Christmastime: A Little Piece of Wales, in Alabama

Years ago, my wife worked at a local bank.  She started to tell me about these workers who would come in to cash their checks, that were helping to build an extraordinary RV Resort.   They would spin tales of a large steam locomotive, intricate architecture and stonework and a massive effort in construction.

I'm not a RV person.  I'm a sailboat person.  So, my naivity kicks in when I hear "RV Resort".  I immediately imagine a few shotgun-style roads lined with lots and power hookups, sparse trees, filled with RVs, usually at a nice location such as a forest, lake or waterfront.

Fastforward a few years and we hear from friends these references of a place called "Wales West", primarily famous for Thomas the Train, Halloween and Christmas train-events.  That year, my wife, daughter, son and I, all dress down into our pajamas and head to their take on The Polar Express.  (Called, I'm sure for legal purposes, The Arctic Express)

What we found when we arrived was trully more than I expected.  Beautifully decorated grounds connected, largely with intricate stonework and european architecture.   Smiling faces all-around.  

On the grounds, numerous buildings stand, all with super attention to detail and a very classic styling, surrounded by endless droves of Christmas decorations of all kinds.

As we waited at the train depot for our trip to the North Pole, a small clean shop sits with some of the most welcoming and delightful Christmas decorations.  You can't help but stop and view them with the eyes and wonder of a child.

You board a train, something right out of a Walt Disney home video - and embark on a journey to the North Pole the kids with likely not forget.  

The 5-10 minute train ride snakes through the resort and out past a small lake, adorned with the brilliant reflections of Christmas lights on the shore.  A photograph cannot do this scene justice!  The train works its way into the woods just far enough that on a cold night the child in you can imagine that you may have actually been magically transported to the North Pole.

At your destination, you unload and find Santa Claus, ready to pose with photos and bearing a gift for the youngsters.    Around Santa is a creative and fun arts-crafts style play area for the kids and more fantastic decorations and music.

Upon your return home, you find a spacious tent with a wooden railroad track and tables around it.  Parents can sit and relax, enjoying hot cocoa and cookies while the children's imagination go wild on this large wooden railway.

With the point of this blog being to share interesting sights and sites, I feel like Wales West is one of those best-kept-secrets that families in our area need to know about.    

 

Christmastime, above all, is about family and making memories.  Wales West, the unlikliest place to a programmer-sailior such as myself, has earned a special spot in our Christmas family tradition.  There's still time, this year!  Check them out online, at: http://www.waleswest.com/

Excitement of a new paintbrush...

Being a person who understands Science and Technology, I've always had a sense of wonder for artists.  One of my friends in High School was this amazing artist.  He wanted to be a cartoonist and he could amaze by sitting down and pencilling these creative, simple - yet, lifelike drawings.    People who can draw, paint, play music "by ear".  I've always been in awe of those skills because, I do not possess them.

Photography and post-processing is the closest skill to painting tnat I do possess.   This week, with my primary paintbrush (A Nikon) in the shop, I found myself buying another. (A Sony Alpha)

There is something exciting about getting new tools and learning how they can be used to express your creative urges.   This, is based on my first outing with this new, very different, paintbrush.

Winter Tones

Save & Close

... I'd never actually walked this far away from the pier, before when I took this shot. I thought it was interesting how the clouds reflected in the Bay and how sometimes a "cold day" can come through because of the tones in the shot.

Happy Monday Friends!

Black and Blue

I usually don't like posting two shots from the same location, so quickly together.   This shot, was actually part of the bracket I used to build an HDR Panorama of this location last week. When I was perusing the files, I saw this one and thought "Dang, that was better than the resulting HDR".. 

I really enjoy shots where elements are fully blacked or whited out in interesting ways.   Touching up the contrast here, made the walkway to the right completely disappear and I thought the result was kinda interesting and worth sharing...  Happy Thursday, Friends.

