Friday Foto - Elijah 4 months

Elijah 4 months, originally uploaded by philputnam.

Well, here you go, the bi-annual Friday Foto. I resolve to attempt to do better. Visit the flickr page for more info on the setup for the shot.

Moving?

I've been on Blogger now for a few years, although the last two years are basically not included. Recently, I started a migration to WordPress, just to try things out. It was really simple to import all of my posts over, so I figured why not give it a look?

Head on over to www.theepdoughts.com to check it out. There are a couple of negatives, one of which is the lack of ads, which I'd like to add eventually if I were really gonna give blogging a shot in a serious way, but I like a lot about it.

So we'll see. For now I'll cross post on both.

The Public is Reminded...

From a CBS2 Chicago report on the arrest of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, the reporter helpfully gives a disclaimer, lest we believe the worst about the man.

The public is reminded that a complaint contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Of course, this is a standard disclaimer that they use at the bottom of all stories about criminal charges against elected officials, regardless of party affiliation.

I'm back....

I'm back in the saddle again.

Flag Girl, FFF #28

Flag girl, originally uploaded by philputnam.

A late Friday Foto, but we've had a busy day. Here's a shot from last night's festivities. And a bonus photo of the fireworks. I'll have more of these types of shots on my Flickr page.

Happy Birthday USA!

Saturday Night in Texas, FFF #27

Saturday Night in Texas, originally uploaded by philputnam.

This shot was quite a challenge, very low light, but I wanted to capture a Texas evening in action. Another shot of Greune Hall, the oldest Dancehall in Texas. One of my favorite songs by Lyle Lovett is titled, "That's Right (You're not from Texas)". One of the lines says,

"At a Dancehall down in Texas
That's the finest place to be
All the women there are beautiful,
and their men will buy your beer for free."

The chorus goes on to truly define Texas hospitality:

"That's right, you're not from Texas,
That's right, you're not from Texas,
That's right, you're not from Texas,
But Texas wants you anyway."

Friday Foto Fun 26

Greune Hall, originally uploaded by philputnam.

OK, back in the saddle again. It's been too long, and I have a ton of photos to process, but I'll try to keep it up. I'll probably be posting many of them on my Flickr page and my dusty old photoblog.

Took a great trip with my lovely bride for our anniversary and went to the Hill Country of Texas, a truly beautiful part of the country. This is a shot of the exterior of Greune Hall (pronounced "green").

(From Wikipedia) Gruene Hall was built in 1878 in the town of Gruene, Texas, which is now a part of New Braunfels. Billing itself as the oldest dance hall in Texas, Gruene Hall has played host to such acts as Willie Nelson, George Strait, Townes Van Zandt, Jerry Jeff Walker, Lyle Lovett, James McMurtry and the Old 97's. It was also used as a set for Michael (film), starring John Travolta.

God is in control...

I was scheduled to be returning from an overseas trip today, but it was postponed two days before takeoff. I was disappointed, but not really upset. I figured there must be a good reason for it. One of the places we were supposed to visit to shoot video was Lebanon.

Beirut, specifically.

But a State Department Travel Warning put an end to that trip. Now, on the day I was supposed to be going to the Beirut Airport to begin my travels home, I see why the trip was called off.


Here's the important part:

Lebanon is in turmoil again today, but this time the turmoil is clearer than it has been in the past. As things stand right now, members of Hezbollah are thugging their way through the streets of Beirut, setting fires, fighting, and dumping piles of dirt and trash in the roads in order to shut down the city. Most importantly, Hezbollah has closed the highway that connects Beirut to Lebanon’s major airport. (emphasis mine)

So bottom line is, God is on His throne, and I'm just fine following His lead.

This Day in History, 1975

Friday Foto Fun 25

Rainbow over El Morro, originally uploaded by philputnam.

This was from a trip to Puerto Rico. We were preparing to shoot an interview overlooking El Morro (the fort in the background) when a brief morning shower came through. As we were resetting the equipment, this full rainbow appeared.

I hope you enjoy a nice weekend. The weather is finally a beautiful 70 degrees for highs and lows in the 50's. Glory.

