues.  Apparently there's some level of bone-on-bone, which can't be helped at this point.  PT starts tomorrow!

They gave us a couple sheets of images, here's one:

Not sure what it is, or if that's before, or after.  Or good or bad.......

The title refernces the song from Bread, btw.

Just What I Needed

Or should I say "Knee - did".  As in my knee did mess up.

So, I had an MRI last week, they actually gave me a CD with all the "stuff".  Not that it makes any sense to my eyes.  Bleow is series 5, image 5:

According to the report, "There is a radial tear of  the lateral meniscus posterior horn best seen on series 5, image 5; this is associated with a parameniscal cyst."

Antipodal

I saw something on the internet a while back about antipodal points, and finding the the region on the Earth's surface which is diametrically opposite to wherever you live.  Then going and photographing the place.  Well, I thought that was a pretty cool concept (however impractical in my non-globe-trotting life).  So I went to the link, entered my location, and found that my antipodal point is in the middle of the Indian Ocean!

In fact, all of the USA is opposite the Indian Ocean.  Except for a couple of tiny islands that are mostly uninhabited, there's simply nothing there.

Bottom line?
                                Nevermind.

So Ladies, Fish, And Gentlemen, Here's My Angled Dream...

Just a little Blue Oyster Cult for a Tuesday.  The title is from the song Subhuman, off the album "Secret Treaties".  Back the days before they became huge (with the release of "Don't Fear The Reaper"), we'd listen to Blue Oyster Cult and try to figure out the lyrics.  Back then, if you sent an SASE, they'd send you a computer printout of the lyrics, on tractor-feed green-bar computer paper.  We're talking 70's hi-tech.  And yes, I had 'em.  Not that it helped make actual sense out of the songs.  I still have a page of them.  They'd probably fetch a fortune on eBay if they were in semi-decent shape.  But who thinks of these things when they're 18 and things like the internet don't exist?

And we'll top it off with a photo of me, from '77 / '78 time frame:  I was so young!

Happenstance We Fell Into

We were sitting at a red-light on Memorial Drive Thursday, headed to the ballgame.  And I took this from the passenger seat of the wife-mobile.

Most of my favorite photos are simply the result of keeping your eyes open as we move through life.

World Series Game 6 - Panorama

A panoramic shot of Busch stadium, from our seats at Game 6.  Actually 7 shots stitched together in Photoshop.  Click here to see a full size version, or here for Panoramio.  This was taken after the National Anthem, but before the 1st Pitch. Long before all the excitement.

Birds On The Wires

On a cold, grey day in late October (10/26), not far from my office

Coyote

This fellow was spotted in the field next to our office today.  I suspect he was looking for geese in the small pond out front, but they must've seen him coming.  He (she?) doesn't seem to be starving, though...
It made for a fun "study break" for us.

Not a great picture, but I was limited to my company's digicam, and the imaging software on my company laptop.  When I get a chance I'll do some proper cleanup on my home computer...

Last one (for now): Old Barn On The Palouse

Last of the barn photos from last week's trip to southeastern Washington.  Again, larger version here.

Old Barn On The Palouse

Another old barn, not far from Steptoe Washington, About 1 mile from the site of yesterday's photo.

Larger version here.

And another abgle of the same barn, with Steptoe Butte in the background (larger here)

Windmill on the Palouse

Another image from my recent trip to southeastern WA.  Larger version here. 

Old Barn On The Palouse

So, I'm hame from a 5 day business trip to south-eastern Washington state.  Didn't have much opportunity to be out-and-about, but I did sneak in a few photo opportunties. Mostly old barns, like this one: 

I'll try and post them over the next few days.

Fort de Chartres

I took a road trip with my wife yesterday, a nice way to spend a vaction day. She needed to pick up something in Cape Giradeau, MO, about 2.5 hrs south of us.  We decided to meander the way down, and came upon Fort de Chartres State Historic Site, just outside Prairie du Rocher, IL.  Pretty cool spot, dating all the way back to 1720.  Maybe when the colors come in we can plan another day trip to the region....