Fairhope's Municipal Marina

Bonus post for today to come to Parity with G+ and Flickr. :)

Yes Virginia, Santa Moonlights at the Mall to help make ends meet

My little girl, this year, I found out today, vouched for me with the man in red.

There's a small backstory..    Jena was going through her growing list of must-haves that the man-in-red should deliver.   Faced with seemingly endless possibilities, (the sky's the limit, right?  :)  ) 

she asks me, "what would you like for Santa to bring you this year, daddy?"

I explained that I, in fact, was bad for a good portion of the year and will not be receiving anything from her favorite portly benefactor.  But, not to fear -- I would indulge myself by buying another R/C Plane or other toy at some point in the new year.

So.. my little frustratiingly cute 6 year old goes up to Santa and runs down her little list..  Then she vouches for me, "..and please bring Daddy and Airplane, he says he'll be better next year"

I'm posting these, so that.. in 10 years when she steals my wallet and rides off on a hover-motorcycle with some boy whom I don't approve of, I can reference it as "aww.. that was cute.  she was nice to me.. a decade ago.."

So.. what of Santa pics?  How do you handle them?  I just can't imagine you professional and semi professional photographers standing in line at the Mall for take-your-ticket Santa Photography.

This will sound wildly redneck but we go to the Bass Pro Shop near us every year.   They have a good looking Santa, nice setting with good lighting, allow you to use a DSLR and sell you a digital print for reasonable of their capture (which was great this year)

This capture, however was from my DSLR, then softened up a bit to reflect the wonder and magic children must fill when meeting Santa.

Year - End Review: Down the River

I looked at my calendar today and realized how quickly the New Year is going to be upon us.  Holy 2012-Apocalypse batman, this month is going by quickly!

I thought it would be cool to intermix some of my favorite shots of 2011, between other blog posts, with the twist of some sort of "alternate" treatment so it isn't just a boring, re-post of the original.

I came across this photo and knew this was easily one of my favorite shots for the year.  Not, because I think the shot is particularly awesome but for more whimsical reasons.    As my desktop wallpaper cycles to this shot, I tend to daydream for about 2 nanoseconds that this shot was captured along some back-country river in Asia during some multiple-week trek to shoot a non-touristy portion of the Asian countryside; old monasteries or something.

..of course… even my kindergartener knows better.  This shot came from Disney's Animal Kingdom.   There was no ride through rice patties in a 60's model truck filled with chickens and farm animals to get to this point.   There were no guides and there was no hiking on snow-covered mountain peaks.  Just a jolly frolic from the frozen banana and mickey-headed ice-cream stand.

Still, a boy can dream, right?   So, that was the theme I went with in processing this.  Some over-the-top patina, overlay of an old nautical map and some other textures.

The original photo is here:

YardArm

How would you like to spend your retirement?

With full knowledge that fewer and fewer of us will achieve our goals in this area..  I'll share my dream with you. So many people, get RVs and travel the country.  I ... really don't like driving long distances, so I'm pretty sure the RV is out.

I'd like to spend a good deal of my retirement, sailing but I have some portions of this plan, still to work out.

I can sail.   I have a small sailboat that doubles as my "head down, tasks" office.   She's 29 ft, older than I am and not pictured here. Her name, Stargazer, is an omage to my real plan for retirement, one day.    To sail the seas in a 40+ footer. With a Wind Generator, Solar Panels and the loves of my life.  My wife, my telescope and camera while my children drink away my life savings in search of college degrees.

I decided to take a step in this direction, this year when I got Stargazer.. for quite a deal.  

So, now I have some practice sailing.   I'm no expert but I can drive the boat, work the sails, navigate with wind direction in mind.   Basic Skillset, Check.

My wife gets seasick.  This could be a snag.

I'm making plans to hopefully attend a week long sail school in the spring.  Get certified and when I'm really old and deranged, I can make people call me Captain.   

