Beginning of classes

Well, just like that the Delaware County Fair is in the books again. We'll have the carcass show tonight for the few animals which were purchased and slaughtered and that will be the official end for one more year. There's a lot of pictures from the fair showing up on the website, so check them out. Not only are there great photographers entering in the show (including my wife, who won 3rd place!), but it seems there were a lot of good pictures shot by fairgoers and submitted to the site throughout the week.

As we sort through all of Amanda's pictures, mine have been posted to the Picasa album. Suprisingly, Picasa has not been cooperating well with her Google-brother Blogger, so I'll include the link to the album so you can go there straightaway. In the end, only 25 pictures made my cut onto the site, but as I fill up that site I'm trying to weed out some of my less good shots, including a cut yesterday on some pictures which lacked clarity or subject focus and were just on there for sentimental reasons.

I also began a new photo website which I like less, but they tricked me into joining with a contest for the best geocached photos. I'm a sucker for contests like this so hopefully I'll win something, and if not I've at least put in a little ad online for the Delaware County Fair. Yahoo's Flickr is just a little bit too glitchy and gimmicky for me to use it much yet.

Class is started here on campus and so now i have to adjust to a new schedule once again. I have yet to remember that I TA a class in the morning, so luckily it's for my forgiving mother-in-law because I haven't showed up to it on time yet. Coffee gets me through the long days of adjustment and by November my pigs should start coming off trial. Looking through the fog of chaos to the future of lab work and predictable schedules. Well, here's to hoping anyways...

Pictures!

Brace yourself, it's high volume picture season. This summer I've added about 8 GB of pics to my computer, but during this week alone, another 8-10 GB are added to my computer for the Delaware County Fair. With the addition of Amanda on the photography staff at the county fair, I'm thinking it's about time she got a Picasa album of her own to showcase her good shots. She has some really good pictures, especially from the sheep show last night and we both also have winnings this year again in the open photography show!

I'm toying around with some watermark ideas as well. Some pictures are getting put this year on the county fair website, so I don't want something obnoxious, but I do want something which draws more people to my Picasa album and hopefully eventually some photography gigs someday. I'm still in the growing stages and so looking for practice rather than contracts with expectations - this freelancing for Del. Co. Fair has been perfect. I'd appreciate commentary on two things: 1) watermark locations - I don't want to be obnoxious, 2) keeping the ScotchPine Photos name is a go?

Speaking of pictures, I'll share the MSU photos through this link for the jazzy uniforms to be used in the Michigan game this year (which we'll be at!). There's a lot of debate going on about the MSU uniforms and I agree with most people's intelligent commentary. I realize the traditions of school colors, and also the history lesson in the bronze inclusion - but to paraphrase a LinkedIn comment, "Why bronze, isn't that third?".

Slug Paparazzi

I think I scarred a slug today for life. It's not every day that you crawl out of the grass, roam across the sidewalk at just about 0 mph and find someone waiting for your picture at the end of the long, dry desert. If you want to see the pictures, just follow the sidebar link to my Picasa album's newest pictures. A couple of them turned out very well (these being the only ones you can see on there) but I've post a couple more here too, just snapshots compared with the two I uploaded to the official album.

Slugs and snails have always been something that I found fascinating. You would think for as slowly as they move that they would be some of the easiest living animals for portrait photography that ever were, but that is not the case. The hardest part about shooting photos of them is the fact that they move so slow. You might be stuck staring at them for an eternity, waiting for the scenery or lighting, angle or shadows to change just enough for a good picture. I got a bit lucky with the lighting today and took some different angles to try and find the one that would work best.

You can actually see his eyes looking straight at the camera lens in the photos. Well, I wish you could've seen me taking the photos because I was literally a mere inch away from his head on most of them. My macro lens is touchy at that range for focus, but I got a few decent pictures with appropriate size for enlargement. But I was in his face long enough, that he actually turned 180* and headed back the opposite direction. With him camera shy, I headed to work, just a few minutes late... Take a look at the photos and have a great day! I'm just around the corner from the county fair and photography entries so I welcome any comments on favorites for printing this year. After loading the slug photos up, I can tell they won't be show quality because of the size, but they sure were fun.

Picasa Album!

I just wanted to share with you all that I've added one more thing to the side of this blog. I was realizing recently just how many pictures I've taken over the years and some of them are actually pretty good. It's a shame to have good pictures and keep them all to myself, so I'm gonna post them onto a public Picasa album (program I definitely recommend!). Check out the photos and enjoy my work as I upload them semi-chronologically from when I first got a digital camera. I'm totally all about sharing these around, but please be respectful of my work/fun. I hope you enjoy how beautiful nature looks through my eyes. You'll find the link on the sidebar.

You better watch out...

... for Donald Duck. Apparently this lady doesn't watch many of his cartoons or she would've known better. He's always into shenanigans.

Speaking of shenanigans...

Picture worth a thousand words...

... and then some. Here's the picture, coming from this blog. The blog is running a joke competition leading up to the big game this weekend. Feel free to peruse for your own entertainment.


What do you get if you see a Michigan fan buried up to his neck in sand?
More sand.

