...threehundredsixtytwo/threehundredsixtyfive...

...threehundredfiftyeight/threehundredsixtyfive...

Mulled wine...mmmm

Distain

...threehundredfiftysix/threehundredsixtyfive...

She's my favorite.

...threehundredfiftyone/threehundredsixtyfive...

Aww

...threehundredthirtyone/threehundredsixtyfive...

No, I did not take this today but I did digitize and enhance it.  That counts, right?
We were doing some cleaning/organizing today and came across a lot of old pictures.  This was a picture I shot in 2007 while in Texas.  The bluebonnets were in full bloom so I pulled over (along with many other photographers) for a photo.  I love this shot and after our first snow of the season today, this scene really hits the spot.

...threehundredthirty/threehundredsixtyfive...

She's handy to have around at 10:30pm when I don't have a shot for the day yet.

...threehundredthree/threehundredsixtyfive...

My sister-in-law's gorgeous wedding in St. Louis.  The ceremony was at Bailey's Chocolate Bar and  it couldn't have been more beautiful and perfect.  I highly recommend the "Mexican" chocolate martini, hands down the best drink I've ever had.

The reception was at the Mariott at Union Station, another amazing place.

...threehundredone/threehundredsixtyfive...

 Trick or Treat!

...twohundredthirtyseven/threehundredsixtyfive...

Honeysuckle

This is the reason our hollyhock dissolved

...twohundred/threehundredsixtyfive...

Yoga time.

...onehundredeightynine/threehundredsixtyfive...

...onehundredeightyseven/threehundredsixtyfive...

she's my favorite

...onehundredeightythree/threehundredsixtyfive...

Took the wife outside for a portrait this evening.  This was actually a throwaway shot, but I always like to explore the potential of junk shots before actually tossing them.  Many good shots but I keep coming back to this one.  I like the mono version but the color is nifty too.

...onehundredtwentythree/threehundredsixtyfive...

Beauty and the beast

...ninetynine/threehundredsixtyfive...

I'm totally psychotic about waiting for stuff in the mail.
I bought a superpowered laptop the other night and check the status multiple times daily.  My blood pressure has remained elevated since clicking "place order".  What's really making me twitch is that it's still "processing" and it's estimated shipping date is 4/8/10.
...that's right...yesterday.
This does not help my neurosis.

Anyway, next week sometime I should be flying through processing and stitching a gazillion frames and merging trillions of HDR frames and generally kicking some random access ass.

For now I stalk the house snapping away.
The big brown dog is a house guest for the weekend, Pearl the pug is not a fan.

...ninetytwo/threehundredsixtyfive...

I bought my girls matching rubber boots today.

...seventythree/threehundredsixtyfive...

Last night, the highschool-style formal dance of my wife's medical school ,aka: "LEPROM", was a surprisingly fun, albeit long, night.  Not without much personal protest we ended the night at some chump-filled dance club called Boardwalk.  Not really my scene and now I have to dry clean my suit.

Overall I enjoyed watching my wife have a great time with all the awesome people she has gotten so close to since starting school 9ish months ago.  It was nice to be part of the crew for a change instead of just hearing about all of her friends.

And the wife looked smokin' hot. (yeah, I know, the dreaded "pop up" flash shadow ruins this awesome portrait.   My new flash will arrive this week)

I spent the majority of the day building this panoramic tripod head.  It is a complicated technique but simple design.   I won't go way into it but it just means my large scale landscapes should definitely improve.

Plus I found a new HDR program that looks promising for more realistic images.  I haven't done any HDR lately beacause it seems like it's way overdone now and sticks out like a sore thumb.  This program seems to do it the right way.  Here's my first try with it. It's not a scene that necessarily needed HDR but I just randomly pulled over and shot it when I was on my way back from the Home Depot.

...fiftythree/threehundredsixtyfive...

I just drank a glass of tequila [a small glass and it was Patron on the rocks so it's classy, that's how I roll].  I'm not on-call and the kids are safe in their beds, my wife is absorbed into medical books/webcasts of Olympic curling so it's mellow time.

Tonight, I decided to use my wife as a model and took these shots while she studied.

My parents in AZ gave my wife an awesome gift this summer when we were out visiting.  My late grandmother's pearls and wedding/engagement ring.  My dad bought these pearls for her while he was serving in Vietnam.  They were well worn by a classy Texan lady for many years but still in good shape.  I had them cleaned and re-strung for my wife's birthday present.

...fourtysix/threehundredsixtyfive...

Today felt like the day after a bad trip.  Felt really weird all day.  
Must have been the nutrient rich VanDeKamp fish trapezoids I had for dinner last night. 
[No, my wife did not feed that to us.]


Anyway, I'll never understand how I can grow an onion by ignoring it on my kitchen counter but when tending to plants and having a vested interest in their survival, they die.

I found this onion in a bowl in our kitchen and took pictures of it.

Then I realized my wife is more appealing to look at.

...fourtyfour/threehundredsixtyfive...

Just got home from our date.  Sushi and Avatar 3D.

I was reluctant to see this film because of all the hype, frankly I was annoyed by all the endless chatter about how great it is.  Now I'll eat my words and leap upon the bandwagon.

Avatar was the single greatest cinematic spectacle I have ever had the pleasure to behold.

Here's some crappy shots from dinner in the dark at Aoyama.
(they still count, if they're crappy, right?)


The wife sharing

mmmm...squid roll