More Favorite Photos

Last month I posted some of my favorite motorcycle photos. I enjoyed doing that so much I thought I would do the same with some of the pictures I've uploaded to Flickr over the years. I love going through my Flickr account and looking at old photos. It's a little like having my favorite photo albums on the road with me. I think Flickr is a lot of fun and while it isn't quite as cool as it was before Yahoo bought it they haven't really messed it up too much. I've only posted about one third of the pictures I had originally intended to but I may put some more up later.

Not much explanation needed of why this is a favorite. Look how cool that is! That's Lisa driving our little Toyota down the face of a cliff that I thought only existed in Road Runner cartoons. That's so cool!

Canyonlands National Monument, Moab Colorado July 1 2006

I love this one of Lisa and Angela Pace. It makes me laugh just because I made her have this taken last summer while she was temping at the 10TV offices. She was working for Angela but being from Colorado had no idea who Angela is. And being Lisa, she didn't really care. For those of you not from Ohio, Angela used to be the anchor woman on the evening news, a bit of a local celebrity. Now she's a producer. Lisa was so embarrassed to ask for this picture and Angela laughed when she explained her lame ass husband wanted a picture of the two of them together.

Lisa and 10TV producer Angela Pace, June 6 2007

This one is of my friend Al Grant taken during a job we did in Alaska. There were a lot of great things happening at this time. I had just left that crappy job in Aurora Colorado and got to go back to Fairbanks where I was stationed while in the Air Force and got to see how much it had changed. This was where I began this blog waaaay back. There's nothing particularly artistic about this photo but it's a damn good snapshot.

Al Grant fishing on the Chena River north of Fairbanks, Alaska May 2005

I love this one because it was Lisa's first visit after I left Colorado. It kind of made our relationship official. San Fransisco as I've mentioned a few times is one of my favorite cities and this is a beautiful shot. If there's one thing I would fix it would be the bridge tower coming out of my head.

Golden Gate Bridge, California November 2003

Something I've noticed is I seemed to be more artistically inclined when I had my old crappy Kodak DC290. Since I've gotten the Nikon my photos aren't as pleasing to me. This picture of Lisa at the Great Dunes is a good example. The lighting is cool looking and I like the composition. Of course I'm not saying I'm any Ansel Adams but some of my favorite pictures were taken with that old Kodak. As time passes, I enjoy these older photos more and more. Granted it's less than four years old but it seems like a lifetime since I lived in Colorado. It's understandable I guess since I've lived in about a dozen or so places since than.

Lisa, Great Dunes National Monument, Colorado June 2004

The thing about this photo is the weather. It's a given that one of the reasons I like it is because it reminds me of the ride I took to Clarksdale on my motorcycle. That's the whole point of a photo, to capture that moment that your brain might not be able to hold, but something else photos do for me is capture the weather. Like the next photo of Ohio in the sticky, hot summer, I can feel the cold damp Arkansas spring when I see those clouds. I was worried about all the stuff on my bike getting soaked and it felt like there was a literal cloud hanging above my head but now in the hindsight that's what made this trip so special for me. I'm not crazy about the square crop job I did on this one though.

The crossroads of Clarksdale, Mississippi April 2006

The thing I love about this picture are all of the different layers of green and the layers of light and shade in it. This was taken at Dawes Arboretum where Lisa and I got married. We were married on the little island down in the bottom right corner. About a week later we went back to Dawes just to look around and enjoy the area. We both agreed that during the wedding everything was a blur and we didn't get to appreciate the surroundings. The wedding was perfect, it was my favorite time in Ohio, mid-July. Believe it or not I actually love the hot, muggy weather of Ohio in the summer.

Dawes Arboretum, September 2006

Here's one from our time in Arkansas. The thing I like about this one is our pose and the great backdrop. I love the clouds and how you can see half of the western side of Arkansas with the river right below. This picture always reminds me of how much I really liked being together Arkansas. It was our first place living together as husband and wife and was a really special time.

Petite Jean State Park, Arkansas in September 2006

This one is from last summer's camping trip in Colorado. I like it just because of the colors and the clothes. This is one of those kinds of photos I always enjoyed looking at as a kid. I hope in twenty years someone looks at this picture and wonders what our story was and thinks "These two people look happy".

Above Georgetown Colorado, Summer 07

I have a thousand more photos I could post and maybe I will in a few months or years. This post has made me think a little bit about the popularity of the internet and the blogs and the social & photo sites. Maybe a big part of the allure is the chance at immortality. We are reminded constantly that whatever we post here will haunt us forever. I kind of like the idea that long after I've gone on to something else some grad student working on his thesis of early 21st century history will stumble onto my picture of Lisa and Angela Pace and think "Look at the size of that belt!"