My Garden

Here are some pictures of the garden that I have planted. I will write a description of what all is in there and maybe draw a map of it, in the next post. I plan on prividing weekly updates of the garden. This was planted the day after Easter, so I'm a little behind in the posting of this.

Freshly tilled with a few soil amendments.

Planted and watered. Notice rain gauge.

Egg plant, Tomatillios, peppers.

string bean support

Note: The string bean support is constructed of bamboo and is lashed together using twine. I did not use any nails, screws etc. to build it. My neighbors son, who is a college student, had never seen anything like this before. I had to explain how the beans grow and why you build something like this.

Wordless Wed. #10

Wordless Wed. #9

Wordless Wed. #8

Wordless Wed. #7 Happy St. Patrick's Day

Test images from Yashica 635

I tested my new Yashica 635 last week. It was an overcast day with very flat light, but it was the only time I had to shoot. It worked great. I have timed the shutter speeds and they are a little slow, by about 1/3 of a stop. That I can work with and won't worry about having it worked on. I use Ilford HP5 film and hand processed it last night. I scanned the negatives on my Epson 4990 at 4800 dpi. I think that was a little too large of a file. They are very slow to work with in photoshop and my computer is pretty fast. If I keep scanning that large I will have to add more
memory to my computer.

I also shot with my Dianna and I used the same film and scanning process. Here are those images.

Cache Lake Country

Years ago when I was in Boy Scouts, one of the Scout Masters suggested I read a book called "Cache Lake Country". So being the good scout I went to the public library and found the one and only copy that they had. I read it and decided it was the best book that I had ever read up until that point. I always loved this book and wanted to find a copy of it, but it was difficult since it was out of print. The a few years ago my mother found it for me for my birthday. She gave me two copies. One was a new reprint and the other was an original hard back. Last week I finally decided to read it again, I had been afraid to read because I did not want to disappoint my self by thinking this great book was not so great. Well, it is still a really good book and if anything I understand it better. So here is what its about.

Cache Lake Country, Life in the North Woods. By John J. Rowlands.

I will not give you all the authors history, but it is pretty interesting and if you think you would like this book, you should look him up.

The book is set on Cache Lake in the great north woods of the northeastern U.S. and takes place in the early 1900's. John, the Author, was a timber cruiser for a logging company. He was on a trip to inspect some timber when he came across a the lake and thought it was a place he would like to live. Upon returning to the timber company, he was asked if he would live in the area and watch over the timber and land. He accepted and built a cabin on the lake. The book is written to describe what a year is like in the north woods. It starts in January and continues through the rest of the year. It mostly describes the way they lived and survived in that rugged country with long winters, short summers and wild animals. He has two friends that live on lakes near by, the Chief is an Indian Chief that lives near by and teaches the others his ways of the woods. Hank, is a wild life photographer and artist who is studying the local flora and fauna. Together they have several adventures and always help each other when needed. There a many drawings in the book where Hank is providing the visual aids for the descriptions that John and the Chief are giving. It is a quick and easy read and show you to survive on what you have on hand and a little creativity. If you like reading about the old ways of doing things and see what is was like to live in their conditions, it is well worth the read. If you know some Boy Scouts or young boys that are into the outdoors, please suggest it to them. They will enjoy it. I hope my boys read it one day.

Wordless Wed. #6

Yashica 635

I got a new camera this weekend, well its new to me. It is a Yashica 635 TLR (twin lens reflex). This is the model that can shoot 120 (medium format) film and with a special adapter it can shoot 35mm film. It is in perfect condition. It could use a new leather case, but it will most likely not spend much time in it. The glass is in fantastic shape and it is super clean inside. I plan on running a few rolls of film through it this week then I will scan the negatives and post some of the images. Nothing like a new toy.

