My First Parade

Behold Maddie, the cutest little thing this side of Teddybearland.

Flirting With Monotremism

Ok, we have a firm rule: no non-placental mammals allowed in the house. And lately, Coco has been acting suspiciously spiny echidna-ish. When I found her she ate nothing but insects and I fear she is sliding back into ant snacking. She also caught a fly the other day. If this continues we may need an intervention.

Proud Daddy

This is my favorite picture of my son Zach and I.

Vows Of Nature

No, this is not a scene from The Song Remains The Same. It is not a gathering of fairy wood-elves having a banquet either. It's a reminder of what weddings in the 70's could sometimes devolve into, given enough free love and cheap beer. My brother Kevin is in there, third wood-elf from the left.

Six Strings And A Piece Of Wood

I have owned many guitars, including models by Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, and Martin. They are all good in their own ways, perhaps it can be said that tone, voice, and action define a personality of sorts. I can't really pick a favorite, like you can't really pick a favorite child. They all contribute to your experience in some way. The Gibson Les Paul has a great vintage sound, instantly taking you back to the 60's and 70's when flowing through the Marshall's tubes. Zeppelin and Tull, Aerosmith and Boston. Ibanez has a modern sound, they are used by some of the best guitarists in music today: Steve Vai, Joe Satriani. They are hot in gain and have impeccable action, like butter, and deep tremelos. In accoustic there is nothing quite like Martin, from the easy smooth tone to the rich smell of cedar.

I would love an old National Steel, maybe from the 30's. Think of the cool old voice that would have.

"Among God's creatures two, the dog and the guitar, have taken all the sizes and all the shapes, in order not to be separated from the man." - Andre Segovia

Wall Street

"Wall Street" section of the Lower Zion Narrows.

Photo-Receptive

There is something about a really great picture that is almost universally effective at conveying powerful feeling. Like a great painting, masterful photographs are carefully crafted, they don't happen by accident. Made right, photographs can make you forget that you are looking at a picture and immerse you in imagery that grabs your attention and keeps it by adding up layer upon layer of interest.

Technically, there are many visual devices that the artist can employ to create an effective photograph. Contrast, color, lighting, focus, pattern, composition, and detail can all be used to create a dynamic "story" that catches the eye and "leads" it around the picture.

I think careful attention to the construction of this "story" is what separates good photographers from great ones, and it is becoming more and more of an obsession with me as I try to improve my work.

Photography: It's really NOT about the camera.

Note: You'll be happy to know that I am not pretentious enough yet to put a photograph of mine in this particular post.

Spooky Shadows

Making shadow shapes on the rock above Spooky Gulch in Staircase, UT.

High Temperature Decapod Crustaceans

It's a shrimp-on-the-barbie kind of day, isn't it?

Random Acts Of Gravity

I broke my 300mm lens on the Utah hiking trip. Not in the Narrows, or up on some cliff, but in the parking lot. The (water-proof but not concrete-proof) bag it was in fell on the pavement and now the lens is demised. I really liked that one too. You're going to see more wide angle shots from me in the near future, because the new lens I want to replace it with is very expensive. But so it goes, you need to lose a few lenses to get really good pictures.

"If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough" - Robert Capa, famed WWII photographer. Yes, he was killed in action. His pictures were very good.

Harping And Picking

"We'd all play for the Saturday night balls, and there'd be this little boy hanging around. That was Robert Johnson. He blew a harmonica then, and he was pretty good at that, but he wanted to play a guitar. He'd sit at our feet and play during the breaks and such another racket you'd never heard."

- Son House

Trail Warrior

Our rugged little mountain man.

A Very Tight Fit

Zach beaming happily from a cave in Peek-A-Boo, Escalante, UT.

Mammalback

Heather, looking determined, with Maddie riding along in Zion, UT.

Silver Sand

Dunes, somewhere deep within Grand Staircase-Escalante, Utah.

Gilbert Zebedey

We caught a mouse last week in our kitchen. Ew. Zach was enthralled, and promptly named it Gilbert Zebedey. He said a few words, then we unceremoniously dumped Gilbert in the trash. Ew.

Utah

130 Million years ago it was home to the Utahraptor, a ferocious dinosaur with a nine-inch long claw. More recently, however, Utah hosted my family. Our intentions were somewhat less ferocious: a few good hikes. I'll post more about our great trip to Utah in the coming days. For now, here is a picture of the fabled Upper Narrows in Zion.

Moms

Hi, all you moms out there. Heather and Mary, Ingrid and don't forget my mom too, even though she isn't with us here anymore. You all do something that is very hard and woderful at the same time. We would be lost without you. Thank you and Happy Mother's Day!!

Ride It Until The Wheels Fall Off

You've got to really push life. It wants to be lazy. Chase it. Relentlessly dare it. Make it give you the best ride it can. And then squeeze out even more. And when obstacles get in the way, ride over them and keep going, even faster. You only get one ride, and it doesn't last forever. Make sure you get a chance to feel the wind in your hair and the sun on your face. You won't regret it.

Getting Better And Better Until I Die

Today is head shaving day! In case you haven't heard, I am going to buzz myself to a clean #1 in preparation for the Utah trip. This way I will not have hot hair in my way, and I will look far more "Special Forces"-esque. I have regrown the goatee also. This whole thing will either be very cool, or, well, a very long six months.

Love This Picture. LOVE it.

Some pics just make you think "What the heck were these people doing?". I like that kind. I like to make up stories about them. In this case, it's not necessary, because this family generates their own stories that are better than fiction on a regular basis.

