Doing things with people you Love

So this has been coming up a bit in my personal life, so in an effort to talk about things more I will discuss it here. Some of my only memories of Germany as a youngster was not wanting to go to places like castles, gardens, and the other cool things I now want to see in Europe. Since I was young I really had no choice in the matter and was dragged along to 13 different countries on various trips. The entire way to our given destination I remember being upset at not being able to play Sega Genesis or Nintendo all day, but once there ended up having a ton of fun. Something like that happened to me last night. I don’t love baseball, I don’t watch it when it’s on and I had had a really long day at work so I was exhausted. But since my Dad had invited me as his first choice I did not want to let him down, and knew that I had never been able to go to these night games because I worked a night shift at MICROS.  I went to the game expecting it to be what I had envisioned, a long drawn out affair that would be full of some really awkward moments where I don’t understand what was going on and ending up with the O’s loosing. It could not have been farther from the truth, besides the O’s loosing. I had a BLAST being with my Dad, talking to him taking part in the game with him. Baseball is something my Dad loves, and being there with my Dad doing something he loves it made me love it. We got to talk about all sorts of things, we got to really bond and I was beaming the entire time. I really want to go to another one and it’s a shame that the season is almost over. I got to meet all of the people he knows there and we got to really enjoy each other as adults. I knew that my Dad and I had a lot in common but going to the game with him just reminded me how cool of a guy he really is. I guess the lesson here is sometimes there are things that you think that you will not enjoy, but if you go into it with an open mind you may be surprised to find that you have a ton of fun.  At the end of the night I thanked my Dad, gave him a big hug and was honestly sad that the night was over. Last night was one of the best “Father/Son” outings of all time. Thanks Dad.

No Kids Allowed

So in the next month I will be going to not one but two different weddings. The weddings are going to be very different and I am sure to have a good time at both. But last night I was standing and talking with one of the brides and it brought me back to my wedding and all of the hard work and planning that goes into that day. The bride I spoke with last night has politely asked their guests to keep infants out of the ceremony and is getting quite the backlash from her family regarding this. Her opinion is that she does not want a child screaming through the ceremony and then having it immortalized on tape. I remember that this was something that we had originally considered for our wedding and reception. In the end we did in fact get a sitter so that our guests with children would be able to enjoy our wedding with us as adults. Since issues like this have been in the news recently, see here. the question that I have is why is it so offensive to want to enjoy my eating experience without your kids ruining it? Why is it so bad that I want to be able to take an airplane flight without listening to a baby cry for six hours, honestly? Now, being that many of the people in my family have children I understand that they are part of your life, I love your kids, seriously I do. But why do people find it so upsetting when one business says that you cannot bring your kids? They way I see it is that if the business can sustain itself without child patrons, the only people who are affected are the kids themselves. You do not have to go to those establishments, but maybe I want to. I am not offended when you bring your kids to the museum that I am at, I realize that its just as important to their education and they have a right to see these things. I guess my rant really is why are so many people outraged by the idea that establishments could exist without the support of children.

Leave replies, I would love to try to understand that parental side of it.

IT - Lessons in Frustration

I have decided to take this blog in another direction, besides posting things about my hobby (which I have had less and less time to do) I will also be making this just my personal all around blog. I need a place to post about my life and I really like this blog. Don't worry I will eventually get back to posting about my photography but for today:

Working in IT can often lead to many interesting things happening on a day to day occurrence. Today, I looked in my inbox for tickets and found a ticket saying that a machine needed to have java updated. I figured that since my boss assigned the ticket to me and that it needed to get done that I would be proactive, connect to the machine remotely and update the software. So I do just that, they take software upgrades pretty seriously around here so I felt productive for getting that done. I have to leave my desk to take care of another issue, when I come back everyone is asking me why I connected to that machine, why I updated java and why all these things were done. My issue with this is that if everyone but me knows to not update a machine, why would you assign me a ticket for that machine KNOWING that I am the kind of person who would get that done. Very frustrating.

