Ultimate

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Today was the first night of the Medicine Hat ultimate Frisbee league. I had a really good time playing but I am really out of shape. I'm hoping that this will give me the incentive I need to hit the bricks and start building up my endurance a little bit more.

It was a little cold tonight but it was fine as long as you didn't have to sit off for too long.

This photo isn't me it's just a random photo from flickr.

-Gary

I Really Like Squirrels

Elkwater

I went to Elkwater on a date today. We walked around the park and chatted the whole time. I really enjoyed it a lot even though I got a sunburn on my arms and head. The walk was a little long, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I can't wait for my next date, but I don't have anything planned yet.

-Gary

Tough Guy

Tough Guy

I've pretty much always been a tough guy. You can see proof of that in this photo. The ladies love that about me.

I went on my date on Friday night. We both had a really great time. First we went to dinner, then a little drive around town that included a stop at the tepee and to top it all off we went to see Monsters Vs. Aliens in 3D. I had fun the entire time.

On Sunday I sat with her at church and afterwords we visited for about two hours afterwards. We mostly traded mission stories, which is always fun. She served in Guatemala, it sounds like things there were a lot rougher than in Argentina.

I can't wait to go out with her again.

night at the drive-in

night at the drive-in

I was thinking that we should go to a drive in movie, but they tore it down a couple of years ago.

Friday Night

handsome

My beautiful Aunt Celanie introduced me to a nice girl on Sunday. Celanie had given me her number a week or two ago, but I wanted to meet her in person rather than just call up a complete stranger. I talked to her tonight, she seems very nice, and we have a date on Friday.

She seems very familiar to me, I think I probably have met her before, sometime in my teens when I would go to dances in Taber, and I could swear that I at least saw her in Calgary last year at the mid-singles conference.

I guess I'm going to need to get all spiffied up for my date on Friday.

-Gary

Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad is hands down the best show on tv right now. 10 episodes in and I am completely hooked.

Walter White, the anti-hero of the new AMC series "Breaking Bad," is a chemist, and always defines himself as such. Twenty years earlier, he was part of a Nobel Prize-winning research team, and though he's down on his luck now and teaches science to bored high-schoolers, his voice still breaks a little as he describes the wonders of chemistry, how it features "growth, then decay, then transformation." And when he discovers he has inoperable lung cancer, he decides the only way to care for his wife and disabled son after he's gone is to put his lab skills to use cooking crystal meth. "Breaking Bad" is itself a chemistry experiment, an attempt to combine several unstable compounds - one part "Weeds," one part "The Bucket List," one part "Falling Down" and 12 parts Coen Brothers - to see whether they lead to synthesis or combustion.

I can't wait for the next episode to air.

Basketball Shoot

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I made a couple hundred photos of a basketball tonight. Tomorrow I'll narrow it down to 20, then edit five of them to upload to istock. Hopefully one or two of them will sell 10 or 15 times a month over the next year or two. I'm sure that I have five that I really like a lot. Which is good for me. Generally from 200 I have 10 that are nice and one that I really like a lot.

My new lights, the alien bees are great. I find them a lot easier to use than my Nikon speed lights. Maybe I just like the manual-ness of them, it is what I am used to working with everyday. Turn a dial, adjust the power and go. Not to mention having a trigger mechanism that doesn't rely on some sort of hard to figure line of sight.

I would like to find more projects to do with them. I have a few ideas lined up. Some need to wait for spring to be fully sprung. Some need to wait for models to be old enough to sign releases. Some need models. At least one needs a robot costume.

I'm particularly interested in the robot.

-Gary

Kite Aerial Photography

I really want to try this.

Unicorns and Rainbows

Unicorn

I listen to a radio show called, "This American Life". In one episode a woman is telling a story about a party she was at. Everyone was discussing endangered species and she said to the group, "Are unicorns endangered or extinct?" After a awkward silence, she realized unicorns aren't real. It is so easy to believe they are though, they just live in Africa, like zebras. After all aren't dinosaurs real? How much easier is it to believe in a horse with a horn than a giant lizard?

Anyway, I've been shooting grad photos. Photos of kids graduating from high school. I chat with the kids. Did you get your prom dress? What are you doing next year? Do you play sports or have a job? Where do you work?

There is one question that I stopped asking. Can you settle a bet between me and my assistant? I think that unicorns are extinct and she thinks they are only endangered, what do you think?

Now, obviously the correct answer is: Unicorns aren't real.

Too many kids don't know that I'm joking when I ask that. They are easily fooled by the way the question is formed, the way it assumes unicorns are real. The kids say unicorns are extinct in front of their parents.

I truly hope the kids aren't actually listening, just responding to my questions. Flipping a coin in their heads, extinct on one side and endangered on the other.

I'm sure very few kids are actually paying attention to anything I say, because when one is paying attention, when there is one that gets that I'm joking we can tell. The kid is having fun and playing along with the game.

-Gary

Talia and Scott

Talia and Scott

I did a basketball photo shoot with Scott this evening. I'm pretty sure that I got a ton of really great shots of him. His girlfriend came along to watch. I had a shoot with her and two friends right around this time last year.

They were both really great to work with and I had a ton of fun.