Much, sooner than my retirement, however -- I've been considering a change of careers.   Sort of, my pre-mid-life crisis.  I'm a really good developer but I know I'm not getting any younger and software development is a young persons' career.    Management opportunities aren't exactly falling from the sky.   Maybe I should have held on to the one I once, had.

I've seriously considered working towards a 2 year goal of trading up into that 40 foot sailboat and doing private charters on the beautiful gulf coast.   Coupled with my love for photography and some contacts, I'm sure I could make it lucrative.

Then, today as I looked up YardArm's website to post some details about the really neat restaurant/marina pictured here, I see details of a private charter that has gone out of business that was home, here.

I believe in signs.  So, is this a sign to call and buy their boat (which is for sale) or to quit daydreaming and get back to work.    My checking account leans towards the former option, so I guess I'll go program something...

Happy Monday! 

White Fence

Whenever I see a fence, I automatically think about Tim Taylor's neighbor, WIlson.  

(Fun fact, his name, for the sake of that show, was actually, Wilson Wilson, Jr. )

Of course, for this to be that fence and Wilson to almost peer over it, he would have to be about as tall as a leprechaun.    If only I had a neighbor like Wilson, I could ask him about how tall Leprechauns were. He would surely know.

I guess, that was before Siri and Andrew, before Google was a verb and everyone had a powerful computer in their pocket disguised as a phone.  

Except for maybe James Bond and Q.  Pretty sure, they had smartphones, then.

Well, the James Bond, Q did, anyway.  The Star Trek Next Generation Q, didn't need smartphones.  He could just wrinkle his nose and alter reality @ will, so silly trivia wasn't a major problem for him.

.. or was that Jeannie that could wrinkle her nose and make things happen?

I wonder if Tim would have found a way to give a Smartphone,   "More Power!"

Maybe he would have come up with WebOS and a power-guzzling 8 core processor and in the last minute, Al would install the latest Android or IOS build, add some battery capacity and turn off 4 unused cores...

I guess, these days, he can just tell Curtis the Elf and he can make that happen.

...if you don't have a Television or didn't have one in the 80's, this post will make little sense to you, sorry.  Check
Netflix on your smartphone and you'll get the references.

Embracing Imperfection

This time of year, a few years ago, I sat next to this professional photographer on a flight coming back from a U.S. Customs conference for Brokers and Broker-related technologies.  He, being a photographer with an interest in software-technology and me, being a programmer with an interest in photography: we traded business cards and had a nice chat.   We shared two legs of the itinerary and had some time to grab a beer in Atlanta's airport and chat about our respective careers.  

From that chat, I remember vividly this quote, (regarding Portraits, specifically -  Christmas Portraits) he said, "I help capture the lie that people like to perpetuate of having the perfect family."

Now.. I will admit that is a total-hipster statement but...in my own experience I've found some truth in it.

Last year, I picked up Trey Ratcliff's photo book.  Among the many fantastic photos in that book, is this very awesome and magical Christmas portrait..

 (.. I mean, really... how awesome is that?)  
A very inspiring image... in fact, it inspired me into a moment of insanity but, in the end, helped us to develop a new holiday tradition.. read on.. 

So, in my very Clark Griswold way, as the Holiday Season approached last year, I projected onto my family the impossible task of creating this perfect family Christmas Portrait.  Not because I wanted to impress anyone, outdo the Jones's or cousins.   Not to try to portray the image of a perfect family.   Just... because.

With a 2 year and old and 6 year old, our house isn't the most clutter-free place.   One of the reasons I'd rather do Google Hangouts from my Boat than my house.   But, we  do have this corner where we  always place our Christmas tree and we have this Grandfather clock that means something to me because.. my mom and grandfather built it.  We set up stockings around the Grandfather clock, buy some Christmas floral arrangements and cute little outfits for the kids and I set off in the misguided journey for the perfect image. The idea was for the image to look like we were beginning to decorate the tree.   False - Candid Portraits.

