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Lauri took me on a balloon ride for my birthday. It was a cool late summer morning and there was low lying fog that made for some great photography. Unfortunately, I managed to forget my GPS taht I use for geotagging photos so this batch isn't geotagged.

Rehoboth With Lauri's Sisters (7 photos)

A few photos from our visit to Rehoboth with Lauri's sister after Jaimi's wedding.

Chrysalis Winery (10 photos)

Delegate Plum's Campaign Kickoff 2011 (84 photos)

Photos from Ken Plum's campaign kickoff in Reston.

Field Day 2011 (16 photos)

Photos from the VWS Field Day activities at Burke Lake Park.

Bingham 2011 (26 photos)

Photos from our brief visit to Bingham, Maine. The first half are from Hannah's softball game with the remainder being shots from around the Hilton home.

Mom's 88th Birthday (69 photos)

Mom's 88th birthday part and Cascio family reunion.

Rehoboth 2011 (26 photos)

Photos from our visit to Rehoboth.

Linda's Tandem Jump (70 photos)

Photos from Linda's tandem jump at Skydive Orange.

Lauri's Tandem Jump (69 photos)

Photos of the month-delayed tandem jump for Lauri's birthday. This time the weather was perfect and she took that big step out of the airplane!

2010 Highlights (11 photos)

I didn't get much opportunity for photography in 2010 but these shots are my favorites for the year.

Squirrel (1 photos)

A lone photo of a squirrel lounging in a tree.

Fowler Christmas Visit (18 photos)

Jaimi, Jeremy, Jodi, Todd and Todd's kids came to visit a week before Christmas. Six adults, 2 children, 2 dogs, one small condo. Great fun!

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear (25 photos)

Lauri and I went down to the rally and it was insane to see how many people were there to rally for sanity. Or fear. Sometimes it was hard to tell. :) I've never been to an event on the mall with so many people and all the friends we were going to connect with never managed to find us or each other but we had a fantastic time.

Paradise Springs Winery (8 photos)

Equality Fairfax did a wine tasting outing to Fairfax County's only winery in Clifton. It was a great time and the wine was pretty good!

Bev's Birthday (73 photos)

It was great to help Bev celebrate her birthday and get the chance to see friends that I haven't been able to see in far too long.

August 2010 NAQP (17 photos)

Photos from the August NAQP for Vienna Wireless. The location was beautiful though it was a hazy day. Getting to spend a little time on the radio is always fun!

2010 California Trip (4 photos)

I had to go out to California for a couple of days for work. I didn't get much opportunity for photos, but these few snapshots did end up in the iphone.

Skowhegan State Fair (37 photos)

Photos from the Skowvegas, er, Skowhegan State Fair. This was a spur of the moment jaunt from Bingham and turned out to be a lot of fun. Lauri ended up taking most of the photos in this set which is how I ended up in so many.

Around the Hilton House (20 photos)

Photos from around the house one morning during vacation.

Hilton Travels (15 photos)

Terry took us on a journey through the places in his life, plus a few detours along the way.

Hanging With the Hiltons (13 photos)

The end of our first day in Maine and the start of the second. I finally get to see the painting of me that Lauri had her mom do. It's for my birthday but she couldn't keep a secret!

Wyman Lake (30 photos)

On our first day in Maine, we went to Wyman Lake, Terry's brother and sister-in-law were kind enough to invite us all out on their boat. The weather was great, the company fantastic. You can't ask for more out of a day!

Rebecca Nurse Homestead (22 photos)

Photos from the Rebecca Nurse Homestead in Danvers. Rebecca, my 8th great grandmother, was one of the 19 innocent people who were victims of the Salem Witch Hysteria.

Arlington/Menotomy (7 photos)

Photos from the Old Burying Ground and Jason Russell House in Arlington. One of my ancestors, George Southwick, was killed at the Jason Russell House during the Battle of Lexington and Concord.

Lewes 2010 (30 photos)

Photos from a weekend trip to Lewes.

Tricia's Graduation Party (10 photos)

Some photos from Tricia's high school graduation party.

Geese (4 photos)

A few photos of geese and goslings.

Andrews Air Show 2010 (38 photos)

Some photos from the 2010 Air Show at Andrews.

Snowmageddon 2010 (9 photos)

Photos from the second major snow. This one left large icicles on the balcony.

Snowpocalypse 2010 (13 photos)

Some photos from our 30“ of snow.

2009 Highlights (18 photos)

My favorite photos from 2009.

Christmas 2009 (5 photos)

Some unconventional photos from Christmas 2009.

Blackwater Wildlife Refuge (61 photos)

Joo, Valarie, Steve and I drove down to Blackwater Wildlife Refuge on the eastern shore of Maryland. The weather was wetter than forecast but it never rained enough to send us looking for shelter. I was frequently left wanting a longer lens. The 200mm with the 1.4 teleconverter just wasn't enough reach.

Flight from Manassas (HEF) to Middle Peninsula (FYJ) (103 photos)

Looks like I was brave or crazy enough to be new pilot Eric's first non-instructor passenger. We took a trip from Manassas to Middle Peninsula Airport down in Chesterfield County. It was a perfect day for flying and the trip was very enjoyable. I tried my hand at some aerial photography and while successful, I learned a lot about how I can improve for the future. I'm looking forward for the chance to try again sometime!

2009 National Equality March (64 photos)

Equality Fairfax participated in the National Equality March in Washington. The weather was beautiful and a huge crowd turned out for the march.

2009 Reston Triathlon (38 photos)

Lauri and I joined Lauren in cheering Rachel on in the Reston Triathlon. In all the time I've lived in Reston, I've never managed to see this event and now I know why. It starts at 7AM. I'm glad I was finally able to make it there to cheer Rachel on!

St. Mary's City Visit (36 photos)

We visited St. Mary's City on a hot, humid Saturday and spent the day taking photos in the historic exhibits.

August 2009 Great Falls (42 photos)

It had been a long time since I'd gone to Great Falls so when Lauri suggested we go over on a beautiful Saturday morning, I grabbed the camera and we headed out.

Kisma Preserve (32 photos)

Kisma is an animal preserve that takes in animals that can't be returned to the wild or kept in other settings. We took a tour there on our way back from Bar Harbor.

Bar Harbor (32 photos)

We took a day trip over to Bar Harbor and had a great lunch and spent some time wandering about.

Driving Through Franklin County (4 photos)

These photos are from our return drive from searching for the grave of one of my great grandfathers.

Childhood Farm (17 photos)

Not my childhood. I grew up in the 'burbs. But Lauri and Jodi and the rest o' their clan grew up on a dairy farm in Maine. Now, the current owner is raising Andalusian horses and she was kind enough to give us a tour of the property.

Mount View School (39 photos)

Lauri, Jodi and I got a tour of the new Mount View School as well as a peek at the demolition of the old school

Field Day 2009 (29 photos)

A few photos, some radio related, many not, from the Vienna Wireless Society Field Day at Burke Lake Park.

Delegate Plum's Campaign Kickoff (15 photos)

These are photos taken at Delegate Plum's campaign event.

Rehoboth Visit (5 photos)

Lauri and I visited Chris and Sandy in Delaware for a wonderful visit. The weather and an otherwise full schedule limited the photography to a few snaps, but that didn't take away from a great trip.

RDF Picnic (26 photos)

Vienna Wireless Society held a foxhunt (radio direction finding exercise) and picnic at Lake Fairfax in Reston. Though I lacked an appropriate antenna for the hunt, I came out for the food and for some photos and the perfect weather.

Visit to Aunt Helen (4 photos)

Mom, Lauri and I visited Aunt Helen, Christina and Sandy. I only managed a few snaps.

2009 Winterfest (25 photos)

Here are the photos from VWS Winterfest. I spent most of the day at the book sales table so I didn't get to spend much time taking phtoos, but did manage a few obligatory shots of the Martindale kids.

Kirsten and Chloe (37 photos)

Kirsten asked me to take some photos of her and her cat, Chloe.

Bernie and Anthony's Wedding (25 photos)

This is a sampling of the photos I took at Bernie and Anthony's wedding. Though I enjoyed myself and was happy to help them out, I pretty well convinced myself I could never be a wedding photographer.

January 2009 Birthdays (15 photos)

Some photos from Lorrie and Alex's birthday celebration.

January 2009 NAQP (64 photos)

Here are photos from the Vienna Wireless Society's North American QSO Party activities. Great food and lots of fun was enjoyed by the crowd. Plus, I got to try out the new toy, the %D Mark II. Being able to shoot at ISO 6400 is definitel useful!

2009 Glen Echo (30 photos)

Lauri, Kirsten, Doug and I went over to Glen Echo Park for some photography. It was a cold day, but not too horrible and it was nice to be doing some photography just for the sake of photography and not for an event.

2008 Highlights (16 photos)

I didn't get to concentrate on photography much in 2008, but here are my favorites from the year.

Touro Park (8 photos)

Here are a few photos from Touro Park in Newport. I had just read "1421: The Year China Discovered America" and it mentions Newport Tower and I figured I'd stop by and see it while I was in Rhode Island. It's a small tower and it doesn't really look like a mill to me (not that I have the expertise to judge), but it's certainly interesting to speculate about who built it and for what purpose.

2008 Skywarn Recognition Day (16 photos)

I was getting over a nasty cold and misse the early antics for Skywarn Recognition Day, but did managed to stop by for a cople of hours on Saturday afternoon.

Pat's Powerlifting Competition (46 photos)

Pat invited Lauri and I out to see her compete in a powerlifting competition out in Hagerstown. I was humbled watching this tiny, 105 pound woman lift more than her weight. I got a few shots of some of the other competitors and we weren't able to stay for the entire event, but it was great watching Pat compete (and we later learned, win her weight and age classes!)

2008 Maryland Renaissance Festival #6 (43 photos)

This is my final set from the 2008 season. Unfortunately, going in garb did cause my picture quality to go down, but it was still a blast! Lots of great music spent in the company of even better friends! I'll sacrifice a few photos for that any day!

2008 Maryland Renaissance Festival #5 (53 photos)

I'm still catching up on photos from Faire. Here are shots of Albannach, The Rogues, Wolgemut and Owen Phyfe.

Maryland Renaissance Festival 2008 #4 (32 photos)

More photos from the festival.

Maryland Renaissance Festival 2008 #3: Albannach (41 photos)

The second set of photos from the day is from one of Albannach's set. I've never heard bagpipes need amplification to compete with other instruments in the band but those drums are a force of nature and just pound into you. Great stuff!

Maryland Renaissance Festival 2008 #3: The Rogues (25 photos)

It turned out to be a short day at the faire thanks to one of our group feeling more than a bit under the weather so there weren't a lot of photos. And, even though I love hot weather, the exceptionally high humidity had me sweating in places I didn't know I could sweat. Not that you needed to know that, but it did seem to slow all activity down. Anyway, here are some photos from The Rogues. The Canadians in the group managed not to wilt in the heat and, as always, the band was great to listen to.

Delegate Plum's 2008 Picnic (47 photos)

The one good thing to come out of Tropical Storm Hanna's visit to Virginia was that my schedule was rearranged enough so that I could get to Delegate Plum's picnic. The weather was perfect and I got to spend a pleasant afternoon taking photos and chatting with people.

Maryland Renaissance Festival 2008 #2 (50 photos)

More photos from the Festival, this time with all the camera gear and unencumbered by costume.

Maryland Renaissance Festival 2008 #1 (33 photos)

It's that time of year again and this was my first visit to the festival. This one was a little different as Kirsten and Jenn made good on their threat/promise to get me into garb thsi year. This was a lot of fun but it limited the amount of photo gear I could carry and the number of phtoos I ended up taking. Still, a few shots were managed.

Philadelphia Folk Festival 2008, Sunday (92 photos)

Most of Sunday was spent at the camp stage and this the place to be! Lots of great eneergy there! And, not so far away from the musicians that you need the hubble space telescope to see them. Unfortunately, the long drive back to DC required leaving before the evening concert. I'd have liked to stay for that, but Monday was a work day.

Philadelphia Folk Festival 2008, Saturday Night Concert (75 photos)

These are from the Saturday night concert from the festival. It was a great show, though unfortunately we missed Judy Collins who closed the night out. The only downside was the "sweep." They clear out the grounds because they sell tickets that are good only for the day so they need to clear out all the Saturday-only people. This is a real pain for those who bought all day or all festival tickets and is a classic example of making something too complex. It's a hassle for the volunteers and a hassle for the people who have to pick up all their stuff head out and get back in line only to rush back in to get a good spot. Nobody's happy and those who are there for the first time are utterly confused. Leave out that nonsense and it was great. All the performers were wonderful!

Philadelphia Folk Festival 2008, Saturday (28 photos)

These photos are from Saturday afternoon. Thanks to a late night, we didn't make it back to the festival until a bit later than we had planned. Allison Moorer was an unexpected surprise. I hadn't heard her music before and she was the musical highlight of the afternoon for me.

Philadelphia Folk Festival 2008, Friday Night (48 photos)

These are from the Friday night concert from the festival. Unfortunately, we arrived late thanks to awful traffic in Delaware, but the weather was great and the music even better. Unfortunately, we were well off the side so part of the stage was mostly hdiden, but thanks to the monopod, I was able to get some decent shots in fairly low light.

Butter Pond (20 photos)

Kirsten suggested this impromptu visit to this little pond near Reston Parkway and Route 7. It turned out to be effectively half the size we thought because one side was private property but it was still a nice spot, not far from home to try to grab a few photos.

