Our friend James was visiting his family last week in Northern Virginia. He drove down for a night and we cooked up some spaghetti and grilled Romaine. Sonya's brother Peter also came down from D.C. and we made it to a 9 pm showing of "the Town" ("by the visionary director of "Gone Baby Gone" (otherwise known as Ben Affleck). Our little town here doesn't get much in the way of movies.
The next morning James pulled out his shotgun, drove to Wal-Mart and bought some shells, and we got a pumpkin and proceeded to shoot at it in our backyard. We're in need of practice before we go turkey hunting.
James shows us the ropes.
Sonya was the instigator of borrowing James' gun to shoot a turkey for Thanksgiving. I think she is having second thoughts after actually firing the gun.
James left for Richmond, and so Peter and Sonya and I drove out to the 5 County Fair. We scaled the Wall, trying to win $100.00. (I had to teach some Photoshop moves to my class...this is what you get in a 10 minute demo.)
Deep Fried Oreos
Deep Fried Twinkies. We had to try them of course.
And then it was back to work.
Sonya and I were walking in the woods behind our house several weeks ago and came across an intact deer skull. It was picked clean but still a little green around the edges, so Bill advised me on how to get it nice and clean. He told me to buy a pot that I'd never use again, boil the water (with maybe a touch of bleach added) outside on a camp stove to avoid fouling up the house, and then to let the bones dry out in the sun for a week or so.
It's a little sad that I go to Walmart so much that I've saved a special setting on my camera for the White Balance and Exposure in Walmart.
Congratulations Nick and Sara! I'll finally start working on your wedding pictures this week, but first wanted to thank you two for a beautiful and fun time in Chicago.
There are days when I just wish that I could get into an old analog color darkroom and print my images. Instead I've been forced into learning all this information, which will probably change every 6 months with different programs and downloaded plug-ins with names like "Noise Ninja". And how best to sharpen prints? Unsharp Mask? Smart Sharpen? High Pass Filter? When all I want is some paper and a homemade dodge tool made from a piece of wire and some black tape.
We brought back some Decaf for Sonya and threw the frisbee, relaxed, Greg drew some pictures and found some deer teeth in the front yard. All very much like the old days.
