A Photo-rific Weekend

[mjs1973]

Well, I had lots of things planned to get done this weekend, and I wasn't able to finish any of them. The house and garage look like a bomb went off in them, my 16x24 inch print didn't get to the frame shop, I didn't make it to the bank, the in-ground fence for the dogs didn't get installed the list goes on and on...

I started out Saturday morning working on the dog fence when I was remined of my nephews flag football game at 11:00. Ok, no big deal. I'll grab my camera, walk up to the game since it's only 2 blocks from my house, take some pics and come home after the game and work on the fence right? WRONG. His 11:00 football game turned into 5 football games which lasted till about 3:00. Followed by my other nephews 3 football games starting at 3:00 and going till about 4:30. So 2.5gb of photos later, I headed home. I had a lot more fun at the games than I would have digging a trench around the perimiter of the yard.

When I got home, I call a friend of mine who lives in Galena IL and told him I would be down in about an hour and half to go to Thomas D. Mengelson's Images of Nature Gallery. Tom was going to be there that night to show off some new work. WOW, what an incredible body of work this guy has built over the years. The more I looked, the more I wanted to talk to him and pick his brain about equipment, film, printing, you name it. I didn't get the chance to talk to him because the place was packed with people who could actually afford to purchase his work. If you have never seen his work, you should check out one of his galleries. He has galleries in Arizona, 2 in California, 5 in Colorado, 1 in Idaho, 2 in Illinois, 1 in Missouri, Nebraska (his home state), Nevada, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

Today I jumped in my truck to mow some lawns for the last time this year. I'm contracted to take care of some comercial properties in the area and figured it would be a good way to spend the day. There is a little driving between each property and in total it's somewhere in the 150 mile range by the time I get back home. I toom my DRebel and Sigma 170-500mm lens and hit the road. I spent more time stopping and shooting birds than I did mowing. That was much more fun than pushing a lawn mower around in the drizzle. By the time I got home I had close to another gig of photos.

So, not much got done around the house this weekend. My desk is littered with CF cards, and lenses, and the garage is littered with just about anything you can imagine but that will all have to wait for another day. I had so much fun giving my camera a good workout, and viewing lots of incredible photos at the Images of Nature Gallery. It would almost be a shame to spend the last few hours of the weekend doing house work. Time ot go sit in front of the fireplace and relax.

[JamesV]

sounds like a productive weekend to me...

[ken1953]

Hey Michael, did you get to see any of the Model T's in Galena on saturday??? Wish I knew you were going through here...anyway...sounds like you were real busy...Ken

[mjs1973]

Productive, that's a good word!!

[mjs1973]

Hey Ken, no I didn't see any of them. It was dark by the time I got down there. We hit the gallery, then went back and picked up my friends wife, and went to grab a bite to eat and then I came home.

[JSPhoto]

Eat, thats what I forgot!!!! Working on my pictures from yesterday, playing here on the net, working on pictures again, playing on here again..... even cleaned all the papers off a chair and put them away.... fed the dog and cat, more "net", and then read your weekend, and realise.... I forgot to eat today!!!

JS

[paulnj]

Birds huh? I will be expecting some in my new ID thread that I will start next week(maybe late this week?)

I found a pretty cool bird today at work ;) OH this story is good too!

Well, I was a crew leader at work(shop rite) , but a few managers didn't like me making them look bad ;) I am now on punishment(hahaha) as a OVER PAID cashier and laughing all the way to the bank too !

I was ringing up an order today and OH MY GOD! , a bird lands on the monitor for the cashier next to me. I figured it was a house sparrow , since they get in time to time. NO... It was a female tennessee warbler!!!! They migrated through in small numbers atleast a month ago, but there was a late one that must have entered a few days back when the weather cleared .


BTW.... Your weekend sounds like my days off.... nothing gets done!

[mjs1973]

Paul,

I do have a couple birds for your new thread, but they are very easy/common. I did see a bird on my deck this weekend that I didn't know what it was but I didn't get a pic of it. It was with a few house sparrows but it was gray in color... If it comes back, I'll be ready.

[paulnj]

grey..... as in dark grey and white ;) JUNCO most likely