What are you doing for next year?

Posted on December 17, 2015December 17, 2015 by Dusty Roads

Between work and trying to bring you all up to date on the Florida trip I’ve been preparing my annual Christmas Cards. All of my cards are hand made and I use my original photos. Each year I try to top the card I used from the previous year.

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Last night we had our Team Celebration and I handed out the cards for the team members. I was thrilled that they were a hit. I can’t share it here yet as I haven’t mailed all of the others. I’ll share on Christmas Day 🙂

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Anyway they wanted to know what I would do for next year.

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Part of the reason for a Florida trip this December was to check out the decorations at Disney. I got lots of pics. These are just a sample of the contenders that I shot my first day in Florida before I even got to the Disney Parks.

Happy Thanksgiving

Posted on November 26, 2015November 26, 2015 by Dusty Roads

Frankly My Dear, I don’t Give a Clam

Posted on September 20, 2015September 20, 2015 by Dusty Roads

News flash…Summer is not over. Nope not at all. Don’t believe me? Just ask my sister.

We just had an awesome weekend. In my family you don’t just go visit someone. You need an excuse like a wedding or funeral or birthday and the perfect excuse presented itself this weekend. This was the weekend of the Scallop Festival.

Now anyone who follows this blog knows I am a sucker for a plate of scallops. Well my sister is the same way. So I was pleased, if surprised when my sister said she was willing to drive over from upstate NY for the weekend and go to the Scallop Festival with me.

Sandy arrived Friday night and after getting her settled we went to the Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner. I have to tell you their $12.99 dinner combo is an amazing value. We started with a salad. (we both chose Caesar), then a sirloin steak (6 once which can be upgraded) cooked to a medium rare perfection with a baked potato that was really baked, not microwaved. Even though we were pretty stuffed we couldn’t say no to the cinnamon carrot cake for dessert. Yummy! and all that for only $12.99 each. The service was excellent too.

We returned home and rolled out the air mattress for me to sleep on . Sandy got the bed. I expected the cats to be all over me since I was on the floor at their level but no, Rocky checked out the situation and retired back to the living room.

Buddy had to see if he could get the bed from Sandy so he took a leap right onto her back. I’m not sure who was more surprised but he didn’t linger. He jumped down, landed on my air mattress, took a couple of staggering steps to solid ground and apparently gave up.

He did persist in standing guard at the bathroom door whenever someone was using the facilities.

So after a good night’s sleep and breakfast the next morning at I HOP we were ready to check out the Scallop Festival in Falmouth (on Cape Cod), MA

They Call It Moonglow

Posted on September 26, 2014September 26, 2014 by Dusty Roads

Moonglow. Not a super moon.

At the 40th Anniversary Balloon Festival it was 3 tethered balloons glowing in the dark. The photo that resulted is one of my favorites . The Boston Globe newspaper liked it too as it was featured “above the fold” in one of the Sunday editions.

The “Moonglow” was my main reason for attending the Festival this year. As much as I like the photo from 2012, I felt that I could do better. I wanted another try. This year they planned on more than 3 balloons. Moonglow was going to be at the airport. It was scheduled for 8 pm Saturday night.

There was also a 5 pm launch but as we arrived at the airport we learned that the 5 pm launch had been grounded due to high wind gusts. Disappointing but not a disaster. After all we had loads of pictures from Friday evening’s launch.

We set up our lawn chairs and settled in to wait. The breeze was pretty stiff and it began to get chilly but we hung in there. We were hoping that if the balloons were tethered maybe they’d still be able to pull off the Moonglow.

Alas, it was not to be. About 7:30 the chase teams began to pack up. They moved the baskets to the tarmac and lined them up. To a rousing sound track they sent propane flames skyward but no balloons.

The Festival was over for us.

There was a final launch scheduled for dawn on Sunday but we had no plans to attend that one.

So I will leave you with a few more photos from Friday night

And the promise that I will try again another year to capture that perfect “moonglow” picture.

“Would you like to fly in my beautiful balloon????”

They came in Waves

Posted on September 24, 2014September 24, 2014 by Dusty Roads

2 years ago we thought the show was pretty good but this year the launch far out-shown anything from 2012.

I don’t know how many balloons made it up but they launched in waves. You watched them drift overhead and turned to follow them out of sight only to turn around to more balloons lifting into the air. We heard the goal was to get 80 balloons in the air. I think they made it.

Music filled the air providing a sound track to the spectacle. Each balloon was unique. Bright colored traditional balloons rose side by side with whimsical animals and even a sci-fi Icon.

Yes , there was even an 85 ft, 600 lb black balloon that struck fear in the hearts of the rebel alliance. Darth Vader himself rose from the ground to the strains of the Star Wars Overture. Darth was definitely the celebrity of the day. Sadly he remained tethered and we never got to see him soar.

Once of my favorite images was when a brightly colored balloon seemed to rise over Darth Vader ‘s helmet like a tiny moon. Several looked like they might not clear his 85 ft. height.

Right next to us was large black and white balloon that turned out to be a giant Panda!

As the balloon inflated children romped in its shadow. What a thrill to be so close to the behemoth as it inflated!

I was too close and then I wanted to zoom in on a more distant balloon. I was juggling lenses every few shots! Now I know why the photography team all hand at least 2 cameras around their necks. Maybe next time I’ll have that extra camera too.