Post Irony – Page 25 – Trust me, I know this is lame

The Creek Was Angry That Day, My Friends …

By Don on Sunday, May 3, 2009

… like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli.

I had been to Longpool Falls in Pope County north of Russellville back in January, but I didn’t get any photos worth looking at. So when a huge deluge hit that part of the state on Friday I decided to go back and see it when it had something to show. When I got up at 7:30 a.m. Saturday the rain had made it to Little Rock, but it was still raining in Pope County. I drove through torrential rain all the way there and the rain the didn’t stop. The top photo is a two-frame panorama of Longpool Falls and the ravine downstream.

Abby Arkansas Arkansas River Family Fun Little Rock Photography

Nothing Much To Do

By Don on Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Weird. It’s been weird this week. It feels like a pocket of calm before everything changes – again. Gina’s been out of town this week leaving Abby and me to forge ahead as a duo. Tuesday was extra dull and I asked Abby what she wanted to do and added that watching Calliou was not an option. She said, “Go to the Big Dam Bridge.” So that’s what we did.

I took my 70-300mm telephoto lens with us because I thought maybe there’d be some gulls flying around, but there weren’t. We walked up the bridge and watched a storm over Pinnacle Mountain. Then we walked down the bridge and out on an unpaved trail that branches off the North Little Rock River Trail. Abby was looking for fire ants. She’s taken a liking to stirring up their mounds and watching the ants go nuts and then running away shrieking. We got our shoes muddy and Abby saw some bugs, but no fire ants.

Arkansas exploring Graves Canyon Hiking Landscape Outdoor fun Photography

Can’t Beat A Rainy Day For A Good Hike

By Don on Monday, April 20, 2009

When I woke up at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, the sky was clearing after a night of off and on rain and I was so bummed I almost just went back to sleep. I hadn’t gone to sleep until around 4 a.m., which made actually getting up that much harder. (I think I’ve developed insomnia.) Sunny skies spell poor conditions for shooting waterfalls. You need the even, reduced light of overcast skies to make that silky water effect.

But, as we will see, Lady Fortune is a fickle traveling companion.

Adventures in Strobistry Arkansas oddball stuff Photography Pinnacle Mountain

Flash Play

By Don on Wednesday, April 15, 2009

After my run Wednesday at Two Rivers Park I headed over to Pinnacle Mountain to see if there was anything worth shooting. I stopped at the arboretum off Pinnacle Mountain Road thinking I might get a shot of some cypress knees down by the Little Maumelle River. I did something to my knee during my run and I was limping pretty heavily. (I later made the self diagnosis of ilotibial band syndrome.) I barely made it to the river and to add insult to injury I couldn’t find anything swampy that I wanted to shoot.

On my limp back up he trail I came across this dead armadillo and decided to try my hand at a little Strobist style off-camera flash. I underexposed the ambient light and let the flash provide the correct exposure on the carcass. It didn’t turn out quite as I had envisioned. I envisioned a well-lit corpse with a goodly expanse of dark forest in the background. But hand-holding the flash while trying to get low on a badly hurting knee while enduring the stink of a dead armadillo is harder than it sounds. I gave up after two frames and this is what I got.

family Kansas the farm traveling

Thank You, Easter Bunny

By Don on Sunday, April 12, 2009

Abby, Aunt Jodie and I headed to my Mom and Dad’s place in southeast Kansas for a little Easter frivolity. Gina was on injured reserve with a bum shoulder and didn’t make the traveling squad this time. Abby and Jodie held a traditional Easter egg dying party on Saturday.

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Rain, Rain Go Away

By Don on Thursday, April 2, 2009

Abby loves her rain gear. She’s got two raincoats and two pairs of boots. I’d been telling her that the next time it rains I’d take her out and let her run through puddles with her boots on. The next time it rained was Thursday morning, so we set out to find some good puddles.

We found this one at Murray Park just as another storm was blowing in. She began jumping up and down in the water while I was getting my picture takin’ crap set up. I got everything ready and the exposure set and told her jump and splash, but she said, “I don’t want to.” I asked why and she said her dress was wet and she got some mud on her knee. She said she wanted to find a cleaner puddle before she did any more splashing.

I shot this with my silver umbrella and SB600, but I don’t remember the settings. I do know I underexposed the ambient to get the weird background to go a little dark. Then I added a vignette in Photoshop.

I thought when I widened the content area of the blog it would allow me present these vertical images better, but it turns out it makes it harder. These blog templates weren’t set up to make it easy to create nice designs. I don’t know enough about CSS and all that other crap to make it look like I want it to. The wider area is nice for the horizontal shots though.

dining out Memphis traveling

A (Not So) Secret Rendezvous

By Don on Monday, March 30, 2009

The drive between Nashville and Little Rock goes through Memphis, and Memphis is home to some great barbecue joints, and since I’m a barbecue lover it was only right to stop off for lunch on our way home. Gina is generally not big on barbecue, but she loves Rendezvous and the dry-rub heaven they serve, so that was the ticket. (Our waiter took the group shot of us above.)

The restaurant is located in an alley in downtown Memphis and when we turned the corner we saw a big table loaded down with merchandise advertising the University of North Carolina. I thought “now that’s odd.” And then i remembered the NCAA basketball tournament was in town. Because Rendezvous is world famous, I braced for a long wait for a table even though it was 2 p.m.

Nashville traveling Vacation

How To See Nashville With A 2-Year-Old

By Don on Saturday, March 28, 2009

I love me some Dukes of Hazzard, so you can imagine my delight to see this Cooter’s outlet just down the street from our hotel. Abby did not share my excitement at getting my picture taken with the General Lee.

traveling

Gnashville

By Don on Friday, March 27, 2009

Abby and I spent the day in Nashville while Gina worked. We hit the zoo and then we drove around downtown. Here are some snapshots. Gina’s off work today so we’re going to do the tourist thing. First stop: Cooter’s. A Dukes of Hazzard museum/giftshop.

Arkansas Family Fun traveling

Where Have All The Jonquils Gone?

By Don on Saturday, March 21, 2009

It turns out late March is a horrible time to hold a jonquil festival in Arkansas.

We went down to the Historic Washington State Park Jonquil fest with our friends Jim and Brayden. It’s your average Arkansas town festival complete with corn dogs, kid activities and vendors selling useless tackiness at barely justified prices. The little town of Washington is covered up in daffodils of all kinds, but they were all but finished blooming. It put a pall over their namesake festival. I guess the organizers were trying to avoid competing with at least three other such celebrations that I know of across the state in March.