Sugar Loaf Mountain

Wow, I am really sorry that its been so long, I guess I will go ahead and catch you up on a few of the things going on. Spring has finally come and I have really been chomping at the bit to get out and do some photography. I will have to post more often, but hopefully soon some things will come up that will allow me to hopefully do just that. So for now I will post another picture that I really like.

I really enjoy the grains of the wood and how they really seem to show the age of the wood. I was at Sugarloaf Mountain in Maryland this year for a day and I was trying to get these great mountain view scenes playing with my new 28-135mm Canon lens and at one point I ended up looking down at the park bench I was sitting on and found this shot. The dead leaves just fresh from their winter tombs and snapped this photo. Still one of my favorite brown photos.

Sugarloaf Mountain was not the best in the early spring and the day we were there was quite cold but its all over my list for the fall when the leaves start turning. Not a lot to the mountain but its one of the highest places in Maryland meaning it will have a great view of the rolling hills here.

Makes an excellent background if your looking for one I can send you the watermark free version if you pop me a line.

The City of Brotherly Love

I was recently asked how do photo trips get planned? What consideration goes into what lenses to bring, where to go, what time of day? My answer was of course spend as much time as you can planning, go early, and as far as lenses bring as much as you can. The trip that Corey and I took on November 29^th was anything but one of those trips but still turned out brilliantly. Sitting in my house one night Corey and I both realized that we had the upcoming Monday off. At the same time we were watching Man vs. Food on the Food Network and he was in Philadelphia. At the same time both Corey and I found that this would be the perfect opportunity for a photo trip to the City of Brotherly love. We departed rather early our eyes set on the Liberty Bell and Constitution Hall. The trip to Philadelphia was uneventful but the day was filled with so many prospects and of course Cheese steaks.

We found parking fairly easily and started into the Liberty Bell museum. The place is nothing but Top Notch and was very informative. The entire complex in the center of downtown Philadelphia was phenomenal.  The light was fairly harsh and getting a picture without twenty other tourists in it was not easy, but I was able to snatch a few courtesy of a zoom and getting in front of little kids to take a picture.  I really liked the way they did the Liberty Bell, lots of natural light from all different angles really gives the bell a very different look from different sides.  Maybe its because I am a guy but I really enjoyed the “blue” side which was a result of the skylight behind us.

The outside of the building where the Liberty Bell is

Shortly after we headed over for our guided tour of Independence Hall. If you are Philadelphia you really should consider the tour it’s a free tour but you do need to get tickets. It was breath taking knowing that some of my family were in Philadelphia, when the Constitution was being signed. They were consequently hanged for assisting the British, but neat nonetheless. Its a really neat piece of my families history.  Apparently there was an Act passed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1783 that stated the Doans were "robbers, felons, burglars, and traitors". Its an interesting story that ends up with Abraham and Levi being hanged. I would recommend looking into the story. 

Finally we decided to walk (which was in retrospect a bad idea as I did not wear a coat) to get Cheese-Steaks. Only 14 blocks and about half the city away we arrived at our destination.  If you have ever been to Geno’s or Pat’s for a Cheese-Steak you I am sure have your opinion about which is better. This is exactly what Corey and I were here to find out. The two competing restaurants are located literally across the street from each other and work in direct competition. We started with Geno’s where we ordered a “Provi-Wit” and then ordered the same at Pat’s. Needless to say we both felt that Pat’s was the better of the two.

We walked back to the car and began the two and a half hour drive home, having enjoyed another photo trip. The sunset over Philadelphia was breath taking and Corey and I discussed how crazy it was that we drove from Baltimore to Philadelphia for some cheese steaks. Just goes to show how fun photography days happen.

I'm on top of the world, looking down on creation

Yep! I did it, after years of not being able to get back up to the in-laws house for the Holidays Tina and I set off on our great adventure. We decided to drive from Maryland so a certain four legged creature of ours could come along on the trip. The drive took a long time but went swimmingly. We got to the Phillips house on Saturday evening and exchanged our Christmas gifts. Sunday was a bit of a down day with Church in the morning, and then nothing major that afternoon. We called it an early night because "This van will be leaving our house promptly at 6:00 AM Monday Morning. That's right, Mr. Phillips had planned a ski trip. We headed to Stratton Lodge in Vermont. The complex there is amazing, multiple lifts, a gondola, and many buildings that different paths lead to. It was VERY cold, it was -1 when we arrive and hovered between 0 and 10 degrees all day.