Greenwich Meantime (41 photos)

I attended this concert at Reston Town Center at the suggestion of Dara and Steve. And, a good suggestion it was! Greenwich Meantime is a celtic rock band from Canada and they put on a wonderful show for us. The photography got a bit challenging when the sun went down as the lights weren't bright enough to make it easy but with some careful timing, lots of shots and a bit of luck, I managed some decent ones. If you ever get a chance to listen to the band, take the opportunity!

Field Day 2008 (30 photos)

I didn't get to spend nearly as much time as I'd have liked at Field Day (something about sleeping through half of it), but I did get a few photos from Saturday afternoon.

Visix Reunion Party (38 photos)

Visix Software was, without a doubt, the job I've enjoyed the most, at least so far, in my career. For most of my six years there, I looked forward to going to work each morning. The work was interesting and the work environment was like a large, extended family. Sadly, Visix didn't last and I haven't seem most of the people I used to work with since then. That was, until this party. Larry and Suzanne were kind enough to open their house up to as many of us as could make it. It was truly wonderful to see those who could (and talk about those who couldn't!). Hopefully we won't wait ten years to do this again!

Beatlemania Concert (12 photos)

This was one of the Summer Concerts at Reston Town Center. I only caught the first half because a thunderstorm sent me scurrying during the intermission.

Maryland Faerie Festival (9 photos)

I've never been to a Faerie Festival and picking a 97 degree day probably wasn't the best introduction. It's a small festival, much less elaborate than the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Lots of clothing and fantasy-themed vendors. Not a whole lot of entertainment.. And very little shade. Might be worth revisiting on a less brutal day, though.

Ben's Graduation Ceremony (44 photos)

These photos are from Ben's graduation ceremony from Dr. Phillips High School held at the Amway Arena in Orlando.

Ben's Graduation Party (12 photos)

A few photos from Ben's high school graduation party down in Orlando.

Washington at Baltimore (56 photos)

I was invited to watch the Nationals take on the Orioles at Camden Yards. Our seats were fantastic! We were three rows back between home plate and the Orioles' dugout. We were right at th edge of the net behind home plate so some pictures have this out of focus net in them, but it wasn't as bad as I'd feared it would be. To make things even better, the Orioles finally won when I was there at a game! Though they did manage to let the Nats make it close.

Mothers Day 2008 (13 photos)

A few photos from the Mothers Day gathering at the Golden's.

January 2008 NAQP (48 photos)

Photos from the VWS excursion to Camp Highroad for the North American QSO Party.

Reston Town Hall Meeting (26 photos)

The first photos of 2008 are from a Town Hall Meeting where Senator Howell and Delegate Plum listen to citizen concerns just prior to the General Assembly session.

2007 Highlights (20 photos)

This is my "best of" set from 2007. It felt like I didn't get a lot of opportunity for photography in 2007 so I don't feel like I grew much as a photographer, but it's always fun to get out with the camera.

Christmas 2007 (27 photos)

Some photos from Christmas day.

VWS 5 Balloon Flight (66 photos)

This was the fifth balloon launch for Vienna Wireless Society. We launched the balloon from Strasburg, Virginia and it landed, much to our amazement, back in Vienna, within walking distance of the homes of many club members. The balloon had two payloads, one with a camera and three transmitters. The second payload had several peeps, some seed packets and a second camera. Below the second payload were four or five "peeponaut deployment vehicles" (balloons containint peeps tied to tiny parachutes). The weather on the ground was cold and damp with heavy overcast. We lost sight of the balloon fairly quickly. However, we did recover one of the peeponauts as it deployed while the balloon was only around 100' up. In all the launches with peeps, it's the only peeponaut ever to be heard from again. The balloon burst around 82,000 feet, earlier than we had planned. The flight path was a little south of east and while descending the flight path went about two miles off the south end of the runway 1/19 at Dulles (though well above normal airport flight operations). The balloon came to rest in a tree at the corner of Lawyers Road and Laurel Ridge Road in Vienna. John/KA4YMA put his climbing skills on display and retrieved it from the tree. Overall the event was a success. The APRS transmitter worked well. The 2m 17mw CW beacon performed well. The only thing that didn't go as planned were the cameras. One camera power supply failed before launch and the other camera didn't take pictures automatically as it was intended to. I guess that gives us something to work on for VWS 6 whenever that happens.

Bull Run Festival of Lights (9 photos)

These photos from the Bull Run Festival of Lights are far fewer in number than intended. It turns out that trying to take photos of lights from the back seat of a moving car is, um, challenging. So, these aren't great and there were many that were even worse. Still, the lights are pretty to see and it's a worthwhile, if expensive, visit.

Holiday Lights at Reston Town Center (4 photos)

This set of photos is briefer than I expected. It seems that using a tripod at Town Center is Against The Rules. I got off one sequence of photos of some trees and was setting up for the Christmas Tree when a security guard approached me and told me I couldn't take pictures. I was surprised since I've taken photos at Town Center lots of times without being hassled. He clarified. It wasn't taking pictures that was forbidden. It was using a tripod that was forbidden. Politely, I asked why. He didn't have a reason. It was the Rules. If I wanted to use a tripod I had to obtain written permission from the management office. Of course they were closed and only open during business hours. The guard was polite. He was just doing his job, however stupid the rules he was told to enforce are so harassing him would do no good, but I couldn't help how people were supposed to get good photos of lights at night without a tripod. Of course, not being a photographer, he had no clue. The only reason I can figure is that they are concerned about tripods being a problem when the area is crowded. But, the area wasn't crowded. It was surprisingly not crowded for a week before Christmas. The on\y person likely to be impeded by my tripod was me. So far as I can tell this is just another rule made by people to make themselves feel powerful. Being a blanket rule it serves no purpose other than to annoy photographers who wanted to show how pretty the lights were. Now instead of posting that people should go see the lights, I'm posting that RTC has an annoying, arbitrary policy that does nothing but aggravate people. Had it been crowded, I'd have understood. I wouldn't even have tried because the crowds would be as annoying to me as I would be to them. So, unless you plan to shoot handheld (don't know whether using a monopod would get you shut down or not), stay away from RTC. Or try to stop in at the management nazis' office to get a permit. I may still try just to find out the process, but I'm betting they won't give them out.

Punkin Chunkin 2007 (30 photos)

Here are some (unfortunately not very good) photos from Punkin Chunkin. Kirsten organized this outing and it was an interesting, if cold event. None of use were quite dressed warmly enough and we also arrived a little, well, a lot later than intended thanks to a party the night before. After factoring in travel time and waiting over an hour in traffic to park, we only had about four hours at the event itself. I'm not really sure why but it is seriously cool to watch pumpkins hurled into the sky. The range of designs was quite varied from air cannons to slingshots. The air cannons shot the furthest but usually launched the pumpkins so quickly I never even saw them. If you have a free day next year, dress warmly and head on over! It's an event that gives an outlet for creative, mechanically inclined people that have way too much time on their hands.

Cox Farm (29 photos)

I had never really noticed Cox Farm on Route 123 even though I'd driven past it countless times. Kirsten suggested a short photo shoot there and off we went. It turned out to to be a fun place to shoot with the variety of shapes, colors and textures all about. We probably could have stayed at least another hour but we had to leave to meet a group in Tysons Corner to catch a movie. Check it out if you are in the area. I think I'm going to be headed back for some apple cider.

Maryland Renaissance Festival, Take 4 - The Rest (9 photos)

These are the photos I took walking from venue to venue within the festival. I don't know who the performers are so if anyone can identify them, I'd be grateful. That wraps up my photos from the last day so no more Renaissance Festival photos for almost a year.

Maryland Renaissance Festival, Take 4 - Wolgemut (22 photos)

These photos are from Wolgemut who put on a fun show. They were joined for part of the set by Gypsophilia and I've love to hear them play more. Hopefully they'll put in an appearance at 2008.

Maryland Renaissance Festival, Take 4 - The Hooligans (4 photos)

I caught the tale end of this act. I think it was the Hooligan Brothers though that was listed in the program as a duo and there were three people on stage. So perhaps it was a different group. If I've got this wrong and someone can correct (or verify), please let me know.

Maryland Renaissance Festival, Take 4 - The Interpreters (8 photos)

The Interpreters is an act I'd never seen before. They're sort of like the O'Danny Girls but with accents (Columbina is Italian and Trinket is blond). They put on a fun show and because I hadn't seen it before, I tended to forget to take photos so I didn't manage too many.

Maryland Renaissance Festival 2007, Take 4 - The Rogues (22 photos)

I aways try to catch at least one set from the Rogues when I'm at the Festival and managed one set and half of another. Unfortunately, the light was really touch in both places (White Hart Tavern and the Fortune Stage) so I didn't get many I really liked.

Maryland Renaissance Festival 2007, Take 4 - Mediaeval Baebes (35 photos)

Getting to hear the Mediaeval Baebes was the best part of not being able to fly to Seattle. I've heard them a few times now and I think this was their best performance yet. They really seemed to be having fun and the crowd was really into the show. The photography was a challenge given the position of the sun, but fortunately there were a few spots where the sun wasn't shining directly into the camera. If I've mislabeled any of the photos, or you can id any photo without a title, please let me know.

Maryland Renaissance Festival, Take 4 - The O'Danny Girls (20 photos)

I hadn't had a chance to catch the O'Danny Girls in a few years. I'm glad I was able to see them this time. They are a fun group that has a good time with the bawdy(ish) genre. While the festival program lists them as "PG," there really isn't anything offensive in their show although it certainly is suggestive enough. If you have a chance to catch their act, ti's definitely worthwhile. Their funny and entertaining and they sing good too! And, I absolutely loved the last song of their set! The light was a challenge. They would sometimes be in bright sunlight and sometimes in shadow and often in both at the same time. Fortunately, I took enough shots that some worked without being too contrasty to work with.

Maryland Renaissance Festival 2007, Take 4 - Pyrates Royale (17 photos)

My second batch of photos from spending the day listening to (and photographing) musicians at the Festival is from The Pyrates Royale. In all the times I'd been to the festival, somehow I'd never heard a complete set of theirs. I managed to remedy that this time. I caught half of one set and all of another and though I'm generally indifferent to the piratey songs, I did enjoy listening to them. If you haven't heard them, then make sure to stop by next year and listen to a set or two!

Maryland Renaissance Festival 2007, Take 4 : Albannach (52 photos)

Since AirTran managed to keep me from getting to Seattle, I tried to make some lemonade out of that lemon and managed to get to the Maryland Renaissance Festival for an unexpected fourth time this year. Since this was a spur of the moment and totally unplanned visit, I didn't have anyone along with me though I did see Kirsten there. I spent the day visiting as many of the musical acts as I could manage, starting with Albannach. I had never heard this group before and, wow, did they have energy! This group from Scotland, had five drummers and a piper and I don't think I've ever considered bagpipes a quiet instrument but it was working hard to keep up with the number of decibels being put out by the drums. They were a lot of fun to listen to and a great way to start the morning!

Maryland Renaissance Festival 2007, Yet Again (5 photos)

I only took a few photos, which may be a first for me at the Fest.

Vienna Wireless President's Picnic (9 photos)

Here are a few photos from the VWS President's Picnic at Glyndon Park. Burgers, hot dogs and a bunch of goodies were enjoyed by all who attended.

Equality Fairfax State Senate Forum (20 photos)

Equality Fairfax held a candidate forum for three of the state senate races in Fairfax County. The forum was held at MCC NOVA in Fairfax and was attended by 40-50 people as well as I can estimate. In two cases, the incumbents declined to attend but in the 34th senate district covering Vienna, Oakton and Fairfax bot the incumbent and challenger were there. I had other responsibilities so I didn't get many photos and I'm beginning to think that I need to get over my aversion to flash photography when at MCC because the lighting there tends to be heavily backlit. The 40D handled well on its first time out but I'm looking forward to getting it out to some outdoor photography.

Maryland Renaissance Festival 2007 #2 (103 photos)

A group of us visited the Maryland Renaissance Festival for a second time and managed to stay the whole day. I think people are going to start thinking I'm a Rogues groupie since I have so many photos. That's can't be good for my reputation. :) But, the music is great and it's fun to photograph them and the audience so I guess I'll keep snapping photos.

Agent Logic Company Outing (37 photos)

These photos are mostly from the football game and egg toss at the company outing to Bull Run Regional Park.

Delegate Plum's Picnic (48 photos)

Delegate Plum invited me to a picnic he was having in Reston so I grabbed the camera and headed on over.

2007 Maryland Renaissance Festival (75 photos)

This was the annual DCPhotogs trip to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. As always, it was tremendous fun! I love taking photos at the Fest and came home with over 600! I've managed to prune that down to 75 and while it could probably still stand some pruning, this will have to do for now. The best part of the fair isn't just taking photos of all the people in their wonderful costumes. I also get to listen to some fabulous music, watch some great shows and generally have a great time with my "posse" as DCPhotogs was somehow labeled for the day.

2007 Equality Fairfax Picnic (28 photos)

Great conversation, good food and hot summer weather made for a great day at Nottoway Park where Equality Fairfax held its annual summer picnic.

2007 Smithsonian Folklife Festival (65 photos)

These are photos from the Mekong River and Northern Ireland sections of the festival. I took a lot of photos, but I pruned the majority of them. I guess, for the most part, I never quite hit my stride. So, even if these photos are mostly snapshot like, it was interesting to see the crafts and listen to the music from the Mekong River region of Asia. The Northern Ireland music was a little disappointing. It was competent, it just didn't feel like the musicians were having fun. I spent almost no time in the Virginia section of the fair. I walked through briefly but nothing caught my eye or ear.

