// January 13th, 2012 // No Comments » // Photos, Travel
Sorry, I don’t have many particularly creepy photos that fit the bill for this Friday the 13th. This is a little old roadside church that we often pass when driving up to Mount Dora. And since this is a long weekend, we’re planning a bit of a road trip that will hopefully result in some more good photo opportunities. And maybe some geocaching, a hobby I’d like to get more into this year as well!
// July 22nd, 2011 // No Comments » // Photos, Travel
Without the B-17, we might have lost the war.
-General Carl Spaatz, Commander, US Strategic Air Forces in Europe, 1944
Whew, I’ve been neglecting the blog lately due to our annual trip up to Virginia to visit the wife’s family! Had a very nice trip, though, as always. We tend to do a lot of the same stuff every time we go up there, but one of the new things I did fit in was a trip to the Military Aviation Museum with an old friend and fellow aviation buff. The latest and greatest addition to the museum is Chuckie, a B-17G Flying Fortress built in 1944. She never saw action in the war, but she’s still an awesome piece of machinery, and that was the closest I’ve been to a Fort. Just awesome for a geek like me. It’s definitely on my so-called Bucket List to take a flight in a B-17 someday. I’d better not wait too long, the Forts still flying aren’t getting any younger either!
This quick story about how tough these planes were is well worth sharing:
This B-17 met a head-on attack by three Focke Wulf Fw 190 fighters. The gunners exploded two of them, and the top turret poured a stream of shells into the cockpit of the third. With a dead man at the controls, the fighter screamed in, and at a closing speed of 550 miles per hour smashed head-on into the number-three engine.
The tremendous impact of the crash tore off the propeller. It knocked the heavy bomber completely out of formation as though a giant hand has swatted a fly. The fighter cartwheeled crazily over the B-17.
It cut halfway through the wing, and then sliced a third of the way through the horizontal stabilizer. The top and ball turrets immediately jammed, the radio equipment was smashed to wreckage, and all the instruments “went crazy.” Pieces of metal from the exploding, disintegrating Focke Wulf tore through the fuselage, and a German gun barrel buried itself in the wall between the radio room and the bomb bay.
Crews of nearby bombers watched the collision. They saw a tremendous explosion, and the bomber hurtling helplessly out of control, tumbling as she fell. They reported when they returned to base that the Flying Fortress had blown up, and that the crew must be considered dead.
The old Queen hadn’t blown up, and the crew was far from dead. The pilots struggled wildly in the cockpit, and somehow between them, managed to bring their careening bomber back under control. The gunners shot down a fourth fighter that had closed in to watch the proceedings.
And then they brought her all the way back to England, and scraped her down for a belly landing on the runway.
Postscript: not a man was injured.
-Martin Caidin, Black Thursday
// May 6th, 2011 // No Comments » // Photos, Travel
I can’t even read notes. But I can teach someone how to make a guitar smoke.
-Ace Frehley
Aside from the camera, my instrument of choice is the guitar. I used to be pretty decent at it, but these days regrettably I play so seldom that I’m more than a little rusty. It was actually my dream for a while to make it big musically–what teenage guitar-playing kid doesn’t have that dream, right? I just love the instrument, though. It’s just so flexible in terms of tone (if we’re talking about electric guitars anyway) and the variety of music it can express. It also helps that you don’t have to be able to read music to play it–like Mr. Frehley (of KISS, for those who don’t recognize the name), I never did learn to read music very well, but that never stopped me from playing. I never made my guitar smoke, though. 
I should note that the guitar above isn’t one of mine–when I take my occasional trips to Nashville I love to go into the Gibson Showcase at the Opry Mills mall, and now and then I take a camera for some guitar portraits. They have some beautiful instruments there, I hope not too many were destroyed in last year’s flooding because that would just be sad.
// February 16th, 2011 // 1 Comment » // Photos, Theme Parks, Travel
I want to do a better job at updating the blog regularly and sharing photos, and so far I’ve been pretty good at keeping up with my Photo Friday posts. So I’m adding another regular weekly feature–Walt Disney World Wednesdays! Disney World remains one of my favorite places on the planet, so this way I can share a weekly photo from WDW, portraits and scenery and details, while also reminding the world that I’m available to meet at Disney World for family photoshoots and engagement sessions. Say what you will about the Disney company, they still know how to create magical places and fantastic experiences, and there’s just no place like the World.
I know I’ve posted a carousel shot before, but it’s one of my favorite spots for photos. Someday I’ll have quite a time-lapse series of photos of my girls on the carousel, it’ll be interesting to see!
// February 4th, 2011 // No Comments » // Photos, Theme Parks, Travel
When someone is impatient and says, “I haven’t got all day,” I always wonder, How can that be? How can you not have all day?
-George Carlin
A glimpse into the mental process behind my Photo Friday posts: unless I happen to have a particular quotation in mind to share, I generally pick the photo first, and then try to figure out what sort of quote to look for to accompany it. Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes not so much, and sometimes it just falls into place while I’m searching. Like today! Looking at this photo, the feeling that came to me and that I wanted to convey was wonder. If any place on Earth embodies a childlike sense of wonder, it’s got to be the Magic Kingdom! So I went looking for quotes containing the word ‘wonder’ and came across this one from George Carlin (who I miss), and suddenly it changed my whole mindset.
