I'm trying to get back into photography. If you know any great resources for a beginner I would love to hear them. But here is my favorite shot from this evening.
Was out floating on the lake tonight, and this guy just hung out on the swimming platform for about an hour, checking things out. In case it's not that legible, it's one of the bald eagles that live around here.
Unintentionally hilarious sign of the week: KIKE AUTO SALES--YOU CAN ALWAYS JEW 'EM DOWN AT KIKE'S! (Not the real motto, but it would be hilarious if it was.) And because this place isn't classy enough, here it is with my Trans Am in the frame:
While everyone was getting all bent out of shape over the hockey game, I shut it off after the second period and headed out onto the lake. Leaving my dock. Nice calm water, with a brand new hatch. Queue the feeding-frenzy. It was one of the best nights of fishing I've had on my lake; landed about 25 or so rainbow trout. Sure, none of them were monsters, but I kept 3 of them for a pan-fry, and they were big enough that I had to cut heads and tails off for them to fit in the cast iron. Coming back well after sunset, I was amazed at how well my POS Coolpix handled some really low light conditions without the flash. The stabilization stuff did it's job, as these last two pics were about a 2-3 second exposure. Left the porch lights on to help me find my way back.
Here's another pic from that same flight over the Tuscaloosa area from the storm thread, no destruction, just pretty cool:
Was out on the lake this afternoon and a big fucking moth landed on me. It's hard to tell here, but it had a wingspan of about 4". It was weird. It tried to stare me down, like it was Mothra or something. So I killed it.
What better way to start the day than watching eagles fish while having a coffee? A few other action shots, spoilered for size.
So its been 11 months since i started my diet, i have lost 80 pounds down from 345 to 265 (i am 6'8"). The photo on the right is actually me at 325-330 so not even the full weight i had when i started the diet.
What happens if you drink all day in Mexico and then go to dinner that takes 2 hours to prepare while sitting in 95 degree weather with high humidity?
Some random picks from Wadi Rum, Jordan. Climbing in the Khazali crack, in flip flops no less, extremely drunk: Sunset over Rum. Great place to be, especially while enjoying a bottle of Rum. This was followed by a breakneck camel sprint:
Unintentionally hilarious sign of the week: Doesn't look so bad, does it? Well, that's until you see the warnings/disclaimers and the services offered: Okay, I'm going to take a wild guess that the owner's primary language is NOT English, and that's cool by me. However, if I were to start up a business in Mexico or some other country where the language spoken is NOT English, I would have all of my signs, business cards, paperwork, etc. triple checked by a few people who had at least graduated high school, so that way I wouldn't be known as that stupid American who doesn't know how to spell.
And here is a shot glass filled with ticks. All of those came off of one dog. The area around my ex-wife's house is absolutely infested with ticks. I've never seen anything like it. Last night/this morning when she got back from work, she pulled all of those off of one of her dogs (the one that lives outside), and she had that glass filled with rubbing alcohol, which killed the ticks and saves her the mess of squashing them. According to her, the dog will collect about half of that amount in one day by the time she gets back from work, this was just an especially heavy load. I spent an hour at her place today helping her spread 20 pounds poison around her yard and along the house. I hope it does some good, because I really feel sorry for that dog.
The frogs are emerging from the lake. They're huge, they're loud, and they're everywhere. And they blend in really well.
Wet track day today, as per the R&R thread. Here's my Jeep that I got to thrash on track for half an hour to clear water before the students went out. It was wet, but everyone had a blast and kept it out of the wall. (For the most part).
Overlooking Lake Muskoka on Canada Day long weekend, with a mini keg of local beer. For now, I love my life.
This is my daughter's room. And the spare bedroom next to it, with a big hole in the wall where a chimney used to be. If you have ever wanted to know how dirty a house can get when you start tearing out a 120 year old chimney put together with 120 year old mortar and filled with 120 year old soot, call me. My house is filthy. Crack whores wouldn't live here.
Me and my girlfriend drove a couple hours along Minnesota's (Lake Superior) North Shore and we visited a cliff along the drive home. I'm not a sasquatch like Ihprop so I didn't jump in... just took some photos and enjoyed the view.
As long as we're reminiscing about the north shore of Gitche Gumee, here's one that I took last year while the Split Rock Lighthouse was celebrating it's 100th anniversary.