 Generally speaking, I'm not a planner. Most things I take the just wing it approach. And I do make that work a lot of the time. And a good chunk of the time it's an unbridled disaster. Every once in a while I try thinking ahead and I am always rather startled at how well that makes things work. Maybe someday I'll wise up enough to make that standard operating procedure.
Anyway, I say all that because this photo is a case of thinking ahead. I walk through this park several times most every day. And in the afternoon mourning doves are often found pecking away looking for snacks. And when I get to a certain distance from them, they flee. So this time I came at them with the camera at the ready, maximum zoom, and constantly adjusting focus as I moved closer. When I was too close for their comfort, they flew away and I started firing off shots. If I hadn't thought ahead, it would have been impossible to try and focus on them in flight. So there's a lesson for me. Rest assured, I will ignore it.
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 Recently I mentioned that I had a lot more photos of Colin than Aiden in this blog. Well, Aiden complained and so here he is. The blog is like a daily competition. I take a bunch of photos and then see what I like the best. Luckily, what I liked the best was this photo. Although, the next favorite was Aiden too, so there was no real danger of upsetting him.
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 Ever wonder what life looks like for a sports drink in the cooler, waiting to be bought? Me either. Stupid question.
No real comment on this photo. I just love the bright colors and the way the light hits the bottles.
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 It's the end of a long busy day and I haven't taken a single photo. Not one. Nada. Zilch. Not a sausage.
So I look desperately around the house and spot it. The dog. And as you can tell, she is really enthused about being my model at 3AM. Not that she's a cooperative model at any hour really, but I think you can really sense her disapproval in this photo.
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 I'm still running behind on photos thanks to an internet connection outage. This would have been yesterday's shot.
For the record, this is not a green screen shot. Not that anyone has suggested that to me. But when I look at it, I think that. So someone else probably will too. Again, this is an example of a camera being able to give an inaccurate portrayal of events. This was shot on a perfectly nice day in which it did not rain at all. But we did have some ugly clouds in the sky for all of about twenty minutes or so. I exposed the shot for the clouds and then used the flash to illuminate my son, creating this dramatic look. Also for the record, I do not favor one son over the other, despite what you might think from the 5 to 1 ratio of Colin photos to Aiden photos. It just happens that because of our various schedules, right now I spend a lot more time with Colin. And so you get more Colin pictures. He will be delighted when schedules change and I start torturing Aiden with more photo shoots. Just because I like taking their picture doesn't mean they like having their picture taken.
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 This was supposed to be up a couple days ago but my internet connection has been on the fritz unfortunately. Clearly the internet is the closest thing I have to an addiction because I get seriously twitchy and irritable when it isn't available.
I love this photo because it's the rare shot I got right on the first try. Usually I take a few shots as I get the settings on the camera the way I want them and then a few more while I figure out the framing and composition. Not this time though. All of that worked out exactly the way I wanted on the first attempt. Hopefully that's a sign of improving skill and not just dumb luck.
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 It's late. I'm tired and cranky, so no commentary. Just enjoy the Dairy Queen by moonlight.
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 We went to the beach for Memorial Day. And you're wondering where are the photos of gorgeous women in tiny bikinis. Well you can forget it. My wife sporadically reads this blog so I can't post that sort of thing. (Email me for the good stuff)
No, I went for a different sort of babe. You can thank me later.
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 Sorry. Couldn't resist a little Hitchhiker's humor.
Today, or more accurately, tonight, we have two of my photographic fascinations, night and telephone poles. Don't ask me why I find telephone poles fascinating. I just do. Transformers, wires, electrical thingies. It just looks cool. And when you photograph them at night? Awesome. For the record, that bright light at the bottom of the picture? That's not a streetlight. It's not anything man made. It's the moon.
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 I discovered this moth, completely motionless and thought, cool picture. And then I spent ten minutes trying every conceivable angle for photographing this moth. This is my favorite. You might note it's also a self portrait of sorts, as you can see me reflected in the lock.
This was the only angle that had some pop and depth to it. The moth is completely white. It's boring at most angles. Not to mention hard to get good focus on, due to its overbearing whiteness.
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 I should try to title all of these with movie quotes or titles.
So, yeah, this is late. Real late. The photo was taken mid-day but I've been at work and when I got home the powerful distracting ability of Netflix diverted my attention to Lost (catching up, only four years behind) and Dr. Horrible. Eventually I remembered that a photo needed posting. Have I mentioned before that I'm a bit ADD? So on to the pigeon. But wait, it's not a pigeon. No, I'm a country boy, so this is a mourning dove. I took several others that were cheerful and whimsical even. But I went with this grim depressing shot. Why? I just love that you can take a photo that completely misrepresents the reality of the moment. It's a big part of the power of cameras. It's what fascinates me about the process of film making. The ability to put something on film that is a completely believable lie. This photo was taken on a bright sunny day. You'd never guess it from this picture. That's very cool. Although not quite as cool as being scolded by my son for standing in the middle of the road to take the picture. I wasn't following the rules and he isn't going to stand for it.
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