Creative Out Loud

So I went to a meeting of Creative Out Loud this past Sunday in Holly Springs. It is a group of artist that have gotten together it inspire each other, teach each other, and bring art to the community. It was a great group of artist with many media represented. Painting, Mixed Media, Photography, Film, Performance Art, Fabric arts, Music, well you get the picture.
It is always nice to meet other artist and share ideas. The also have a monthly project to help spur your creativity. Several words or phrases are pulled from a box and you create a work of art with one or all of those words or phrases as a theme. They also have a guest speaker every month.

This month Kris Wheeler of Liquid Coast Films, llc came to speak to us about his journey as a journalist and eventually his move into film making. He has had a very interesting life and after seeing the scissor reels, I can not wait to see his movies. Check out his web site www.liquidcoastfilms.com. One of the projects in the works that is due to be released soon the the documentary about "Dread Clampitt" a roots band. The movie is called "Back from the Dread". Its web site is not up yet, but will be soon, keep checking back at www.classicdread.com. Also check out a site for a movie that they are working on called "Bayou Country". It is about the man the wrote the song. The story is great and I am looking forward to this movie. Here is its site http://www.bayoucountrymovie.com/. They also have some TV shows in the works, but those are being kept on the DL until everything is in place and ready to go. I have an idea of my own for a documentary and maybe one day I will get to work with Kris.

Wordless Wed. #5

Nothing to say.

I have nothing to say today so here is a picture I took at the fire house.

It Might Get Loud

I like Rock music and when I found this documentary I was very interested in seeing it. Its called "It Might Get Loud". If your a fan of Led Zeppelin, U2 or The White Stripes, you would like this. It is a documentary about the electric guitar and evolution of rock and roll. It stars Jimmy Page, Jack White, and The Edge. There was some great music and jam sessions as well as discussions by the artist about their influences, style and equipment. I'm not a big U2 fan, but that does not mean I dislike them. They are a little more over produced than I like. I like music that is a little more raw. I like Jack White and lets face it, Rock and Roll would be totally different if it were not for Jimmy Page. It was cool to see them all together and hear what they had to say. I can not imagine what it would have been like to be in the same room when they were there having a jam session. If you like Rock and Roll it is worth seeing.

Restaurant Review: The Union Milton Ga

We went to The Union for dinner last night and had a great meal. The Union is located neat the intersection of Providence Road and Freemanville Road in Milton Georgia. Milton is next to Roswell and Alpharetta. The Union is owned by Chris Sedgwik of the Sedgwik Restaurant Group. They own and operate several other great places in the area such as, Vinny's on Winward, Theo's Brother's Bakery, and Aspens.

The interior was well decorated, there is a nice bar, open kitchen and an outdoor eating area on the front porch. The menu is nice with lots of choices and a great wine list. I had the Hanger steak with hand cut french fries and my wife had the Pork Milanese with mashed potatoes. We also spit the Wedge salad. It was large enough to split for two. The dressing was a buttermilk blue cheese dressing and man was it good. The Hanger steak was cooked just right and had a great flavor. The french fries were perfect with just the right amount of salt. I tried the Pork and instantly wished I had gotten it too. It was breaded and crispy and very tender. On the side of the pork was a helping of some of the best mashed potatoes I have ever had.

This is a family friendly restaurant, as there were plenty of children there. We had dinner early, but I would think that later it turns to more of an adult crowd. I highly recommend this restaurant. We will be going back and hopefully bringing friends.

Friendship and Forgiveness

A few weeks ago, someone that was at one time my best friend and was even the best man in my wedding, called to ask me to forgive him for the wrongs that he had done. It is a long story and some of you know what happened and what the out come has been. We ended up moving because of what happened. He lied to me, with held information, and stole money from the business we had together. Bottom line, do not go into business with a friend. We had not spoken in over a year. My lawyer told me not to contact him and he never tried to call me.

