Kuota K-Factor

The K is for Karen's new bike! Full carbon goodness, Ultegra, Dura-Ace, and 105, Easton wheels, pretty sweet ride. 19.5 lbs w/pedals. Now Karen needs to ride, ride, ride!

The Birds Are Back

Our Swallows are back nesting in a birdhouse outside our front door. The chicks are already poking their heads out. Soon they will be taking their first flights. My D300 is at Nikon getting the autofocus problem fixed. So, I am shooting with a Canon Xti from school with an 85mm f1.8. I wish I had my D300/80-200 for these bird photos, but I'll see what I can get with the 85mm.

Benj Haisch at White River High School

Here are some behind the scenes pics of a great day we had a few weeks ago in my photography classes. Portrait photographer, and "natural light guru" Benj Haisch showed us some great tricks, we had a great time.

Ipsut Trail

Old Downed Tree

We took pictures at this spot last year. This year the path is washed out so you have to hike around the top side of this tree, and you don't really recognize it unless you do some exploring. This is on the way to Ipsut.

Carbon River

View of Carbon River valley near Ipsut campground.

Chico's Pizza in Seaview, Washington!

We found a Chico's Pizza in Seaview, near Longview. It was just the same as I remembered. It was my favorite place to go when I was a kid. I got a shirt too! :)

Scraggly Dog

Wicket was quite a scraggly dog at the beach, sandy, stinky getting into all kinds of funky stuff that washed up.

Longbeach and Lighthouse

K and M up in the lighthouse and B running on the beach with Wicket! It was a fun weekend with Karen's side of the family.

White River Photographers w/ Darrell Gulin

This was our field trip on a Saturday with Darrell Gulin ( http://www.gulinphoto.com/ ). He is one of the top in his field and shared some incredible insight with us. We ran across a pirate convention at Owen Beach! The kids pillaged and plundered! Quite a good time. Liz Leines came as well. She shared and learned along with the rest of us. Darrell is a wealth of knowledge.

M on Bike w/Vignette

Just wasting time before M's baseball game.

'Nado Graduation

Carbonado 8th Grade Graduation is everything that is right in education. As an educator myself, I can tell you, stop writing your books and selling your strategies all you administrators out there, come visit 'Nado Graduation and you'll know what it's all about. I could speak a million and a half words and you wouldn't get it. But I'll try anyway. There are on average about 22 kids per class at this K-8 school. That is 22 ish in the entire 8th grade! My youngest son's class has 13. 13! The teachers at this school give these kids such an incredible send off that I (the guy that has a camera glued to his face at all times) forget that I have a camera in my hands and get lost in the moments. This is such a personal experience to every student and teacher, I can't even begin to explain...tears, pride, happiness...it's really good stuff. The students are recognized on multiple levels, the whole town shows up to celebrate. The pics here: student with happy pride to be recognized, student and teacher singing a duet that the student composed, and watching a slideshow. I can't possibly tell all the moments here, there are too many. Small school, teachers that go the extra mile, and a ceremony that no cynisist or bean counter has managed yet to shut down. It's simple and doesn't require a post bacheloriate. Half the graduating class went to a late night dinner with the teachers after this. Read the last line again. Good night.

Maples Girls

Karen and Cherith. I like this picture. Nothing special, it just shows them as they are. Today.

Mother and Son

I hope to take this picture of one of my sons and his mother in 45 years. I hope I live that long. These are good people. This photo has a lot of problems technically. The white balance sucks, no crisp focus, shadowy eyes, and it has the blotchy sickness of high ISO shooting on digital. But. It's one my favorite shots that I've taken lately. It captures something that I really like and admire in these two people that I care for and admire in many ways.

June Baseball

June baseball, the cottonwoods were shedding heavy in the evening. M made the catch at first! Fun to watch.

Nature, Trail, M and B

The boys and I made a trip up Mt. Peak with Wicket! I was sore afterward. Yikes. I need to get in shape. M had a good day on the bike at Deep Lake... he learned about root-jumping. Life is good.