Darien and I went camping at Bert Adams Scout Reservation this weekend with the Webelos of Pack 876. It was cold and with the drought, there were no open fires allowed – charcoal in the grill only.
The kids had a lot of fun building water rockets and model rockets, learning knots and orienteering, and shooting BB guns. Darien was the only pack member to earn the Junior USA Shooting Team Rifle Patch. Five shots, 43 points (only 35 points needed for the patch).
We had the June meeting of the Atlanta Photo Meetup Group combined with the Atlanta Model Meetup at the Old Chamblee Bistro this week. A number of models showed up and there were about 40 photographers. It was a bit chaotic, but a good time. Now I need to try my hand at editing some of the better ones.
I’m trying out Adobe Lightroom and will probably buy it. I like Apple Aperture better except for the speed, which is terrible on my machine. Guess it’s designed for people with Mac Pro’s and lots of RAM, not for those of us silly enough to want a relatively compact computer like a G5 iMac.
The Sharks won their first meet of the season, beating Lithonia by a solid margin. This marks one year since I decided to get the Canon 30D as I was so frustrated with the Digital Rebel at the first meet last year. I also hit the 10,000 photo mark on the camera during the meet, rolling over to IMG_0001.
Darien was selected to attend Kittredge Magnet School for High Achievers. That’s a big win for him in the long run, but it’s a much longer trip than we currently have of three blocks up the road. He has a foreign language requirement, German, and will have to take up an instrument in either marching band or orchestra. Guess those piano lessons will help as far as reading music goes.
One sad note about the selection process is that a classmate of Darien’s didn’t get selected. Elizabeth is a great kid, smart as can be, and really, really deserves to be in a school like Kittredge, but she wasn’t selected in the lottery process. There’s no question she’ll do well wherever she goes to school, but she was really excited by Kittredge.
Six Cedar Waxwings, originally uploaded by ExtremeModerate.
Saw a flock of Cedar Waxwings visiting the birdbath and had just finished my prototype gimbal mount (it was still on the tripod) and I had my 70-200mm lens on the camera. Snuck it all outside on the deck (ther’re skittish birds and all left) and set myself up in the corner.
About half the flock came back for this photo and some others. I didn’t check all my settings so the set is not as good as I would have liked, but this particular shot is my favorite.