Perfect lighting, the perfect poses, the perfect clarity, the perfect angle.   It must all be PERFECT!  Miles, turn in towards your sister and fold your arms on your lap.  Jena, chin up but face me.  Smile!  No - The real smile! ... Miles, put that down and sit here.  Jena, stay where you are..   Miles -- no wait, don't do that -- over here!!

Click Click Click Click

I went shutter-mad.   Took hundreds and hundreds of photos.   At the end, I looked alot like my favorite scene from National Lampoon's Christmas vacation.   Sipping Egg Nogg and wondering where my chainsaw is so I can cut down the tree in disguist.   

..and ma in her defeated pose and I about to snap, the kids flopped down to the floor with Christmas lights in their lap...

Then, it happened.   While Dina and I looked at each other in stress-induced defeat, the kids sat down beneath the tree and started playing with an extra strand of Christmas lights.  I pulled off the boot flash and took the camera off the tripod.  Snapped a half dozen shots and ended with this.. my favorite holiday shot of our kids..

It isn't a perfect image.  Because of my lens, it is a little higher-ISO than would be ideal.  They had both changed into random PJ's, so these were not the cute little clothes we wanted. There was some motion blur and neither kid is looking at the camera...  But.. the thing about this image is... it is real..

So now, we have a new family tradition.  Instead of trying to get the perfect family Portrait for Christmas.. as we decorate the tree we pulll out the lights and let the kids play.   I snap some shots and most of them, don't turn out.   But, I always find one or two that will pass for the sake of capturing the memory.

I haven't even gone through all of the photos from this year but this one stuck out to me as appropriate for this post.  As a casual photo-snob perfectionist passerby sees the photo I posted today, they'll see amateurish imperfection.   Mid-High ISO and softness from the Lens I used.    Motion blur from the wrong shutter speed.  Incorrect focal point and maybe the wrong F-stop.

As Dad and Photographer.  I see the memory.  This shot and the 20 before and after it of my children enjoying the Christmas Season.  Isn't that, the point, after all?

Perfection.. can be.. a fool's errand.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holiday Season..

Bill, the Not Perfect Dad-Photographer

Sunset from the Pier..

About halfway down the Fairhope Pier, the Sunset on a nice, cool afternoon.

TGIF!

The Oak and The Barn, Panoramic

<sanitized>

No Wide Angle? No Problem!

During the photo walk in Fairhope, I found myself in a position where I'd like to have had a true wide angle lens, instead of the do-everything lens I usually carry..   No Wide Angle?  No problem.  Shoot your image in quadrants and let photoshop stitch them together for you!

Video of the making of this:

"Let their minds fill out the shot.."

The only photography training that I ever recieved, short of online workshops recently, was during High School.   I joined the Yearbook group for all the wrong reasons.  It would give me this full period of time during the school day that I could wander around, even offsite at times under the guise of "yearbook activities."  It gave me a pass to hang out with any clubs I wanted.   Football, baseball, cheerleading or band.  I could shadow any organization in the school and it was perfectly okay.   I eventulaly met my wife, a band chick, through this newfound freedom to explore the school with a camera.

Back to the training, though.   They sent us to this Olin Mills or Herf Jones workshop to learn compositional style and camera fundamentals.   I was a teenager and remember hardly anything from the class except for the girl that oddly enough, paid attention to me..

As the "photo editor" (ha ha) for the yearbook and working as a trade-school sort of arrangement for a local newspaper, I developed a pretty passible darkroom skillset.   I loved the develop photos.

Which brings me to this image from the Holiday photowalk, this weekend.  

The head of the yearbook organization was this really effective, mildly crazy, super-intense ex-Cop-turned-english teacher named Jim Reeves.   I always sort of imagined him as a strange mashup of Jimmy Buffet, Ernest Hemmingway, Dirty Harry & Steve Jobs.  I'd pour through the photos of the others (far better photographers than me, by the way) and he'd pour through my list and pick out the best.

