VideoTime
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A Tale of Two Time Lapses
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Photo Walk
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The Christmas Lights are Back
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Vacation
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Snorkeling The Grand Turk Wall
Snorkeling The Grand Turk Wall
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Crazy Ride Back from Snorkeling
Crazy Ride Back from Snorkeling
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Snorkeling in Dominican Republic
Snorkeling in Dominican Republic

Article

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WayBack: Early Attempt at Portrait Photography

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I took this photo some time in ‘86 or so. Possibly before I went to Japan. I’ve slept a few thousand times since then. The photo is of my younger, not as good looking, brother. For some reason we took some time off from beating on each other to do this. I recall moving some lights around while he played with a chessboard. I’ve no clue instigated this little photo session, but I know at the time I was experimenting as much as I could. It was film and development was expensive, so I know I didn’t take many photos. I know I took far more time setting up the shots than I did taking them. Plus back then I had no way to develop/edit so the photo I took was the photo I got. What I would get would be a bit of a mystery. Not only was their no instant gratification of having the photo you just took, there wasn’t a way to see what you were completely doing. I could look through the lens to compose the shot and get an idea of the brightness or darkness of the image; the rest was up to my experience and knowledge of the lens, the film and the light.

This photo was taken on my very first SLR (single lens reflex camera) a Canon T70, released in 1984. I got in 1985 or early 1986. My mom got this for me through a Green-stamp program American Airlines was running for employees. To say the least, I was very lucky to get this camera. With that little guy my joy of photographer blossomed and would eventual open up possibilities in high school to work for the school paper and year book as of one their photo journalists. That allowed to learn the art & the science of developing both film and photos in a darkroom. A truly amazing experience. In college I would take an art photography class and learn more about darkroom work as well as how to roll my own film. That fun road of photography started in no small part to this photo.

It’s one of oldest SLR photos and one that I’ve always thought was particularly good, especially for a novice. While I don’t think of myself as extremely knowledgeable even today, I most certainly wasn’t at that time. No classes. No fundamentals. No YouTube. No Google. A total lack of tools beyond the library and a few books I bought to learn the fundementals of composing and light. As much as I enjoyed photography it was always an expensive hobby and limited me to how many photos I could take. How people learn photography is massively different today than it was back in 1986, especially if your budget was as limited as mine. While photography today is by no means an inexpensive hobby, every aspect of photography can be done with equipment most people already have in their pocket today. On top of that we have the instant gratification digital affords and the ability to immediate edit that very image.

If you have a young person in your life, give them the opportunity early to experiment and help them get the basic fundamentals, maybe in 35 years they will be reminiscing about one of their first good photos.

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Patience - The Key to Photography

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When taking photos many skills come into play, but arguable the most important skill of all is patience. Photography is the art of catching the right image at the right moment in the right light. The best composition and the lighting won’t make up for bad timing in most situations. While great timing can offset composition or lighting that isn’t perfect. Basically, if you miss the moment there is no photograph.

Catching that moment is a mixture of patience and speed. All of the other skills become important at that very moment. If you aren’t proficient in the use of your camera, or doesn’t understand how light works or get lost in the composition then you’ll still miss that moment; but without patience you’ll miss the opportunity to miss the shot.

The photo I’m using as an example, is one of my favorite photos. It’s a shot I just can’t get where I live by virtue of being landlocked. It’s one of those, once in a lifetime photos. Might the chance present itself again; maybe but I would have to implement even greater patience measured in days or weeks not minutes and seconds.

I was visiting my brother in Los Angeles and we went to Manhattan Beach. While we walked around we checked out the pier and all the people enjoying a California fall. As we walked down the beach path i saw the sun was was about to set and do so with the pier in the foreground. Then I noticed a sail boat meandering on a path to cross the setting sun on the horizon. I began taking some photos to help figure out the lighting and the composition I wanted. From 6:04 to 6:05 I took about 8 photos. I was using a pocket camera so I didn’t have a burst mode, it’s as shoot and recompose. The 7th image ended up being “the one.” The sail boat was exactly where I wanted it. I had the image already in my head before it happened, but I had to be patient and wait for that moment to arrive. When it did I got the shot I wanted. The shot I imagined.

It’s not an amazing photo, but it’s a good photo and quite simply one of my favorite photos and I’ve taken many, many thousands of images. To me it’s the kind of photo you see on posters or books showing what many imagine when they dream of life on the west coast. Had I not combined my skills of composition with patience, the image would have passed me by like a ship on the horizon.

