Face it guys.  You wanna drive the Zamboni.  You know you do.  Just ask the Gear Daddies.

I took this photo at a Sioux Falls Stampede hockey game three or four years ago at the Sioux Falls Arena.

And yes, I too wanna drive the Zamboni. 

 

This is the rare photo that I did not take.  It was taken by the folks from Kodak during a promotion they were doing at Mt. Rushmore in June 2002.  While I look like a typical touristy dork, I like the family pose and Mt. Rushmore behind us.  We were in Rapid City for the state soccer tournament.  It

is a memory of a good time with my family.

  

This is a photo of my daughter Sarah (right) and her friend Tia from the summer of 2002 at Wall Drug in Wall, SD.  I like their mischievous looks and stcking their tongues out at me.  The girls would have been about 12 at the time and acting, well, like kids.

I've included this photo for a couple of reasons.  First, it is obviously of the Great Wall of China north of Beijing, which I visited in the summer of 1983.  What is interesting is all the people walking along the wall.  The photo itself is merely ok at best--over exposed, washed out, and a bad, bald sky that didn't help matters. 

Oh, and I opened my camera back, exposing my slide film to daylight.  Pretty dumb, considering at the time I figured I'd probably not make it back to the Great Wall anytime soon--which has been the case. The original slide is nearly white from overexposure.   

Which brings me to my second point.  Thanks to the even rather rudimentary tools in Photoshop Elements 2.0 that I use, I was able to rescue the photo over twenty years later so it is actually viewable.  In the hands of a professional like my freind Dawnne Gee, he might even be able to make it better still (and a better still).  Thank goodness for digital photography!

 

I wish I could tell you I meant for this photo to turn out this way, but that would not be the truth.  Typically in my sports photography, I'm trying to stop the action as sharply as possible, not blur it.  I get enough unintentional blur as it is from poorly lit gyms and too weak of a flash unit on my camera.

But I think in this photo, the blur works pretty well.  My daughter Sarah, the maroon gal in the middle, is mostly stopped and waiting to receive the just thrown basketball from an unseen teammate.  Meanwhile, the other players swirl around her playing defense.  I think it captures the critical moment of the ball being thrown and the controlled chaos that is basketball.  I believe I took the photo in 2005 and it is of a C game between Harrisburg and Sioux Falls Christian.   

 

 

This is a street scene in Damascus, Syria that I took in November 2003.  I like the modern advertisement that seemingly looks down on the tricycle fruit cart.  Just a nice juxtaposition of old in new that you often find in the Middle East.

 

I thought this was an interesting photo as all the people on this dock on the Missouri River at Yankton, SD's Riverside Park appear to be oblivious to each other.  Also, the boy in the foreground looks like he's surfing, "hangin' ten," I believe.  I took this photo last summer.

How did I get so close to President George W. Bush? Simple. I gave him a big donation and got to meet him at a White House grip and grin.

Or, I went to Keystone, SD and visited the National Presidential Wax Museum. I think the President looks a little puffy (and waxy) in this rendition. Photo was taken in June 2002.

 

This is a photo I took in the Summer of 1983 in Shanghai, China of Chinese acrobats.  This is an example of my mind's eye taking a better picture than I actually did.  I was hampered by low lighting, no flash, manual focus, a slow lens, and probably 100 ASA speed Ektachrome slide film.  In my mind, the action is stopped cold and is tack sharp.  The resulting photo is not quite that way.  Also, I'm not sure if I like the composition or not.  I think it accurately conveys the controlled chaos on the stage; others might think it is too busy.  I think my skills as a photographer have increased in the ensuing 23 years; certainly my camera gear has improved, if nothing else.  Nonetheless, the photo brings back fond memories of a wonderful summer evening in Shanghai.

 

This Chinese boy was at the daycare center next to the Foreign Experts Residence at East China Normal University in Shanghai, which I attended in the Summer of 1983.  I think he looks like a happy camper.