I love walking in the woods right after it rains. A certain smell hangs in the air, clean, but kind of musty, kind of like somebody has just swept the forest out. The leaves don’t crunch loudly, the animals are looking around, and the birds sing madly as they inspect their domain. It’s great. Everything is greener, browner, dirtier, cleaner, and more woodsy than it was before. A great time to take a walk.

View On Black

View On Black

This awe-inspiring exhibit displayed the faces, names, and deeds of American soldiers throughout history who have earned the Medal of Honor. Many of the tales were almost unbelievable, blowing away petty action movie stunts. Acts of sacrifice that sent chills up my spine. If you get a chance, please go see this exhibit, spend some time there and learn about some of the heroes who died for your freedom.

Cardboard Robot

Keep on being awesome.

View On Black

The Infantry museum has the most fantastic dioramas… They were amazingly detailed… and had great moments in them. I couldn’t resist taking some “war shots” using them. Really fun.

View On Black

This is my favorite shot from the museum. It just has character… like it was worn. Or maybe it’s waiting to go out again, it’s not quite done. I don’t know.

I think the best part of the Infantry Museum was that the artifacts weren’t just sitting there, most of them had stories and names attached to them. Next time I go to a museum, I’ll be sure and take a picture of the displays description as well as the item, so that I’ll be able to talk about it more. :P

My grandfather says that this helmet belongs to a major. I wish he had been able to visit the museums with us… they were fantastic.

View On Black

The part of history that really gets me is that someone wore this. Nearly two-hundred years ago, someone fought, bled, swore, laughed, cried, and slept in this shirt. I don’t think his name was mentioned in the museum, but he was there.

View On Black

We went on a history tour yesterday through Columbus Georgia… visited the Civil War Naval Museum and the Infantry Museum at Fort Benning. This is the from the Naval Museum. It’s a detail from the coat of Catesby Jones, a very famous, unlucky and somewhat foolhardy commander of ironclads during the civil war. It’s kind of neat to go see something like this, and see old pictures (including the one in the wikipedia article!) where he is wearing the same coat that I actually went and saw. Very cool.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catesby_Jones

Carol Of The Bells

Make Sure You View On Black

I hope you all had a merry Christmas. We had a slightly different one this year, and this picture is part of that. Every Christmas Eve, we always go to our grandparents house and open stockings before Christmas day. This year, Grandmother had somehow gotten a Santa to come visit. I will be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to it. I am a bit past Santa. But having quite a few small cousins there, I imagined there would be a good opportunity for some photos. I arrived early, set up lights, shot a few test shots, and waited.

When Santa arrived, I directed him to sit in the chair I provided, then I had to dodge around the people crowding around him for a good shot. It was a lucky thing my flashes were all wireless, or I would have never got this moment.

I didn’t pose this or even see it coming. I was getting ready to do a classic “Santa lap shot” with another one of my cousins when suddenly this one ran up with the cookies. I ducked under relatives arm, knelt, focused, and thankfully the lights I had set up did the rest. It was one of those shots that you are proud of and certain of even before you look at it on the screen. It was a good moment.

Strobist Info: The lights I set up were actually quite similar to my last portrait session. One SB-900, slightly above nose level and to camera right, set up with a Lumiquest Softbox III. I once again was using the SB-600 with a LumiQuest BigBounce as a hair light… using the silver reflector and sitting behind Santa and to the left on the couch.

I did a little photoshop to remove a bright pink and yellow present, but that is pretty much all the editing. It was pretty warm already, but I added a few more touches to bring it to that Norman Rockwell look I really wanted out of the shots. I’m pretty pleased with it.

Es Una Trampa!

R.I.P. Kim Peek.