Well, he called me two weeks ago and wanted to apologize and gave me a sob story (I should say sobbing story, because he did cry). He was telling me how sorry he was and that he felt ashamed etc. of himself and said that he could not move on until he apologized and I forgave him. He claimed he had picked up the phone to call me a half dozen times, but chickened out each time. My family and I have moved on in a physical and emotional way. I guess I'm getting soft in my old age, because I really wanted to be an asshole, but I told him that I forgave him. It is what he needed to hear to heal and move on. But, I'm not sure if I have really forgiven him or not. He said that they were going to have a party in the next month or so and wanted my wife and I to come to it and that after that he thought the circle would be complete and he would feel like he could move on. I told him that we would just have to see when the party was, but my schedule was pretty full and work was crazy. As I have thought about this since he called. I did not want to write about this until I had cooled down a little. I'm not sure if I forgive him or not. He claimed he was trying to protect me, but all that did was more damage. I do know that I do not want to see him again. So does that mean that I don't forgive him? I'm not sure how to define forgiveness. Maybe I am just over it and have moved on to a better place. I do know that I do not want him involved in my life in any way in the future. So I will not go to his party, because I don't want to see him and because I'm not sure what I may do or say. I know that no good would come of it. I had put all this behind me and now he has brought it all back. Wish he would have not called.

Wordless Wed. #3. Which one is color? Which one is Black and White?

My new project

I'm starting a new project. The purpose it to record the area I grew up in, before it has totally changed and is gone. I want to be able to show my children where I came from, what I did and who my friends were. This project came to light after visiting my uncle and seeing the state of decay that some of my favorite places were in. It was hard to see my old elementary school with waist high grass, peeling paint and airconditioning units robbed of their copper. The area is rural, but the urban sprawl is encroaching upon it and I want to remember it for what it was and is, not what it will become. I plan on shooting it with film and digital. I may even bring out the Pinhole Camera from Zero Image along with the others that share the same pelican case. Those would be a Dianna (with fish eye), Yashica electro 35 rangefinder, and a Pearl twin lens. I would use my home made 4x5 pinhole, but I can no longer get the Polaroid film for it. I will start in the next few weeks and will shoot at least once, if not twice, per week in the area for about 6 to 8 months. That should get me into the High School Football season and will wrap things up with the Old Campbell County home coming festival. In the end, if I can work it into a show or a self published book, that would be great. Ultimately I want to have a portfolio of images from the area I grew in to share with my children.

I'm really inspired by this project and have put several others on hold for this. It has a more immediate need to be completed. I'm sure I will be blogging about it as I go and maybe posting some images on occasion.

The Full Burn

I know. "He's a fireman and this book must be about firefighters." you say. Well, your wrong. Its about being set on fire.

The Full Burn by Kevin Conley is a great read. It's full of action because that's what it is about. The action packed life of stuntmen and stunt women. It has it all, from car chases to crashes, explosions, jumps, falls, you name the stunt and someone in this book has done it. The author gets in with their clique and learns the ins and outs of the job. He reports from the sets of many top movies and treats the stunt team as the real star of the show. He has an interesting writes about the changes to the stunt world that happened with the extensive use of computer graphics in so many movies. The stunts have to be better now and with the use of new technology, the stunt teams can provide many of the same visuals on screen that the CG can provide, but at a much lower cost. CG is really expensive. This book was a fast read for me and I did not want to put it down, I really did not want to finish it, because it was so exciting. It is gritty and cool. It made me want to be a stuntman, until I remembered how many broken bones, scars, plates and screws I already have. May be I should do CG instead. There is better pay and less pain.

Serenbe Photography Center

This week I went to visit my uncle and loan him my Nikon F5 for his trip to Africa. (He is not digital yet, but I'm working on it.) He needed something smaller and faster to use than his big Pentax 67. He lives out where I grew up, which is Palmetto Ga. He has become involved in the Serenbe Photography Center, where he will be teaching some workshops and has some work hanging in the instructors show which opened last week.