There's a few more photos of the site at Panoramio, including a paorama...

Big Sky Pt 2

This one got overlooked in yesterday's post:

Big Sky?

Well, it's not Montana, but we had some pretty cool skies at the sports fields this evening.  Myson was playing, but I couldn't ignore the sun....  or clouds....  or moon...

Sunset:

Looking West, a few minutes before sunrise:

And, a glimpse of the setting moon, chasing the setting sun:

Rocks!

Another oldie, from October 2003.  Seems like I had a lot of interesting photos that month, some of which nver got processed.  This one is from Spokane River Park, just outside Spokane, WA.

Sublime?

Headline in our local newspaper today:  "After a devil summer, fall could be sublime".  Really?  Sublime?  They expect fall to be "lofty, grand or exalted in thought expression or manner"?  Cool!

Regardless, here's an image from 10/14/2003, Maybe not sublime, but hopefully not too bad.....

click on image for parger view.

On The Baker Trail

I've spent some time this evening tweaking a few old slides.  Well, actually tweaking scans of slides...  And listening to old music.  Works for me!

These are from my high-school days, pretty sure this was fall of '77.  I spent a weekend with a friend (Greg Highlands) at his family's place near Punxatawny, PA.  I wish I remembered the location a bit better.  Anyway, these images, are from ~33 years ago, when I was 17-ish.

You can click on the photos for larger views, btw...    Yep, when I was 17, my idea of a great weekend was to get out of the city and do some hiking.  This is the only time I ever spent on the Baker Trail, which is surprising, since it's closer to Pgh. than a lot of places we went...  And this was just a day hike.

You can tell I was pretty novice with my camera then.  I did a like twaeking, but not a ton.  The last one was quite badly off level, for example.  I like to think I've gotten better through the years.

Good? Bad? Or Just Boring?

I took this photo at lunch yesterday.  It's one of those where I'm just not sure if it works.  I like it, but I'm seeing it through biased eyes.  And the more I look at it, the more I second guess myself....

I keep wanting to write about what I was trying to "say" with this.  But I come back to:  "If you have to explain it, it didn't work".  And on that level, I don't think it works.

If you look at it full size, it exposes the deficiencies of my pocket camera. The sharpness just isn't there, the whites are blown out... The green is overpowering (I could tweak that ), The yellow flowers should be a stronger layer, the white flowers should "pop"....  That'll learn me to over-rely on the convenience factor...


I took a dozen or so images yesterday, none of them really "clicked" for me.  Most won't ever be seen.  I did come up with 2 others that are very "snapshoty" (here and here).  I remind myself of the old Ansel Adams quote:  Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop....  I'd settle for one!

No Prize Contest

Several years ago, I was a regular participant at BetterPhoto.com. One ot the things I liked about it was their monthly photo contest. I gathered a few “Finalists” and a couple of 2nds. Over time BP evolved and I drifted away from that forum.  Meanwhile: I recently started posting photos at Panoramio.com. It seems to be an interesting site, with its own set of plusses and minuses. And they even have contests!

The past 2 months I’ve joined the NPC (No Prize Contest). The moderator picks a theme, you select your entry, and then your peers vote. This month’s theme was “The World At Night”. Looking through my portfolio, I only had 1 appropriate photo:

I ended up in a tie for 127th place (out of 159 entries). Not exactly “In The Hunt”, but probably appropriate. Lots of really outstanding photos: Win, Place, Show.

I did upload another better photo after entereing the contest, I'd like to think this one might've scored better.  But I have no expectation that it would've ended up near the top....

Cades Cove, July 2002

I've Been looking through the archives this weekend, fornd this one from 2002.  This is Cades Cove, in Smokey Mountains, eastern TN.  Taken with my old Kodak DC210 camera. 

I'm So Tire-ed

Ok, horrible pun  I'm sorry.

