Adventures in So-Col

Last weekend we took a three-and-a-half day road trip to Southern Colorado, and checked out a bunch of cool stuff down there. I'd post the pictures, but I've discovered the awesomeness of the new full-screen slideshow option in Picasa web albums.... click HERE for all the best photos, complete with witty commentary!

Tara the Dancer

This July, my dad and I are going to be the photographers at my brother-in-law Tyler's wedding. To get in some practice photographing people in a "photo shoot" setting, I put the word out that I would do portrait sessions with people for free (that's the "project" I mentioned I was working on in the last post). I had plenty of responses... "free" gets people's attention. :)

My first shoot was with Tara, a graduate student studying dance here at CU. It was a great warm-up session for me... she brought a ton of props, dance routines, and ideas for the shoot, so I didn't have to worry too much about thinking up creative poses or anything for her -- I just got to focus on the "camera-technique" side of things. Here are some of my favorite shots from the session.... the full album is here. (Notice that Picasa now has a full-screen/slideshow option. Sweet!)

Travel Photography

It's been a while.... I figured I should probably get something new up here for you all to enjoy. :)

For a project I'm working on (more about that in later posts), I found that I really needed to be able to show people a sampling of some of my past photography. So, I recently browsed through several thousand photos and uploaded a sampling of some of my better shots to a Picasa album, if you want to check them out.

My favorite part of the process, though, was rediscovering some of the photos I'd taken in various international adventures with my little Pentax point-and-shoot. I'm sure aren't all that spectacular to everybody else, but man, the memories they call to mind! Eva-Lynn and I are having lots of fun traveling around the nearby states, but we're both dying to do some international travel again. Someday...

Anyway, here are some cool shots from around the world. Enjoy your virtual vacation....

A Hill Tribe woman (Hmong, if I remember right) in northern Thailand

I really like this picture for some reason. It was taken on the steps of a church in Lima, Peru.

Machu Picchu at sunrise, seen from the ancient "Camino Inka" (Inca Trail)

A craftsman in Montecristi, Ecuador -- home of the so-called "Panama hat"

Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina (Patagonia). Those ice spires are hundreds of feet high, and would occasionally come crashing down....

Hopkins, Belize - location of Eva-Lynn and my first international trip together (honeymoon!)

March Madness Group Photos!!!

So, if you haven't already heard, I passed my mega orals exam!!! (See the previous post for a description of the horror....) After properly celebrating, and then choosing to do absolutely nothing constructive with my brain for a few evenings, I've started going through all the photos from spring break (affectionately referred to as "March Madness"). I'll get the rest up soon, but tonight I grabbed a bunch of the best group shots and uploaded them to an online Picasa album. A few of my favorites are below...

Visiting Rocky Mountain National Park

Can you find all 9?

Yup, 9 of us in one 4Runner. It saved us entrance fees!!!

Red Rocks rockers.

Rocking out!!!

Still a band.... We're all playing a different instrument. I think Mark's playing his mouth.

After the Celestial Seasonings factory tour, sporting our spiffy hair (and beard) nets

Be bold!

I see one flower that doesn't want to blossom...

Ready for liftoff

Ready for sledding (after it snowed a foot and a half overnight)

Ready for cozy bookstores and pancakes!

More to come....

Winter Retreat

Last weekend was CU-Boulder's Graduate Christian Fellowship winter retreat. We had a really awesome time hanging out with a bunch of cool people at a sweet cabin near Winter Park....

Roasting s'mores...











One of those ball-rolling puzzle games... in this one, though, you had to get the colors in the right places. Eva-Lynn was a natural....




Saturday afternoon we headed out with a group to go snowshoeing...








Eva-Lynn had the idea of making a huge drawing in the snow, oriented so that it would be visible from the cabin (at the top of a hill).... here's her scale model of our stick figure. We named him Art. :)



Nate, standing at Art's adam's apple.



And the final product, viewed from the cabin. See him?

Arches National Park

.... was incredible! It's totally my favorite of the, you know, "desert-themed" parks (Zion, Bryce, Grand Canyon, Lake Powell...).

And, let me say.... good choice checking the pictures out over here. :)

Anyway, Arches was totally awesome. The great thing was, since it's the middle of winter, the park was totally deserted... we practically had the place to ourselves. Which made taking fun pictures that much easier....