Here is a quick shot of the 19 that we graduated from FFI Class at the AACOFD Training Academy…

Wow, time has been flying by…no pun intended. I finished up my FFI class and am finished teaching for awhile. Baby coming in just a couple of weeks keeps you busy. We were able to take in a weekend of fun down in Southern MD over the Memorial Day Holiday. We went out on Daddy Bill & Mom Cindy’s boat for the day with the boys and watched the Blue Angles. They were performing for 2 days at NAS Pax River, which is right on the water. The flight demo was held over the runway but the pilots did plenty over the water, right over our heads. It was absolutely great in all respects. Here are a couple of shots of the mighty F/A-18’s over head. Hope you enjoy as much as we did.

Haven’t had any time to post anything lately with class, getting the house ready for our new addition and going to Derek’s Lacrosse games. I helped out with a Firefighter II class and was able to sap a few pictures during the evolution. In the photos a fellow Instructor is taking a group of students in to extinguish a liquid fuel fire.

Sunrise over the city…early March 2009

This past November while on my way out from a meeting, I noticed the sun shining on the city and the moon rising from the East. I snapped a few quick shots as I was already running late. It was a windy day making it difficult to hand hold the camera in the low light. I setup my tripod on top of the car and stood on the door step to get high enough to look through the viewfinder.

The church is (i think) the First Presbyterian on the 200 block of Madison Street.

I’ve been crazy busy at work. Between that, working around the house, the kids and the firehouse, I don’t have much time left for any photo ops.
While at work, I have been taking some shots of the garage now that we are just about completed with construction. As usual, I take shots with tone mapping in mind. For some reason, a garage really lends itself to some great gritty shots. Here is one of the recent ones from the depths of the parking garage…

If you can’t afford to go to the far reaches of the earth on a safari, the local zoo is your next best bet. While living in Scotland, I took this shot of a Bengal Tiger at the Edinburgh Zoo. The Tiger was staring down a person who was standing a few feet away from me. Just after I took the shot, the tiger lept across the water hole and pounced on the window. I don’t know if it was playing or hungry. Either way, it scared the kid half to death. Believe it or not, the glass was about 6″ thick and dirty. Thus the softened effect of the image.

A lot has happened in the last year. We had a great summer with a trip to Florida, the Outer Banks and then to WV. One of my favorites of the year was the trip to WV. To close the year out, I have an image from Blackwater Falls. Jenn, my mother and father-in-law Bill & Cindy all climbed our way down to the lower falls of Elakala. This was one of those where there wasn’t a trail to follow. We had to hang onto limbs and rocks and whatever we could to keep from falling further down. It was quite an experience for all of us.
Happy New Year to everyone!

This place wasn’t easy to find. A fellow photographer mentioned to me that it was nearby Blackwater Falls State Park. On the way out from our vacation, Jenn & I decided to see if we could find it. After doing some reading, we figured we had a pretty good idea. Anyone who has been there can relate to how difficult it was to get too. If you haven’t been there, I wont bother trying to explain it. Just take my word for it…

Another image of the sun rising over Baltimore on a nice October morning…