The Norfolk Botanical Gardens

I've been with my family on vacation all week. One of my goals was to try and wear out my camera. The 40D is coming out, you know. (hehe).

This place is fantastic!

There's a canal system that you can take a tour on. I used it as an opportunity to scout locations for shooting. Being on vacation and this be a trip with the family, really limited how useful this information was.

The first picture is a bridge built with the old cobblestones from the original streets in Norfolk...pretty cool! And the reflection was really nice too!


This next picture was my attempt at shooting some pretty flowers. Mark I. makes this look so easy. I actually staged this photo. This particular plant has blooms with all of these different colors. Unfortunately, they never bloom next to each other. The colors were really amazing! Close is so cool!
This last picture is my daughter enjoying the childrens area. It's hot here, so the kids couldn't resist running through the fountain...that's what it's there for!

The bright colors and her facial expression really make me love this picture. You can really feel the joy and exhilaration in her face!

On vacation - Chicago

I'm on vacation with my family and our good friends at Bodie25. Our first stop is Chicago, IL. We didn't get to spend as much time downtown as we would have liked to, but I did get this shot.

I've been really interested in photos with lines lately. This is one of the bridges that crosses the Chicago River in the downtown. I like how the line of the top of the support sucks you deep into the city. I'd like to come back here with the camera and really spend a lot of time at night. This city can be so beautiful.

River City Days - Red Wing, MN

One word sums up the weekend....rainy. I rained almost the entire day on Saturday. I never took my camera out. I had really hoped to get some camera time in this weekend, but time was running out.

It didn't rain on Sunday, but the sun never showed its face either. I didn't have a lot of time either, but I did get out for a few minutes. Here's what I found. The Arts and Crafts show that I was working was very close to the Eisenhower bridge that crosses the Mississippi River in Red Wing MN.

In light of the tradegy last week in Minneapolis, I was fascinated by how this bridge was built.

Not sure if this bridge is "Structurally Deficient," it does have some intersting lines.

What follows is the fruit of my short break from organizing the chaos.