What do you think is going on here?

Old Warriors Never Die

"No wonder it's broken, it's 41 years old!" Zach said when I picked this old matchbox truck from his toy box. You can always tell which were mine - they were emblazoned with a thick black "D" in magic marker. This was implemented by my mom after the particularly nasty Matchbox turf-wars of 1971, a property dispute between my brother Brian and I.

I played hard with this truck for years, and Zach has carried on the tradition. We refuse to retire it given its history. There are a few more of these old survivors still banging around the house. It's nice to see them still loved after all this time.

The Right Way To Blush

A sign hanging in the visitors center at Ravenswood in Sonoma reads "Zin is Red...Zin is Red...". They sell shirts that say "Friends don't let friends drink white zinfandel". White zin is pretty much the running joke of the wine world.

However, don't take that to apply to all blush wines. There are some great ones. This is a French rose from Provence that was incredible. We had two bottles of it this weekend.

Godzilla Vs. Yashika

One of Zach's many creative dioramas.

Honey-Bee-Striped Sea Bass

Every now and then I like to keep my family on their toes by creating something strange. Here, leftover salmon became "Honey-Bee-Striped Sea Bass".

Junie

We had an adventure this weekend and ended up with a new pet, sort of. We rode bikes to the park on Saturday, the whole family went (sans the jackals). As Zach was playing on the slide he found a june bug. It was a little banged up, wings askew and seemingly doped and almost dead. But Zach saw potential there and wanted to keep it. No amount of dissuading would work. So he rode home with this little bug nestled gently in his hand. There were several stops on the way for spot health checks or to pick up the june bug after an escape attempt or sudden drop.

Finally we were home and "Junie" as the beetle was promptly named, was safe in Zach's bug basket. Several times later in the day Junie looked to be at death's door, laid on its back with all legs in the air, motionless. But Zach's tender-loving care nursed it back and by evening it was doing much better. He had made a bed of grass for Junie, and threw in some tasty flowers.

The gender of the june bug is still in doubt, and has swung like a gate back and forth between female ("I think I saw her lay eggs dad!"), and male ("she's not pregnant dad, so he CAN'T be a girl."). But either way, Zach has had limitless fun with his new Phyllophaga specimen. Here is a picture of Junie about to go for a ride in the back of his or her new pickup truck. He/she really loves the wind in his/her antennae.

Gene Pool

I guess I have always had broad shoulders. It seems to be what people notice about me. You know, after the stunning personality and keen sense of modesty :)

A Place Of My Own

Meeting Through The Glass

Heather "touches" a polar bear at the Detroit Zoo.

Big Eyes And Cute Buns

Maddie, feeling good after a fun bath. Maddie loves the water!

Starbucks, Here We Come...

Girl with coffee beans, Antigua, Guatemala, 2001.

Wind And Sand And Birds And Scariness

My sister took this Instamatic shot sometime in the late 60's or early 70's in Florida, during a storm. Don't you love storms? There is something awesomely powerful and foreboding about them. Wind and thunder, hair blowing and sand in your eyes. This shot just veritably drips with dark atmosphere. Even the birds look scared.

The Long Dog

This is a small section of the world's longest hot dog. Don't look for it in Guinness, they only recognize megadogs when the bun is also long, this one had sectional buns. But the dog itself was more than 140 feet long! We only ate about three feet of it, which amounts to a measly 2.1%.

All Out

Zach, piling the speed on during the Oak Apple Run, Royal Oak.

Watch Your Step

Stairs and doorway, Meadowbrook Hall, Michigan.

Pretty Purple Things

Flowers. I could tell you what kind of flowers if I was a girl. I am not, however, so you should be satisfied that I can tell they are flowers at all :)

A Whole Lotta Bull

This is what my family was up to shortly before I was conceived. Living in Mexico City and doing the local thing. You know, Coronas and bullfights. And people wonder why I am so different.

Just The Four Of Us

Brian, with his foot in a pail and stick held high. Mary looking quite annoyed by this. Me, having a ball. And to the right is, of course, the giant invisible man-eating squid, Henry, about to ruin our day.

Slip Sliding Away

As information for any daft readers out there who have not noticed the recent spate of old family photos on my blog, I have started scanning my father's slides. There are a great many of these precious little 135 and 126 square gems at my house now, each having patiently waited for up to 50 years for its turn in the scanner bed. When I am finished I will give each family member a DVD with all these old pictures on it, full size. So far I have scanned about 550 of them, with a couple thousand left. It's tedious and tricky, but it's more than worth the effort. I plan on doing a "best of" slide show at reunion this year which I think will be cool. In the mean time, you will find me hunched over the silver Canon, brushing, cleaning, and scanning, four at a time.

Minnesota For A Minute

We got a visit from my friend Ingrid and her beautiful daughter Madeline this week. Ever since Ingie moved back to Minnesota we have been missing her. And when she comes to visit, the scant few hours we have go by too fast. Here's to next time, Ingie.

Cameras Of Our Fathers

I have started a collection of old cameras. In this age of digital photography, old film cameras have become easy to acquire, and cheap. So I won about a dozen of them on eBay and they have started to roll in en masse, like a camera armada. Here's a rangefinder Kodak 35mm.

Poop Shoes

Last fall Zach cleaned the sticks from the back yard. Because we have two dogs, he had to equip himself properly for the job by strapping plastic bags to his feet. In other words, he donned his poop shoes. He is seen here heading out.