Sony DSC-HX5V, f/5.5, 1/320s, ISO 125 - Edited in SnapSeed on iPhone (Taken October 26, 2014 - Manhattan Beach, California)

Multiple photos taken to get “The One”

Daughter's Day Not Father's Day

While I normally aim at relating tales of photos taken, I want on this Father’s Day to dig a little deeper into my own personal being. To my own and continuing tenure of being a father. Usually I only include images captured by me, but for obvious reasons that is not possible for this article. For this article it’s about words searching for meaning instead of images.

thedaugthers.jpeg

Two Daughters, Two Sisters

To say I’m a lucky dad would be the understatement my life. I am the lucky father to two beloved women, sisters of another mister but my daughters just the same. I would not meet either of them until each was entering those awkward teenage years. Those meetings, those years, changed my life immeasurably. In ways I’m not sure I can properly relate with mere words. Anyone that knows me understands anytime I find myself without words, it’s best to peak out one’s window to verify the Earth continues to spin. Since I will not be responsible for armageddon, I shall endeavor to search my soul for those very words. The words that best relate my reflections on being a faltering father to these two cherished ladies.

The day before my oldest would became my first daughter

I came to these ladies years after their birth. One arrived through marriage the other through adoption. Both settled deep into an inescapable part of my heart. While I didn’t have the fortune to know them from their earliest years, I have since watched them grow from giggling girls into wonderful women and finally marvelous moms. Today they rear their own children. I count six grandkids they have given me between them. They aren’t just marvelous moms, they are fantastically first-rate moms oozing a paternal love I only aspired to reach during my heady days of parenting.

If only I could say I was a remarkable a parent to them at any point during those years, but to say so would be inaccurate. While I may have been thrust into parenthood one teenage girl at a time, I did chose that path each time uttering the simple words “I do.” Even so my lack of preparedness can not be understated. I knew precious little about personal relations of people and remarkably less about parenting. Whether a lack of the right genetic code or simply a lack of proper temperament, whatever the reason I failed at being the parent I should have been. Even if I were better than I recall, I surely never attained the level of parenting both these ladies achieve daily, and at such a young age. I was 36 when I became a dad of one, and 40 when I became a dad of two and from the start this duck barely knew how to swim. Forget about taking his flock of ducklings into the choppy waters of life; the outcome could have been disastrous. To say I've been impressed with their evolving skills would be another understatement of Earth stopping magnitude. It seems I determined to bring about armageddon on this poor planet. Even mother Earth is probably wondering how this all worked out so well.

The day my youngest was adopted.

When they were young I found myself consumed with work. When not consumed with work I found ways of distracting my mind from that engulfing work. Parenting I never sought out as I should, instead allowing the need of parenting to knock three times at my door seeking attention. A passive mode of parenting seemed to be my modus operandi. While I realize there is no true guide to parenting and no singular style, I failed to find an active and interactive way to parent them both. As I watch these two moms today “parenting” their children, I can see how my style of parenting was at best a gatekeeper TO LIFE and less an educator OF LIFE. They teach, they punish, they entertain but most of all they experience their childrens’ lives interactively. They aren’t just rulers over them but partners in their Game of Life. I was not inattentive, nor hateful nor mean; in retrospect I wasn’t fully present in a way a parent should be and not in the way these two lovely ladies handle their own children.

Wonderful dinner with my youngest.

I provided praise when deserved. I issued proportional punishment when needed. They even suffered through more lectures than probably the Geneva Convention allows the most villainous of creatures to endure. Through it all, I not once stopped loving them. I never stopped liking them. Yet never found a way to show fatherly affection in the best possible way and never truly experienced those growing years with them as I should have done. To this day I’ve not yet figured out that special sauce. Personal relations are not my forte, and parenting is very much about personal relations. I find a way in a professional environment, but in a personal one I’m all thumbs. I can only hope that while faltering at being the best possible parent; in some minor way I can claim responsibility in providing these daughters of mine the wisdom and attentiveness that endears them as such great parents. If not, I take solace knowing I did not act in opposition to those skills.

Opening birthday present from my oldest.

On Father’s Day it’s expected we pay homage to all our dads and to and what they mean to each of us. In my case, this father, feels it necessary to pay his respects to both his daughters for how they have become the embodiment of parenthood I wish I might have attained. I can say that being their father gave me perspective on life. My daughters opened my heart in ways I knew not possible. In the final analysis, I’m pretty sure I learned more from them than they from I. The old phrase, “the student has become the master,” seem so very appropriate when I think of them both and the families they are leading.

