Photo Blogging Challenge (March 2016): Three

The photo blogging challenge turned three years old this month. I can't believe three years have gone by. The theme for this month was: THREE! It seemed easy enough. I was surprised again. SO bear with me as I present to you my five of THREE.

THREE marquee's on the movie theater facade. I used to love going out to the movies and then cell phones were invented. I can spend less money staying at home in a more comfortable chair and watch a movie without distractions just a few weeks sometimes after others. Zootopia was pretty entertaining though.

This was the 3rd Annual HOT Comicon, William enjoys video gaming and nerding out occasionally. He really likes his Fallout 4 Vault 111 hoodie. THREE Ones!

John, on the other hand, likes cars, trucks, and all the other things with motors. It's a little hard to tell, but that ATV only has THREE wheels. You can see the fourth in the background against the fence. He was getting a demo ride and the driver made an aggressive turn shearing the lug studs off the rear driver side of the vehicle. Not a very good testimonial to the ruggedness of the ATV.

Easter Sunday, these THREE knuckle heads went swimming, The water temperature was 47F. There was a fourth one but he held out until later.

Last, but never least. These THREE. They are my life. Without them I'd be incomplete.
This also is the first year in the fifteen year tradition of Bluebonnet photos that no one complained. We went out, they sat down, I took the pictures, and we left. Just like that. They have given up. :)

So, there's my five. I am pretty happy with them even if I did kind of backdoor this one. I had great plans once again but I think I enjoy sharing these more than a bunch of photos of threes. Visit a 'lil hoohaa blog to see the other entries. As always, check out my whole March and all of my other photos for that matter over on Flickr. Hurry up before it goes away. And join in with us in April. It's fun.

Photo Blogging Challenge (February 2016): Leap

The challenge for this month's post was LEAP. I went completely literal this month. My youngest finished up his basketball season, only two losses and they both came at the end. One to a team that much larger than our guys. We had a little post-season get together over at one of the coach's. They had a shorter goal setup and had fun dunking. Here are the results.

I can't wait to take a look at the other participants. I bet you can't either. They can be found at a lil hoohaa blog. Take a look and check back to see what next month's theme will be. Join us! If you want more of me, you can follow along with my adventures for February at my flickr page. Thanks for looking.

Photo Blogging Challenge (January 2016): Inside

January's come and gone. Way too fast already. Our theme for January was INSIDE, but the weather in Texas was just too nice to spend a lot of time indoors. It was sunny and mid-70s F this weekend. I spent all day Saturday and Sunday on my bike. But, I was able to grab a few photo's while inside. I had an idea early on that didn't work out so I dropped it and have what I have. Let's get started.

There were a few chilly nights early on. Rainy and cold don't make a good mix but we made the best of it. My wife thought the boys needed to see Nine to Five. It's still funny! 

Basketball season is winding down but the boys are having a great season. They just suffered their first loss and it was a nail-biter making it even more difficult. This is from when they were on the other end of snatching victory from defeat.

Spent a little time out at the airport. My oldest got him a project Jeep and we had it stored in this hangar while waiting to get it over for paint.

The troop took a trip down to the Texas coast this month for our "camp out" and visited the USS Lexington aircraft carrier on their Live Aboard program. Here's a group of Life scouts planning their Eagle projects. The Live Aboard program is a great program giving the boys the opportunity to sleep on the ship and explore after the crowd had gotten off.

One of these night I realized I had taken a photo for my Project 366 so I decided a study in nicknacks was needed. Plus, it's always fun to pull out the "nifty fifty"!

There you have my selection for the month. Take a look at all of my photo's for the month, even the outside ones, over on flickr. Visit a lil hoohaa and take a look at the others. I'm about to do that myself. Until next month...

Photo Blogging Challenge (December 2015): Holidays

Where does the time go? Another month in the books and another year finished. I've been moving so I wasn't sure what I was going to get this month but found I had some choices. So here we go.

I was able to make our annual trip to NYC this year. I enjoy NY in December. It was unseasonably warm.

All the lights and windows make for a fun visit.

 

I got home in time for a little bit of winter in Texas. we've ha a Winter Wonderland festival the last few years complete with an "ice skating rink" made of plastic. But they say it works.

We celebrated our first Christmas in our new house. We had 19 friends and family share the day with us.

It's always good spending time with my niece and nephew as well. They are good kids.

That's a wrap. Bring on 2016 and bring on new challenges. Take a look at the other participants over at a 'lil hoohaa. And join us in January!

Photo Blogging Challenge (November 2015): Morning

I'm usually not awake enough to remember to take a morning photo so this was a bit of a challenge. I tried to come up with a good mix but the majority came from the same morning.

I've shared photos of our family land previously. This was opening weekend of deer season. I like shooting them with the camera more than a gun. Photos are easier to clean but don't taste as good. I love watching the sun come over the hill from behind me and paint the country side. Flickr didn't want me to share this one. Click on it to imbiggen!_

It was a clear night so deer activity was light. Mother Nature gave us plenty to watch though.

And our patience was finally rewarded. We watched this young guy stroll by and his way to the feeder in the back pasture.