Field Day Setup (8 photos)

VWS went out to Burke Lake Park to set up antennae and tents for Field Day. So, of course, I ended up taking photos of the Martindale kids with Mike/AE4R's Radio Dog.

Delegate Plum's Commonwealth Breakfast (11 photos)

These photos are from Delegate Plum's Commonwealth Breakfast where he gave his summary of the issues in northern Virginia and the state as a whole.

Capital Pride Festival 2007 (11 photos)

I never quite got in a photo taking mood at the festival, but I managed a few snaps while on my shift at the Equality Fairfax booth and wandering around after.

Palm Meadows (15 photos)

My last set of photos from India come from the hotel and the surrounding community. It felt like it could have been transported from southern California.

Dinner with the Subramanian's (8 photos)

Thanika and his family kindly invited Jeremy and me over for dinner while we were in Bangalore. These are some photos from that evening.

The Streets of Bangalore (5 photos)

This is a handful of photos taken as a passenger in the car. They don't begin to show the amount of traffic. Nor do they show how mobile it is, darting in and out of perceived openings. One of the most startling sights was a motorcycle that had a man driving and a woman holding an infant in the back. She was holding the infant and nothing else, riding sidesaddle on this bike. In general, rear passengers on motorcycles didn't hold on to anything and when they did it was almost never the driver.

Bull Temple & Bugle Rock Park (20 photos)

Bull Temple is a 500 year old temple and statue of a giant bull. If I remember correctly, the statue was carved from a single, massive piece of granite and has been rubbed with coal or something similar over the centures to turn it black. Bugle Rock Park was next to the temple. It was a small park where kids were playing and adults relaxed and enjoyed the afternoon air.

Cubbon Park (7 photos)

These photos are from Cubbon Park in Bangalore. This park appeared to be part picnic area, part amusement park and all crowds. Although the photos don't really show it because I didn't feel comfortable taking photos in the crowds, the park was really jammed with people. And, though we got stared at a fair amount at Lal Bagh, we really got stared at here, especially me. Not belligerently but more out of curiousity, especially from children. Definitely an interesting place to wander around.

ISKCON Temple (2 photos)

Here are a couple of exterior shots of the temple for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Unfortunately, we couldn't go in with our bags and cameras. I was willing to put my camera away and not use it but they said we'd have to check the begs. Neither of us were willing to check our bags so we didn't go in so I've no idea what it was like on the inside. The building was certainly interesting and there were several signs warning of pickpockets so a warm, fuzzy feeling certainly wasn't present. So, I can't report on what a Krishna temple is like other than to say that they seem to be doing well financially based on the buildings that were part of the complex.

Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens (44 photos)

I only had one day of sightseeing before getting down to work in Bangalore. The first stop was Lal Bagh, a 240 acre garden in southern Bangalore. After about 25 hours of travel time, I got to the hotel, showered, relaxed for about three hours and then joined Jeremy to go sightseeing. Lal Bagh was our first stop. We only saw a fraction of what was there and could have easily spent hours wandering around the gardens. Unfortunately our guide was moving us through so quickly that I didn't manage more than snapshots and figuring that Jeremy wouldn't enjoy moving at a photographer's slow pace didn't try to really work any particular subject. As a result, these are mostly snapshots and memories of the park, but that's ok. Especially considering my jet lagged, sleep deprived state.

Less than a twelfth of Twelfth Night (6 photos)

Photos from the Providence Player's production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. I had been asked to take photos at the play but unfortunately the director shut me down in the second scene so, there aren't many photos to show for it. The production set the play in 1960's Los Angeles. The setting made for some interesting anachronisms with the language of the play but perhaps made it a bit more accessible for some. The cast did a fine job and all in all it was a wonderful performance. I only wish I had been able to get them more photos to show the work they did.

2007 C&O Canal Barge Ride (22 photos)

Joo, Valarie and I decided to take a ride on the C&O Canal in Georgetown. It turned out to be a day for snapshots. The view from the barge didn't permit great sightlines. Still, the ride was fun. I had last done it when I was in high school up at Great Falls and this was the first time I'd taken a ride in Georgetown. It's a nice way to spend an hour in DC.

2007 QRP to the Field (43 photos)

QRP to the Field has become an annual Vienna Wireless Society event. This year almost didn't happen, but thanks to Tom/K4TCM, an outstanding event was organized, literally overnight. The weather was good, the food was great and while I didn't spend any time in front of a radio, I did spend a fair amount of time behind the camera.

April 2007 Reston Town Hall Meeting (22 photos)

I took some photos at the Reston Town Hall meeting where Delegate Plum and Senator Howell updated us on the 2007 Virginia General Assembly Session.

Pocono Raceway (59 photos)

These are some photos from Pocono Raceway. Joe was going to be shooting there and he invited Joo along to shoot and said he could bring a few people with him. Joo asked me if I wanted to go and off I went. I came home with 426 photos and probably took at least 140 more that got deleted in camera. For the most part, I wasn't too thrilled with most of my pans. I definitely need more practice. Still, it was a lot of fun and seeing Joe work was fascinating!

March 2007 Equality Fairfax Town Hall Meeting (14 photos)

Representatives from Equality Virginia and several members of the Virginia General Assembly were on hand to discuss the 2007 General Assembly session and how it affected the LGBT community. Compared to last year there was significantly fewer bills to track. The net result was one positive bill passed and one negative bill was killed and the remainder of the positive bills were defeated. No negative legislation passed. For more info on the specific legislation, you can check out www.equalityfairfax.org/node/609.

Alex's 11th Birthday (40 photos)

These are photos from Alex's 11th birthday. His party was celebrated a bit early and turned out to be St. Patrick's Day. So, of course, we had Mexican food for dinner. I didn't take the 20D with me and instead used the little A620. Unfortunately, I had it set in 640x480 mode from some earlier shots I was taking and forgot to set it back to full-size photos. Because of this operational brain fart, all of these photos are really small. No prints from these unless it's postage stamp size.

ISS Contact (71 photos)

Many of the hams at Vienna Wireless set up an amateur radio contact with astronaut Suni Williams on board the International Space Station. The contact was arranged through ARISS and took place at Virginia Run Elementary School in Centreville, Virginia. Pete/KG4OJT, Iain/KI4HLV, Corky/AF4PM, Phil/A4JF, Tom/N4ZPT, John/AF4PD and others I'm sure I'm leaving out (sorry!) did a lot of work setting up two redundant stations and testing to ensure things would work properly. The whole school assembled in the gym, along with Bob Ryan from Channel 4 News and a couple of NASA astronauts and others. Thirteen students would ask questions to Suni and she would respond. She had already been sent the questions so that she could prepare answers since the ISS pass was only going to be 10 minutes long. Finally, the moment we were waiting for arrived. Pete/KG4OJT called, "NA1SS, NA1SS this is K4HTA." On his second call, we heard Suni call, "Kilo Four Hotel Tango Alpha, this is November Alpha One Sierra Sierra". Success! Or so we thought. We then began three minutes of both sides calling the other. It was clear than Suni wasn't hearing us, though we tried both radios. The problem seemed likely to be at her end, though it could have been as simple as having the volume turned down on her radio (It's happened to me!). Or she could have been listening on the wrong frequency (we were transmitting on one frequency and listening on another). Whatever the cause, suddenly she could hear us. We now had seven minutes to get thirteen questions asked and answered. Suni did a marvelous job of getting through and on her final answer we could hear her begin to disappear into the noise as the ISS went below the horizon. It was really great to see everyone's hard work pay off and even have just enough "excitement" to make everyone realize just how easy it is for things to go wrong. Now I know how the Apollo 13 mission control crew felt when they were calling for Apollo 13 after re-entry and not getting a response. And we didn't have anyone's life at risk. For other photos, video and audio from the day, see: www.viennawireless.org/ariss.php. If anyone can ID any people in the photos, let me know and I'll update the titles.

Morning Fog (3 photos)

Usually the only thing fogged in each morning is my brain, but on this morning, there was this patchy, dense fog around the area. Under normal circumstances I'd have never been aware of it because it was mostly to the west of Reston and I'd have likely gotten out of the house after it had burned off. But, this day was different. I had volunteered to get Lauren to Dulles Airport at about 7AM so I had to be up earlier and also head west. As I was driving to work, I decided to pull the little A620 out and snap some shots while I was driving. They're not great. They were shot through a car window and many of them were taken with the car in motion. I deleted most of them, but these few survived because they gave a sense of what it was like. That little, dim ball in the sky isn't the moon. That's the sun after being attenuated by the fog. I'd really like to try this with a tripod and the real camera...

Winterfest 2007 (10 photos)

Each year VWS holds it's annual hamfest. This year the weather gods put the "winter" into "winterfest". Not that we haven't had bad weather before. It seems like we have bad weather most years, actually. But the forecast for Winterfest morning was sleet and freezing rain and though that never materialized, it kept people away. When the snow moved in, it seemed to be the final nail in the attendance coffin. Those who showed up seemed to have a good time and the VWS crew who staffed the event seemed to weather the day with good cheer. I only managed a few photos. I'm not sure whether it was the weather, lack of sleep, or staffing the book table most of the day that limited the number of photos, but there aren't too many.

Equality Fairfax Game Night (6 photos)

A few photos from the game night that Equality Fairfax held. We had a great time playing Scategories, Scrabble and other games.

2007 Winterfest Setup (14 photos)

Some photos from the afternoon before Wnterfest. I'm not really sure why I bring the camera to the set up. There really isn't much that's interesting to photograph, but I try to get some documentary photos for the club. This year I didn't get much at all. I guess the lack of sleep from the night before had caught up with me.

Winterfest VE Session 2007 (26 photos)

It's that time of year again. These are the photos from the VE Session the day before Winterfest. We weren't sure just how many people would come out to be tested since this was just after the rule change the totally eliminated the morse code requirement. As it turned out, there was a big turn out! Around 60 people got tested including those who only needed paper upgrades (those who had completed the written portion of the general class test but hadn't yet taken or passed the old morse code requirement). Looks like there's going to be a bunch of new folks on the HF bands in the next few days!

Frozen Potomac (33 photos)

Thanks to Doug's phone call on Saturday afternoon I knew the Potomac was frozen at Riverbend Park, but I couldn't get there until Sunday late afternoon. These photos are the result of that visit. I don't know how things look downstream at Great Falls, but I hope to find out!

January 2007 NAQP (16 photos)

I missed NAQP last January but fortunately I was able to attend this year. We held it at Camp Highroad in Middleburg and had a good turnout. I did a couple of shifts on the radio and had one nice run and did a couple of shifts logging for other operators. I didn't take many photos, but what few I did manage are here for your ham radio viewing pleasure.

2007 Equality Virginia Lobby Day (16 photos)

Some photos from our day in Richmond lobbying the legislature. Each year, Equality Virginia holds a lobby day in Richmond to help educate the general assembly on LGBT issues and to address the legislation, both pro and con, that is introduced. After having gone through the whole nasty amendment battle in 2006, I was expecting turn out to be down and it was, but we still had perhaps 250 people come out to speak with their representatives. I feel blessed to have Delegate Plum and Senator Howell representing me. Speaking with them and then comparing that with some of the stories from those represented by some other legislators really drives that point home. For the most part, we in northern Virginia have lawmakers who really understand that civil liberties should be for everyone and not just a privileged few. The good news of the day was HB1727 (this year's anti-GSA bill) was defeated in committee, a major step forward. Unfortunately, it has an almost identically worded sibling introduced by another delegate. Hopefully it will die the same fate. Given how short the legislative session is, it seems a frivolous waste to force the same committee to debate the same bill twice in the same session but, sadly, it will to be defeated twice this year. Overall, it was a great day! And, I managed to snag a few more photos along the way than I did last year.

Lions and Lemurs and Seals, Oh My! (20 photos)

More photos from my visit to the National Zoo. I expended most of the memory card on the tigers but a few other critters managed to get a bit of lens time.

Tigers at the National Zoo (51 photos)

It's been a little over a year since I've been to the National Zoo so when Doug and Ariya asked if I'd like to go, I grabbed the camera. The weather threatened in the morning making our later than intended start a good choice since the rain had cleared out by the time we got there. We stumbled across the tigers and found three rowdy tiger cubs that wanted to play with mama. At first it seemed that Mom just wanted to lay down and relax but the cubs wouldn't take no at an answer. Watching them stalk their mother and practice hunting made for some great photography but I couldn't help sympathizing with their prey in the wild. But, who can resist adorable young animals and even if they were practising hunting they were so cute that you couldn't help wanting to jump in and play with them. Fortunately, the zoo doesn't make it easy to indulge those impulses so I settled for getting closer with a telephoto lens and a teleconverter.

2006 Highlights (20 photos)

I didn't have quite as many photographic opportunities in 2006 as in the last couple of years so I wasn't really sure if I was going to get very many good shots. As it turned out, I did get a bunch I was happy with and I guess it was successful because I had a hard time limiting it to 20 photos. They ended up being largely concentrated into a few days. I guess that isn't too surprising since so much of the photography I did was more documentary than artistic. I didn't accomplish my goal of getting more landscape shots in 2006. The opportunity never really presented itself so I guess that's going to carry over to 2007, but I'm reasonably happy that 20% of the shots came from days when I was just shooting what happened to be n front of me. I felt like I made the best of relatively limited chances to do photography. Here's looking forward to 2007!

