Advertising For My Buddy.................

Well made it back from the drags in Topeka, Ks. Managed to miss two tornadoes and got some pretty good pictures. Still working on the pictures so you will have to check back in a couple of days. I did manage to get some advertising for my Buddy over at the Iowa * Farm* Boy blog like he asked me to. did not get Warren Johnson to agree (he is kind of grumpy) but John Force agreed. Here are some of the places I was able to advertise.

 Please stop back and also visit the Iowa Farm Boy. He has some pretty good pics too.

This Weekend Is A Drag.................

Yep that's right. I am heading to Topeka, KS for my annual trip to the NHRA pro drags. I have gone several years with my buddy Andy and we love the smell of nitro in the morning. Previously I was only able to get pictures with my Canon G9 which is a very good high-end point and shoot. Got a lot of pictures of burnouts, pit work, etc. And as you can see I was lucky to catch some unusual action too.

This year I have a Canon 40D and it has a burst mood. that means I can shoot at 5 or 6 frames a second. So my goal this year is to catch some action at the finish line where a car is going to have problems if they are going to. They tend to push these 8000 horsepower beasts to the limit and beyond. As you can see in the picture below (this was a darn lucky shot). this was a funny car that blew up at the finish. You can't see the body of the car because it is about 50 feet in the air.

This year we are bringing some lawn chairs and sitting on the general admission side. Ya see Andy and me are getting a little older.

I also have a friend in the Omaha Camera Club named Rich (he does the Iowa * Farm * Boy blog that I follow). He has asked me to hold up a sign advertising his blog for the ESPN cameras since they sometimes shoot videos from where I will be. I will certainly do my best. I might also try to get some of the old timer racers like John Force or Warren Johnson to put a sponsor sign on their cars too. You know us old guys got to stick together.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check back in a few days for some great (I hope) action shots.

Surprise Parties - They be COOL

Last night it finally happened. I was hit with a surprise party. Anybody that knows me knows that I am one suspicious SOB. And that is why I have never had a surprise party until now. I turned 70 on March 31st and it took until May 1st for them to pull it off.

I first want to thank my wife Cindy, daughter Laura (who coordinated this whole thing), and my camera club buddy Brian Alspaugh for pulling this off. There were people there from my camera club, neighborhood, my old country dance club and my daughters Tammy, Kim,and son-in-law Kevin,and step-son Brian and wife Vicky. Hope I didn't forget anybody. I was a little shell shocked.

They pulled this off at a restaurant that I had been wanting to try and since it has been over a month since my birthday, I never suspected a thing.

People that know me also know that I am my own worst critic and don't often ask anyone for help. I will always help others if I can and I never think that anything I do is good enough. Well I got my eyes opened last night. So many people were there from so many parts of my life that told me "Hey, you like me, you really like me". (wonder where I heard that before). I am really impressed that such a diverse group of people did not slip up and give old suspicious me a clue.

The topper of the evening was when they brought out the cake with 70 candles on it. It looked like the restaurant was on fire. They challenged me and I did it. I blew them all out. I feel sorry for the waitress. First she nearly got scorched by the flames and then I blew I large billow of smoke in her face. (I bet she got a good tip).

Finally, thanks for everyone that came. You will never know how much this means to me. It got me a little teary and those that know, know that I don't cry easily.

A MILLION THANKS................

Like a bad penny, I'm back.

Have not posted lately because I been busy. So I decided to take a little break and wax prolific (don't know where I heard that phrase before). My buddy Rich Fiddelke has been posting up a storm with birds and flowers and kids, etc. I did a little with birds and flowers recently too. Not as good as Rich's but I liked 'em. I caught the female cardinal sitting in our tree after a late winter heavy snow. 

I think she looks a little bewildered. 

The flower is a close-up of an Easter Lilly. I never knew that they wept.

Anyway, I also got a chance to photograph the local Golden Gloves event. It gave me a chance to polish up my sporting event techniques. I also just finished shooting a Boudoir session for a friend of my Step-daughters that is getting married in June. She wanted a book made to give to her future husband. I told her I would put them up on Facebook and she freaked. Can't understand that. So obviously you won't be seeing any of those pictures.

Thanks for stopping by and you can check out some of my other work on Zenfolio. And don't forget to take a look at the Iowa • Farm • Boy blog for some interesting stuff.

If God Leads You To It........

You know the old saying "If God Leads You To It, God Will Get You Through It". Well I hope it is right. I've got a wife in the hospital recovering on her fourth right hip surgery, an older dog that is blind and must be guided around and a new puppy that has a spastic stomach that needs to go out every two hours all night long. Please get me thought it.

And not only that but I turn 70 on the 31st and have not taken a picture for days. Geez I need a change.

Oh well, warm weather will soon be here (I hope) and things will start getting better. Sorry I have not posted in a while, but it just didn't come up on my to-do list.

Check out my Zenfolio site at http://prill.zenfolio.com/. Thanks for stopping by.

It's Alive.........................

After much searching and designing my photography portfolio site is alive and well. I settled on Zenfolio for the hosting service as they are geared toward the photographer. They also let me have unlimited uploads and they backup everything (remember my recent disaster with no backup). Now I have a place to sell my stuff if anyone wants to buy. I even have a special section that is just for the families. It is password protected and once allowed in family members can order prints and a multitude of other products without my intervention. Prices for them are base prices and I don't make a penny from them.

Anyway stop on over to the site. It is located at prill.zenfolio.com . Enjoy and buy somethin'.

A Busy Couple of Weeks

Yes I know I have not posted anything lately. However I got an excuse (sort of). I had a external hard drive crash and one of the things on it that was not backed up (actually nothing on it was backed up) was our family pictures. Yep I heard a lot of screaming and hollering about that. You see when I was working I was a computer software support person and me of all people should know how important it is to backup your stuff.

Luckily I use Lightroom to catalog all my pictures and lightroom creates a preview file. There is a neat little freeware program called Light Room Viewer (LRviewer) and it can go through your preview file and save the previews as a JPG file. Not the best quality but it is better than no pictures at all. Next I ran these JPG files thought another freeware program called Faststone Image Resizer. This program allowed me to up size the JPG files to something that is a little bigger for printing if need be.

I now have these files backed up and on DVD.

Next I got me another external drive (2 TB) while waiting for my other drive replacement (under warranty) to come.
I have backed up all my photos now and continue on a weekly schedule. I also am in the process of getting an account on Zenfolio to display and/or sell my stuff. Zenfolio allows me to upload unlimited pictures and they back them up also.

So take it from an old geek dog, backup your bones.

I'll let you all know when my Zenfolio site is active. Thanks for stopping by and keep your stick on the ice.