In The World…

A few weeks ago the whole Winkle clan, myself included, treked back to Pittsburgh for a big family wedding.  Jess’s cousin Rachel was getting married.  Of course, we had a blast.

I took a few pictures during the wedding itself, a couple more of the reception and a bunch when the wedding party all hit the Hofbrauhaus for the after-party.  These are a few of my favorite pictures.  You can view the entire set here as well.  There are a bunch more photos there that I haven’t posted here.  Go view them.  They’re good.

A note about these photos.  I didn’t take my big SLR camera since I didn’t want to have to lug it around (and be responsible for it while drinking), so these were all shot on my little Canon point and shoot.  During the actual ceremony, we were too far away from the aisle for my flash to work and the church was pretty dim.  So, I chose to switch to ’sepia’ mode for the evening.  I liked the way it looked, so I just kept it there.  Some of these photos are ‘happy accidents’ where because of the dimness, lack of flash, and longer shutter times, they got blurry but I like to think that was my desire all along.

Plus, there were plenty of other people there taking regular old snapshots… I wanted mine to stand out a bit.  As always, click on each image to go to Flickr to view the image larger if you so desire.

Without further ado…

I like this one a lot… wish the faces were a bit more in focus, but still, it’s very impressionist.  Their first walk as husband and wife.

This is another one where the ‘blur’ really worked out in my favor. Their first dance. Love this shot.

The Hofbrauhaus photos really turned out good with the flash and the sepia.  Definitely give an ‘old school’ feel.  I love catching candids at parties.  Try to capture how the night really went down.  I think I did that in these.

Really dig this one too.  Gabe in rare form… Liter of beer, cigar, and his new bride all tearing up the dance floor!

This past weekend the Idaho State Capitol building was reopened to the public following 3 years of construction.  Jess wanted to go but I wasn’t too sure… then she mentioned that I could shoot pictures and that sealed it.  Not only was I in, I was excited to go!

So, we rounded up the parents (both sets wanted to go) and headed down there Saturday morning.  I’m no expert on what all they did during the construction, but I do know that they added two wings that are underground with skylights which were pretty cool.  They did an amazing job matching up all of the marble as well.  Go to the idahostatesman.com for more on that front.

I mainly just wanted to take photos, so that’s what I did.  Here are my favorites.  You can also go to the entire Flickr.com set to view more than what is here.  Also, I would like to add that you really should click on each image to view it larger.  Some of them really benefit from being viewed bigger.  Thanks and enjoy!

This is the first picture I took that day.  Might be my favorite…

Two cheapo flags, held by me. Just playing around.

The National Anthem… I wish I could have gotten a little closer to the 2 servicemen, with everything in the background.  But I still like this shot.

Straight up through the dome.  This almost looks like something out of 2001 A Space Odyssey or something.

Zoomed on the dome a bit more… removing the lights gave a much “cooler” blue feel.

Visitors gazing up to the dome.

There you go, hope you enjoyed.  Like I said, there are more images in the Flickr set.  Go there now.

As a side photography note, I have a bunch of really good photos from the Christmas holiday that I have yet to share.  I know Christmas feels like a couple months ago at this point, but hopefully I’ll post them soon.

Yes, that is what I’m going to call myself from now on.  I’ve been published.  How cool is that?

Ok, some back story.

A couple months ago I saw a tweet from @TheBlueMag that they were soliciting fan photos for their winter edition.  I also got a Facebook message from one of their editors who had seen my Boise State photos on Flickr.com asking if they could possibly use some of my photos.  Of course, I replied right away and said I would be pleased as punch if they did.

Then came the waiting for the issue to come out.

It finally did last week.   By the way, all Bronco Athletic Association members get this with their membership, but you can also order subscriptions.  If you are a Boise State fan at all, you gotta get this thing.  End of pitch.

Anyway, in their fan photos section on page 92, they selected 4 of my pics!  All of which were taken from my seats, in row Z of the upper deck.  5 rows from the back of the stadium.  Needless to say, I find this whole thing completely awesome.  I’ve never had a photograph in a magazine before.  And even though I was not compensated monetarily, I figure I will still be able to refer to myself as a published photographer.  That’s got a nice ring to it, don’t it?

Below you will see the page, with my photos circled in red.  Click on the image to go bigger.  You can also go here to view the entire page.  On that site, if you flip to the next page, you will see my name in the photo credits.  Yes, I get geeked about this stuff.