Key Largo Dive Trip (34 photos)

I'm not set up for underwater photography but I did manage a bit of above water photography. Most of these photos are from right next to the condo where a family of cats had adopted the residents. The pelican photos were from a dock at a nearby hotel. Sadly, a lot of the photos I took had focus issues. Some of this was from intentionally shooting with very shallow depth of field in relatively low light, but some just seems to have been from not being careful enough to make sure the camera focused where I thought it did. Fortunately, enough good ones made it through to post some. Sadly the trip was too short and between weather, current and a sinus squeeze I only managed hafl the dives I'd optimistically hoped to get. Still, I got to visit some places I hadn't been to since 1999 and dove a couple of new (to me) sites like the Spegel Grove. One of these days I'm going to break down and get a housing for my camera but so far I've been resisting that...

2006 AGLA Holiday Party (72 photos)

The Arlington Gay & Lesbian Alliance asked if I would take some photos at their holiday party. This was their 25th anniversary of an organization that has done fantastic work over the years so I was happy to help. Congressman Barney Frank was the guest speaker at the event and he spoke about recognizing that we stil have a long way to go in the struggle for equality but that we've already come a long way. He was an engaging speaker and I enjoyed hearing his views. Potomac Fever of the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, DC performed two songs for us and they were fabulous!

November 2006 Great Falls (8 photos)

Kirsten, Emily, Dora and I took a brief hike from Riverbend Park down to Great Falls and back. I didn't get too many photos because Kirsten and Dora set a pace that didn't leave much time for gathering photos. I did get the few obligatory snaps of the falls but overall, not too much photography on this hike.

2006 Equality Fairfax Holiday Party (7 photos)

The 2006 party was somewhat smaller than the 2005. Perhaps the proximity to a very hectic election season drained people, but we still had an enthusiastic contingent of people show up for a great evening at Rick and Barry's beautiful house. I didn't get too many photos. Instead I spent too much time gabbing and not enough time pressing the shutter button. But, the few photos I did manage are now posted.

Maryland Renaissance Festival, Yet Again (43 photos)

Somehow, despite the crazy schedule I kept in October, I managed an unprecedented third visit to the Renaissance Festival. This was the last day of the festival and it was pretty cold, especially in the morning. I never quite got in the photo groove, whether because of the cold, or just never quite waking up, but I'm not as happy with these photos. Not that they are horrible, but I think I can do better. But, at least I finally got them posted. It took forever to find time to go through them and finally get them up on the net. So, without further verbage, here they are.

Rally Against the Marriage Amendment (58 photos)

The weather was pretty rotten, but the rain held off until we were done (well, except for a few sprinkles, the deluge showed up a couple hours later). And although the weather undoubtedly kep some people away, several hundred people showed up to rally against the evil Marshall/Newman Marriage Amendment at George Mason University. This amendment, if you're not aware (and if you look at my site much that would be tough) would not only ban gay marriage, but civil unions, domestic partnerships and any legal relationship that a judge decides has a quality or effect of marriage. Just what that means isn't clear. Nobody really knows because, ironically, these legislators who so abhor "activist judges" will force judges to decide what marriage qualities are. In Ohio, some of those judges have decided that domestic violence protections are a benefit of marriage. The same thing could happen here. Domestic partnership benefits are almost certainly at risk considering that Senator Cucinelli said that was one of the targets of this amendment. The rally started with a prayer vigil and the 20 or so protesters who decided that bigotry is to be celebrated decided to try and chant over a prayer. What part of "christian values" did they miss the class for? The most amazing thing was the diversity of the attendees and the speakers. White, black, asian, gay, straight, bisexual, transgendered, christian, jew, and probably lots of others that I wasn't obviously able to identify. The speakers ranged from college students to veterans of the 1690's civil rights movement. Each had a different view on just how bad this amdnement is. The election is only a month away. Remember to vote no on question #1!

2006 Maryland Renaissance Festival Revisited (56 photos)

Doug and Ariya invited me to go the the Maryland Renaissance Festival with them and having that Sunday free, I grabbed the camera and headed east. Wandering the festival with DCPhotogs is a bit different. We rarely stop to see shows but instead move through the festival like a roving pack of animals intent on capturing images. This was a bit more sedate and we stopped to see more of the shows. I knew the Mediaeval Baebes were going to be making an appearance this year, but I didn't know it would be this particular weekend. Fortunately, we got to see one of the shows. I always enjoy hearing them, though the person handling the sound for that performance was not doing the best job. Still, having the camera, I ended up coming back with lots of images. I used Adobe Lightroom, beta 4 to process these and it looks like it has a lot of promise. But, to get any kind of decent performance you'll want lots of memory. I tried beta 3 on the PC (with 2GB ram) and performance was bad. Unusably bad unless you were very patient. For beta 4, I had just received my new Mac that only had the stock 1GB of ram in it. Performance was even worse. However, a few days later when my extra 2GB of ram showed up, performance was much improved. I really like what they've done with the "develop" panel. It's pretty intuitive and really flexible. This could keep me from having to resort to Photoshop unless I want to do any compositing or other manipulations beyond the normal color, exposure, contrast, curve types of adjustments.

Lewes, Delaware (17 photos)

After a windy morning helping to clean up the beach, the afternoon cleared up and was absolutely perfect. The rest of the afternoon was spent walking from one tall ship to another as they were spread out along the canal. Photographically, I seemed to find other subjects more interesting than the ships for the most part. Almost none of my shots of the ships made it through the pruning process, but it was still a fun day to be wandering about and I had a great time.

2006 Maryland Renaissance Festival (68 photos)

Each year, DCPhotogs makes a pilgramage to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. There are always so many interesting things to photograph that it makes for a delightful day of wandering and photographing the beautiful and the bizarre. This was somewhat unusual in that a fairly large group of us managed to stay together for most of the day. Usually we end up splintering into smaller groups, but this time we hung together like a pack. When you get that many white lenses together in one spot, let's just say that it gets attention. Especially from the cast and performers! My niece, Tricia, has also started expressing an interest in photography so I brought her along with me and she also took some photos with a small digical I loaned her. I'm not quite sure what she thought of the fest other than the exclaimed comment that "old men shouldn't wear kilts!" Beyond that, she wouldn't elaborate...

Glen Echo Carousel (23 photos)

On my return trip from Baltimore on Sunday, I met Valarie from DCPhotogs and we spent a few hours at Glen Echo Park. Neither of us had been there and it seemed like it might have some photographic possibilities. It turned out we were right! We spent most of our time at the Carousel but there is definitely more there to photograph. We encountered one of the Park Service rangers who was kind enough to give us a brief tour of the park and filled us in on some of the history. Seems kind of strange that having lived most of my life in the Baltimore/DC region that I'd never been there before but neither had Valarie. I guess we both got some education. Actually, speaking of education, a big part of what goes on at the park is education. They hold classes in photography, glass fusing, pottery and perhaps other arts. There are also show for children and what most people may know about, the dances.

Florida Marlins @ Washington Nationals (31 photos)

Equality Fairfax bough a block of tickets for Gay Day at RFK Stadium. I think we had 18 tickets and it was a great night to be out at the ballpark! I'd never been to RFK stadium before and I guess the nicest thing I can say about it is that it isn't Camden Yards. Compared to other stadiums around the country, RFK is pretty drab. Our seats were in section 519, just a bit to the 3rd base side of home plate in the upper deck. As it turned out, the backstop was in most of the photos. Not much I could do about that short of moving The Gay Men's Chorus of Washington DC sang the National Anthem and did a fabulous job despite RFK's rather dreadful acoustics (bringing inteligibility out of the voice anouncements took major concentration and generally wasn't worth the effort). The one problem with taking photos at a ballgame is that I don't really get to follow the game because I get more focused on getting the photo. However, the Nats lost 4-2 and manager Frank Robinson summed up the game this way, "The ballgame was not a good ballgame. Period." I don't follow the Nats so I can't compare this game to any other but the Marlins took a one run lead in the top of the first and never trailed. The Nats did mount a threat around the 6th inning but it evaporated and the Marlins held on to win 4-2.

Discovery Channel Shark Building (14 photos)

Those of you reading this that know Kirsten know that she's something of a shar-o-phile. Well, ok, more of a sharkaholic. She can't get enough of sharks. So, when I got the email saying that the Discovery Channel buiding in Silver Spring, Maryland had been decorated in inflatable shark parts for Shark Week and that we had to go get photos of it, I went along as a friend. After all, someone had to make sure she didn't try to bring any monstrously large shark parts home with her. So, along with Emily, we headed across the river to a place where civil rights are still a bit more in fashion than on this side of the river, but I digress. My first thought upon seeing various shark bits with buiding in between was the poor shark saying, "I had to eat the whole thing!" in that mournful voice from the Rolaids commercials way back when. Anyhow, it turned out to be a fun evening and, well, it's not every day one gets to see a giant shark-building.

Equality Fairfax 2006 Picnic (65 photos)

This was the 5th summer picnic for Equality Fairfax though my first time at one. I missed last year's because I was on the airplane to Bonaire when it happened. This year I was able to plan a bit better and was on hand to enjoy the event and grab a few photos at the same time. This was a great picnic! Lots of people showed up with kids and dogs and food. The weather cooperated though the shade was a welcome commodity. It was especially nice to see Delegate David Bulova and his family along with candidate Andrew Hurst and his kids. It means a lot to our community when they would come spend their day at something that is by design a purely social event and not politically oriented.

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens (67 photos)

This may be the first and perhaps only time this year I've been able to manage photography, just the for the sake of taking photos, two weekends in a row. This time it was at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, a lovely park in DC that is chock full of photogenic things. Kirsten, Maarja and I managed to get there after a bit of what seemed like events conspiring against us, but we persevered and I'm glad we did. It wouldn't be hard to spend two hours in one spot without really moving and come away with dozens of fantastic photos. So, though I've never been there before, it's definitely a place I'd love to visit again! I processed these photos with Adobe Lightroom Beta 3. Normally I use Adobe Camera Raw from Photoshop CS2, but I wanted to try Lightroom. In retrospect I shouldn't have used such a large batch of photos (I shot 359 that day). The current beta is a bit sluggish and when you combine that with figuring out how it works, it made for a longer than normal processing time. It looks like Lightroom has a lot of promise and I'm looking forward to seeing what the subsequent updates hold, but for now I think it's back to ACR.

Joe Dimaggio Workshop (58 photos)

Joo was able to arrange for Joe Dimaggio to do a workshop for DCPhotogs. I've never attended a photography workshop but, mostly on Joo and Valarie's recommendations, I signed up. I'm glad I did.Although I can't say that I learned a lot about the technical side of photography, I did come away with new ideas and with new approaches. It was also emotionally recharging to spend a day just doing photography. Of the 150+ photos, I shot, I got it trimmed down to 60+. That is still too many and I hope to delete some more later but I wanted to get something posted and so this seemed a good posting point if I was going to get them up any time soon.

2006 Folklife Festival (64 photos)

The Folklife Festival is always an interesting event. This year featured the Canadian province of Alberta, Native American Basket Traditions and Latino Chicago. I spent the afternoon wandering around and taking photos, stopping occasionally to listen to music or watch an act, and chatting a bit with other festival goers. If you get a chance, stop down at the National Mall and enjoy the festival!

Putting the Puzzle Together (1 photos)

One lone photo of Tricia and Daniel trying to figure out a jigsaw puzzle.

2006 Capital Pride Parade (6 photos)

Along with some others from Equality Fairfax, I participated in the Capital Pride Parade. I had never marched in any parade before and helping to carry the "Virginians: We Can Win!" banner was a treat! I only managed a few photos because I was an active participant, but I'm going to have to get better photos of this at some point in the future!

2006 Tour de Cure (4 photos)

I haven't been able to participate in the amateur radio support of the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure in a few years. The timing worked out that I was usually out of town. I didn't really mind since it was not the world's most organized event. However this year I was available and it was with some trepidation that I stepped forward to volunteer. And, as it turned out, the event has changed from a not very organized one to one of the best organized! I was assigned to work as net control operator and it was a joy to actually help the rest stop and SAG operators actually get problems resolved. Willy/KC0GNH, the ham who organized the radio support did a great job in helping the ADA get things in shape. I didn't get many photos from the event. In order to be able to hear, the net control station was on top of a parking garage, away from the action so I only got a few shots from up there. Thanks to Tom/N4ZPT for helping out at net control after finishing up his rest stop shift.

2006 Viva Vienna (7 photos)

The town of Vienna has its annual street fair at the end of May and Equality Fairfax had a booth to get out the word about the evils of the marriage amendment. The outcry against the amendment was gratifying and it gave me hope for November. From a photo perspective, there wasn't much to photograph and I had to leave for another event as soon as my shift was over so I didn't get many photos.

Seneca Creek State Park (24 photos)

Somehow the photos got away from me again. These are from late May at Seneca Creek State Park. I spent a few hours there with Joo, Valarie and Steve from DCPhotogs and it turned out to be a pleasant afternoon though the weather threatened rain.

Equality Fairfax at the Mount Vernon Wine Festival (11 photos)

I've managed to fall behind on photo posting. Again. But, the efffort to catch up has begin! Here are some photos from the Mount Vernon Wine Festival. Equality Fairfax bought a block of tickets and I was lucky enough to go along. The festival was a lot of fun...got to taste a lot of good wines and enjoyed everyone's company.