Here's something scary for Halloween

From this Washington Post article:

Gabby eyed the Sexy Super Girl but decided against it. A friend at her Catholic school had worn that costume for a Halloween parade and pulled the already short miniskirt way up to cover her tummy. "That didn't look very good." But Gabby did like the Aqua Fairy, a vampy get-up with a black ripped-up skirt, black fishnet tights and blue bustier that comes in medium, large and preteen. A medium fits a child of 8.

No.

How about the Funky Punk Pirate Pre-Teen, with an off-the-shoulder blouse and bare midriff?

No.

Gabby pointed to the Fairy-Licious Purrrfect Kitty Pre-Teen, which, according to the package, includes a "pink and black dress with lace front bodice and sassy jagged skirt with tail. . . . Wings require some assembly."

Cheryl Cirenza shook her head in exasperated disbelief. "This is all so inappropriate. It's really disturbing," she said, eyeing a wall of such girl and preteen costumes as Major Flirt in army green, the bellybutton-baring Devilicious and a sassy, miniskirted French Maid, pink feather duster included. She'd just turned down her 13-year-old daughter's request for a Sexy Cop outfit. "When I was their age, I was a bunch of grapes."

The positive thing about this is that there are parents who are saying no, but apparently there are plenty that aren't. What are my daughters going to face in 6 years? Hopefully the culture is shifting back from the unlimited permissiveness of the last generation of parents.

One Sentence TV Reviews - Jon and Kate plus 8

The only thing cute about this show is the title.

Headline of the Day

I love this one:

State report concludes Texas has too many reports.

Friday Foto Fun 24

Radio Flyers, originally uploaded by philputnam.

Another long gap between FFF's. Here's my two oldest. My youngest just turned 1. How's everyone else doing? Anyone still bother to check this page out, continually let down?

We're ready for fall here. I always hate September in Texas. I always think it should be cool, at least in the evenings. It never is, and that always really bugs me. But hopefully a couple more weeks and we'll be highs in the low 80's and lows in the low 60's.

This is the season I always miss Kentucky the most.

Big Dumb Idiot

me, originally uploaded by workspacevan.

So a guy had his iMac stolen. That's bad. Lucky for him, the criminal turned himself in in a most unusual fashion. In case you don't have the pleasure of being a Mac owner, all Mac computers have a built-in camera, and a nifty software called "Photobooth" that takes photos with it.

The criminal was playing with Photobooth, as we are all wont to do, but he happened to title it and click an "upload" button, though he didn't know what it uploaded to. Turns out it was a software that automatically uploads photos to the rightful owner's Flickr account. Imagine the theft victim's surprise when this photo appeared in his Flickr stream.

Of course, the image and story made it all around the web through Digg and Boing Boing, and before long, Flickr provided the IP address that the photo had been uploaded from. Eventually, the Big Dumb Idiot turned himself in, claiming that he got the computer from a friend of a friend.

Of course he did.

Friday Foto Fun 23

Tall Trees, originally uploaded by philputnam.

Well, I'm finally starting to process the photos from a great hike I took with some good friends to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. There's lots more where this came from, just have to do the work of making them Blog-worthy.

Have a great weekend!

Friday Foto Fun 22

Sad Clown, originally uploaded by philputnam.

Another long hiatus, but I'm back with new materials. Today's entry is a shot of a friend of mine who was nice enough to pose for me at my son's 4th birthday party. I'm also going hiking in the Smokies next weekend, so hopefully I'll have some fresh shots to post in a couple of weeks.

Happy Friday!

Friday Foto Fun 21

Blue, originally uploaded by philputnam.

Been a few weeks, but I got out last weekend and found my muse again. Bluebonnet season in Texas was great this year, and I got a few shots from a weekend shoot at magic hour.

It's a cliche kind of shot here in Texas, Bluebonnet photos are standard fare, but most of them don't have women this beautiful to do them justice.

As usual, you can see more pictures at my photo blog. You can also check out my Flickr page.

Friday Foto Fun 20

Abigail 6 months, originally uploaded by philputnam.

My youngest turned 6 months old this week.

Friday Foto Fun 19

El Morro, originally uploaded by philputnam.

In Old San Juan Puerto Rico, this fort has guarded the harbor entrance since the 1500's. I applied a fake lomo effect in post production.

See where this picture was taken. [?]

Don't forget to check out my photoblog where I (mostly) regularly post new pictures, and my Flickr page.

Have a great weekend!