River Walk

San Antonio has this great part of town called the River Walk: you descend below street level (seen here as the second story of the building in the picture) and can take a winding path along the river through all these great restaurants and shops under the bridges of the downtown street. Boats ferry tourists through town for a view of the city. One boat that passed through was set up with people surrounding a large dining table. We went to dinner tonight at a BBQ joint on the river, and it was a beautiful night. (In Texas the proper term for this is actually supper.) Also, here is a night shot of moonrise over the Alamo, just a couple of blocks away from the river. I should mention there are ghosts in this photo! The exposure lasted several seconds, so all the people walking through my picture did not register on the final shot.

Remember the Alamo

Just landed in San Antonio to put on a web conference this week, and here's the view from downtown. The Alamo is a pretty complex story that I knew very little about. Long story short — this is the 1836 site of a defeat of the Texas Revolutionary forces by Mexico. It became a rallying point for the Texians, who later won the war and gained independence from Mexico. Across the street is a large monument to Davy Crockett and the others who died here in the battle. There's a lot of history in these old stone walls ... it was a worthwhile visit.

It's-a Me, Mario!

Top story at NYTimes.com today is called Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge? so it only seemed appropriate to post this picture. Actually, I'm really proud of Carter, age 3, for figuring out Nintendo 64. So far he only plays Mario and Pac-Man, but it seems like just yesterday Malcolm was handing him an unplugged controller so he could "play" too. I like the odds of going two-player against Carter, as opposed to Malcolm, who is a video game shark. Speaking of sharks, I just learned Roy Scheider passed away. See? I'm not hostile to knowledge.

Let the Teenage Angst Begin

Happy birthday, Madeleine! She's officially a teenager today. She had an early party Friday night (we called it her fake birthday) with a load of friends. Like ten of them. It was loud to the third power in here for four hours. I had to get an extra rider on my life insurance policy just to walk into the room with my camera. I alone escaped with this picture.

Buddy 16, Claire 1

Claire wants so much for Buddy to be her friend. She perks right up when she sees him, and goes over to see if he will be her friend today. Buddy is old, but swift, and wise. He can get away if he pleases. But he lets her back him into a corner. His fur bristles up in back and his pose turns defensive, and it amuses him. Just dare get closer, he thinks. She reads him and keeps her distance. It is a delicate stalemate between animal and man-child. And thus is another day in the suburban jungle.

Happy Valentine's Day

And Joanie thought I got those flowers for her. It's just another depth of field and lighting study for me. Tonight Malcolm got tired of waiting for the petals to open, so he opened them himself. He now knows he's not supposed to do that.

Watery Weekend

We had just about every kind of winter weather there is over the last four days: rain, freezing rain, ice pellets, overcast skies, sunshine, strong wind, heavy snow that blows sideways. But all of it in small amounts.
Lately I've been reading a few books on outdoor and landscape photography. I find it to be a real challenge, but I'd like to get better. I bundled up and spent a half hour in the backyard this morning to practice composition and push myself to find something interesting in all this ice and snow.
This is a little pond behind my neighbor's yard, back in the forest. The water table is quite high in our neighborhood — as I can attest to after clearing an inch of water out of the basement Friday and installing a new sump pump Saturday. It's been a watery weekend.

Ice Storm

Last night we had alternating sleet and freezing rain which coated everything with ice. As I was wheeling the garbage bin downhill on the driveway before bed, it started to pull me as if on skis. Today the wind blowing through the trees made a creepy clicking sound.

These Boots Were Made for Walking

The circuit is now complete. I believe we have a picture of each of the four kids clomping around in mom or dad's shoes.

Panorama: Hillsboro Inlet & Lighthouse

I've got Photoshop CS3 on order, but downloaded the trial version just to try out the one feature that makes the whole upgrade worth it: effortless panorama stitching. You take a bunch of photos, overlapping each a little bit. Then you point Photoshop at a folder full of the photos and tell it to go to work. Photoshop magically merges the seams, correcting for perspective distortion, and blends the colors from shot to shot. It's nothing short of magic to come back 20 minutes later and see a perfect ultrawide angle view of the scene.
Here's a shot of the Hillsboro Inlet and lighthouse near where I grew up in Florida, in PanoJeffovision™. This picture is taken from the edge of Hillsboro Bay — when I was a kid there used to be a local haunt there called The Yardarm, but now it's a nice little park with a great view of the lighthouse and the Atlantic beyond. This is a 360° view made from 30 photos shot in portrait (tall) orientation. The two birds you see top center are actually one bird in two positions along his flight path as I spun clockwise. [Click for a larger version.]