Blake @Piano

Blake's piano class with Angela Wentz.

A Man and His Dog

John working in his shop with his dog. He's putting a new crankset on my bike! I'm looking busy taking pictures! Experimenting with SB 800 triggered by pocket wizards, shooting my Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3. Very cool.

Boys on Computers

The guys were playing some game on the computer. I was testing firing my Speedlite remotely.

Small World

A bit less than 20 years ago, I coached track at Tyee High School...this woman was one of my runners - Yvonne!

Shot by Marcus

This was taken by my son Marcus, nice one!

Summit Freeride Park - Dirt Day

This was a freeride jump fest in Black Diamond. Lot's of people have put in a lot of shovel time to make this park happen. Hat's off to them! It was fun to watch. Marcus came a long and did some shooting too.

Painting Effect in Photoshop

Just having some fun with a picture of my sweetie!

Belated Christmas

We had a belated Christmas with my parents. They came here this time. We played games, it was a good time.

Building

Marcus latest creation.

Sunset Over South Prairie

Was taking Blake home from his piano lesson when I noticed this. Stopped and got my camera, then drove to a close, good spot. Didn't have time to find a better spot. The color is pretty accurate to what it really was. I just did a levels adjustment of 4 levels brighter on highlights and 4 levels darker on shadows. That really just made it look more like it did in real life.

Photoshop & Graphic Design

It's been a while since I've done a significant amount of "graphic design" to a photo. It used to be all I did, all day, all the time. Anyway, I like the way this one turned out. There are about 15 years of designer tricks hidden in this...about a million layers and tons of hand work. No filters, no fonts, no downloaded actions, or push button effects. Oh, this is from Brittany's make-up session. We got snowed out the first time!

Hannah and Blake

Hannah was really good with Blake, they played ds and piano!

Present Time

Butch and Kathy liked the photo book Karen made for them, and Cherith got me some Porter, the last of the batch from Redhook. They are no longer making it.

Marcus and Blake at Tom & Becky's

Marcus and Blake passing the time at the Christmas get-together at Tom and Becky's. No other kids.

Thanks Shelley, Bob and Matthew!

Opening presents from the Fast's...

Karen and Cherith

New clothes and shoes!

Mom, Hard at Work

Shoveling snow in Kennewick. Taken by my Dad. He is polishing up on some of the technical details of photography these days with my old D80. He just got a new lens: 18-105mm F3.5-5.6 VR.

Blake's Trampoline

Blake got a trampoline from Santa this year. After a couple of technical glitches, I had to drill some holes that didn't line up, the boys are having a great time. Not sure how the rain is going to effect this...I do have a tarp.

Christmas Songs

Blake played Christmas songs for us, I was very proud of him.

From the Ashes of Destruction

Long time riding partner, Juan Grande w/Sun behind. This is at Victor Falls. We rode this location every Thursday night for about 5 years. It was leveled by developers that later went bankrupt. They took the trees and the trail, but they couldn't take the view.

Marcus, T-Ball 2003

This is one of my all-time favorites. Marcus and Jacob on their first t-ball team. The moment just kills me!

Marcus Takes a Ride w/Destiny...

This is from 2004, Destiny was the little girl that was living with Gail, our neighbor, for a while.

Last Night Watching "The Santa Clause"

50mm @F1.4

Christmas '04

This was our Christmas picture from '04. Blake is 2 and Marcus is 6. This is Grandpa Pat's chair.

More Old Pics - Cheering on Mom

This was one of Karen's first marathons. We drove around the course and cheered her on.

Senior Portraits: Brittany

Great idea for the location Brittany! This is an 8x10 crop. Shot with my 50mm F1.4 @ F2.

Who's the Hardest? Duathlon 2009

Karen and I did a team for the Who's the Hardest? Duathlon in Steilacoom park today. It was cold, with a few flakes in the air. We were the first co-ed team, it was fun to do something together. I rode my cross bike, Jake the Snake converted to single speed. It was a pretty chundry ride for that bike but the fast sections were blazing fast!

Christmas 6 Years Ago

K. and W.

Karen and her baby.

Marcus on the 'Puter

I guess he's pretty into it!

'Nado J.V BBall vs. Annie Wright

Marcus hustled up and down the court, but the giants from Annie Wright prevailed...

'Tis the Season...

...for Christmas cards...you will see this on your Christmas card (if you are on our list:).

Bike Jump Demo

Ran across a bike jump demo put on by Black Diamond Bikes. We were taking the boys to a Tae Kwon Do thing in Enumclaw. The parade was happening as well. Lot's of things going on downtown. I just had my point and shoot Lumix DMC-LX3, but I was able to get a few pretty cool shots.

