Joy Rose Chance, born 9-30-05 @ 4:05pm PST. 8lb, 6oz of pure love.

Today was my son's first time fishing!  My in-laws brought their boat to Collins Lake, and we brought the kid.  He and his cousin had a great time fishing off Grampa's boat.

So I thought hey, I just bought a 50mm lens that I need to test out.  Let's give it a try!  So these were both shot at 1/4000, f1.8, 50mm lens.  ISO 100.

Here's my son, Gregory Jr.



And here's his cousin Michael.



...and hilarity ensued!

We all had a good time.

Last Saturday I took my son hiking at Bridgeport, CA in the South Yuba River State Park, here in Northern CA.  It's the longest covered bridge in North America, and my son called it the "house bridge".



Beyond the bridge to the left is a trail called Point Defiance Trail, which is about a mile long.  Here's a view of the bridge from about 1/4 mile up the trail.



Independence Trail has a wonderful mix of terrain, which became a playground for my son.  Here he is scaling the "baby rocks", as he called them.



At 3 years old, this kid was making it up the steep inclines with ease.  I didn't even have to tell him what to do, he got on all fours by himself.



"Cheese!" he exclaimed as I took his picture along one of the straightaways.



He did great on the way up, but on the way back it wasn't so great.  I had to carry him about half the way.  I didn't mind it though, we had lots of fun.  I've vowed to take him camping as often as I can before the weather changes too much.

Thanks for looking!

Before you even ask, no, I haven't slept yet. Last night was the peak for the annual Perseids, and I found the PERFECT spot to shoot and view the stars. It's in Nevada City, CA, and is an abandoned airport. For some strange reason they never developed it, so it's this giant runway-sized plot of dirt. It appears to never have been paved. It's great! Away from city lights, high altitude, and nothing blocking the view of the sky.

Each shot was approximately 3 minutes in length, f/4.5, ISO 800, shutter release & tripod.  I shot 66 frames, and managed to catch 2 shooting stars.  I wanted to get a fireball captured, but every one I saw (5 or 6 of them) were out of frame.  The first one I saw lit up the whole sky and lingered for 4 or 5 seconds.

Anyway, here are the photos.  In this first one, the perseid in question is on the right, just above the large tree:



In this one, it's about 1/3 of the way from the right side of the frame, at the top.



The last one isn't of perseids at all, but I loved what happened when the glow of the sun started to become visible in the distance.



Thanks for looking!