Rainy Night

Here's what I got from my photo shoot on the porch during the rainstorm:


These two are the same shot, but the second caught the sky filled with lightning.



Mother Nature violates traffic laws.


And all clear at dawn... Yes, I do sometimes see the dawn. Occasionally.


Next time, don't miss Jay's birthday photo expedition: Bayside industry, pigeons, and Jay on his cell phone!

Rain, Rain, Here to Stay

We're having a rainstorm right now. It was pretty serious there for a while and Jay and I went downstairs to watch its determination to wash away, well, everything. I took my camera down and scurried around the porch, dancing with the wet wind. I'm a bit protective of my new baby. Much love and appreciation to Jay who did a wonderful job being bodyguard, as well. I ended up taking 88 pictures so it'll take me some time to pick out the couple of best ones (aka, the ones that aren't blurry) and make them viewable, but here's a teaser. The shutter speed was only 1/15th of a second, so it really was raining that hard.

Inside the World of Thompson

Here is me trying to make up for my slackerness:

A glimpse into the Family Thompson over the Independence Day weekend in Traverse City, MI. Incidentally, I bought a new camera (Yay!). A lovely Canon 40D. I'm still learning how to use it (hence the lack of pictures on the blog) and the weekend at the Thompson Ranch was my first time using it (hence some of the soft focus). I've been waiting to buy this for a while and I could declare my patriotism, saying I did my part to stimulate the economy like I was told to do with my $600 check. But I'm going to give credit to the friends and family who donated money to the cause on birthdays and Christmases as well as a generous end of fiscal year bonus from my employer which came just at the right time. Nyahh-nyah, Bushie!

Jay spent much of the weekend discovering muscles he had long forgotten with what we lovingly called The Stupid Ball Game [edit: Jay says he's working on his tan]:

This is his youngest brother, Brad, master of the Stupid Ball Game, making him Stupid Ball Game Master, I suppose.

We enjoyed after dinner glasses of wine watching the sun set on the lakeside porch. This is the brother to whom Jay looks similar, Randall. Jay looks pleased with himself, doesn't he?

This other blond brother is Ben, the eldest, with his wife Nicole. Ben was trying to pretend he wasn't posing for this shot.

I haven't decided why, but I like this picture of them better despite it's conventional flaws. It's hard to tell in this small of a version, but Nicole's eyes are open, she's just looking down.

And, the last sibling would be Little Cat. Isn't she lovely?

Jay can make her hop.

Unfortunately, none of my pictures of Jay's Mom or Dad turned out very well. There was one of his Mom with killer lighting, but I moved too much with a slow shutter speed causing too much blur. This is the best one. I think she's trying not to laugh at one of her son's antics.

Jay with his Dad in the basement wearing matching shirts.

This one of Jay's parent's turned out nice. They like to sit out on the end of their dock a lot. I saw them out there at least once every day we were there.

We had a good, relaxing time up there and a thank you to the Thompson's for their hospitality.