The Serenbe Photography Center will be host a great deal of workshops and other events with some well known photographers. Some of the instructors will be Kathryn Kolb, Peter Essick, Greg Newington, Donna Rosser, Judith Pishnery, and Steve Brownlee (uncle Steve). Most workshops will be at Serenbe, but there are several that will be at other locations in the state. Also, in addition to workshops they have a great dark room set up for color as well as black and white printing as well as a digital darkroom with two epson 9600 large format printers. You can rent time there to do you own printing. This is called The Photographers Print Studio, which was previously located in Decatur. They will also be offering other special events. Check out their website at www.serenbephotographycenter.com or call 770-463-9098.

The instructors show was interesting with a great mix of styles and techniques showcased. Some of my favorite work was from Kathryn Kolb, Peter Essick, and Steve Brownlee. I really like Kathryn Kolb's new book. Essick, who has had many assignments with National Geographic, had some great work hanging there. Steve Brownlee, my uncle, (I am a little bias)had a great selection of his Black and White work hanging. Uncle Steve taught me how to print in a traditional darkroom and will be teaching a zone system class at the center. I highly recommend his class. You will come away a much better printer and a better understand of how to expose your image for better printing latter. His attention to detail and ability to make incredible prints is impressive. I look forward to taking some workshops with some of these instructors.

Wordless Wed. #2

Copyright Clint Brownlee

War on Stupid

My wife and I went to the Laughing Skull Lounge last night to see some comedians do an act called the "War on Stupid". It was pretty good and featured Marshall Chiles, another comedian, and guy with a PhD. in Theology. Nothing was off limits. They poked fun at religion, the government, the Federal Reserve, and a host of other subjects. We really liked the show, but I think some people did not know what they were in for and less than half way through about 10 had taken their leave. I thought that was rude! I would really like to sit down with the PhD. and pick his brain. He spent 25 years preaching in a church and now he makes fun of the stupid things in religion. I would like to hear what was the catalyst for his decision to leave the church.

I really like the Laughing Skull Lounge. It is a small intimate venue with only 74 seats. They have 10 two top tables up by the stage and the remainder of the seating is general admission. You are so close to the comedians that it is more like a conversation than a show.

We also had dinner at the Vortex. Which is nice since the Laughing Skull Lounge is attached to the Vortex in Midtown. They have a great beer selection of which I had three different one. The first was from Sweetwater Brewery in Atlanta and was called the "Happy Ending". I just had to have it, mostly because I wanted to tell the waitress that I wanted a Happy Ending. To my surprise, my wife asked for a Happy Ending too. Oh, and trust me the Happy Ending was a really good beer. The next beer was a Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale. It was good and is a high gravity beer (read more alcohol). It did not have a smooth of a finish as the Happy Ending. The last beer I had was the Samuel Adams Imperial Double Bock. It is high gravity too. It was better than the Brown Ale, but not as good as the Happy Ending. These were all dark beers. I had the Black and Blue Burger for dinner and as always at the Vortex it was yummy.

I recommend the Vortex and the Laughing Skull Lounge and I highly recommend a Happy Ending for everyone over the age of 21.

Horse Soldiers and the Lone Survivor

When I read a history book it is usually about early American History or about World War II, but recently I have picked up some books that are about recent U.S. history or you may even call it current events. Here are two books that I highly recommend. We may not all agree on what is going on over there and what or level of involvement should be, but these books are not political in nature and display amazing feats of heroism during the heat of battle.

Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton
This is about the Special Forces teams that were the first to put "boot on the ground" in Afghanistan. There was even a modern day Calvary charge. I could not believe how ill equipment the teams were. They had such old equipment that they were given credit cards with no limit to go purchase what ever they needed from civilian retailers. That's why they all had on North Face fleece jackets. Their GPS was too large and bulky, so they bought the small handheld units that civilians use. This book really takes you into the mindset of the these soldiers and the way they integrate themselves into the communities where they are operating. They are doing things they have never done before, but the keep going. Their medic may as well be a doctor, but does not always have the proper tools for the job. No bone saw, no problem I got a Leatherman. The action is intense and it all really happened. Easy to read and I could hardly put it down. Highly recommend this book.

Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell
Wow. This mans account of being the "Lone Survivor" from his team is nothing short of a miracle. It is simply an amazing story. The decisions that get made when the stumble across some Afghan tribesman will set the wheels in motions for this amazing tale. He would not have survived if it was not for the hospitality of some locals that found him. I would put this book in my top 5 books I have read. I do not highly recommend this book, but I highly insist that you read it.

Wordless Wednesday #1

I'm going to borrow some other bloggers idea of "Wordless Wednesday", but will put my own spin on it by posting a color image and then a black and white version of the same image. I hope this inspires more people to take black and white images. Not that there is anything wrong with color, but I think a lot of folks forget they can do black and white. If you shoot mostly color and are in a creative slump, make a point of shooting just black and white for a day or two and it will surely help.

Where Men Win Glory

I have a friend that went to the Sundance Film Festival this past week and while she was there she made a facebook update about seeing a movie on Pat Tillman. For those that don't know, Pat Tillman was a Pro Football player, who after Sept. 11th, decided to join the Army. Her comments about the movie have prompted me to review the book about Pat Tillman. "Where Men Win Glory" "The Odyssey of Pat Tillman" by Jon Krakauer.

The book is basically a biography of Tillman's life. It is well written and so thoroughly researched that Krakauer even went to Afghanistan. He obviously conducted extensive interviews with Tillman's friends, family, and brothers in arms. Krakauers writing exposed Pat Tillman's true patriotism, and passion to do what he thought was right. Pat had an unfaltering drive to be the best at every thing that he did. He also had such a tight bond with his brother, that they joined the Army together and both became Rangers. They were later assigned to the same unit and were both involved in the firefight that resulted in Pat Tillman's death via friendly fire. Krakauer details the events as they occur with the best possible detail. This was surely difficult due to the Army's attempts to keep the information from the public eye. Krakauer goes on to discuss the difficulties that Tillman's family has faced trying to get solid answers out of the various government entities involved. Krakauer also discusses the challenges that Tillman faced, by being a Pro Football player in the Army, from constantly having to prove himself to other soldiers to the Bush administration using him as sort of a poster boy to help improve the "look" of the war. All in all, this is a fantastic read, well written in Krakauer's usual style with highly detailed and thorough research. It truly shows the kind of person Pat Tillman was. I highly recommend this book as well as Krakauer's other books that I have read. "Into Thin Air" and "Into the Wild" are both great reads.

The USPS sucks

Why is the Post Office so bad at customer service? I spent 30min in line today waiting for someone to help. There were at least 20 people in line. There were six windows for Post Office employees to help customers from, but only one was open. There were staff members at two of the other windows, but they were not open and had that annoying "Next window please" sign that just made he want to hit them on the head with it. If I were at the end of the line I would have just left and come back another day, but I was committed because I was 4th in line. That's right. It took the single working staff person 25 min to help the three people in front of me. I think the automated postal machine is quicker to use. I would get fired at my job if our customer service was this bad. Now I know what it means to go "Postal".

Feeling Old

I have been feeling old lately and I don't like it. I'm only 34 I shouldn't feel old, but for the last week or so, I have been feeling that way. May be it has some thing to do with my hair, or lack there of, or the fact that what little hair I have is starting to get gray flecks in it. Could be the gray chest hair. May be its from my dislike for loud noise. I have two, three year olds, and my house is not a quiet place. I work in a fire station where every thing and every one has the volume on max. I have started to ride in my car in silence over the last few weeks. Its the only place I can find that is quiet. Maybe its because my three year olds are learning to use a computer in preschool. We didn't have a computer in my elementary school until I was in 5th or 6th grade and then it was only one computer for the whole school. I think what really put me over the edge was a few days ago, in the nice quiet car, I started listening to talk radio. What am I thinking? I guess I should plug my ipod in and listen to some Led Zepplin. Wait, will that make me old too?