May 2006 Equality Fairfax Membership Meeting (20 photos)

The May Equality Fairfax meeting kicked off the campaign against the evil Marshall/Newman anti-marriage amendment. Several speakers from the General Assembly came to speak as well as Matt Foreman of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. The overall campaign is beng run by the Commonwealth Coalition, a group of organizations, business and individuals dedicated to defeating the amendment.

Equality Fairfax 2006 Spring Dinner/Dance (51 photos)

The last bit of photo backlog is from the Equality Fairfax 3rd Annual Spring Dinner/Dance. This was held at the Holiday Inn in Tysons and turned out to be a great evening!

2006 NWS Open House (41 photos)

I've almost caught up on the photo backlog. These are from the National Weather Service's Open House at the Sterling Office. In reality it ended up being the Elizabeth photo session because she was just too cute not to photograph. So, not much Skywarn or NWS stuff but a lot of cute kid photos.

2006 Commonwealth Dinner (3 photos)

This was my first, but I think the third Commonwealth Dinner held by Equality Virginia. I usually dread these sorts of events but I enjoyed this one, in large part of the speech given by former U.S. Senator Robb. He gave a great speech and I'm glad I was there to hear it. Not many photos from the night, but what few I took are here.

Lorrie's Luncheon (11 photos)

I've made it into April so I must be catching up with the backlog. I'm only a month behind! These photos are from a luncheon for my sister upon her "retirement". I quote the word because she's not truly retiring. These are more A620 photos but I think I'd have rather brought the 20D so I could shoot in ambient light instead of having to use flash.

Alex's 10th Birthday (19 photos)

I'm still catching up on old photos. These are from Alex's birthday party that was held at the end of March. I used the "little" A620, mostly to get used to it. Seems to be a decent snapshot camera though I think I need to dial down the sharpening a notch. The default out of the camera sharpening is a bit much. And, thank god for Photoshop's red eye tool. It makes quick work of glowing red eyes. Thanks, Adobe!

EF @ Foxfire Grill, March 2006 (7 photos)

These are a bit late getting posted but, better late than never. This set is a few photos from the Equality Fairfax Second Saturdays @ Foxfire Grill events. These are being held the second Saturday of each month at the Foxfire Grill. These are also the first photos with a Canon A620 that I bought as a "keep with me all the time" camera for those times when it's impossible or impractical to have my 20D with me. It's certainly not DSLR quality, but it's reasonably fast, has good battery life and is small enough to keep in my purse. I'll probably end up using it for a lot of these type of events.

SCA Event (25 photos)

The Society for Creative Anachronism is a throwback to an earlier age. It says so, right in their name. But, that doesn't begin to describe the organization or its people. Though I was never involved, I have friends who are scadians and even allowed them to "kidnap" me for a weekend and take me to Pennsic, one of the largest SCA events (or at least it was then). But, this was a much smaller event and it was even local, being held at Nottoway Park in Vienna. I hung around for about an hour taking photos of people whacking each other with large sticks (the sticks were standing in for swords and otherweapons of individual destruction. Sadly, the photos aren't what I'd hoped they'd be, but the weather was perfect and it was a beautiful day to be outside.

Winterfest 2006 (60 photos)

Winterfest rolled around again and like so many Winterfests of the past, the weather was unfriendly. In this case, it was quite cold. I felt sorry for the people working outside in the tailgate section. Fortunately, for me, I was inside where it was warm! It seemed that attendance was down a bit, and it was, but not as much as I'd feared and it looks like there is still enough interest in small, local hamfests that Winterfest 2007 will likely occur. From a photography perspective, I spent rougly half my time photographing children. So, you/ll see a lot of very un-ham-like photos; or perhaps they should be considered future hams. Actually, in one case, the ham radio license is already in hand.

FrostFest 2006 (4 photos)

I'd never been to FrostFest before so when a group of VWS'ers invited me to ride down with them, I tagged along. I even ended up picking up a balun for a soon-to-be reconstructed HF antenna though I failed in my search for a new antenna tuner. Still, it was a pleasant way to spend half the day.

EF @ Foxfire Grill (4 photos)

Equality Fairfax had its initial "Second Saturdays" event at Foxfire Grill. Except that this was the third Saturday because we got snowed out on the second Saturday. However, despite the change in date, the event was a lot of fun. Not many photos...it was very dark inside so flash was a necessity and I didn't want to blind people any more than I needed to so my photos are confined to the table where I ate dinner.

San Francisco, January 2006 (13 photos)

I got to take a short trip to San Francisco in January and I was hoping to spend a fair amount of time outside taking photos, but the weather wasn't very cooperative so I ended up spending most of my time inside gabbing with friends. However, I did get a few photos, mostly on or near Castro Street as I was wandering one afternoon.

2006 Equality Lobby Day (6 photos)

Last year was my first lobby day wtih Equality Virginia and my first time in the General Assembly Building in Richmond. I wasn't sure I would be able to bring a camera in so I, with reluctance, left it home. However, I found out that bringing a camera in wasn't a problem at all and so this year, the camera got to join the party. The saddest part of the day was knowing the state senate was passing the anti-marriage amendment while we were there. It wasn't a surprise, we knew it was going to be happening, but I find it difficult to understand how anyone can pass legislation or put an amendment on the ballot that has no purpose other than to hurt a group of people. I suppose that is naive, but even having seen the process play out over the last two years, I don't understand that motivation. However, putting that aside and getting back to photography...I didn't take too many photos, but I did get a few. Next year, I think I'll try to be a bit more focused on documenting the day.

2005 Highlights (20 photos)

It's that time of year where I try to select my favorite photos from the previous year and collect them together. My goal this year was to select 20 or fewer photos which was a little stricter than the up to 30 I allowed myself last year. I found it hard to make the final choices. Over the course of the year, I collect candidate shots and put them together in a directory. As I add to the directory throughout the year, I end up deleting some along the way but by the end of the year I had over 40 photos so I had to cut them down by more than half. This year's crop is 1/5 butterfly photos and I really didn't want that many butterfly shots in the final set, but when I compared them to the other candidate shots throughout the year, I liked them better. So, though part of me wanted to be more representative of the different things I photographed throughout the year, these shots won out. It's curious how many of these shots came from the same day. In three cases there are three shots selected from the same day and there are two shots that came from the same day. I'm not sure how much of this is me getting into a "photographic groove" on those particular days and how much si that I just didn't get quite as many opportunities to take photos in 2005. One of the things I'm noticing is that I more frequently seem to prefer the detail shots to my landscape shots. I think I've developed my eye for those more so I think I'd like to work on my landscape shots a bit more for 2006.

Wrestling Match (34 photos)

The last batch of photos from 2005 took a bit of time to get posted. The end of December and the beginning of January have proved to be quite busy. But, the delay is finally over. These photos are from Alex's wrestling match held in mid-December. He had three matches and, I think, won the middle of the three matches.

2005 Bird House (16 photos)

This is the fifth and final batch of photos from the DCPhotogs visit to the zoo. This set of photos comes from the bird house. This was a very challenging place to shoot. It was fairly dim, and there was a vertical screen that kept the bird in an made shooting difficult. I've tried to ID the birds by going back to the zoo's website, but wasn't 100% successful, so if anyone can fill in any blanks (or correct any errors), I'd love to hear from you.

2005 Ducks at the Zoo (8 photos)

This is the fourth batch of photos from the DCPhotogs visit to the zoo. This set of photos comes from the duck habitat. The zoo is doing a survey of ducks in various ponds and so, yes, you can go to the zoo to see the same ducks you would see at your local pond. At least there were a lot of them.

2005 Giraffes at the Zoo (14 photos)

This is the third batch of photos from the DCPhotogs visit to the zoo. This set of photos comes from the giraffes. One of them was enjoying its sunday brunch and they are pretty comical to watch eat. Except for the tongue; that's a gross looking thing.

2005 Oryx at the Zoo (8 photos)

This is the second batch of photos from the DCPhotogs visit to the zoo. This set of photos comes from the scimitar-horned oryx. One of them was wandering around in the paddock and we stopped for a few minutes to photograph it.

2005 Cheetahs at the Zoo (9 photos)

A few of us from DCPhotogs visited the zoo on a drab, but fortunately, not too cold day and spent about half a day in various parts of the zoo. This batch of photos, the earliest of the day, comes from the Cheetahs. They happened to be active and prowling around the pen when we first walked by.

Skywarn Recognition Day 2005 (13 photos)

Every year, in December, Skywarn Recognition Day is held. This event allows hams to try to make contact wth many of the National Weather Service operations around the country. I drove out to the nearest NWS office to hang out with the hams, operate a bit and snap a few photos. I missed the 2004 event and I could only stay a few hours this time, but it's always fun to see what's going on out there. The weather was cold, but nicer than 2003 when it was etremely cold and snow was on the ground.

Mount Vernon (39 photos)

I've lived most of my life in the Baltimore/Washington region and until now, I'd never visited Mount Vernon. But, that was finally rectified when I made a Sunday visit with a few people from DCPhotogs. The weather was drab and overcast but the temperature was relatively mild. Cooler than cool but not so cold as cold, if you take my meaning. Which means that for most people it was relatively pleasant while I was happy not to be too cold. I was surprised to learn that Mount Vernon, home of our first president and all that, was private property. I was expecting it to be federally run but it's a for profit thing. They were very camera friendly on the outside and totally camera unfriendly on the inside so we stayed outside. As it turned out, most of omy photos seem to be explorations of texture and contrast and saturation. I started from similar shots and processed them differntly in photoshop. And when things get boring, there's always pictures of people taking pictures and Valaries Enormous Lens. I'd never seen a 400mm f/2.8 lens in person before and all I can say is wow, that thing is huge! It makes my 70-200 f/2.8 seem downright petite.

Equality Fairfax 2005 Fundraiser Party (37 photos)

I had the pleasure of attending the Equality Fairfax annual fundraiser party for the first time. Barry and Rick were kind enough to open their home up to us and we descended upon them. I wandered around with my camera, annoying people with the flash, but sacrifices have to be made for art. Or, if not art, then at least documentary evidence. In any event, I managed some photos of what turned out to be a very enjoyable event.

Boston 2005 (28 photos)

Though I have been to Boston two or three times, I've always been there for just a few hours at a time. This was the first time I've spent a coule of days in the town and while I didn't get too much chance to wander about and take photos (that work thing kept intruding), I did manage some photos. I arrived on Wednesday afternoon and when I walked out of the airport into the open air, I looked around, took a deep breath and thought, "So, that's what civil rights smell like!" And for the curious, they smell refreshingly nice! I got a few photos around the Back Bay area of Boston near the hotel where I was staying. Then, on Thursday evening, we were taken on a dinner cruise of the Charles River. The weather cooperated although it's hard to get photos at night from a moving boat. None of the night photos is especially sharp. Then, on Friday afternoon, I managed a few more photos around Back Bay before heading out fo the airport.

State Arboretum of Virginia (8 photos)

hese photos are from an unplanned visit to the State Arboretum of Virginia. This is in Boyce, Virginia and although I had driven by it before, I'd never been there. Linda and I took a pleasant stroll among the grounds and Cody certainly seemed to enjoy the extended alk. I didn't take many photos. Just a few of Cody and a few shots here and there. There is one extended sequence of variations on sunlight shining through the clouds

Tarara Winery Visit (6 photos)

Equality Fairfax and Equality Loudon members met up for a wine tasting and tour at Tarara Winery. Though the weather was rainy and cool, it was worth the drive to taste ten different wines and see a bit of how the wine was made. If you get a chance to drive out there and do a wine tasting, take the time. It is worthwhile.

Equality Fairfax Potluck Dinner (16 photos)

Equality Fairfax held a potluck dinner in Annandale to discuss the upcoming elections for statewide office (governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general) as well as the House of Delegate races for the local area. This dinner focused on the southern half of the county and was the companion dinner to one the week earlier for the northern half of the county. I neglected to bring the camera to the first potluck. The room was dim enough that photography without a flash would have been challenging at best so it's probably just as well. This room was better lit and I had the camera with me so I snapped a few photos during the proceedings.

2005 Alzheimer's Memory Walk (33 photos)

Fairfax ARES has supported the Alzheimer's Memory Walk for the last few years. Though it is a small event from a radio perspective, it's a worthy cause.I missed last year's event but the year before the weather was not particularly friendly. This time, it was different. The sun was shining and though cool at first, it warmed up by the time the event had finished.

2005 Maryland Renaissance Festival (52 photos)

It seems the Maryland Renaissance Festival has become an annual event for DCPhotogs. Though I feared that I wouldn't be able to attend this outing, I was able to attend and I'm glad that I did. The Renaissance Festival is always a "target rich" environment for photographers and this year was no exception. From bubble fairies to jousting to musicians to people of all shapes and manner of dress, the festival is one of the most visually interesting events of the year. I didn't take quite as many photos this year as last year and about a third of what I shot was deleted in the first pass, but when all the editing was done, I was pretty happy with the results.

Talbot County 2005 Relay for Life (84 photos)

The American Cancer Society holds annual fundraisers called the Relay for Life. Les and Bev, friends who live on Maryland's Eastern Shore, asked if I would take pictures for their local event. So, I packed up the camera gear and headed across the Bay Bridge to get some photos. This particular event was the Talbot County Relay for Life and was a lot of fun to photograph. From the faces of the cancer survivors to the "Mist Relay" to the Fear Factor, it was full of wonderful imagery. I've selected out my favorites from the nearlly 600 images I captured.