Here are the 4 photos they chose, on Flickr.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Jess and I went to the Idaho Botanical Garden’s annual Winter Garden Aglow this past weekend.  It’s always fun to see the lights.  I’m glad we went when we did, because it has been raining all this week and there is nary a speck of snow left anywhere on the ground.  I’m sorry, but viewing Christmas lights is something that simply MUST be done in the snow.  It just makes them about 100x better.

This year, we seemed to be in attendance with a lot of really naughty little kids. Jess surmised that it had to do with the “perfect storm” of kid-dom.  Christmas, night time, and snow.   Anyways, there were kids throwing snowballs.  Kids running around off trail.  Kids having uber-meltdowns. One boy, “Austin”, about 3 or 4 years old was with his mom and grandma.  He was running around like a dog off leash.  They were imploring him to come back and drink his cocoa but to that kid, they may as well have been speaking Chinese.  Never slowed down. Never looked back. Never acknowledged they even existed.  The only reason they caught him (as he was running off the trail) was that he got boxed in by plant/Christmas light displays.  He was like a wild animal.  Unreal.

Anyways, I did bring the camera to shoot some shots.  I got a couple traditional shots of the lights.  But, since I don’t have a mono-pod or anything to help stabilize night shooting, I decided to go another direction as well.  Deliberately moving the camera with a slow shutter speed in order to “streak” the lights and create funky effects.  I really like how some of these turned out.  Notice that the LED lights actually flash really quickly, so they look like dotted lines when the camera is moved. Interesting. I present to you a selection of my Abstract Christmas.  The whole album is available on Flickr.com as well.

As always, click each image to go to it’s Flickr page.  Some of these images look much better when viewed full size, which you can do there…

And, a few of the more traditional shots I took…

Merry Christmas everyone!

This past Halloween afternoon, we were treated to another Bronco victory against the Spartans of San Jose State University.  Included in this game were Kellen Moore’s first touchdown pass to his little brother Kirby.  Kyle Wilson’s pick six.  Some tough defense.  And ultimately, another blow out win.

As always, you can view these photos and more by going to Flickr.com to view the entire set (not all were posted here).  Also, click on each image to go to flickr and see more info about each pic.  I would also like to remind you fine folks, that all of these pictures are being taken from my seats in the stands.  Row Z in the upper deck.  Six rows from the top of the stadium.

Enjoy!

Kyle Wilson fights for the ball

Jeremy Avery running through traffic. This was indicative of the run game most of the day.  San Jose State did a great job of bottling up our run game.

The next two pictures capture a seminal moment in this Bronco program, and perhaps a glimpse of things to come in the next 3 years.  Kellen Moore throws left and finds his younger brother Kirby Moore.

Kirby catches the ball, is able to shake the defense and turns it into his first collegiate touchdown and the first score of the game.

This next pic is also representative of Saturday’s game.  Kellen Moore spent a LOT of time getting hit.  Luckily for us, the vast majority of the time it was right after he got rid of the ball.  The offensive line needs to do a much better job of protecting him.  I bet he spent the bulk of Sunday in an ice bath.

Austin Pettis catches a touchdown in the 3rd quarter.

Kyle Wilson picks off a pass, and scampers 27 yards for his first pick 6 of his career.  Very exciting play.

Billy Winn just misses another sack.  But he did force the incomplete pass.  My favorite shot of the day.

Doug Martin totes the rock in the 4th quarter.

This last image is of the sunrise we saw as we were getting ready to hit the tailgate party.  It was quite majestic and Jess and I both stopped for a few minutes to take it in.  If you look close, it almost appears that the tree branches on the right are on fire.  I didn’t notice that until  I saw the picture!

We made it home from our week long adventure back east, visiting family in Pittsburgh.  I haven’t processed all 495 pictures I took, but I thought I would post a couple images to give you a taste of what we saw.

Heinz Field Panorama – Taken from our seats in the absolute last row of the top deck in Heinz Field for the Steelers vs Browns game on Sunday, October 18th.  We had a blast at that game.  Plus, it was the first time we had seen the sun since we got there, so that was a welcome sight.  Note: you HAVE to click on the image to go to the biggest version for the full effect.  Seriously, just do it.