To you both I speak directly. I love you both my delightful daughters, you two remarkable sisters. On this Father’s Day, one unremarkable dad thanks you wonderful ladies for not just being my daughters, but choosing to become my daughters. Few dads enjoy that honor. I may not have always been the dad you deserved but I pray I never ceased being the dad you needed. This I can say with absolute unreservedness. You both will always be the daughters I wanted. The daughters I love, no matter how deplorable I might be at exercising that love. This is why to me it’s not Father’s Day, but Daughter’s Day.

Courtney & Kristie, to you both I say, “Happy Daughter’s Day.” - Dad

Frisco Square: A Great Place to Live

View of Frisco Square from Frisco Public Library

Food Vendors at Merry Main Street

Frisco Square - A Great Place to Live
Located in the heart of Frisco, Frisco Square has a great deal to offer any resident of the area. City Hall, the Frisco City Library, US Post Office, Cinemark theater, Toyota Stadium, the The Frisco Heritage Museum and a host of restaurants, bars and coffee shops call this area home. All of it within easy walking distance. Not since I lived in Seoul have I enjoyed an area so easily walkable as the Frisco Square region. I’m not saying it has all the options of a city the size of Seoul. Obviously it’s no where near the size nor does it have the options; but it is as walkable as the neighborhood I lived in for many years. A walkable neighborhood to me, is the gold standard of living comfortably.

The list of restaurants in the area that one can walk to is actually quite impressive with a wide selection of choices. We have tex-mex, sushi, Thai, pizzerias, burger joints, tacos, chicken, steak and a few I’m probably forgetting. If you like to start your day, pick-up your day or end your day with coffee you are covered with three different coffee shops each with it’s own ambiance and selections. Have a hankering for an adult beverage? See the above list of restaurants and then some.

Giant Pong at the National Video Game Musem

But you say, what about all the other things of life, like say getting a hair cut, your nails done or just mailing a large package? The area has you covered. Beyond the aforementioned US Post Office branch there is also a FedEx store. There are a couple of places for a man or woman to get their hair styled or their nails/toes - whatever you do with those. Want to go bowling? Sure, no problem. Want to check out the history of video games? Yep, the National Video Game Museum is nearby (although it’s more of a bike ride than a walk - but you can walk it easily enough). Are you a cigar aficionado? You have two great retailers to choose from and enjoy that well earned cigar on sunny spring day or after a hard day at work.

National Soccer Hall of Fame - Toyota Stadium

Then there is Toyota Stadium, the home of FC Dallas. It’s a 20,500 seat stadium that plays host to soccer games, football games and concerts. They recently completed a renovation and opened the new state of the art National Soccer Hall of Fame. Since 2010 it’s also been the home of the NCAA Divison 1 championship football game and in 2017 the Miami Beach Bowl was moved to Frisco and renamed the Frisco Bowl.

Christmas In the Square

Every year Frisco Square hosts a month long ode to the holidays with Christmas in the Square. Running from the Thanksgiving Holiday to the first week of January the event includes a nightly Christmas light show made up of over 175,000 lights. Some 750,000 visitors travel down Coleman Boulevard to enjoy the sights and sounds of the season. It’s not the only event hosted in Frisco Square either. Throughout the year there are many 5k races and various cultural and arts events with more being added every year. It was also recently announced that the monthly farmers market was moving to Frisco Square too.

5k FireCracker Run

It’s all quite interesting to watch at times from my 4th floor window overlooking Coleman Boulevard. Throughout the year there is always something to see and I’m never at a loss for something to do. I’m not alone, with a few thousand units of apartments all within walking distance plus two growing neighborhoods of houses the Frisco Square family is not tiny anymore. More and more people are moving here and an ever increasing number of people come to the area to have a great meal, meet up with friends or just enjoy a few hours reading a book at the library.

Christmas In the Square as View From My Apartment

I would be remiss if I didn’t point out my personal favorites. It’s hard to choose just a few because there are so many good options; but I have a few places I like to frequent with great regularity. You might find me there on your next visit.

First Round Draft Bar & Grill

For a perfect pint of Guinness, a well made cocktail or just a bottle of Bud you can’t go wrong with First Round Draft Bar & Grill. They also have an excellent menu of some of the best bar food in town. They are the embodiment of the neighborhood bar. They are also, as the name implies, a sports bar. So on game day you have the place to be to root for your favorite team and take pot shots at the other guy’s team. If you work late or just someone that enjoys a late-night night cap, they are opened to 2 am every day of the week.

