Happy Thanksgiving!

Here is another shot of a vibrant Tampa sunset taken today while I was waiting for a 3.6GB file to download. Ugh. I'm not good enough at Photoshop to "fake" these colors... I ran a noise reduction filter, sharpening tool and added +0.35 exposure compensation.

All work and no play...

After work tonight I pulled out my camera and took advantage of the beautiful sunset over Tampa Bay from my 8th floor window view. I love this time of year because the colors of our sunsets are often spectacular. The science behind this fact is rather simple: The more particles in the air, the less vibrant the sunset. Since Florida is very humid about 9 months of the year, the airborne particles we call humidity make for a rather dull sunset. More airborne particles = less vibrant. When winter comes and the humidity drops, there are less airborne particles - and the sunsets are quite amazing!

(Click on photo to see full size image on Flickr)

Early morning at the Sponge Docks

I met my friend Fred at the Tarpon Springs Sponge Docks this morning for some photography fun. We spent a few hours shooting the area and then the Greek bakeries started opening up. Mmmm - Yummy! We called it a morning after some hot coffee and fresh pastries. All in all a great morning of shooting!

(Click on photo to see full sized image on Flickr)

Annual Pass

I noticed that our annual pass to Lowry Park Zoo was about to expire so I headed over to the zoo this morning with my wife and mom.

It was a beautiful day out, temperatures in the upper 70's, slightly overcast with a hint of a breeze. Perhaps this is a sign that the sweltering heat we are accustomed to in Florida is finally past? One can dream...

The shooting was OK. I got over 600 shots in just a few hours. Here are some of the better ones:

(Click on image to see full sized image on Flickr)

Game Day

Today was the day Tara went back to Florida. I dropped her off at the airport about 10AM and hightailed it back to the hotel because, well, it was GAME DAY! NFL games galore. The highlight of the afternoon was the Denver Broncos beating the San Diego Chargers 39-38 on a gutsy call by coach Mike Shanahan to go for a 2 point conversion with 0:24 left on the clock. He could have kicked the extra point and taken his chances in overtime but I like the call. Go for the win!

I talked to Tara after the game and she said mom was watching the Broncos game when she got there. Omen? More to come...

Exploration Day

Tara and I woke up early on Sunday morning and headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park for a couple of hours. It's Colorado. It's September. It's about 7800 feet above sea level. Essentially, it's a little colder than it is in Florida. As such, there was copious amounts of complaining.

That all changed when we went to the Glacier Basin riding stables. Tara loves horses and she got to kanoodle with a couple of the more friendly horses. Score 2 points for Colorado!

We wanted to go up to the Alpine center (alt. 12,000+) but the road was closed. It was kind of windy so I guess that must have been why. So, we packed up and headed over to Longmont and spent the afternoon bumming around the historic Main Street district. I think Tara has decided if she moves to Colorado, she wants to live in the Old Town district of Longmont.

One last stop before calling it a night - Cold Stone Creamery! Yummy. More to come

Travel Day

I needed to go back out to Colorado next week so I talked to my wife and she wanted to come out for a few days. We dropped the dogs off at my mom's house this morning and headed over to the airport!

Hurricane Ike was wreaking havoc with a lot of flights in the southeast so our flight was a little delayed. To Southwest's credit, the pilot took a shortcut and got us to Denver on time. A quick stop at the office to say hi to everyone and we were off for dinner.

We didn't find the restaurant we were looking for but we did happen across the Black Forest Restaurant in Nederland. The dinner was pretty amazing. I had Elk for the first time and it was delicious. Tara had some Rainbow Trout and she liked it quite a lot as well. The sun was long gone so we didn't get to see the sights of Boulder Canyon on our way back to the hotel.

Tomorrow we're going to play it by ear - we might make a trip up to Rocky Mountain National Park if we get up early enough. More to come