August 2005 NAQP (8 photos)

The North American QSO Party seems to be on its way to becomming a VWS tradition. The weather was quite cooperative although the ionosphere wasn't for the first few hours. It looked like we were on our way to the worst score we'd ever had. Fortunately, the bands seemed to settle down and we ultimately made one more contact than last year. When this is combined with the great weather and Chef Tom/K4TCM's outstanding cuisine and it's the recipe for a great day! I didn't take too many photos. I suppose I spent too much time gabbing either with people at the site or on the radio, but what few I took are posted for your viewing pleasure.

2005 Bonaire Dive Trip (65 photos)

Bonaire is part of the Netherlands Antilles and is located just north of Venezuala, near Aruba and Curaçao. I had been to Curaçao in 1998 but this was my first trip to Bonaire. It was fabulous! The water was perfect with visibility that was easily 100+ feet and perhaps as much as 200'. I'm a bad judge of visibility but this was great! The reefs were healthy with a variety of coral and lots of fish life. I haven't yet seen Kirsten's and Carrie's underwater photos but I'm hoping they got some good images. I didn't do as much photography as I thought I might but I did get out a few times for some images around the resort. Unfortunately, we were told not to leave valuables in the rental trucks so I didn't get any photos from our shore diving excursions.

Brookside Gardens Butterflies (45 photos)

Brookside Gardens is a park in Wheaton, Maryland. I last visited there in 2002 and when someone suggested we go to see the Wings of Fancy exhibit there, it sounded like a great idea. And it was! They had butterflies that were native to Maryland as well as butterflies from Costa Rica. I've never seen so many beautifully colored butterflies in one spot before. We spent about two hours photographing the butterflies. I used a 100mm macro lens for my shots, though most didn't end up being macro shots. I used flash for most of the shots and that was a mixed blessing. Portions of some flowers or some butterfly wings were very reflective and that made exposures a bit challenging. Unfortunately, the photos came with a higher than anticipated cost. My car was broken into and my purse stolen. With the exception of my PDA, nothing of value was lost, but it sure was a hassle having to replace a car window, driver's license, and other assorted documents. If you go to see the exhibit--and it is worth seeing--don't leave anything that looks like a bag in your car. My car was the third in three weeks.

Ronald McDonald House Cleanup (5 photos)

Our summer interns had a volunteer activity planned at the local Ronald McDonald House and those of use that mentor interns (or torture them depending on one's point of view) also tagged along. We rearranged some electronics, cleaned and rearranged a basement room and rearranged an office and perhaps some other things that I didn't witness. These are a few photos from our activities.

2005 Smithsonian Folklife Festival (23 photos)

The 2005 Smithsonian Folklife Festival looked at three "cultures": Oman, the Forest Service and Food Culture, USA. You can see why I used quotes around the word "culture" since two fo the three categories don't really seem to qualify.Fortunately, the Oman exhibit made up for the lameness of the other two. I missed last year's festival but this year's gave the impression of being severely curtailed by budget cuts. It was worth seeing but it also was not a huge loss if you didn't make it.

Field Day 2005 (9 photos)

Field Day is one of the highlight of the amateur radio calendar and this year proved to be tremendously fun. Last year we had a great deal of difficulty with our wireless lan and network logging software so this year we tried to address both problems. We were largely successful. One station began having trouble staying connected to the lan early Sunday morning and the software became troublesome to use when that happened but the other stations were fine. So, we made progress, but there is still more progress to be made. We had interference problems with the GOTA station and the ssb station on the same band. This wasn't surprising but the amount of interference was. The digital station itnerfered with both cw and ssb pretty much equally. But, despite these issues and poor conditions on the band, at least at first, we made more contacts than ever, at least for my tenure at Vienna Wireless. Some of the AMRAD folks brought their van with its big mast and our VHF/UHF crowd had a blast. We even managed at least one satellite contact. That might be a first for the club! Tom/K4TCM's cooking was marvelous and a great time was had by everyone. The only downside came from the bees. There were lots of bees about and a few of us managed to get stung.

Alexandria Waterfront Festival 2005 (63 photos)

This seems to be the year for attending local festivals, but this time it was purely as a spectator. Alan and I went down to Alexandria to see their festival and though it was smaller than I had expected, it was a beautiful day and had a fair amount of photographic opportunity.

Capital Pride Festival 2005 (27 photos)

I was unable to attend the parade on Saturday but I did get to the festival on Sunday. I spent a couple of hours helping out Equality Virginia and then wandered around taking photos. I was amazed at the number of people that said they no longer lived in Virginia. I'm not shocked. Some members of the Virginia legislature seem intent on making Virginia an unwelcome place. I can't really fault anyone who decides to leave but I'm not ready to walk away from the place that I've lived the last thirteen years. Not everyone in Virginia is a hate-monger and I stil hold out hope that decency will win the day.

Celebrate Fairfax 2005 (19 photos)

I ended up helping two organizations at the Celebrate Fairfax Festival. On Friday, I was working for Fairfax ARES and on Saturday, Equality Fairfax. I wish I had known that they were going to show fireworks because I would have brought a tripod along but I was not prepared and so have no fireworks photos to show. Next year I'll know better. Though hot, the thunderstorms passed us by and it was not a bad couple of days to spend outside.

Space Needle (39 photos)

Being my first trip to Seattle, I had to visit the Space Needle. It was mandatory. And occasionally, I do what I'm supposed to so I went. I'm glad I did! The weather was perfect and the view from a little over 500' up was spectacular. Seattle and the surrounding area is quite beautiful and I was glad to see it from such a great vantage point. After visiting the Needle, we walked over to nearby KeyArena where were going to see the Seattle Storm. We did see the game, but, alas, I've no pictures to show for it. I was not allowed to take my camera into the arena. My photos would do no harm and might even cause a few friends to go see a WNBA game. The worst part is I checked the Storm and WNBA and Arena websites ahead of time and couldn't find anything saying cameras were prohibited. I certainly enjoyed the game, but I really hated the policy.

Museum of Flight (35 photos)

Donna and I spent a few hours at the Museum of Flight by Boeing Field in Seattle. After having been to the two Smithsonian Air & Space Museums so many times, it was an interesting change to see how another organization approached the subject. The weather was perfect which was welcomed since several exhibits (among them, the Concorde and Air Force One) were outside. Architecturally the museum was more like Udvar-Hazy than the museum on the Mall but less hangar-like and with more light. There are a lot of planes and a few spacecraft inside although they seem to have a fair amount of space left to put things. It's worth a visit if you are near Seattle and have an interest in aviation.

Seattle at Night (8 photos)

I recently had to take a business trip to Bellevue, Washington. I'd never been to that part of the country, so, of course, the camera came along with me. One evening, after work, I went looking for a spot where I might be able to see the Seattle skyline and perhaps get some twilight and evening photos. I was about to give up when I found a little park that was both accessible at night and had the view I was looking for.

Viva Vienna 2005 (12 photos)

In the years I've lived in northern Virginia, I had never attended Viva Vienna. Until last year, I'd never even heard of it. But, I guess if you stick around long enough, you can't help learning about new things. My motivation for attending this time was that I signed up to work the Equality Fairfax booth for a couple of hours and so I figured that I would grab the camera and head out a couple of hours early to see the fair and take some phtoos.  I didn't take too many photos, but I did get a few.

Bull Run Marina Hike (7 photos)

I hadn't done any hiking in a while. My weekends have been scheduled too tightly or the weather too rotten to get out for any length of time. When Doug suggested an afternoon hike, I jumped at the chance and suggested we start from Bull Run Marina. We drove there under a beautiful, partlly cloudy sky with temperatures in the mid-seventies. As we started north along Bull Run toward Hemlock Overlook, the sky quickly clouded over so that by the time we reached the soccer fields, we decided it was time to turn around because the rain seemed imminent. Except for a few drops it did hold off long enough for us to get back to the car and, if I recall, didn't really amount to much of anything but it sure looked like it was going to storm. I didn't take many photos on the hike and much of what did get taken was cut, but the remaining few are here.

Arlington National Cemetery (6 photos)

I'd never been to Arlington National Cemetery and so I was looking forward to seeing it. Unfortunately, I didn't get to spend much time there but I did manage a few photos.

May 2005 Udvar-Hazy Visit (24 photos)

It has been a while since I'd been to Udvar-Hazy and Beth suggested we go there during her visit so off we went to take in the museum. It seems that something changes every time I'm there. This time the space hanger was completely open and we got to spend some time wandering around Enterprise and a bunch of satellites and other space exploration equipment.

May 2005 Great Falls Park (13 photos)

This is the second half of the hike that started in Riverbend Park. Riverbend is adjacent to Great Falls Park on Riverbend's southern border and it's possible to walk from one park into the other without even realizing it except for the wooden sign proclaiming a new jurisdiction. The day was beautiful though the sun was still too high in the sky for great photography. Even so, just being out in the warmth of a spring day was wonderful.

Riverbend Park (11 photos)

Riverbend Park is just north of Great Falls Park. I had been feeling the need to get out with the camera so when Kirsten suggested a short hike, I readily agreed. It was a beautiful day though we weren't there at an ideal time for photography - the sun was too harsh. Still, it was a great day to be outside and we walked from Riverbend Park to the visitor's center at Great Falls where Doug met us after he completed his scuba certification dives. It was a day for animals: snakes and lizards made up the majority of the photos with a few large mushrooms thrown in for good measure.

Equality Fairfax 2005 General Assembly Wrap-Up Meeting (49 photos)

Equality Fairfax held a meeting at the Annndale Campus of the Northern Virginia Community College to go over the results of the 2005 Virginia General Assembly.The results were mixed: one positive bill was passed, several anti-equality bills were killed or watered-down and the anti-marriage amendment passed its first step.Around a dozen legislators showed up to speak ranging from those who have long helld pro-equality positions to those who voted for the health-insurance bill yet also voted for the amendment. I hope that by next year some of those who voted for discriminatin and hatred will have seen the error of their positions. Rather than present the results of the session here, you can read the results on the Equality Virginia website.

April 2005 Fox Hunt (18 photos)

The Vienna Wireless Society held a fox hunt. For a change, I got to participate. The rules were simple: the transmitter would be hidden within the town limits of Vienna. We had around an hour and a half to find it. We broke up into five teams and headed out. I had Pete/KG4OJT and his kids in my car. Pete was using an Arrow handheld beam and an audible S-meter that worked fairly well. Even with our technological advantage, we were second to find the fox. Jim/WI4A found it five to ten minutes before we did. He was using a homebrew tape measure beam that others hadn't had much success with but his must have been better constructed. A little while later, Matthew/KB1EXM came in using only an HT and various lengths of paper clips. Mike/K3MT arrived after that. The final team, Bernie/K4XY, Ray/K2HYD and Dave/K2VX failed to locate the fox due to technical difficulties. The event turned out to be a lot of fun and the weather even cooperated by not sending the rain that had been forecast.

Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center (55 photos)

Virginia Beach is a long way to go for a day trip. It's 3 1/2 hours there and 3 1/2 hours back. But, when one of your friends is a sharkophile and just has to see the Sharks Imax film...well, you suddenly find yourself in Virginia Beach. Fortunately, it was a nice day and the drive was pleasant. The Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center is an interesting place to spend the afternoon. We only had three hours there before it closed and I'd have liked a little more time but we got to see everything, though quickly for some bits. Photographically, it was very challenging because it was very dim. Of the 238 photos I shot, I pruned them down to sixy or so and even more really need pruning.

Alex and Joie's Birthday Party (24 photos)

These photos are from Alex and Joie's combined birthday party. Family and friends gathered round to help them celebrate the start of another year .It was also the first time I got to meet Rocky, the new puppy. She was wonderfully sweet and I'm going to enjoy seeing her in the future.

Winterfest 2005 (52 photos)

Though attendance was down, this year's VWS's Winterfest was still a success.

Winterfest 2005 Setup (10 photos)

Photos from the setup, the day before the Vienna Wireless Society's Winterfest

Winterfest 2005 VE Session (16 photos)

Photos from the VE session held by VWS the day before Winterfest.

National Museum of the American Indian (35 photos)

These photos are from an impromptu DCPhotogs gathering. Sam, Valarie and I met at the museum for a day of amazing photos.The architecture alone was worth the trip, but when Valarie noticed the way the reflections...

January 2005 NAQP (13 photos)

Photos from the Vienna Wireless trip to Town Hill, MD for the North America QSO Party.

Final Orlando Photos (16 photos)

The last batch of photos from our New Years trip to Orlando. These are from Lorrie's birthday party and miscellaneous photos around the house.

Funny Glasses (12 photos)

Sometimes families do silly things. In this case, my family passed around these funny glasses for everyone to laugh at how silly everyone else looked. Of course, I took photoss...

The Secret Lives of Children (11 photos)

When Ben told us that he was actually "Not Innocent Man" and that we only knew him in the guise of his secret identity, Alex chimed in by saying that he was "Midget Man". A while later, Ben brought Alex out dressed in his super suit...

Jam Session (26 photos)

Josh, Ben, Daniel and friends regaled us with a private concert.

Bats & Couch Potatoes (9 photos)

Some miscellaneous images from the trip to Orlando. Daniel found the bat in the pool and rescued it. I managed a few photos before it dried out enough to fly away.

2004 Highlights (28 photos)

This is my "best of" album for 2004. This was another good year. I feel like I got some diverse shots that I lied. Here's looking forward to a great 2005!

Goodbye 2004 (10 photos)

Photos from our celebration of New Years Eve to bring in 2005.

Spring Lake Hike (28 photos)

Photos from before and during a hike to Spring Lake.

Christmas 2004 (23 photos)

Ho, ho, ho!