Like Steve Jobs, he'd thumb through the photos into two piles, all the while, saying outloud "crap.  crap. crap.   decent.   crap crap crap decent. crap crap crap crap... "  until the stack of paper was reduced two a tiny piles of decent images and a large pile that would immediately find itself into the wastebasket.

As I took this shot, I thought of Jim Reeves... He would applaud the action shots of people and of photos of innanimate objects, he'd tell me..

<paraphrased>

"Let the viewer's mind fill out portions of the shot, it's okay if everything isn't in the frame."

I've improved in camera handling since then but I don't think I ever did get the nack for natural - epic composition and I constantly struggle with when it's OK to exclude a portion of the shot.   But, I did get that girl's phone number from photography camp.  However, to paraphrase the sitcom, "Kids, this is not how I met your mother..."

Utopia, Found?

Whenever you see a sign that advertises Utopia, you just have to take that picture.  That's a rule, right?

I don't know if this town, Fairhope, is utopia or not but I had a great time walking the streets snapping photos like this one..

In my usual fashion, this shot almost landed me in trouble.   Someone felt I was a little too close to their vehicle as I sat kneeled on the ground for the looooonnnnnnngggg exposure times to tick away.   I mean, I didn't think I looked like a carjacker but maybe a crowbar wasn't a valid photography accessory?

Utopia, indeed. :)

A-Pier-ances

I go to a Christmas-season photowalk and walk away with a bunch of pictures of piers.   :)
I'm undecided if I like the processing on this one but I know I'll release some other "versions" of this shot in the future, because I like the composition and subject.  

For this version I was going for stark contrast hoping to bring in the white reflections in the clouds on the water. 

A Very Creepy Christmas..

I attended my first Photo walk on Sunday, with the Eastern Shore Camera Club. What a cool time!  I met these fantastic people and walked around Fairhope taking pictures of this and that..  Also, got to hang with one my Flickr Heros, Brody ..

What a cool time!  I love photography and I'm thrilled to attend anything where other entusiastic and nice people are there..  Can't wait to do it again.

K, for this shot, I wandered off to the Pier at Night.  Walked to the end and for some reason, after a day of taking pictures of beautiful Christmas lights in an idyllic setting, the macabre-ish style lighting really called to me.

It reminds me of how many creepy things have made their way into the Christmas celebration.  From Dickin's ghost to Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, somehow the macabre has made its way into this season.   This photo is my tribute to that :)

The Art of Chill

Walking by the House of Blues (Orlando), this scene caught my eye.   Relaxing music, comfortable chairs, soft lighting and great service seems to bring a great mood to this spot.   My capture of it, on the other hand, was handheld and could have been improved to reduce the glow around the patio lights.

I wasn't about to pull up a chair and chill.  The two year old tugging on my arm had other plans, leading to some epic daddy-son time, instead.

I plan to return to this spot, though, as a patron! 

The decorations are out..

I'm not sure how common this is.   Around me, in Southern Alabama, all of the little towns around our 21 mile stretch heading to the beach, participate pretty heavily in Holiday decoration displays. 

Along the road, lightpoles get decorated with light-up ornaments and the parks get filled with fake reindeer and scaled-down Christmas villages.    Is this something that is just normal here in the bible belt or common elsewhere, too?   I don't remember seeing this in Indiana when I lived there...

Golden Masts

 I dropped by the marina @ Fairhope Pier to check for available slips.   I really wanted to get my boat in Fly Creek Marina but it was booked up for Hurricane Season.  Signed a lease at the Wharf instead.    

I'm not sorry, The Wharf has nice amenities and is a "hurricane hole" with its great floating dock system.   Still, the Fairhope area would've been a nicer drive.   Oh Well, maybe next year :)

I did, at least get this shot from the Fairhope City Marina @ Sunset.