What do you call 20 Michigan fans laying on the lawn?
Fertilizer.

How do you keep a Michigan football player out of your yard?
Put up a goalpost.


A Michigan football player was almost killed yesterday in a tragic horse back riding accident. He fell from the horse and was nearly trampled to death. Luckily, the manager of the Wal-Mart came out and unplugged the horse.

Stoning Satan

I was looking through the world in pictures on BBC's website and this image of the Muslim's casting stones at this pillar was pretty striking to me. Even more interesting was the further knowledge from the caption that: "Muslim pilgrims cast stones at a pillar, symbolizing the stoning of Satan, in a ritual called "Jamarat", the last rite of the annual Hajj in Saudi Arabia." Well, you learn new things every day; I'd throw a stone at Satan any day if I could even if it were symbolically.

Why I love the Columbus Zoo

Amanda and I went to the Columbus Zoo on Saturday. I had previously planned with Mom to go with her, Amanda, and Jacob for my birthday and after calling Mom to tell her about how awesome the new polar bear exhibit was I realized that in all the hullabaloo that surrounded this week's crazy schedule, I had totally forgotten to figure out the zoo time with Mom. Instead, Amanda and I went alone (Dear Mom, we are still going, and once again I'm sorry I forgot.). This in itself was also good because as a newly married couple we are very short on alone time. Between her job and our school, we haven't gotten much time to do all the things we thought we'd get to do once we were married like weekends in or evening walks to enjoy the sunset. Instead we've been just taking each day at a time and supporting each other through what we call "life".

We didn't spend a whole lot of time at the zoo due to the necessity of getting back to see the Buckeyes pull off the victory over Illinois in what is always a conference struggle for OSU and then Liz, Chris and Jeremy came over to see the Spartans pull off a great and unexpected win vs. Wisconsin. I can't even believe that MSU is now 5-0, and it happened the first year that I wasn't there as a student.

As you'll be able to see from a few pictures I'm putting at the end of this blog, the new polar bear exhibit consists of a much more natural-appearing habitat for the animals. The brown bears are moved into this exhibit with a more expansive pen and a waterfall into a fish pond. The polar bear exhibit is similar but with a fun new twist. Visitors can go underwater and watch the polar bears as they swim around. Very few visits to the zoo can rival Amanda and I standing underneath the water exhibit, looking up at the polar bear swimming over us. I'm posting the picture and definitely plan to enter it in next year's county fair. I absolutely love it, and witnessing the beauty of God's creation is exactly why I love the Columbus Zoo. Thanks Amanda for going with me this Saturday! :)

Pictures

As promised, attached are pictures, first of one of the kittens. There are four total but coincidentally enough they've turned up missing and we're pretty sure our neighbors are to blame again. Anytime we get decent cats around, our neighbors steal them or they turn up "missing". I just don't get it.



Secondly, inserted is one picture of me and Chris at the end of Pelotonia10 Day 1, and then click here to see a picture of me at the finish on Day 2.

If anyone is looking for MSU tickets for this fall, please look forward to a link on my facebook. I'm trying to get rid of the whole season minus the MSU vs. Notre Dame night game and all I'm trying to do is cover cost, so they're a great buy.



Finally, I just wanted to throw in a picture from Amanda and I's little pure Michigan trip last year to Lake Michigan in Grand Haven. I miss being in Michigan in the summer. Either that, or I miss the job flexibility that I had last year which enabled me to go places like that. Done get me wrong, I'm far happier being here in Ohio with family and my wife, but I miss my friends and the state of Michigan a lot. I miss it even more now that everyone is moving back to East Lansing for the fall semester. I just got a text last night from Drew asking if I was going to be in town and I think that's when it hit me more than ever how many people I've left behind in one place that will be dear to me for a very long time. Thankfully I have good friends here, both new and old, to fill the gap and spend time with.

Updates

These days I still spend a lot of time on the road visiting hog farms, but lately we've had some timing setbacks and so I've been at home, entering data and preparing for visits. This opens up my tv-watching time since most of this stuff requires little thought at all. All I really wanted to say was it is shocking how unbelievably bad television gets as it gets earlier in the day. I've seen just about all of the worst stuff there is... But I think I've found a show to occupy my interests when Bones, NCIS or House isn't on. That show is "The Colony".

The premise behind the show is that these people were selected to try to survive in a 10 acre area after a faked biological disaster. It appeals to me because of the rough creative nature that is necessary to survive in this manner. The ingenuity of some of the characters on it, whether fake or not (always the skeptic here) is kinda fun and thought provoking in a different manner than just watching medical or crime shows.

One other thing to throw out there. If you're interested in seeing wedding pictures of my most favorite and the most beautiful woman I know, they're right here. She was so beautiful that day and I can honestly say that I must have been the happiest man alive. I am so happy to have Amanda with me for the rest of my life. She is my greatest support and uplifts me every day. I really enjoyed the day and will post the honeymoon pictures next once I get them uploaded. Anyhow, I just wanted to share pictures of our special day. Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive of us and our relationship - I look forward to your continued support throughout our marriage and hope that we return the favor.