The other panorama I took was the result of a wrong turn.  See, we went up to Mt. Washington the day we got there, but it was cloudy and rainy.  On Monday, Jess and I were out and about using Rachel’s car (which she graciously allowed us to drive) and we explored some.  Anyway, we were heading back to their house, but I was in the wrong lane.  I had to turn off instead of going through the tunnel and there was no place to turn around.  Well, the GPS told us to keep going, so we did.  We ended back up on Mt. Washington, only this time it was absolutely gorgeous!  We parked the car to take a few more photos and came up with this one.  I’m SO glad I wasn’t in the right lane!  Again, click on the pic to go to Flickr to view it bigger.

“Dawn-Tawn” Pittsburgh, PA.

If anyone is interested (especially you family back there) I have MUCH larger versions of these, if you would like.

There will be more to come.

That was a bystander’s quote about Murphy I overheard as we were walking by today during Boise’s annual See Spot Walk fund-raising event.  Basically, a couple of thousand dogs and their owners take over the streets of downtown Boise for an hour or two to raise money for the Idaho Humane Society.

Needless to say, this was Murphy’s first attempt at this.  Actually, it was my first go-round too.  I was nervous he was going to be a total ass.  Some days at training he’s such a shit that I don’t want to walk him any more.

When we first got down to the park, he was barking and lunging, wanting to play/attack every dog he saw.  Um, and there were a lot of them.  However, I got his mind engaged with the training routine that the fine folks at Scotch Pines Training have told us.  After a few early struggles, he calmed down and we actually walked through a gigantic sea of dogs completely without incident.

We also got to meet up with one of his litter-mates, a sister that looks exactly like him.  Named Sammie.  It was funny to talk to her owners and hear the same sort of stories about their dog as Murphy.  Eating grass, check.  Loves socks, check.  Very amusing.

Once the walk started, Murphy couldn’t have been better.  Heeling right at my side for the most part.  I was even able to put the leash over my shoulder, which is something the dog trainer says we should be able to do.  He was awesome.

It was actually a LOT of fun.  Seeing all the different dogs was a blast.  Murphy seemed to have a grand time as well.

Below you can see some pics taken from the event.  You can also go to the Flickr.com set.

Enjoy!

On the way down to the park.

Practicing “Sit”

Murphy and Dad

Murphy (right) and his sister Sammie

Here is your See Spot Walk Mascot shot!

Here’s the Scotch Pines Training results

Murph with his Gem Doodle’s family

“Hey dad, what are you doing… huh?… Huh?”

Game 2 of the Boise State season is in the books and it appears we have a “for real” defense this year.  Very exciting!  If the offense can clean up some mistakes (if you can call only scoring 48 points a mistake) then we’ll really be in business.

Any way here are a selection of photos I took at that game.  As always, click each one to go to the Flickr page to view them larger if you so desire.

Enjoy!

Remember that defense I was talking about? Well notice if you will in this picture that there are 4 Miami offensive linemen blocking NOBODY. I’m fairly certain that wasn’t how Miami drew that particular play up…

I’m including this one… I know it violates some photography rules, but dammit, that is an outstanding, unmolested gradient fade. Orange to blue. Personally, I like this photo.

So, it’s taken me a little while to finally get the images posted that I took while enjoying the Twilight Criterium on July 18th. I didn’t bring the “big” camera with me, so I only had the point & shoot. That being said, I think I got a few really good shots.

We had dinner prior at Bar Gernika, which remarkably was my first time eating there.  Good stuff.  We then wandered over to the course and promptly found the beer garden.  It was hotter than hell that night and we needed liquid refreshment.  All in all, we had a really fun evening.

You long time readers may remember the last time I took a camera to the Criterium.   This time was much the same.

To view all of my images, go to this Flickr page.  Other wise, you can click on each image to go to flickr as well.

My favorite shot:

See… “twilight”

Really like this one too.

“Negative GhostRider… the pattern is full…”

Living out where we do, we see a lot of hawks flying around, hunting varmints, doing their thing.

However, not usually this close.

I walked outside to put the dog out (luckily, Murphy isn’t really ’snack size’ anymore) yesterday evening only to have this coopers hawk fly not 10 feet over my head.  He circled around and perched himself on the neighbor’s house.  He stayed there long enough for me to grab the camera and snag a few pics.  It was tough lighting conditions, but I was able to manage a couple shots. These photos don’t do justice to just how large this bird was. Incredible.

Enjoy!