Light Bulbs (2 photos)

I was in Scottsdale but all I got were some photos of a light fixture in a hotel room.

November 2004 C&O Canal Hike (25 photos)

A pleasant afternoon's stroll along the C&O Canal just outside ot DC.

Fairfax County AEOC (16 photos)

The Fairfax ARES meeting was held at the Fairfax Countey Auxilliary Emergency Operations Center at the Government Center.

Gettysburg (18 photos)

Photos from the DCPhotogs trip to Gettysburg, PA. We spent most of the day visiting the studio of Rob Gibson who went out of his way explaining the wet plate process and demoing things for us. It was fascinating and totally unexpected that he would devote so much of his day to us. After that we went out onto the battlefield and did a bit of photography but it was quite cold and we decided to break for food before too long.

Tricia's 12th Birthday (27 photos)

Tricia is another year older.

Doug's 2004 Halloween Party (27 photos)

The mad scientists were out in force at Doug's house.

Montreal Flight (2 photos)

A short business trip to Montreal didn't permit any time for sightseeing or photography, but I did manage a few moonset shots.

2004 Vienna Halloween Parade (58 photos)

VWS provided radio support for the Parade and we had too many hams and not enough jobs so I spent most of my time photographing the event.

October 2004 Skyline Drive Trip (34 photos)

A drive along Skyline Drive on a dreary, overcast day turned into a surprisingly good day for photography!

2004 Maryland Renaissance Festival Revisited (27 photos)

Kirsten, Doug and I went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. It was a bit cold this time, but, as always, a fun place to take phtoos!

2004 Maryland Renaissance Festival (78 photos)

These photos are from a DCPhotogs outing to the Renaissance Festival. I missed it last year so I'm glad that I got a chance to visit this year.

October 2004 San Francisco Trip (23 photos)

Photos from a weekend trip to San Francisco

Along Came a Spider (11 photos)

Photos of a large web that was constructed above the stairway between two bushes. It was roughly three feet across.

2004 Plano Visit (10 photos)

A too short visit to see Beth and Teresa and kids.

2004 Fairfax County 4-H Fair (74 photos)

Alan and I picked Frying Pan Park to do some photography not knowing that it was hosting the 4-H Fair. Turned out to be a great day!

Maria's Post-Surgical Blues (2 photos)

Maria, the night after her wrist surgery.

2004 Berryville Hamfest (13 photos)

Some photos from the Berryville Hamfest before it started to rain.

Udvar-Hazy Re-visited (37 photos)

A second visit to the new Air & Space Museum.

VWS Balloon Launch (47 photos)

VWS did a balloon launch from Front Royal Virginia that had us driving back and forth along I-66. Ben/KF4KJQ instigated the project and we even managed to recover the payload. The balloon carried an APRS transmitter as well as a CW beacon. We were able to track the balloon during its entire flight. The balloon burst at 100,000 feet as expected but the descent rate was nearly twice the expected rate. It turned out the balloon remnants tangled with the chute and kept it from fully opening. Fortunately, everything survived it's rougher than expected landing. The people who owned the farm where it landed seemed accustomed to balloons landing in their field. It seems a couple of hot air balloons had landed there in the past. They were very pleasant and accomodating.

June 2004 C&O Canal Hike (15 photos)

Doug and I took an afternoon hike along the C&O Canal from Georgetown out to the DC-Maryland line.

Mom's 81st Birthday (13 photos)

Photos from Mom's birthday gathering.

Cicadas & Flowers (39 photos)

Photos from the 17-year Cicada Infestation. The cicadas were amazing. At their peak, the noise from them was this amazing high pitch wine that sounded like something from a science fiction movie. And they were everywhere. They would fly into people and generally make their presence known. They didn't bite or sting or anything destructive (to people anyway) but they sure did make get everyone's attention.

2004 MS 150 Mile Bike Tour (25 photos)

I helped provide radio support at the bike tour this year. Unlike previous years, the weather was wonderul and I managed to spend the day at one rest stop.

2004 Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race (52 photos)

Joo suggested going up to see the Kinetic Sculpture Race and we ended up catching two of the locations: the mud pit and the excursion in the harbor. The Sculpture Race is one of the most bizarre events I've witnessed! It was a lot of fun to see people's imagination turned loose.

2004 Bowie Spring Fling (48 photos)

Joo, Valarie and I tried to take some photos at the Bowie Race Track without any success, but we stumbled upon the Bowie Spring Fling and that turned out to be a fabulous event for an afternoon of photography!

2004 Reston Zoo (44 photos)

An afternoon's visit to the overpriced Reston Zoo made for some nice photography.

2004 QRP to the Field (34 photos)

Vienna Wireless held its annual QRP to the Field picnic at Glyndon Park. Lovely weather prevailed and everyone enjoyed good food and we even managed to make a few contacts along the way.

2004 Kings Dominion Cheerleading Competition (26 photos)

I got to watch Tricia and her squad, the Fallston Cougars, compete at Kings Dominion. They not only won their age bracket but overall champion for the meet! Way to go!

2004 Grand Cayman Dive Trip (88 photos)

Photos from the above water portion of the trip. The diving was spectacular. I had last been to Grand Cayman in 1996 so it was nice to return. And, although I didn't have a housing to take any underwater photos, taking pictures during my surface intervals proved to be a great way to spend the time between dives.

Alex's 8th Birthday (43 photos)

Snapshots from Alex's birthday party.

2004 Los Angeles Trip (3 photos)

A short trip to LA didn't leave much chance for photos but I did manage a few snapshots one morning. The geotags for this set may not be exactly correct, but it is in the right neighborhood.

San Francisco Walkabout (17 photos)

Photos from a day of wandering about San Francisco. My path started at the subway stop on the Embarcadero and worked north until I reached the Golden Gate (with a few detours along the way).

Aquarium of the Bay (29 photos)

I waited out the rain in the Aquarium of the Bay on Pier 39 and that turned out to be a really great idea. Some of the photography was challenging because it was very dim so I tried to deliberately work with silhouettes rather than try for a properly exposed subject in every case. It made some of the exposures only moderately long instead of impossible given that the fish were moving (even if I'd had a tripod or something else to brace the camera).

Coit Tower Views (14 photos)

The view from Coit Tower in San Francisco on a rainy morning.

January 2004 NAQP (25 photos)

VWS held NAQP at Highacre House in Harpers Ferry. It was a very successful event with great food and lots of contacts including an impressive band opening (to me, at least) on 160m.

Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center Visit (34 photos)

A DCPhotogs visit to the new Air & Space Museum near Dulles Airport proved an interesting way to spend the morning.

Billy Goat Trail Section A (59 photos)

A beautiful January afternoon and some gorgeous late afternoon light made for some great photography. The Billy Goat Trail is in three sections in the C&O Canal National Historical Park. Since we got a fairly late start, we only hiked Section A. This was a great way to start of 2004 photographically.

2003 Highlights (23 photos)

This is my "best of" album for 2003. I think I improved a fair amount from 2002. At least it was a lot harder to weed out photos and make choices about which ones to show here.

Christmas 2003 (24 photos)

The family gathered together for Christmas.

Georgetown (53 photos)

DCPhotogs visited Georgetown. We went down by the water and then at The Old Stone House.

Sky Meadows, December 2003 (16 photos)

A cold afternoon's hike through Sky Meadows State Park.

2003 Skywarn Recognition Day (57 photos)

Photos from Skywarn Recognition Day held at the Sterling National Weather Service.

Hemlock Overlook Regional Park (27 photos)

An autumn hike through Hemlock Overlook Regional Park.

November 2003 Burke Lake Park Hike (14 photos)

A mild November afternoon was a perfect time for a hike around Burke Lake.

Friday at the Track (39 photos)

Doug took his car out for a day at the track and I tagged along to take photos.

Prince William Forest Park Hike (14 photos)

A drizzly, dreary day, but lots of leaves on the ground...

November 2003 Great Falls Visit (44 photos)

A wonderful afternoon's hike through Great Falls Park.

Aurora (12 photos)

Aurorae are rarely visible in Virginia. I've only seen two and this was the brightest though still dim by northern standards. Doug and I drove out to Skyline Drive thinking that would provide a dark enough sky to see the aurora better. It did help, but it was cold up there. It was worth it, though! Going to have to go north to really see an aurora one day.

Luray Caverns (66 photos)

A visit to Luray Caverns. How I'd love to be able to linger with a tripod to photograph this in ambient light.

Seven Birthdays (59 photos)

The problem with big, extended families is you have multiple people celebrating birthdays together. But, the food is always good...

2003 VWS President's Picnic (19 photos)

Photos from the Vienna Wireless Annual President's Picnic held at Glyndon Park.

2003 March of Dimes Poker Ride (23 photos)

VWS and Fairfax ARES did radio support for the March of Dimes Poker Ride. I was stationed at Sky Meadows State Park where we enjoyed a beautiful day in the sun.

2003 Alzheimers Walk (20 photos)

Fairfax ARES did radio support for the Alzheimers walk in Fairfax.

September Great Falls Visit (21 photos)

Alan and I did a photographic hike through Great Falls.

Washington National Cathedral (34 photos)

The National Cathedral held an open house and DCPhotogs went to photograph.

Rose River Loop Hike (26 photos)

A hike along the Rose River Loop Trail in Shenendoah National Park. The bear photos were quickly snapped in fading daylight along Route 211 on the way home. A crowd had pulled over to watch the bear and I tried to grab photos until a cop blew his horn to scare the bear away.

September 26, 2003 VWS Meeting (22 photos)

Photos from the Vienna Wireless Society meeting at the Vienna Elementary School.

More of Boston @ Baltimore Rematch (65 photos)

Additional photos from the Boston at Baltimore game in September 2003. These are the ones that I didn't like quite as much but were still decent.

Boston @ Baltimore Rematch (39 photos)

Two baseball games in one year. Of course, the O's lost. I don't think they have ever won when I was at Camden Yards. What made this visit unique s that I got to shoot a couple of innings from the first base photo box right next to the dugout!

2003 Fall-Fest (31 photos)

Photos from the Foundation for Amateur Radio and the Columbia Amateur Radio Association's hamfest at the Howard County Fairground.

Touring With the Andys (3 photos)

I had some visitors from work in August 2003 and since they were here over a weekend, Iwas their tour guide in DC. They may have regretted my offer though, since I think I walked them ragged. Not too many photos, but an enjoyable day.

VWS Wu's Garden Dinner 2003 (11 photos)

Vienna Wireless' second annual dinner at Wu's Garden Restaurant in Vienna.

August 2003 NAQP (22 photos)

VWS' first North American QSO Party at Lake Fairfax Park. A couple thunderstorms cost us some operating time and keeping the gear dry was a challenge given our leaky tents but it was still a great event.

2003 NVTN/Skywarn Picnic (53 photos)

The combined picnic of the Northern Virginia Traffic Net and Skywarn, held at the National Weather Service in Sterling, Virginia.

Boston @ Baltimore (35 photos)

The 2003 company outing was to the baseball game. Of course, the O's lost, and I can now say that hearing thunder close by when sitting in the upper deck is a bit unnerving. But, still a fun day.

Point Pleasant Beach (41 photos)

Doreen took me for a tour of Point Pleaant and the morning fog made for some interesting photos and we even saw some dolphins out in the water.

Doanes Falls (6 photos)

Karen took me on a short hike to visit the falls.

Athol Trip (18 photos)

Photos from a trip to visit relatives in Massachusetts.

View from Iwo Jima Memorial (3 photos)

It was a hot, hazy evening but this is the view from the Iwo Jima Memorial showing the Washington Monument, Lincon Memorial and Capitol.

July Great Falls Visit (9 photos)

Doug and I took an afternon's hike through Great Falls. We made a point of stopping by Matildaville. It was far more ruined than I expected so there wasn't much left of it at all. But, still an interesting day.

July 11, 2003 Vienna Wireless Meeting (35 photos)

A summer VWS meeting at the Vienna Community Center.

2003 Smithsonian Folklife Festival (57 photos)

Photos from the last day of the Folklife Festival. We got sucked into the Scottish music tent and so that's where most of the photos are from.

July Skyline Drive Visit (26 photos)

A July 4th drive out to Skyline Drive and a short hike to the Stony Man Mountain Overlook. It was a hot, hazy day and a sudden thunderstorm descended upon us at the Overlook. We got about halfway back up the trail toward the car before it started to rain. Fortunately, the trees overhead protectred us from most of it.

Mom's 80th Birthday (41 photos)

Photos from Mom's 80th birthday party.

Field Day 2003 (25 photos)

Vienna Wireless held its Field Day festivities at Burke Lake Park and though the 20m beam was something of a disaster everything else went well and a good time was enjoyed by all.

More DCPhotogs Zoo Visit (65 photos)

Additional Photos from the DCPhotogs visit to the National Zoo.

DCPhotogs National Zoo Visit (28 photos)

DCPhotogs went to visit the National Zoo. The animals were surprisingly cooperative making for some wonderful photos.

2003 Tour de Cure (15 photos)

Fairfax ARES did radio support for the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure.

2003 Manassas Hamfest (15 photos)

Photos from the Manassas Hamfest.

May Great Falls Visit (23 photos)

A late May visit to Great Falls on a warm but overcast afternoon.

May 23, 2003 Vienna Wireless Meeting (29 photos)

Photos from the Vienna Wireless Society meeting at the Vienna Elementary School.

2003 MS Bike Tour (14 photos)

I worked two rest stops at this event. The first was in Marshall and the second in Waterford. The weather was awful and I wondered when my toes would ever be warm again.