Marcus' First Home Game

Marcus decided to try basketball for the first time this year. He is playing on the Carbonado J.V. Basketball team. Penny Frame is coaching and he is really liking it. They travelled to Bremerton earlier in the week. This was the first game we were able to see. He did a great job.

Pics from Seattle

Seattle Center and Seattle Marathon.

Back to the Present

Hangin' out after the Seattle Marathon by the EMP.

Looking for a Good Head Shot...

...for yearbook. We took a few extras. Lot's of post on this. I like the energy and it's a bit casual.

Marcus Running and Hitting

Marcus at the all comers meets in Puyallup, and T-Ball at Wickersham. Good hit!

Oldies But Goodies

Marcus being a dentist and Blake looking all grown up with pants, shoes and walking! Good to remember these times...

Marcus

If I remember right the one here is his first day of pre-school in Enumclaw. The other is really great because he really loved that dinosaur. First he was deathly afraid of it, then it was his constant companion, we had to duct tape it together to keep it from falling apart!

Blake

Baby Blake on the bench behind Wally's is one of my favorites. The piano one is great especially since he is taking lessons right now and it looks like something he may stick with for a while.

M and B

Some special moments between the boys when they were very young. Most of these old shots were taken with an Olympus E10, that I borrowed from Morning Sun pretty often. I was doing some basic photography work for them, and bringing it home was part of my training. It was fun and effective. I really learned a lot during that time. The sensor in that camera wasn't stellar, but the lens was really great, a normal zoom F2-2.4.

Still Posting Old Pics

All comers track meet in Puyallup. Marcus and Jacob were given the competition the stare down...

A Few Years Back..

at Mt. Peak.

More from the Past...

Blake w/Grapes and Marcus @Bday Party

Nice costume Marcus!

At the Ocean

The file data says this is from '06...I like this one!

Matching Clothes

A few years back, in Enumclaw waiting for Karen while she was doing a duathlon, run/bike.

Old Hiking Pictures

One is at Mt. Peak, the other is Sunrise area.

More Old Pics

Marcus with Cookee and Blake in Grandpa Pat's rocking chair.

Blake in the Hopper

Blake seemed pretty happy in this little hopper. He spent just under three weeks here before he went home.

Blake's First Day home...

...or somewhere close to that.

Bigger!

Click on these pics to see bigger than my normal size. These are better bigger!

Syncline b/w

Syncline

With John B. and his friends. Tough climb on the SS, rocky decent. Super wide open views.

Piano Recital

Blake's first piano recital. Trinity Lutheran Church in Enumclaw. There was a large group from his piano teacher Angela Wentz. He did a great job playing "Jingle Jangle Jingle".

More TKD

Governor's Cup

Walkin' Wicket

Morning walk with Wicket, frosty morning, and sunny. It's been wet a lot lately, this is a nice change. Karen and the boys were sleeping in.

Governor's Cup Tae Kwon Do

Marcus' first Tae Kwon Do tournament. He got beat on points in the first round 8 to 1. He was slow to get moving and just got scored on a lot early. The last point against him came as he was on the offensive and was knocking his opponent out of the ring. His opponent scored a kick as he was falling out of bounds. It was exciting to watch, however it would have been fun to see a bit more! Marcus took a hard shot to the thigh and held his composure. It's a pretty harsh sport. I felt he was pretty brave to get on the matt in the first place.

Eyes

Just a close-up of Blake's eyes!

Spunge Bob Monopoly

Blake is home sick, we were playing Spunge Bob Monopoly...he has the Krusty Krab.

Surly Tugnut

Solo ride today in Black Diamond, diamond of a day.

Trick or Treating in Sierra

The boys had a good night, first at the downtown Buckley session, then at Sierra, then at the haunted house in Carbonado.

Pichu

We likes Pokemon

Pumpkins

Our work on jack o lanterns

Nikon Trick or Treaters!

You gotta love Nikon bags for trick or treating!

Tae Kwon Do Connection

Group Shot! 10 year anniversary.

Tri-Cities Marathon 2009

Testing my Speedlite full blast at 18mm, and at F11...batteries were screaming...

Running Landscape

Tri-Cities Marathon 2009

Computer Games

Fall Wicket w/Leaves

The sun popped out for a few minutes to break up our rain. These are the leaves from Grandpa Pat's Oak Trees.

On the Trail

Marcus and rode at North Fort for about 45 minutes.

AMX

Dad used to have one of these and I drove it for a year or so...brings back memories.

Richard Avedon Button, Finally.

