Several weeks back my photography friend’s, Shanna and Kelly, decided it had been too long since our last photography field class. Sadly enough, Shanna couldn’t make it today, but Kelly and I headed over to Harkness Memorial State Park to shoot photos. I went to college on this side of the state and discovered this park with Craig while driving around and exploring the area. Since that time I love to come over and visit. There’s a mansion on the property, gardens, a long stretch of lawn and ocean front.

We decided to head over a little later and let the morning storm clouds pass. When we arrived it was sunny and a light breeze. Perfect for our photo walk. Craig kindly came along and allowed me to shoot photos of him. I am very happy with how the photos came out today.

Slideshow available here.

The technical:
I shot all of today’s photos with a Canon Digital Rebel XTi, Canon 50mm 1.8f, Canon 100-300mm, Canon 18-55mm kit lense and tripod. I used primarily for the sky photos a graduated neutral density filter. I also shot, but not shown here, 120mm format black and white film with a Diana F+ camera. I’m hoping to work on those soon. I post-processed in Adobe Lightroom 2.0.

Processed with a Lithograph preset in Lightroom.

HDR of the park from the ocean side.

Craig coming to get me.

It was wonderful to see color this past weekend. The grass is starting to go from shades of pale green and brown to lush green. The trees are still bare but I can’t wait for the buds to start coming.

I saw these line of trees and felt they needed to be in a photo. If I had my tripod I would have gotten in the shot too, but it was fun with my family lining up down the row.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate. Craig and I went to a family brunch a few towns over. It was nice to catch up with them and I was able to hand out the copies of a black and white photo I printed in January of Craig’s cousin and her newborn.

After brunch, we headed over to Squantz Pond to take a walk. The wind had other plans, but we persevered. I took a photo of my in-laws that I really like. I’m going to get it printed and framed and give it to them.

More photos from today available on Flickr.

National Library Week is April 12-18, 2009, which ironically is Spring break for most schools. Becoming a librarian takes quite a bit of schooling. To work in most public libraries and private jobs you’ll need to have earned a Masters in Library Science. To work as a School Library Media Specialist, a person needs their Masters in Library Media, then go through an unpaid internship which they will then apply for certification (in Connecticut). Your librarian worked hard to be able to help you.

Craig has been working as a library media specialist for 4 years. He does everything from helping kids pick out books to read to showing them how to use computers for research and furthering their knowledge.

I found this video earlier this week on teacherlibrarian.ning.com. Craig and I watched it couldn’t stop laughing. You may never look at your librarian the same again.

I’m not sure what the internet etiquette is for piggybacking on ideas. Sometimes I feel like I’ve lived two lives, and when I read someone’s post it triggers that memory and then I want to share it. But I don’t want to seem like I’m always just saying, “oh yah I’ve done that too”. Even though that is basically what I’m doing.

I think the root of the issue is me forgetting that I have all sorts of things to share from the insanely busy past 15 years of my life.

Do you find yourself doing this as well? Is it considered “uncool” to post right away your own story? or am I just being worried for no reason?

I can’t remember exactly when I discovered Colin Devroe’s The Diet page, but at one point I joined and after sharing my progress with my friends, they wanted to join in too, but didn’t want to use their regular blogs.

I decided to create our own site to log our progress, keep up motivation and keep it semi-private. As you can see from the Archive dates, we’ve had some starts and stops along the way.

This year I decided to record videos of my progress. Also joining in is my sister in law and my mother in law. My best friend Kelly, who is much more on top of nutrition and exercise regimens is writing full blown articles for us and keeping us motivated. Late last year she did the P90X and had great results. Craig and I picked up a copy of Power90, which was more our speed.

DiggBar from Kevin Rose on Vimeo.

I’m already using Digg a lot more.

I really enjoy HDR photography and I’m a sucker for clouds. So this video meets two of my loves. It is unquestionably beautiful.

This reminds of A-Ha’s Take On Me video.