Renew Coffee & Bakery

Looking for that perfectly relaxing coffee shop with wonderfully made coffee drinks and tasty pastries then stop by Renew Coffee & Bakery. They only recently opened and I’ve been a regular customer since day one. Like First Round Draft it’s family owned and operated, which makes all the difference in atmosphere and hospitality. My favorite beverage is the matcha latte and their almond croissant is fantastic. They do have a great deal to choose from. All of the pastries are made fresh daily. If you enjoy tea then this is the place for you. The owners love both coffee and tea. At some coffee shops tea is a second class citizen; but at Renew they take tea seriously. There are some excellent choices and it’s all served perfectly in a wonderful tea pot and Chinese style tea cups. Try the green tea or the jasmine, you can’t go wrong with either.

Sake Toro Sushi Restaurant

If you enjoy sushi, sashimi or sushi rolls then you should definitely check out Sake Toro. I will be the first to admit their selection isn’t inexpensive; but it’s not overpriced and it’s all served fresh, delicious with an excellent presentation. Their miso soup is some of the best I’ve ever had and their matcha green tea is absolutely wonderful. If you are looking for more of a deal on Sushi, Hikari Sushi & Grill is nearby and they offer an amazing all-you-can-eat lunch deal during the week. While it’s a limited menu, don’t think that means just 4 items; it’s a pretty extensive selection and includes several side dishes and miso soup. Makes for a great lunch! They also have a nice happy hour special to with reduced prices on their sushi rolls.

Jake’s Hamburgers

Want a great burger, but like to have a ton of choices? Jake’s Burgers is for you. While I enjoy their burgers, they also have several other items on their menu. One of my favorites is their Chicken Fried Chicken plate. It’s a huge slab of Chicken Fried Chicken, surrounded by fries (or you can ask for my favorite tater tots) and some Texas toast. They also have a chicken salad, served healthy with grilled chicken or unhealthy with fried chicken. I’ll let you guess which way I swing when I order. You can wash it all down with tea, sweet tea if you prefer, or they do sport a full bar so enjoy your favorite beer or cocktail. They have a decent selection of wine as well. They run daily specials on drinks and they have a monthly burger special. The service is friendly and the prices are quite reasonable. They aren’t open as late, so have dinner there and then head over to First Round Draft to end your night.

Babes Chicken Frisco

I don’t want to live out Babe’s Chicken. I don’t eat there very often, but only because it’s a family style restaurant with family style serving. What does that mean? If you are asking this question I must wonder if you have been living under a rock or you are just don’t live in North Texas. We shall assume the later. It means that you are sat a large to crazy large table. Everyone is brought a plate. Everyone orders their main course, typically some form of chicken. Then you order some sides. The sides are all brought out in dishes you could lose an elephant. Mashed potatoes, green beans and a host of others. At this point you “dig in” and when you are done they role you to your car or in my case they pat me on my back and point me towards my apartment. Babe’s in Frisco is located next to the Frisco Heritage Museum. So before you feast upon the fatted calf, walk around and check out some very old homes that were all moved to the museum site. They are beautiful and quite old (by Texas standards of old anyway).

The Frisco Heritage Museum

Cinemark at Frisco Square

For movies there is no lack of cinemas in Frisco, but there is a great one right in Frisco Square. Cinemark Frisco Square is a large multiplex that includes a fantastic IMAX screen. I love to go on a Monday night when the screening of my selected movie includes me and a handful of other people. However, going later in the week when there are far more people is perfect for a that great comedy or a good old fashioned horror movie. Don’t forget to pickup some popcorn and your favorite cold beverage in the lobby before heading for your reserved seat. I’m strictly popcorn and soda, but they have lots of other items. No booze yet; but maybe in the not to distant future.

Over Looking Simpson Plaza

Those are just a few of my favorite options, places I visit regularly. There are many other options to try. If you live nearby and haven’t investigated all the options; you are missing out. If you happen to be looking for a new apartment, hundreds of new units have recently opened and will be opening over the next several months. Definitely worth investigating all the options Frisco Square and the surrounding areas have to offer for your dinning, drinking, living and shopping options. I know I’m very happy with my choice to move here and don’t see myself moving away anytime soon.

All images were taken by me with one of my various cameras. - Kelly

Music in the Square Fesitival

Frisco Squrare - Simpson Plaza Fountain

Frisco Square - Freedom Fest

Randy’s Steak House

Pizzeria Testa

“The best camera, is the one you have on you.”
— Chase Jarvis