Month: July 2006

  • As a one year follow-up to this entry. Be sure to read the comments!

    1101 Esther Brady Street



















    Much easier to take pictures with manual focus... I just needed a tripod for the long exposures.

    Can you see the deer? I had this great 30 second exposure going when a WE Energies truck rolled right in front of me.

    Thank you to my friend Matt for getting us in for free this year. A little wink-wink, nudge-nudge, and we were home safe. Last year, we had to wear in his relatives' name badges to get in free. What? Come on! It's Festa!

    And thank you everyone for yesterday's record props and comments for a day!



  • (oh, new lenses in my glasses that aren't permanently clouded. the staff at LensCrafters was laughing as I did an "I can see!" with the same prescription)


    (these are fun to do with SLR cameras - zooming in or out as you take the picture)







    "A Step of Faith"








    My crazy parents (post-25th anniversary weekend together). Yeah.


    "W County Line Rd" and no clearer picture of....okay I'm laughing here... we have "Spirit Life" church's new building in the background where you can get literal Tickets to Heaven - ask Esther - and a farmer growing veggies the old way.


    One of my favorite "people pics" with the Fantastic Peter the Smiler!

    And now for his next trick...


    You hate 'em or you love 'em. These pictures irritate Esther but are the reason Kristen loves art. This stop sign was sweet, in my not-so humble opinion.


    Business parks are better blurred.


    Mega suburban hospitals, too.

    This is Sam. He's the man - plus we're going to the Brewers game tonight. So far we have me, Esther, David, Joe, our foreign exchange student Maria, her brother, the temporary exchange student Alex we had, Christina, Victoria, and perhaps other volunteers. Many, many thanks to Brent for surrending his hard-won tickets to us because of his answering the call to jury duty.

  • A New Camera!

    Thank you Mom, Dad, and eBay. My MBA graduation/24th birthday present is a wonderful delight! Initially, I thought a Canon Rebel XT would rock my world until I started checking out the Nikon SLR cameras. This one is the fifth in Nikon's lineup, trailing the $4700 top model by quite a lot, but I was quite happy to find this for less than 1/10th of the price. All the lenses, batteries, and flashes are interchangeable, so whatever I spend accessorizing will carry over on the next upgrade. A telephoto with macro lens is on the top of the list then maybe a wide angle, dedicated macro, or ridiculously huge telephoto for wildlife. This is all fairly new but old for me - I grew up with film cameras and was reading about apertures when most kids were taking their first piano lessons. I don't feel like I'm entitled to this, that I've arrived anywhere.... but I do feel like taking lots of pictures. :) You know me, no Photoshop tweaks whatsoever. This is straight out of the camera.
















    Even the sweetest, most wonderful-seeming girlfriends (see picture above) have this intense desire to put their significant others to the limit, testing them to see how much they can get away with and how much they can ask for before they hit the max. Well, Esther has found out that she can ask anything of me. Drat. Why did I not see this coming. "Hey Nick, can you dig out an escape window and install a stone wall in your spare time?" << Should have given her an automatic, "I love you, but I'm really busy." No. Nope. Nothing close. Well, I hope I learned a lesson, but judging by my last credit card statement, there's a flight out to England coming up in September that I bought for myself... At any rate, I did enjoy working with her on the project, and we did get to help out her family (they really needed the help), and I do enjoy this kind of work, strangely.



    Standard click for bigger images (I'm going to stay in the habit of resizing them smaller so that people can't waltz off with a free full-size picture). Yes, I like pictures of flowers, insects, bugs, even worms, flowers, amphibians, birds, reptiles, flowers, goofy people, and surprise candids. I've got two more photo entries stashed away as private for tomorrow and the next day. :)

  • The Things I Find Myself Doing...

    Nick
    Need [red Dakota] truck
    2001-2004 range
    low mile/red

    __________________________________
    My life has got to be so far in the eccentric category that my dad is leaving me notes to buy a truck,  presumably for the company or someone in the company.

    Lately, though, I've found some great deals on eBay and craigslist. Most recently, a lawn spreader, a digital SLR from Nikon, plastic door hanger bags, and computer memory are some of the recent purchases, and DSL modems, textbooks, and regifted books have all gotten sold off with ease. Go eBay. Plus I snagged an HDTV for less than you would even imagine and got a power supply in Bay View for $15. Anyone wanna buy my truck? Or a little VW Jetta?

  • Schooled by a GIRL

    Beth scored a 30 on her ACT.

    Chris and I were flying high on our scores until this happened. While I'm proud of her, I'm mad! I wanna go back and retake that test myself just to show her! Yeah, yeah, it wouldn't prove anything. Still. Well, congrats, Beth. (It's like scoring a 1340 on the SAT I...she had a perfect score in one of the sections)