Month: July 2008

This weekend Jen and I took the plunge. Spending A LOT of money we purchased most of the professional photography equipment I need to really get into the field. If you know anything about photography you might understand when I say I got a Nikon D300 with a Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5 lens, a Nikkor fixed 85mm f/1.8 lens, a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens, a Nikkon SB 800 flash, a 72mm polarizor and some standards like a tripod and a bag. The reasoning is three fold: A. I can’t shoot anything for personal use on government equipment. B. I’m a professional photographer, I may as well have the gear to act like one. C. The army won’t make a foolish man rich, but a wise man can use the army to make himself rich. By this I mean that although my salary in the service will never provide much in the way of comfort, I can use the skills the army has trained me on to help myself. I intend to start shooting jobs (most likely weddings) as soon as possible. The going rates in this area for photography are high and I’m hoping to pay off the gear and start making some decent scratch.

Jen has been absolutely incredible by patiently (and a bit timidly) allowing me to film her every waking moment and has even allowed me to drag her into the woods and onto a running track in makeup and interesting costumes to help me build my portfolio of work. For your viewing pleasure I’ve included some of the shots. Stay tuned to our Flickr account to see more in the coming weeks, months, and years. Let me know what you think, the more feedback the better.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY from the nation’s capitol! What better place to commemorate our nations birthday than Washington DC? Yesterday Jen and I saw the Parade and then waited six and a half hours to see A Capitol Fourth, which is an annual concert of the West lawn of the Capitol Building facing the National Monument. After waiting about four hours, mother Nature decided to spit on our endeavor and rain quite a bit. It rained so much people decided to go home even though they’d waited so long to see the concert.

WE on the other hand stuck it out, and well worth our efforts proved the show. We saw such talents as Jerry Lee Lewis (amazingly still alive and more amazingly still able to play the piano and sing), Huey Lewis and the News, and American Idols Taylor Hicks. Lastly the National Symphony Orchestra played the 1812 Overture while the biggest fireworks show in the country went off right over the National Monument. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience. Afterward, the Metro was so crowded that we had to stand huddled together in a corner of the train all the way back to our car. Check out our flickr account for lots of pictures of the parade and the Capitol Building.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY from the nation’s capitol! What better place to commemorate our nations birthday than Washington DC? Yesterday j

Nick and I have been keeping ourselves super busy the past few weeks/weekends. Weekend before this last one we went to D.C. on Saturday to check out a few museums. After going through the sculpture garden and the museum of natural history, we discovered a Bar-B-Que festival being held on Capital street. Nick (of course) decided that this was much more interesting than any of the smithsonian museums and took a detour for the day. Right before entering the festival we were given a flyer about pigs being kosher (courtesy of Jews for Jesus)…very interesting read if I do say so myself considering that I work with orthodox Jews every day. We had Famous Dave’s BBQ sandwiches and then stopped at the aquafresh booth (complete with sinks and free toothbrushes/paste) we brushed our teeth in public!

Yesterday we went to six flags using our wonderful military discount. Neither of us have been to a six flags before so we had pretty high expectations which weren’t quite met. The park was comparable to Lagoon in Utah, in fact it probably had less rides than Lagoon even. The very first roller coaster we got onto, Nick was wearing his hat. Right before take off I said to him “You should probably take that hat off!” His reply was “You sound like my mother.” After the first upside down spin, sure enough, his hat was gone. I guess mothers know best eh? It was pretty hot out and Nick’s haircut being the lovely military buzz that it is, he needed that hat to keep from frying. We located the hat beneath the roller coaster, not too far over the fence with the signs posted about not crossing the fence. After the coaster had stopped and was loading again, Nick jumped the fence, ran out beneath the roller coaster, grabbed his hat and we ran. We laughed and went on to have a good day, riding all the rides including a super fast coaster called “superman” and one that made you feel like you were flying like a bat called “batwing”.
Later, I read a story in the news that disturbed me. The day before we went to six flags, a 17 yr old boy was at a six flags in Georgia and lost his hat on a roller coaster, went to get it and was decapitated and killed when the roller coaster came by. YIKES! I don’t think we’ll be jumping over any fences at an amusement park EVER again!