Pioli Visit (3 photos)

The Pioli's came south to visit my mother so I went north to say hello.

Mothers Day 2003 (79 photos)

Photos from the gathering at the Golden's.

2003 Orlando Trip (42 photos)

I went to Orlando for Kristie's wedding. No wedding photos here - she had a photographer to do that - but photos from around the house and the nearby parks.

Easter 2003 (32 photos)

Family photos from Easter Sunday.

April Great Falls Visit (33 photos)

A spring hike through Great Falls Park.

2003 Kings Dominion Cheerleading Competition (31 photos)

Tricia's team competed at the competition and I tagged along for photos.

April 2003 webMethods Foundation Training (8 photos)

Photos from a training session for the webMethods Foundation.

March 2003 C&O Canal Visit (30 photos)

After the hamfest, I met Joo and Valarie at the C&O Canal near Great Falls. It had been raining all day but started to clear as I drove south and though we did get a few sprinklesk, the clouds and late afternoon sun made for some great photography.

2003 Baltimore Hamboree (12 photos)

Some photos from the Hamboree (more commonly referred to as the Timonium Hamfest).

March 28, 2003 Vienna Wireless Society Meeting (45 photos)

Photos from the tape-measure beam construction and the following VWS club meeting.

2003 Smithsonian Kite Festival (63 photos)

DCPhotogs decided to head down to the Smithsonian Kite Festival. I'd never even heard of the event but it turned out to be a lot of fun. It was a beautiful day to be on the Mall taking photos of kites and occasionally getting dive bombed by an errant kite. The only really troublesome one was the one that hit me in the side of the head while I was framing a shot. Fortunately, neither the kite or I was damaged.

A Day in DC (24 photos)

We started with the Peace Rally at the Washington Monument and then wandered along the Tidal Basin over to the Jefferson Memorial.

March 14, 2003 VWS Meeting (50 photos)

Photos from the VWS meeting at the Vienna Elementary School.

Winterfest 2003 (57 photos)

Photos from the Vienna Wireless Winterfest at the Annandale Campus of the Northern Virginia Community College. Winterfest is our annual hamfest where hams from around the area come and buy and sell stuff.

2003 Winterfest Setup (19 photos)

Winterfest was almost cancelled by a leaky roof on the gym but they got the snow cleared and we got the go ahead to continue. Here are a few snapshots from the set up crew.

2003 Winterfest VE Session (25 photos)

Vienna Wireless holds a VE session the day before Winterfest. This is the session where the tests for the various ham radio licenses are administered. I showed up to take some photos.

Snow (4 photos)

Snowed in...

Thai Embassy (25 photos)

After the Chinese New Years Parade, Joo, Tim and I went over to visit an open house at the Thai Embassy. They were having demonstrations of vavious facets of Thai culture and we photographed some of the dancing and music.

2003 Chinese New Years Parade (28 photos)

DCPhotogs visited DC's Chinese New Years Parade and the weather cooperated, though it was cold. Unfortunately, the crowd was fairly aggressive. We had set up well ahead of time at an intersection and as soon as the parade started the crowd surged in front of us making it impossible to get any photos. We retreated down the street where we were able to actuallly see the parade and shot from there.

2002 Highlights (16 photos)

My "best of" album from 2002. I took enough photos this year to make it worthwhile to pick out my favorites. I had a few that I really liked but overall, I was a bit underwhelmed with my efforts.

Christmas 2002 (37 photos)

The first Christmas with snow in my lifetime or at least my memory.

December 13, 2002 VWS Meeting (58 photos)

The annual Show & Tell Meeting for Vienna Wireless at the Vienna Elementary School.

November 22, 2002 Vienna Wireless Meeting (28 photos)

Photos from the Vienna Wireless meeting a tthe Vienna Elementary School.

November 8, 2002 VWS Meeting (22 photos)

Photos from the Vienna Wireless meeting at the Vienna Elementary School.

Harpers Ferry 2002 (57 photos)

These are photos from a DCPhotogs visit to Harpers Ferry, WV. It was a beautiful and not too cold day and the late afternoon light made for some great photography.

Cheerleading Practice (62 photos)

After the soccer game, I went to Tricia'scheerleading practice to get some photos. The great thing about 10 and 11 year old girls is that they aren't camera shy especially when you show them their photo on the back of the camera.

Soccer Game (44 photos)

This was from Alex's last soccer game of the season. It was very cold but the kids were a lot of fun as they chased the ball from one end of the field to the other.

Brookside Gardens (31 photos)

Photos from a DCPhotogs visit to Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland.

Clifton Day 2002 (21 photos)

Fairfax ARES did radio support for Clifton Day in 2002.

Reston Geocaching (7 photos)

Maria/KG4JBJ and I spent some time after the VWS President's Picnic geocaching in Reston.

2002 VWS President's Picnic (45 photos)

Photos from the Vienna Wireless President's Picnic at Glyndon Park.

Atlanta 2002 (6 photos)

I'd hoped to get more photos on this trip to Atlanta, but the weather was terrible so all I got were a few snapshots on the way back to the airport.

Maryland Renaissance Festival 2002 (42 photos)

The first DCPhotogs visits to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. We had a blast wandering around taking photos, enjoying the music and shows. And people tend to notice when half a dozen people with big lenses wander by...

Cookout (12 photos)

Some photos from a cookout in Baltimore.

Cheerleading (36 photos)

Photos from Tricia's cheerleading squad.

Six Birthdays (54 photos)

One very extended family, six birthdays. Lots of snapshots.

Work Snapshots (4 photos)

A few photos taken from my desk at work

August 9, 2002 Vienna Wireless Society Meeting (15 photos)

Can you say "bald spot"? I knew you could. Here are photos from the Vienna Wireless meeting showing the range and diversity of bald spots attending the meeting.

webMethods Happy Hour (15 photos)

These are some photos from a company Happy Hour where we celebrated Phillip's birthday.

2002 Berryville Hamfest (27 photos)

The Berryville Hamfest is always a fun place to visit. Especially when it isn't raining. Here are my photos from wandering around the hamfest.

Twin Branches Nature Trail (2 photos)

Here are a couple of photos from a short hike along Twin Branches Nature Trail in Reston.

Claude Moore Colonial Farm (17 photos)

Claude Moore Colonial Farm is run as it would have been in colonial America and this was a set of photos taken on one of their market fair days.

July 2002 VWS Repeater Survey (5 photos)

This was the crew that gathered at the site of the Vienna Wireless 2m repeater before we took off to the four corners of the area to do a repeater footprint survey.

Night Monuments (14 photos)

This was my first outing with DCPhotogs and it was a gathering down on the National Mall to photograph the monuments at night. Only a few of these photos ultimately survived the pruning process but I met a lot of wonderful people and had a great time taking photos.

More 2002 Herndon Fireworks (62 photos)

These are the additional fireworks photos from the shoot. You can see my favorites from this series at www.flickr.com/photos/ac4lt/sets/413991/.

2002 Herndon Fireworks (32 photos)

I had never tried my hand at fireworks photography before and after a bit of research I decided I had to attempt it. I put the camera on a tripod and used manual focus set to infinity. I put the camera on manual with the shutter speed on bulb and the f/stop at f/11. The ISO was set to 200. A remote release completed the kit I began snapping photos and suddenly it seemed like the fireworks show was over. I had been so busy concentrating on the photos that I really didn't see the show. Still, it was a success, though my lens was a little long given where I was located. These are the best of the series. You can see the others at www.flickr.com/photos/ac4lt/sets/411350/.

Mom's 79th Birthday (21 photos)

Some snapshots from Mom's birthday party.

Field Day 2002 (57 photos)

Field Day is the largest amateur radio event of the year in the US. Thousands of hams all over the country set up stations in parks and operate off the grid as an amergency preparedness operation and try to make contact with each other. Vienna Wireless held its operation at Burke Lake Park where we were set up for the weekend.

2002 NVTN Picnic (54 photos)

Photos from the picnic held by members of the Northern Virginia Traffic Net.

June webMethods Foundation Training (14 photos)

These are photos from the second webMethods Foundation training class.

May webMethods Foundation Training (51 photos)

These are photos from the first webMethods Foundation training class.

2002 MS 150 Mile Bike Tour (24 photos)

These are photos from doing radio support of the two day 150-mile MS Bike Tour. On the first day I worked a rest stop. On the second day I helped out Howard/WD5DBC at net control at the finish line.

2002 MMT100 (31 photos)

The MMT-100 is a 100-mile ultramarathon. I did radio support at an aid station pretty much out in the middle of nowhere. The first few photos are from the start/finish where Net Control was located at Skyline Ranch Resort. The later photos are from the Rest Stop which was at the intersection of two dirt roads.

May 10, 2002 Vienna Wireless Meeting (17 photos)

Photos from the Vienna Wireless meeting at the Vienna Elementary School.

2002 QRP to the Field (29 photos)

Vienna Wireless had a small QRP to fhe Field activity at Glyndon Park in Vienna.

April 26, 2002 VWS Meeting (25 photos)

Photos from the Vienna Wireless meeting at the Vienna Elementary School.

2002 Reston MS Walk (23 photos)

Fairfax ARES did radio support for the Reston MS Walk. I was at Net Control at Reston Town Center with Jerry/WA3UTL and Maria/KG4JBJ. Here are some photos from the activity.

2002 Middleburg Research Ride (38 photos)

Vienna Wireless did radio support for the Middleburg Research Ride for the second year and the weather was much, much nicer this year. I was stationed at the Vet Check stop which was the point that all legs either started or terminated so we were busy most of the day and saw a lot of horses come through. Once Vet Check shut down, we moved up to the MARE Center where I got a few more photos.

2002 Bull Run Run (64 photos)

Fairfax ARES does radio support for the Bull Run Run and I was the shadow for the race director. We traveled around to all the rest stops which enabled me to get photos from all over the course. I may have the locations wrong for some of these photos, particularly at the "Do Loop" and at Wolf Run Shoals but they should be in the right neighborhood.

Joie and Stacey's Birthday (53 photos)

Family snapshots from Joie and Stacey's combined birthday party.

2002 Cherry Blossom Festival (30 photos)

Maria and I went in to DC to photograph the Cherry Blossom Festival. It was absolutely mobbed with people, but I managed a couple of pictures I really liked.

March 22, 2002 VWS Meeting (9 photos)

Here are a few photos from the Vienna Wireless meeting.

Alex's 6th Birthday (7 photos)

These are some shots from Alex's birthday party. I was still getting familiar with the camera and a lot of these ultimately got pruned, but the few surviving shots are here.

Swimming Lessons (16 photos)

These were my first photos with the Canon 1D. I was unable to resist the lure of a digital SLR any longer. My first subject was Tricia and Alex at their swimming lesson.

April 2000 Cozumel Dive Trip (10 photos)

These, unfortunately not very good photos, are from a trip to Cozumel to go diving. They were taken with a Sony TRV-900 camcorder in still mode. The intent was to shoot video underwater on this trip, and in fact, I did end up getting three hours of video but not with my camera. The housing I bought leaked when I tested it so I resigned myself to not getting any video. However, one of the other people on the trip, Richard (unfortunately he's not in the photos), was shooting both stills and video underwater and he allowed me to use his video camera for two days. I got a total of three hours of video and ultimately produced a 30 minute video from the trip. However, from a still photo perspective, I didn't come away with much and even those were taken in very low light so the image quality isn't very good. Still, they are the only photos I have from he trip so here they are.

1990's Highlights (8 photos)

My "best of" album from the 90's. I didn't really do a lot of photography in the 90's, but there are a few decent shots among the few and here they are.

Moon Using Camcorder (1 photos)

A shot of the moon using a Sony TRV-900 camcorder.

Christmas 1999 (70 photos)

Photos from the Christmas 1999 celebration. Just how many people can you fit in one house...?

Thanksgiving 1999 (11 photos)

Photos from Thanksgiving in 1999. Sony TRV-900 VGA stills.

Plantation Key Dive Trip (30 photos)

Photos from a dive vacation in the Keys. These photos are from around the hotel and abve water, but the dock by the hotel proved to be a fun place to photograph! Sony TRV-900 VGA stills.

Halloween 1999 & Tricia's Birthday (18 photos)

These are from Tricia's 7th birthday party as well as from Halloween since her birthday party was held on Halloween. The TRV-900 actually wasn't an awful still camera. With three CCD's it had more effective resolution than single CCD cameras that have to use interpolation from the Bayer pattern. These photos are taken with a Sony TRV-900 Camcorder so sorry about the small size and relatively noisy images.

Roatan Dive Trip 1997 (30 photos)

Hoyle and I took a drive trip to Anthony's Key Resort in September 1997. Roatan was incredibly beautiful and though my first reaction to the little wooden huts where we slept was a bit incredulous, they were very pleasant, though the roosters crowing at 4am made for some nights of interrupted sleep. The diving was good and the people in our group were a lot of fun. The only downside was a wave of sickness that swept through the resort when the water filtration system broke down for a few hours. Everyone got sick. I thought I had escaped but a few days later it showed up and I spent a dive chanting, "Not in the wetsuit! Not in the wetsuit!" When we finally reached the dock, I was running for the restroom. That finished my diving for the day and as it turned out for the following day. But, despite that little unplanned adventure, it was a great trip! Nikon N-90 Kodachrome 64

1996 Grand Cayman Dive Trip (7 photos)

Although I'd flown through Grand Cayman on my way to Cayman Brac in 1994 this was my first time diving there. We had a fabulo