Monday, April 25, 2005

A weekend in Beaufort

Julie and I went to our place in Beaufort for a long weekend. I took a handful of pictures and a few of them came out. In general, not a great photography session.

A sea gull sitting in the marina, hoping for a last morsel of food before night sets in.

The moon sitting behind an American flag. The flag is flying on the mast of a sailboat.

I was down taking some pictures of the sun setting over a creek near Beaufort, NC. It wasn't that interesting a sunset, but I am trying to learn to take excellent sunset pictures with my new camera.

The light just kept changing

More sunset

The sunset just before the sun ducked behind heavy clouds.

The relections on the water were interesting. Normally by this hour of the evening, the wind and water are calming down. It was still blowing hard.

Night time brought a gorgeous full moon.

This is the Sand Bar restaurant down at Town Creek Marina in Beaufort, NC. Our friend, Steve Miller, keeps his boat here.

This was a little duck sitting on a stool at the bar outside the Sand Bar. He was injured and a woman had adopted him. Minutes after this picture was taken, his "mom" got him down and walked off. He ran along behind her as fast as he could. Too cute for words.

A little tough to see, but there are three Navy Seal powerboats running a few feet apart. They are all Fountain offshore racing boats, painted grey, with machine guns added. I would have gotten a better picture, but I had accidently turned the autofocus off on my lens.

Saturday, April 16, 2005

NCSU Red and White Spring game

I went to NC State's spring football game today. Went with my neighbor and his son. The team looks OK, but the quarterbacks are still throwing the ball to the ground and the sky all too often.

Tony Hudson: neighbor, beer drinker, NCSU fan, ....

Tony's son Jackon, holding a football outside the stadium.

Jay Davis getting instructions from the coach early in the game.

Marcus Hudson throwing one down the field.

A nice run up the middle.

An excellent score up the middle with a bit of celebration.

Oops, over threw that one.

Oops, another over throw.

The crowd in the end zone, hoping to catch the field goal attempt

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Our winter visitors

As the ski season is wrapping up, I was thinking about all the people who came to visit us this winter. A wonderful mix of friends and family.

Julie's mom, Steve's mom and Julie standing at the top of April Mountain. The moms were out for Christmas.

Steve's cousin Sara with Julie at a ski race at Park City.

Visitors for our first Sundance Film Festival include John, Pattie, and John. This picture was taken after lunch at Royal Street.

Mark and Barbie Ried with Julie and I. They are neighbors from Raleigh.

Anne and Tom Schick, Bill Hogan, John Walker and Julie. The half of the ski group staying at our house.

Conni was here with with Bill, but left before we took the last picture. This may be the only picture in existence of Conni on skis.

The Nickels and the Kahns. Even though the Nickels stayed with the Kahns, we think of everyone in our ski group as visitors.

Sunday, April 03, 2005

A big weekend

This weekend was an interesting one. On Thursday afternoon I got my new 80-400 lens for my Nikon D70. This paid off Friday afternoon when a group of three moose came down onto the hill behind our house. I was able to hustle out into the snow and get a few shots. Unfortunately, there were a lot of scrub trees between me and them.

My brother-in-law was in town for a GM-sponsored event. On Saturday, I got to join a group of about 35 people going over to Deer Valley's snow mobiling area. They have 13,000+ acres of ranch land they lease for the winter. It was a great ride and very scenic. Thanks to Marty and GM.

On Sunday I sat patiently with my new zoom lens and shot some pictures of the chipmunks that live out front. I have a lot to learn about getting great shots with this lens (or really with any lens), but some of them came out OK.

Moose shot with a long lens, as momma moose doesn't like you coming close to the little ones. Little means the size of a horse.

One of three moose (meese?) in our back yard

Steve and Marty on our hot rides

Marty Smale, snow mobiling on a GM trip

Chowing down

Finding seeds

A junco

Checking out the porch

Stealth mode

Sunflower seeds

Whack-a-chipmunk