My original title was the rather unimaginitive "Stack Of Tires, Lateral Ladder"  I suppose I could've been more aliterative and said "Tire Tower, Lateral Ladder".  But I decided to stick with the music reference.  Take your pick, Beatles or Kinks?

The photo is just a little slice of life.  Scene seen while sitting at a stop light on my afternoon commute....

Could Stand A Little Rain...

We're finally having a good solid soaking rain today.  Not a flooding rain (at least not yet).  I think we're officially "moderate: drought, but I know it's been dry.  Despite the rain, I ran by Moody Park at lunch; still need a few minutes break from the office.  It was predictably quiet, peaceful, even.

The post title is from a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band song...

Pirates VS Cardinals

Regular readers may recall that I have a friendly wager with one of my old Pittsburgh freinds:  Head to head, Pittsburgh Pirates vs St. Louis Cardinals.  At the time we made the wager (just before the all star game) the teams were about 1 game apart.  Now?  Not so much.

After tonight's games:

STL  79 - 68 0.537  --
PIT   67 - 80 0.456  12

Pirates are 12 games back with 15 games left.  The Cardinal's magic number for clinching (the bet) is 4.

Looks like I'm going to win, but it is still disappointing.  Pirates out out of contention, and The Cardinals have only the slimmest of margins.  I was hoping the 2 teams would be fighting it out for the division crown.

9/11/2011

This is a repost of my blog post from 9/1/2006, the 5 year anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.  I'm reposting with only the number of years-past changed:

10 Years ago today, 9/11/2001, terrorists struck a series of coordinated attacks against the United States. Between the World Trade Center, The Pentagon and Flight 93 (which crashed in SW Pennsylvania), around 3,000 people were killed. Much like Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 (12/7), this day will go down in infamy. And much like the attack on Pearl Harbor, the attacks of 9/11 awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve. The resulting War on Terror continues, time will test our resolve.

I was supposed to be on an airplane from St. Louis to Seattle that morning, should've been in the air at the same time as those planes. But a last minute glitch cancelled my trip. I was very thankful on that day that my wife didn't have to worry about "my flight" during all the confusion of that day.

Meanwhile, I was only in the WTC once, while on a business trip to NYC. I arrived by the subway, late afternoon, while most people were leaving. I was blown away by the swell of people, more people than live in my small suburb of St.Louis. On 9-11-2001, as we all watched the towers fall, I kept thinking about "all those people". It's franky a miracle that only 3,000 were killed.

Stick(s) In The Mud

Edward "Ted" and Pat Jones Confluence Point State Park, West Alton, MO

Good? Bad? Or Ugly?

It was a beautiful afternoon today, so my son and I took a trip out to the West Alton area, to check out the Alton Slough, The Melvin Price Lock and Dam, and the Edward "Ted" and Pat Jones Confluence Point State Park...  My son was looking for birds for a Boy Scout Merit Badge.  I was enjoying the day, and the company.  Amd hoping for a few photograhic opportunties!

When I took this photo, I had high hopes.  When I first looked at it on the computer screen, I decided it was junk.  After some twaeking I think it might be in between.

What do YOU think?  Click here for location, and larger view, at Panaramio.

And is THIS ONE better or worse?

Autumn In The Air

It was in the low 60's this morning, bright and sunny.  Niceeeze, not hot, not humid....  Pretty nice for early September.  All of which had me thinking Autmn.  Then I was digging around on one of my backup drives, and came across some files from October 2003... 

This is from the hiking trail that starts at Pere Marquette Lodge, and heads up the hill.  I don't remember doing anything with this one back then, but it really struck me today.  I know it's kind of "Calendar-ish", but I don't consider that an insult....

There's a little bit of digital tweaking here, but noy much.  You can see a version at Panoramio that ionly has "autofix" run on it.

Barns In Brown

Digging through my hard drive this morning, I found a folder Pictures/blog/pending.  This is one of the images in there.  I'm pretty sure I've posted it before, but thought I'd at least repost. Taken May, 2010, not too far east of where I work.