-Gary

Alien Bees Test

Gary_1868

I ordered a pair of Alien Bees Flashes a week ago and they turned up on my doorstep yesterday. I'm pretty excited about having some studio lights now. I have a photo shoot set up tomorrow evening.

In other news, Heidi broke up with me on the weekend. It's too bad, but realistically we are better as friends than as a couple. I could feel a lot worse about it, but at least I'm sure that Heidi put a lot more thought and consideration into it than Tracie did.

-Gary

Go Ahead, Judge a Book By it's Cover

I always thought that you actually could judge a book by it's cover and now I have proof. This book about human resources.
This book is available on Amazon and has the greatest book cover ever created. You will notice how the photo on the cover of this wonderful book fantastically illustrates the topic of the book. You will also notice that although the book sells for a staggering $152.99 + GST + Shipping, it is temporarily sold out from Amazon. There are two used copies available for $155.23 which means that the book actually increases in value after you buy it!

Wilson and the Cockroach

This is one of my favourite photos from my entire mission. My description is in this journal entry. Keep in mind by this point I had been in Argentina for a year and eight months.

Aug. 5, 1998

Today was P day. We did our laundry. I did all of mine. I have enough socks to wear a different pair everyday and still only have to wash them once a month.

I wrote a letter to Mom and Dad and one to Jeff.

I took a picture of my companion to finish off the roll and we got them developed, he noticed that there was a huge cockroach on the wall behind him and I didn't even see it!

Well while the clothes were washing, we went to get money at Coto and we came back to dry the clothes. When my clothes were dry I got my haircut. You know, it pains my soul to pay ten dollars to wash my clothes and then ten dollars more to cut my hair. At least she cut a lot off. I really needed a haircut bad.

We went to our Auchan to buy groceries, develop film and eat. We ate McDonald's. I love McDonald's. It's so good.

Anyway, like always P day was really fast. Elder Peterson told me that we were having the district meeting in Wilde, so we went on down there and waited half an hour, but nobody showed, so we left. I imagine that Peterson had barely got back with his nuevito and that Bates and Lawrence went to the chapel in Avellaneda.

My Aunt Alice

1 July 2002

My aunt Alice passed away on Sunday.

This picture is from the first of July 2002.

Heidi

Heidi

I like hanging out with Heidi a lot. Living in different cities is brutal. Having days off that don't match up is even more brutal. It is hard getting to know someone when you only get to be together for a day or two per week.

It has been really fun so far.

We went to see the Broadway show Stomp last week, and had a great time both at the show and visiting in the car during our road trip.

-Gary

Christmas and New Years

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For Christmas I bought myself a GPS and I am enjoying using it. I haven't really had a good chance to explore places where I don't know where I'm going except for on my New Years trip to Calgary.

I picked Heidi up in Lethbridge and we went to Calgary for a New Years Eve party. I had a really good time. We went to dinner and then to her sister's house. We baby sat their kids for an hour or so while they went to their own party and then at 10:30 we went to the Dance.

Things in the studio have been pretty slow the last two days. I guess that is to be expected. The school photos are all done, everyone is broke from Christmas and the next major shooting we are doing is in four more weeks.

I'm really looking forward to starting the graduation cap and gown photos. It would be nice if they had already started because I really like to be busy.

This photo is a test of a style I want to try for the college sports teams. I think that it is a way of shooting that would really stand out from the way that most of the athlete portraits in the league are done. It seems like the type of photo that they could take a chance instead of going with the same old boring head shots.

In the Mood for Blogging

I've really been in the mood for blogging lately. I think it is because I've been feeling fantastic since I finally cut the last string holding me to Tracie when we went down to the provincial registry to take her name off my car registration. Maybe it's just Christmas.

I had a really great boxing day yesterday. We went to London Drugs and got there right before they opened the doors and were able to get two 4gig compact flash cards and then we went to the Future Shop. I got a 8gig thumb drive and gps unit. I think I got a pretty good deal on both and the crowds weren't nearly as bad as I thought they would be. Then at about 10:30 or so I went to Lethbridge to see Heidi and her family. Heidi's whole family came down to her parent's house for a visit and Christmas dinner.

-Gary

I'm A Model

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My good friend and assistant Christine did a practise series of photos of me today. They all turned out very well. I'm very pleased with them. We were able to go over the things that she did well and the things that needed a little improvement. There were only a few that would have needed to be deleted if they were for a real sitting, and almost all of them looked fantastic once they were cropped.

I may even print a few for my wall at home. I guess I'm sort of weird among photographers in that I generally really like having my picture taken. I think that these ones turned out particularly well. Now if I could just lose some weight.

-Gary

Students Loans

2007-03-31 Canadian Money

I finished paying off one of my student loans today. That leaves only one. It is very nice to be getting them paid.

I really wish it hadn't taken so long but I guess you do what you can. The other one is going to take a while to get through.

Things are going really well. I'm feeling fantastic and enjoying myself a lot. Heidi came to visit me for the weekend and we had a chance to exchange our gifts. We spent a lot of time visiting my family and we had a nice time. I'm glad that Heidi got a chance to meet Jackie and her boys.

-Gary