Because really, you can’t separate wonder and patience. If you don’t have time–no, if you don’t MAKE time–to slow down and actually pay attention to the world around you, there’s just so much magic and wonder that you’ll miss. Patience has always been one of the virtues about myself of which I’m most proud. Not that I don’t have impatient moments, of course, but on the whole I am content to let things unfold at their own pace, and to calmly wait while they do. Many people go to such great lengths to keep themselves amused, electronically and otherwise–I just happen to think that there’s always something worth noticing, wherever I happen to be. And let’s face it, if your goal is to always keep yourself distracted, then you’ll always be distracted, and there’s a lot of stuff out there worth seeing. Think about that this weekend–wherever you go, forget about all the stuff that takes you out of the here-and-now, and find something fascinating right in front of you. A castle with pyrotechnics is an extreme example, admittedly, but I guarantee there will be something if you look for it–there always is. And as Mr. Carlin might say, you’ve got all day to look for it.
// October 21st, 2010 // No Comments » // Nature, Photos, Travel
Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.
-Saint Augustine
I didn’t count, but there were a lot of steps to get down to the bottom of the Devil’s Millhopper. And what a great name for the place–a huge hole in the ground with a rain forest growing down the sides and trickles of water running down rocks to the floor of the pit. A winding wooden stair to the bottom, and the inescapable sensation of working your way down and down and down, knowing you have to climb back up sooner or later. And as Augustine figured it, there’s a life lesson in there. Sometimes even starting at the bottom isn’t enough–you have to work to go down before you can start climbing upwards. Okay, that’s too deep. Er, so to speak. Happy Friday, everyone!
// September 24th, 2010 // No Comments » // Photos, Travel
As I get older I seem to believe less and less and yet to believe what I do believe more and more.
-Gerald Brenan
Tomorrow is my birthday, so I thought a cliched looking-down-the-road shot was appropriate. Thirty-five, wow. I don’t know, that’s one of those ages that seems so far away when you’re a kid, you know? Then it just completely sneaks up on you and you wonder how on earth that happened. But regrets are useless even if they’re merited, and really I have absolutely nothing to complain about. It’s a good life I’m leading, and I still expect that my very best years lie ahead of me. Right now my first and foremost job is helping my wife raise our little girls (and the bun in the oven, whatever it might turn out to be) to be good people, productive and creative and involved in improving their world. So far, so good.
// August 27th, 2010 // No Comments » // Photos, Theme Parks, Travel
Of all of our inventions for mass communication, pictures still speak the most universally understood language. -Walt Disney
Say what you will about what his company has become, Walt Disney was an extremely smart man. He had his flaws, as do we all, but the way he looked at the world, and the way he had of synthesizing ideas into things no one had ever seen before.. genius. I’d have to list him among historical figures I admire. And as I’ve said before, my life is just a bit better when I can go spend time at Disney World. I mention it (again, I’m sure) because we renewed our annual passes last week, after our summer blackout period ended, so it’s nice that we can head back out there at will. It’s also nice that we’re coming into the end of summer. It’ll still be hot for a few months, on the whole, but at least there will be hope for the occasional cold front to slide in and bring some refreshingly crisp days. The sooner the better! In November I have several family sessions scheduled at WDW, all of which I’m really looking forward to. I’ll be practicing and looking for great spots!
// June 11th, 2010 // No Comments » // Photos, Travel
Everything being a constant carnival, there is no carnival left.
-Victor Hugo
I get the feeling from that quotation that Mr. Hugo knew very well how easy it is to be a cynic. And if he thought that was true in the 19th century, I can only wonder what he’d think of the world today, where cynicism has become a competitive sport. I’m certainly not above it–in fact, I tend to think anyone who isn’t a cynic isn’t paying enough attention. But I also think it’s an area where a bit of self-delusion is perhaps healthy. Dwelling too much on all the reasons that exist to be cynical, you start to forget that there are still reasons to be otherwise!
// May 28th, 2010 // No Comments » // Photos, Theme Parks, Travel
I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter.
-Walt Disney
Walt was an interesting guy, from what I’ve read of him. Like everyone, he had his highs and lows, his good traits and bad, but in the end it must be admitted that he was one of the real visionaries of his time. Whole industries sprung from the man’s mind, and even other industries adopted a lot of the values and strategies he came up with. As I’ve said, I’m as fond of the Disney Company as I am of any other large multinational corporation (which is to say, not very fond at all) because I despise the pursuit of profit above all other considerations, something of which I think all large companies are guilty in various degrees. But Walt himself.. he said he didn’t build Disneyland (and, by extension, Disney World) purely for profit, and I believe him.
Wow, this entry has nothing to do with anything, does it? Ah well. I hope everyone enjoys the upcoming holiday weekend!
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