Maiden voyage...

We just made it back from our maiden voyage in our brand new 2008 Keystone Cougar 29BHS! I know it has been a while since my last post, but we have been a bit busy! So we decided to take the hit and trade in our Keystone Outback 26RS for a trailer that is it bit bigger.

Anyway so we loaded up on Thursday and headed out on Friday after work. Denise really likes Calico, and it’s close, so we made the hour plus trip and set up camp! The weather was bit odd but it added to the trip. The idea was to get there on Friday so that Saturday would be a full day of camping instead of a travel/setup. We did end up forgetting some things that just didn’t make it from the old trailer, but at least they are in the garage.

The only thing that we did forget was the key holder that we bought on our first trip out with our Outback. We bought that at Calico - and it was one of those goofy wood “Calico Ghost Town” key holder. So now we have another one that I can put up on our new trailer!

Well, we had a pretty darn good time and it was a drag to have to leave. Everything went well, with the one exception that I ruled the tow cable from the truck to the trailer. So now I have to replace that. But other than that it was a great time! Besides, I didn’t realize that until AFTER we left - so it was all good!

Famous Daves & Urgent Care...

Well, the other day when I was at my dad's he mentioned something about a place called "Famous Daves" so when we went into town today (to go to urgent care) we went their for lunch/dinner. It was a pretty good place with pretty good food. It was a bit expensive, but not any more than the other places along the strip there. I haven't done any high-iso shots for a while so I decided to crank up the power and go for some available light shots. Since they basically looked like crap in color I made them B&W for effect.

Okay, so urgent care. Denise woke up this morning with a problem their her left eye. Although it didn't appear like anything was wrong it was really hurting her. It looked like maybe she had a rash under her eyelid and she wasn't really able to open her eye without pain. She has been having what looks like an allergic reaction to something so we figured (hoped) that urgent care could give her something to help it go away. Well, the genius doctor decided that she has pink-eye and gave her something for that. He prescribed some other stuff too that we will fill tomorrow but she isn't putting anything in her eye until she can at least call her optometrists tomorrow.

Grandma...

Yesterday I went over to my Dad's house to visit with him and my grandmother. She isn't doing very well medically and I took this opportunity to do a portrait session with her. The images turned out pretty good but I really liked the ones that I had my dad shoot of the both of us. So I turned this dinning room into a mini studio will my box of gadgets. It was a really great time visiting and just catching up. Daren's (my brother) wife Aleen was also there so we had a chance to catch up as well. All in all it make for a pretty late night and I didn't make it home until 0030 hrs. I really think I gotta stop these late night weekends!

On another note Denise is having some time of allergic reaction to something that has now moved to her left eye so we are getting ready to head into town to go to urgent care...

Ideas...

First, I really love it when I have an idea for a shot and I am able to put it together and have it look like it did in my mind. This is the case with the shot above. I had not shaved the entire weekend because I wanted a scruffy intense look for a photo shoot I was planning on this weekend. Today was the day I was able to setup the “studio” in the appropriate configuration to make it happen. It involved a bit of trial and error but in the end I got what I was looking for.

Anyway this has been a very interesting weekend. Today was the oddest day because I made my way to visit my dad and grandmother. She isn’t doing very well and I have not seen or really spoke to either of them for quite a while. It was nice visiting with everyone and catching up on everything that has been going on. The really amazing part is that every once in a while when my grandmother laughts/smiles she looks like I always remember her looking. I probably need to see if I can step up a portrait shoot so I can capture that moment. I think it would make a truly wonderful photograph. I just couldn’t bring myself try it today.

Oh, yesterday we made our way down to the Irvine area to go to Mike Thompson RV to see if they could make us a deal on the new travel trailer that we want. After a three hour drive down there and another two hours “haggling” we inked the deal on a new trailer. There is a chance everything might be ready next weekend but I am not sure.

While we were in the area we connected up with one of my (while, I guess my only) seminar buddy from lighting seminar a few months back. So I finally had the opportunity to meet Steve’s family and they got to meet us. Even though we were running WAY behind schedule (considering it was a spur of the moment thing I use schedule very loosely) they held up dinner and we ended up having a very nice meal at their house. Everyone got along very well and it was really difficult to pry the kids away from their new friend. The only bad thing was that we didn’t arrive home until 0145 hrs...