What Is And What Should Never Be

One of the "fun" things about iPod/iTunes is the play count.  So, the other day I was listening to Led Zeppelin, and being the music geek that I am, I decided to see which Led Zeppelin albums I listen to most.  This is average play count per song for each album, over the last 14 months (last time I reset the counters).

• II - 5.1
• III - 4.8
• Led Zeppelin (I) - 3.9
• Presence - 3.0
• Houses Of the Holy - 2.8
• Zoso - 2.6
• Physical Graffiti - 1.4

Does it mean I like "Presence" more than "Zoso"?  Not at all.  But LZ-III and Presence are 2 albums I didn't have on vinyl, and are less burned-into-my-brain.  Physical Graffiti has some of Zep's best stuff, but is a double album, and also some less wonderful....  

Now, which LedZep songs get played the most?

• Immigrant Song - 13 plays
• Whole Lotta Love - 11 plays
• Ramble On - 9 plays
• Living Loving Maid - 6 plays
• Trampled Under Foot - 6 plays

Again, what does it mean?  Well, one this it means is that some songs are on playlists, like "Rolling STone's Top 500 Songs" or "American Top 40 Hits of 1969".... 

Anyway, none of it really "means" anything.  But I still get a kick out of it.

The Nature Of God?

This is a photo taken about 3 weeks ago, on one of the "deep woods" trails at Pleasant Ridge Park.  It struck me as sort of... odd. 

Anyway, I decided to go on and share it, draw your own conclusions about what it all might mean to the person(s) who painted it.

Bridge Of Sighs

Last image from my excursion at Pleasant Ridge Park last week.  This is one of several bridges across the stream.  Well, stream is a bit generous.  It's been quite dry lately, and this was more of a gully with the occasional puddle.  I'll bet it is rockin' in the springtime...

The title (of course) is a reference to the old Robin Trower song.

A Walk In The Woods

This is along one of the trails that wind through the woods at Plesant Ridge Park.  I just recently discovered these trails.  As you can see, it's pretty "primative"...  or at least unkempt.

This is pretty cose to where I found the snake I posted yesterday...

Spiders and Snakes...

Any snake experts out there?  I came across this guy while walking the woods at Plesant Ridge Park Tuesday:

I presume it's a Garter Snake, but that's based on Google images....  (click on photo for larger image)

He was basking on the trail, I'm glad I didn't step on him (her?).  I was going to try for a closer photo, but he/she/it was increasingly agitated at being disturbed, and made a quick retreat to the underbrush.

butterflies, flutterbyes, gutterflies,

Last image from Manday's walk at St. Ellen Park....    Title courtesy of Genesis's Supper's Ready:

If you go down to Willow Farm,
To look for butterflies, flutterbyes, gutterflies,
Open your eyes, it's full of surprise, everyone lies,
Like the fox on the rocks,
And the musical box.
Oh, there's Mum & Dad, and good and bad,
And everyone's happy to be here.

Afternoon Delight

No, not the Starland Vocal Band's cheesy hit.  But it was a delightful day yesterday, for a walk at lunch time.  Another photo from St. Ellen Park.

I struck that picture ninety times

I took a walk at St. Ellen Park during luchtime today, and came across this pair of swans ambling around the lake.  I enjoyed watching them for a couple of minutes.  Unlike Longacre, which is overrun with geese and ducks, you don't see a lot of water fowl at St. Ellen. 

The title is from an R.E.M. song....

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Festival Of The Little Hills

We took a trrek to St. Charles, MO yesterday to visit the Festival Of The Hills.  Mostly just wandering and looking at the "stuff", though we did make 1 purchase.  It was good, even with darkening skies and threats of rain.  We haven't been to St. Charles in probably 20 years.  Probably 20 years ago.  It's a pretty cool area.  A couple of images:

 We used to go to lots of these events when we lived in D.C., and used to joke that our house was decorated in "Contemporary American Craft-Show".  But somewhere through the years we've gotten away from it.