Category Archives: stuff

Random Friday Stuff: Lightning, Rainbows, Animal Parts, and Baby Binkies

Crazy-intense storm last night.  I haven’t ever heard or seen so much intense lightning directly over the top of us.  I was seconds away from ordering everyone into the basement.  I thought for sure we were going to take a hit.  Super loud sizzle and cracking sounds followed by a simultaneous huge flash and BOOM!

I played around with the continuous shot setting on my camera and managed to capture one strike (far away) while picking up my daughter earlier in the afternoon.

Gotta click to see the larger version

Driving to work a couple of weeks ago I saw this beam of light coming through the clouds.  It looked ten times as intense as the photo shows.

Phone pic from inside the car

Caught a rainbow and some cool skies while out walking the dog.

Evening rainbow

Evening panorama

I find animal legs on my runs.

The rabbit from a few weeks ago

Last night, the frog

The occasional critter that is missing legs.

Milk Snake

And baby binkies.

A trail binkie

A sidewalk binkie

What will we find next?

Collegiate Peaks High Adventure 2011 – Slideshow

I just got back from spending a week in the high country with my son’s scout troop.  We were small in number, but large in ambition.  Our route took us over 40 miles and to the summits of four 14ers.  It was an awesome trip to say the least.  Going through the photos while making up this video has reinforced that feeling big time.  I’m super happy with the shots I was able to get.  The views and vistas were simply stunning as you will see.  The boys were impressive, even getting up at 4:45 in the morning to hit the trail.  Teenage boys!  In the summer!  Unheard of.  Most of them only had 2 previous 14er summits, so to do four in one week (and backpacking between them) was an incredible accomplishment.

Enjoy the show.  Every time I watch it I feel a massive pull to get back up there ASAP!

A Birthday, a New Camera, and a Slackline

After a little birthday celebrating, we spent the evening at the local park trying out some new toys.

Lucky 13!

I got a new camera that I was wanting to try out, and so we headed over to the park and set up our new slackline for the first time. I had been thinking about getting a slackline for a while, it seemed like a great family activity that we can all have fun with. When a starter kit went on sale at REI the deal was done. Very happy with the purchase! It was incredibly challenging, but a lot of fun to play around on.

Toe shoes? Check.

The girls got by with a little hand-holding.

No thanks, says the dog.

We improved quickly, but have a long way to go.

I made it all the way across. Once. Out of about 40 tries.

Slackline rookie:

I’m pretty happy with the camera so far. There are a few things I have issues with. I can’t stand the dreaded white sky, but lighting conditions were a little challenging. The video sucks, and I need to disable the anti-shake settings and see if that cleans it up. I love the speed though, very quick – that was one of the biggest gripes with my old one. I missed so many shots just waiting for the thing to boot up or cycle after a photo. I’ll write up some more details once I spend some more time with it. I’m looking forward to using it at the Bighorn 100 next month to document some incredible scenery and show what it’s like to travel 100 miles on foot through the mountains. Stay tuned!