Always a good day for a parade, this was Will's last trip to the Waco Veteran's Day parade as he changes schools next year.

The weather is finally changing. It cooled off quickly overnight leaving us with a steamy pond.

I hope you enjoyed my offerings this month. Visit my flickr page to see the rest of my month. There is a pretty sweet photo of a bobcat! Visit a lil'hoohaa's blog to see the other participants. And maybe join in next month.

Photo Blogging Challenge (October 2015): Closeup

I couldn't come up with what I wanted to do for this month's challenge: Closeup. I had some ideas but none really entertained me much. So I just got in and played around some. And here is what I have:

I pulled out the Nifty Fifty for these. I tried to get in close to some toasted walnuts but just couldn't get in close enough.

So I pulled out the extension tubes and played around with those. This is the same bowl of nuts with the 20mm and 12mm tubes stacked.

You know by now that I love Hallowe'en. I found my flower bouquet after I started digging out the decorations. These next two were just the 12mm tube.

And the mummy, too!

Here is the bouquet in the brides hands. This one was back to just the 50mm with no tubes.

There are my five. I hope you enjoyed them. Take a look at the other entries over at a 'lil hoohaa blog. I know I will soon. Visit my flickr stream. And think about joining in next month!

Photo Blogging Challenge (September 2015): Happy

The Photo Blogging Challenge for September theme was Happy! I had quite a few shots that made me happy. Having to choose did not. Let's take a look:

This is my happy place. We've had this land since 1969. I'm happy my grandfather bought it and my dad kept it.

Driving the jeep makes the boy happy!

I'm happy to see the bridges lit up Green and Gold after another Baylor win.

Nothing makes me happy like hitting the water early on a pretty almost fall Sunday morning with a bunch of Boy Scouts.

The Game Day experience at our new stadium, complete with Sailgating, would make anyone happy.

And a little bonus shot, I've been building a new house and, after being more than patient, we fired our contractor, hired a new one and things got moving again. That even made the house happy.

That's my selection for the month, late as usual. Take a look at all of my September photos, if you'd like. Visit the link over at a 'lil hoohaa to see what the others have been up to. Join in for October, if you want. Until then...

Photo Blogging Challenge (August 2015): Rule of thirds

This month's challenge was the Rule of Thirds. As I was putting this all together I found myself wishing I had more examples of NOT following the rule. We all know the rules of photography were meant to be broken. And I know I have plenty of examples of that in my photo stream. Enough about breaking rules, lets look at those I took this month that follow the Rule of Thirds.

Sometimes I like using the bottom third leaving some negative space up top.

It's true that following the Rule of Thirds lends to a visually appealing photograph. I've been doing it so long that generally I don't even think about it.

People portraits are the easiest, I think, in terms of the Rule of Thirds. The eyes have it! Or at least the head.

But animals work pretty good too. You don't have to keep it a traditional framing in order to keep it in the thirds.

This one is another example of a more non-traditional framing. I wanted to increase the sense of urgency by showing the kid trying to run off the frame vs. more lead room of a traditional framing.

And a bonus shot to show you can go vertical as well and still follow the Rule of Thirds and she was just too sassy not to include.

Check out more examples by visiting the other participants over at a 'lil hoohaa blog. Take a look at September's challenge and think about participating. Visit all of my August shots over at my flickr stream. Until next month.

Photo Blogging Challenge (July 2015): Patriotic

Well, July found me on the road quite a bit so my take on Patriotic is going to be pretty standard patriotic fare being the most patriotic month here in the US.

Except for this one:

Wilbur returns in his full patriotic form! Does it get any better?

The rest are some of my better attempts at fireworks. I used my Triggertrap cord hooked to the iPhone. It worked well.

That's all I have this month. I've got some fun backpacking through Colorado pics followed by a diving trip to Grand Cayman. They didn't really fit the theme. Take a look at a 'lil hoohaa's page for the other entries. We'll see you next month.

Photo Blogging Challenge (June 2015): Anything Goes

Anything goes, eh? Challenge accepted! My first breaking of the rules is more than five pictures. Take that! My second, is that my boys took a couple of these on our visit to DC. So BAM! Anything Goes! Here WE go.

Will played in a summer basketball league. Talk about Anything Goes; they called fouls and the team accumulated them, but there was no fouling out so there were teams that used that as their strategy.

Will also made Life Scout at our June Court of Honor. Now both boys are Life and ready for an Eagle project of their own.

It's all Will! He took this photo of the family at dinner our first night in DC. We're actually in Alexandria here.

My mother-in-law and sister-in-law reflect in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

John took this of Brother Will looking fly. (Do kids still say that? #swagger)

When we came up to Mt. Vernon, you could hear this fife all the way to the parking lot. John took this one too.

Our hotel was about a 5 minute walk to the Marine Corps Monument. I walked over there several times after dinner.

Here's Amy and the Boys at the Smithsonian Castle.

We're home and back to Scouts. We helped with one of my scouts Eagle project putting up new trail signs in Cameron Park and then went out to another park for a HAM radio field day. The boys earned the Radio merit badge.

Anything went. Another month in the books. As always, you can check out all of my photos on Flickr. You can also check out the other participants at a 'lil hoohaa. See you next month.