Finally, the camera companies have given us what we want... Maybe Nikon saw Zack Arias' post when I did. Thanks for the inspiration Zack.

Portland Marathon

My sweetie at the Portland Marathon...she is awesome...:)

Erik and Jay Lindberg

This is one of my favorite photographs in a long time, mostly because of content and history. These guys have been fixtures of the Tacoma area running scene for longer than I can remember, and I've been a runner for 25 years. These two are super positive and make you feel good about life just talking to them. Twins. I love the story this picture tells, I won't tell it in words because I wouldn't do it justice. These guys love running and it's something they have shared for a long time. I feel a sense of the times changing here. The new generation of runners would be lucky to have a couple of guys like this around. My time has come and gone with running, and the Lindberg's are still at it. Long may they run.

Classic Dad

If you could distill a Dad's influence in his son's entire life, every detail year after year, it might look like this. My buddy John is rolling with style in the Dad department...I was super excited to be on the sidewalk when John first put Etan on a bike and guided him down the road of life. Are you wondering about the meaning of life...this is it.

Burnin' Energy

M and B had some energy to burn at the retirement party for Butch...incredible sky that evening.

Grandma Maples

This is at Butch's retirement party. I always love seeing Butch's mom. She reminds me of a combination of my Grandma AND Grandpa Leahy....the pure-heart of my Grandma and the rascal-heart of my Grandpa all rolled into one. A guy was there, boyfriend of one of Karen's old friends from high school, that hangs around with Dorothy at the bar (Andy's)!

Retirement

Butch's retirement from the bus garage. These are kids that came to his retirement party that drove on the bus, pretty cool.

South Prairie Fun Run

Karen, en route to 20:10 5K overall win. (men and women!). On of my favorite running pictures that I've taken :)

Comet!

Blake's new fish!

TKD Sparring

Cyclocross Season is Under Way

These pics are from the pro race at Steilacoom. Pretty cool to watch. John B. rode in the masters race, and V. Marcus played with Etan. He is really good with little kids. Big John was there with me and we rode m-bikes with Marcus after the races.

Mountain Fresh

My take on the classic Rainier Beer motorcycle commercial.
This is a blog entry from the writer of the famous commercials, take a look:
http://mrebks.blogspot.com/2007/07/rainier-beer-television-ads.html
and for the original spot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz-WuLQz_ns

Rainier Revisited

I've been planning this recreation of the old Rainier Beer commercial for quite a while. I shot a version of it with Marcus on his bike, and realized the old ad was done with a telephoto lens, and some signs needed to be taken out. This time I figured out that there is a line of trees behind that was not there 30 years ago when the original was done. It makes it impossible to get the setting sun light on the mountain and the rider, hence I don't have the sunset tones. Bummer. Oh, well, this is as close as I can get!

RaaaaaaNeeeeeer........

I learned a few things in trying to recreate this! More to come. Thanks to Waylon for helping out!

Enumclaw Car Show

A couple of my favorite pics from the Enumclaw Car Show. We were surprised to see it on our way to TKDC. I am in the habit of carrying my Lumix DMC-LX3 with me all the time, came in handy today!

Smiley Happy Chip

Found in Marcus' bag at QFC! :)

Surly Jango 1x1

"I'm just a simple man, trying to make my way in the universe."

Long Night at TKD

Marcus had his first day of Gold Team, and Advanced Sparring all in one night. 2.5 hours. He was pretty beat. He did a great job.

Better in Black/White or Color

Sunrise at this spot is always pretty spectacular. This is right before I turn toward school in the morning.

Chrysler '57 300C

Two best of show...w/Lensbaby.

Older Chrysler Streamline + Gull-wing... Gull-wing!

Not sure on the year of this Chrysler, but really a work of art. Mercedes Gull-wing.... incredible!

Black Newer Chrysler

I don't know the Chryslers very well so they, to me, are just relative to my Dad's '57 300. This one is newer. Swivel seats! Nice detail... LensBaby

Austin Healy

This was one of my favorites of the show.

Pierce Flyer

The hood ornaments of the pre-50's cars were really cool to see at the LeMay Collection.

Dad and I went to the LeMay

Dad and I were pretty excited to get VIP treatment at the LeMay Car Show. Because he drove his Chrysler 300 we got to park on the grass and be part of the show...about 14 steps from the hottest cars in the Museum, the Deimler and Dusselberg. (I think I killed the spelling on those). We found a car that was the same as dad's first car, pretty cool!

LeMay Car Show

Cadillac hood ornament, '49 I think. Dad and I went to the car show, it was pretty amazing.

Self Portrait on the Trail

On the trail past Corral Pass...

Flying Blake!

D300/Lensbaby.