Wow! Coupons really work.

Today I needed to do some grocery shopping and before I went I did a little planning and followed the recommendations of the "Coupon Mom" book that I read recently. I have to tell you that I save over 50% on my shopping today. All it took was about 30min to plan and I did go to Publix and Kroger. For me that works out great because they are only a few hundred yard apart. Here is the break down. At Kroger I spent $29.78, if I had paid full price it would have been $69.88. At Publix I spent $10.15, if I had paid full price it would have been $19.92. My total full cost price between the two stores would be $89.80. My actual cost between the two stores was $39.93. That is a total savings of $49.87. That is over 50%. For me, $49.87 is a great return on my 30min investment of time to plan my trip. Here is the funny thing. I usually by store brand food when I can to save money. Well today I purchased all national brand items and they all below the cost of the store brand. Above is a pic of what I got for my money. You will notice there is no meat. That is because I have plenty in the freezer, since I stock up when it is on sale. I ended up with 12 boxes of Kraft mac and cheese for the kids (with store savings and coupons 10 boxes were free). 4 bags of Kraft shredded cheese, 2 8oz Kraft Philly veggie cream cheese, 1 Birdseye Violia frozen meal, 1 30ct bag of Mission corn tortillas, 1 Chichi's salsa, 1 box of Ortega whole wheat taco shells, 1 Ortega taco seasoning, 4 cans Rosarita's refried beans, 2 cans Rotell, 4 jars Bertolli pasta, 2 boxes Barilla Pasta, 2 bottles of Kraft dressing, 1 container of CousCous, 3 16oz containers of Breakstone sour cream, 1 bag of carrots, 1 bunch celery, 1 head of iceberg.

Wishful Drinking

So. Being the Star Wars fan that I am, I decided to read Carrie Fisher's biography. This has to be one of the funniest things I have read in a long time. It was excruciatingly funny and made laugh out loud. I like that in a book. It is a very candid and open outpouring of her life. I never knew she had electro shock treatments. If you want a quick funny read, I would recommend this book.

Projects

So, I have a lot of things that I need to do and want to do. I want to work on some art projects, but I need to clean out the garage. I need to clean out the guest room too, but that is another day. Because I have lots of things I need and want to do, I have started to look at everything as a project. Some projects are dependent on the completion of another project. I need to clean out the garage so I can do some of the larger scale art projects that I want to do. I don't want to clean out the garage, but until I do clean it out and get the workshop in a usable condition, I can not do the work I want to do. So now I have started to break down everything I have to do into projects. Don't worry, I'm not getting too crazy with it. But, in an effort to make time for the projects that I want to do I have to complete the projects that I need to do. It is a never ending cycle.

I really want to talk about how I am working on art projects. I have a document that I have created I keep adding to and tweeking as I think about what I want to do. I am doing like any good project manager would do. The document includes the following things that will help me, I hope, complete the projects.
1. Title: or at least a working title that is descriptive of the project, it can be changed later.
2. Description: A detailed description of the project. It should include the medium to be used, how it is used, how the work will be presented, etc.
3. Purpose: What do you want out of this in the end. A gallery show? A book, a magazine article, some thing to sell, you get it.
4. Motivation: This is the hard one for lots of us and easy for some. Why are we doing this project and creating this artwork. Is there some social issue you want to bring attention to? Do you just want to make money and sell the work? (perhaps this motivation is why some artist starve, for food and attention). Is it a personal issue.
5. Status: This is the kicker for me. I need dead lines to get things done. If I do not have a real deadline, I will not get the project done. Mostly because I want it to be perfect, and well it will never be perfect and I guess that is what makes it art. This is the section that gets updated. Am I finished? Am I in the final stages of completion? Am I in the editing phase of image selection? I need to define where I am so I stay on track and follow through on the next phase of the project. Think of a GPS, you hit the home button, but first the GPS unit has to figure out where you are.

