Don – Page 3 – Post Irony

Ramblin’

By Don on Friday, April 3, 2015

We’ve been on a couple of our patented family walkabouts that Abby professes to hate, but actually loves. We wandered around Petit Jean State Park back in February and stopped by the abandoned Carden Bottoms school on the northwest side of Petit Jean Mountain. It’s evidently a popular place for those into abandoned stuff. It does have a few interesting features, like this abused piano.

We’ve been getting some good rain in the late winter and the waterfalls have been pretty spectacular. We hit Glory Hole Falls in mid-March and stopped long enough for a family portrait.

A week before I headed out on a solo trek and stopped by Car Wash Falls on the banks of the Big Piney in northern Johnson County.

Family Fun

Kitchen Crashers

By Don on Sunday, January 18, 2015

The great kitchen remodel of 2015 commenced today.

Christmas Family Fun

It’s Christmas Time In The City

By Don on Thursday, January 1, 2015

Christmas happened again. We lined up for the annual family Christmas portrait. We went without the wacky hats this year for some reason.

Christmas Day commenced with the usual embarrassment of riches shared with Gina’s Mom and Dad.

That afternoon we went over the river and through the woods to Nana and Gramps’ where Abby procured the iPod that we can’t pry out of her hands.

Christmas Family Fun

O Christmas Tree

By Don on Friday, December 19, 2014

I think this is just the greatest thing. Watch it in HD and kill the little pop-up ads.

Little Rock Photography

Eclipse

By Don on Sunday, October 26, 2014

I had grand plans to shoot the recent solar eclipse as it passed over downtown Little Rock. A huge bank of clouds sat unmoving in the exact wrong spot as I waited for an hour and a half for the event to show itself fully. I got this shot as the sun emerged from the clouds just above the horizon. The building on the left is the not-at-all iconic Regions Bank building. You can just make out the cars on the I-30 bridge in the foreground. My eyes were a little weird on me for the entire evening so I think I could have been a little safer about staring directly at the sun.

Halloween

Boo!

By Don on Sunday, October 26, 2014

Abby and I had a pumpkin carving contest. It wasn’t about whose was best. It was about who was fastest.

Arkansas State Fair

State Fair Is State Fair

By Don on Sunday, October 26, 2014

This year’s trip to the state fair was our most successful ever. In years past Abby wasn’t into going on the midway rides and the crushing crowds seemed to make her a little fearful. But this year she was full-on into experiencing all the fair has to offer.

We hit a couple animal barns and then Abby caught sight of the mini roller coaster. It’s a fair ride so it packs up into a an 18-wheeler trailer. It didn’t look or sound safe. The automatic camera got a great shot of Abby as we went over the first drop. It was $7 well spent to buy the print.

Abby loves the swing ride. She rode it three times. The $25 ride-all-you want armband paid off for us for the first time ever.

Abby did draw the line at the Ring O Fire ride. I don’t blame her for skipping that vomit inducer.

And, of course, the fair is a target rich environment for colorful photos.

Arkansas exploring Hiking Ozarks Photography Waterfall

Waterfall In The Fall

By Don on Sunday, October 26, 2014

An unusually copious rain in western Arkansas a couple weeks ago had me out looking for a good waterfall to visit with my dad. We don’t normally get such a deluge in October around here. Some places got upwards of five inches of rain in the days before our hike. The rainfall map showed Bingham Hollow Falls, a 51-footer in Franklin County north of Ozark. It’s a very photogenic fall, but I imagine it takes a pretty good rain to get it running well. The drainage above the dropoff is not very big.

It started raining again shortly after we reached the top of the falls so we quickly scrambled down to the bottom and took shelter under the huge horseshoe of a an overhang. I made a couple of multishot panos to try to get most of the overhanging bluff into one photo. I’ve visited a lot of the state’s waterfalls and this one might be the prettiest and most interesting I’ve seen.

The leaves had just barely started to turn. I’d like to catch this fall flowing well during peak leaf color.

Camping Mt. Magazine

Let’s Go Camping

By Don on Saturday, September 27, 2014

A couple weeks ago we made a last-minute decision to camp out at Mt. Magazine State Park, home of the highest point in Arkansas. We shot the sunset at the old WPA built amphitheater.

Prior to that we ate supper in the enormous dining room at the Mt. Magazine Lodge.

San Francisco Vacation

San Francisco – Day 5

By Don on Wednesday, September 24, 2014

We kicked off our final day in San Francisco with a completely excellent breakfast at MyMy Coffee Shop before heading out to return a lens I had rented for the week. Our next destination was famously crooked Lombard Street. It was a mile or so from the camera shop so we decided to walk.

It turns out the non-famous side of the street is one of those super-steep affairs. The UPS drivers must be used to it from the way they just park in the street. I guess those trucks have space-age parking brakes.

This was the scene that greeted us when we finally topped the hill. Tourist insanity. Cars line up to wait for the crowd to part so they can slowly make their way down, down, down the block.

The downhill end of the street is just as tourist packed as the top. It wasn’t a great time of the day to get a decent photo and anyway it’s impossible to get a shot without tourists in it. I was lucky to get one with only a couple people in it.

We sorta wandered around for the rest of the afternoon and had a semi-bad dining experience at a very expensive restaurant. Gina kept trying until she got an excellent steak. Mine sucked. I should have sent it back. Then we headed down for another go at China Town just before dark. This shot is looking east down California Street. That’s one of the towers of the Bay Bridge way out there.