Luckily I was rather warm all day as we were bundled down in gear nice and snug. After doing some little paths, a few slows and what not we decided that it was time to head to the top of the mountain. The gondola right to the top actually took awhile and as this small enclosure we were in got farther and farther to the top my confidence in my skills was lacking.   By the time we go to the top of the mountain I was worried that I would never again see my great state of Maryland. But to be serious the view of the mountains and Vermont was fantastic. Given that we had just had lunch I was nice and full and we began out trail to the bottom. The first time we took a longer winding green that afforded us multiple picture opportunities. The hardest part about shooting in this environment was keeping my lens clear and keeping the camera in one piece. Luckily Tina decided that she felt confident that she would not fall and opted to take the camera. In fact the picture your looking at to the right was taken by her!

Check out these trees at the top of the Mountain!

The day progress without me taking too many falls, and overall I was able to hold my own but but the time the afternoon had set in fatigue was setting in. Having gone past it once before Tina decided to shoot some video of this awesome slope that as built under a bridge. So I proudly present, me skiing.

Pier 5 - The Tasting!

Okay, so if anyone who knew me and my wife read this blog and you asked them about us and the things you read here they would not be surprised to tell you that were random, fun, energetic people who jump head first into all things we do. Tina accepted my proposal on December 26th 2008, and let me tell you have I have never been happier.  What a great year 2008 was, however come December 26th 2009 we still had no place to get married, no plans, no dress, no invitation, not even an announcement. Our families never ended up throwing us an engagement party and by the end of that year we were thinking that we would be engaged forever. Now don't get me wrong it was never for a lack of trying, we had visited thousands of places, Tina may have tried on every dress in the Tri-State area but looking back on our wedding when its not right its not right. In January of 2010 I started a new job, and that put an even bigger hamper on things happening for us. Until we found Pier 5 in Baltimore.


Fitting very snuggly on the Harbor and inside our budget it was a great place to get married. The view was fantastic, the staff enjoyable. It was a hotel, it was a ceremony ground, and it was a reception all in one. What we had left to do was taste the food we were preparing to spend an enormous amount of money on. Never fear, we booked the place in February and the "Wedding Blitz" began. Come May almost everything was on cool down mode when we went in for our tasting in hand. Having just got my T2i a few days earlier of course the camera was in hand to grab pictures.  It was a dream day, could not have asked for better weather and in reality, it was really exciting because it served as a prelude for what to come. We were sat down by our coordinator and began to iron out the specific details, she showed us all sorts of dishes and she sat us down and we began to indulge ourselves in some of the most fantastic food we've ever had. The crab cakes (pictured above) were some of the best I personally have ever had and in sitting in the heart of Baltimore Harbor I would not expect less.

What I had not realized going into this was that there would be so many decisions that needed to be made that day. If we were to do it all again I really would have asked for a cheat sheet so that we could go in with some answers. I think in that two hour session with Pier 5 we made about 70% of the decisions for the wedding. Everyone goes into the wedding knowing that they want a cake but when presented with 30 different cakes picking out the "perfect" one can lead to a prolonged argument. We spent most of that morning picking out napkin styles and what types of wine we wanted and in what order we wanted things server. The picture to the right is what we finally decided on, yes we had a conversation about what folding of napkin we wanted. Needless to say my my Dad and I were enjoying the food and the drinks while Mom and Tina worked out the fine details. I don't want to sound uninterested but in reality Dad and I could only argue about the color of the tablecloth for so long.

After it was all said and done we all headed outside and took a look at where we (less than a month from then) would be getting married. Shooting in this light was a little difficult but I was able to get some of my favorite pictures perhaps ever of my future bride. She just looked so calm and in control that day. Which considering everything we had done was surprising because of all of the decisions we had made. Needless to say, a lovely May day.

As Always I would LOVE some comments people. I see the hits your leaving, I know your here. Say Hi!