This is just my little method to keep on track and actually finish an art project. It could be expanded and include more detail, but I like to have a little room for the project to evolve. When I work on a large project that has multiple pieces, I usually break out the dry erase board and track the progress of each piece. That way I know what needs to get done and what I can work on while something else is drying, setting, cooling, etc. I hope this may help some of you get things done. To bad I only have two followers....

Now if I could just get these house hold projects done, maybe I could start and art project.

Coupon Dad

So I have been reading the "Coupon Mom" book in an effort to help save money on groceries. When feeding a family of 5 you need all the help you can get. Well, it works. I went shopping yesterday and have started to use her method. I got $105.00 worth of groceries for $61.00. That is just over 40%. I actually got stuff for free. Its easy to do even if you do not have a lot of time. She has saving methods of "Busy Shoppers", those that only have a limited amount of time to shop and no real time to plan, "Rookie Shoppers", which have more time to plan and clip coupons(I fall into this class), and "Veteren Shoppers", who dedicate more time and planning. I spent about 30 to 45 minutes planning my shopping trip and it saved me $40.00. Thats a pretty good return for my time. I can see how it would be easy to save more as I get more into it.

Lens Work

My favorite magazine came today. Lens Work. It is a magazine about fine art photography. If your a photographer, artist or collector of photography I highly recomend getting a subscription. It is no long available at the new stands, but is well worth the subscription. It comes every other month and is the most well printed magazine I have ever seen. The quality of the printing is fantastic. If your looking for a techno speak filled rag full of adds, don't read lens work. There are no adds other than the ones selling special edition prints. The editor, Brooks Jenson, is a good writer and writes an esay for the begining of each issue. Again, no techno mumbo jumbo, the writting is about the process, the creativity, the emotions, and the motivations for art making. What he writes could really be applied to any medium.

This months issue, No. 86, has a great interview with photographer David Robin as well as a portfolio of a project he is working. While not some of my favorite images, they are interesting as far as the process of creating them goes. My favorite portfolio from this issue is from photographer Josef Tornick. His images of the Aran Islands of Ireland are well thought and perfectly executed. The portfolio on the Bowery Flophouse by John F. Conn is also well executed.

Lens work also offers several books for sale that are very good and have help me through some creative bumps in the road. Their titles are as follows: Single Exposures (by Brooks Jensen), On Being a Photographer (By David Hurn and Bill Jay), Letting go of the Camera (By Brooks Jensen). Brooks has a new book out called Single Exposures 2. After I read it I will post a review.

Well, here we go. This is my first post to my new blog and I feel like I should make some kind of profound statement, but I can't think of anything profound at the moment. Unless you count the discovery of my childrens love for M&M's while we are potty training. At first they did not want to go potty and told us there were monsters in the bathroom. Now that we have started a rewards program with M&M's, they have sort of set up camp in the bathroom. As long as they are going potty I guess it does not matter.

I guess I will review two books that I have read recently. The first is "Blood and Thunder: The epic story of Kit Carson and the conquest of the American West" Written by Hampton Sides. Wow, what a ride. This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. I read a fair amount of history books and this is by far one of the best. I never knew how much one man could shape and change history like Kit Carson. It really is an epic story. The book is about 500 pages long, plus it is anotated and has an impressive Bibliography. I would read this again, but alas there are too many other books to read.

The next book is "The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet". A novel by Reif Larsen. This was a pretty good read. Some times a little hard to follow with all the side notes, lines and arrows in the margins, but that does make it feel like it is the journal of T.S.. The story was great. It had strings of saddness, but was mostly funny with an overall sense of adventure. A 12 year old, hoboing across the country, makes for a good and entertaining read.

Well, making the first post was not as hard as I thought it would be. Now, if I could just get someone to read it.....