trying to make sense of my world through pictures

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Gary and Ginger stop for a drink and snack on the way back to the Tower trailhead – Piney Creek Wilderness

Gary and Ginger stop for a drink and snack on the way back to the Tower trailhead

It’s a self portrait – so shoot me; I like it. we were on the last lap of a three day backpacking trip into the Piney Creek Wilderness.

01 January 2012 | Copyright © 2012 Gary Allman


Gary and Sprinky

Gary and Sprinky by Gary Allman

Another self portrait. Ginger likes this one, so why not?

05 October 2011 | Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman


Michaela – Two

Michaela - Two by Gary Allman

Another of my favorite pictures from a recent portrait session.

01 October | Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman


Michaela – One

Michaela By Gary Allman

One of my favorite pictures from a recent portrait session.

Shortly after this session my computer went into terminal decline. As a consequence I stopped taking pictures, except those needed to complete my 365 days project.

I now (December 2011) have a new, much better machine, and I can start processing again, so it’s time to get out and take pictures though now the weather’s settling into a winter pattern.

01 October 2011 | Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman


McDonald’s, I’m good ‘n cold and I have two egg McMuffins!

McDonalds, I'm cool and I have two egg McMuffins! by Gary Allman

I love egg McMuffins. Sorry but it is true. They are the highlight of any early morning excursion in the car. Today I was traveling back from an overnight stop in St Louis and breakfast called. Even better there was an offer of two egg McMuffins for the price of one.

This picture also appears in my 365 Days of 2011 blog.

29 August 2011 | Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman


Kite flying on Old Hunstanton Beach

Kite flying on Old Hunstanton Beach by Gary Allman

09 July 2011 | Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman


More fun in the workshop

More fun in the workshop by Gary Allman

Time for a bit of human interest to break up all the pretty landscapes. I’m really enjoying the lighting over the workbench, and this picture in particular seems to ‘pop’.

This is another picture from my 365 Days of 2011 project, taken while I was working on building a “batch-loaded, inverted down-draft gassifier” wood stove out of old tin cans. Building the stove kept me occupied for a couple of hours. The reasons for trying this are (1) it’s fun, (2) carrying a traditional stove and fuel adds around 2-3 lb to my backpack. A stove like this should weigh around 4 oz, is smaller than my backpacking stove, and (3) did I mention it’s fun? Anything involving power tools and fire has to be. In the picture I’m lining up the outer casing before drilling the air inlet holes.

Postscript: the stove worked, but not efficiently enough for my liking, the burner inset wasn’t deep enough and it wasn’t tall enough to draw properly. Watching the jets of wood gas burning is fascinating.  A Mark II stove followed which works a lot better and I’m toying with modifications to that design for the Mark III.

05 April 2011 | Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman


Susan and Natalie

Natalie Anne's Christening by Gary Allman

Susan and Natalie; Grandmother and Granddaughter.

This is a combination of two almost identical images. I combined them because the positioning of Susan’s hand was better in the second shot which was composed to remove some background distractions, but the overall composition of the first shot was better, despite the distracting background elements. The combined shot removed the distractions and kept the best pose and composition.

13 March 2011 | Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman


High school parking lot

High School parking lot by Gary Allman

Another shot from my 365 Days project

22 February 2011 | Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman


Last thing on a Tuesday night

Last thing on a Tuesday night by Gary Allman

Back in January I decided to start another 365 days of self portraits project. I’m trying not to flood this blog with pictures, but today’s shot, I felt had some special merit. 

It is surprising how insidious the traps are in the 365 days project. I have had a run of photographic luck, and suddenly I find myself in the mindset that I shouldn’t post anything that’s not at least average. I spent a lot of time and took sixty odd pictures in two locations to get today’s picture. I even juggled with a reflector in one hand and a cat in the other at one point.

All my 2011 365 days pictures can be found on my 365 days blog and on my 365 days Flickr set

15 February 2011 | 365:046 | Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman


St. Valentine’s Day breakfast at Anton’s Coffee Shop

Valentine's day breakfast at Anton's by Gary Allman

Today, after the school run we treated ourselves to breakfast. Anton’s parking lot was empty; so empty we thought they might be closed. Fortunately it was open, and the lack of customers meant we had the pick of the tables so I got one one with excellent light all the better to take some pictures of Ginger.

Valentine's day breakfast at Anton's Valentine's day breakfast at Anton's Valentine's day breakfast at Anton's


14 February 2011 | Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman


Proud dad

Proud dad by Gary Allman

Natalie Anne holding Lanie's finger

Natalie Anne holding Lanie's finger

Ginger holds Natalie Anne, born on the evening of Wednesday February 2, 2011, while dad, Matt, hovers protectively in the background.

As I was editing these pictures I received news of a death in the family back in the UK.

It was expected, but I was deeply saddened by the news. Saddened that it happened so soon and so quickly. Saddened that I wasn’t there to say my goodbyes or provide support.

Just as one life ends another has begun.


03 February 2011 | Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman


Lighting test

Ginger Allman

We were at the 2011 Bishop’s Ball where I was expecting to be taking pictures of small groups after the awards ceremony, so I practised setting up the flash and reflector. While playing with the set-up I got this very nice picture of Ginger. I love the way she’s looking away from the person walking through the doorway behind her. 

It turned out all my preparation was in vain as I ended up taking pictures on stage during the ceremony.

29 January 2011 | Diocese of West Missouri Youths’ 2011 Bishop’s Ball | Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman


Gary in the workshop

Drilling in the workshop by Gary Allman

Today I spent some time in the workshop.

With temperatures up in the sixties expected, we were planning on going out in the kayaks. That didn’t happen. Some shopping got done and I spent some time in the workshop instead.

First I repaired a kitchen drawer and in the process learned two valuable safety lessons. Then I made my self a pair of huaraches. I’ve been reading up on minimalist footware for quite a while and the huaraches seem to be the way to go, providing a very open shoe with a firmly attached sole. They are also very easy to make. So today I made a test pair. The finish of the sole cut-out is a bit rough, but I don’t expect these to last long, so I’m not going to worry about it.

Now I’ll have to give them a test and see how well they fair out on the trail and around home. One thing that has surprised me is that I’m having trouble getting used to the feel of the cord between my toes. As a long term flip-flop wearer I wasn’t expecting it to be an issue.

28 January 2011 | 365:028 | Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman


Merry Christmas 2010

Santa Getzger by Gary Allman

Christmas 2010

Gary Allman - Christmas 2010


Getzger is completely unimpressed at being called in to act in the role of Santa.

Just so that Getzger isn’t feeling too put upon in the silly hat stakes, here am I in my Santa Hat.


25 December 2010 | Copyright © 2010 Gary Allman


Gary and Ginger Sitting by the camp fire in the moonlight

 

Gary and Ginger sitting by the camp fire in the moonlight by Gary Allman

This weekend we’ve been trying out our backpacking gear, but without the actual backpacking. The nearest we got to hiking with our gear was to lug our packs 20-30′ from the car to our campsite.

We decided to cheat on preparing the fire. Not wanting to spend a lot of time and energy gathering and cutting wood, we bought some logs for $4 and I split them with an 8lb non backpacking axe. However, we did successfully light the fire backpacking style using cotton wool pads coated with Vaseline.

20 November 2010 | Copyright © 2010 Gary Allman


Gary and Ginger: wildlife and lake watching

Gary and Ginger: wildlife and lake watching by Gary Allman

I’ve been posting far too many landscapes, lake and tree pictures over the past few months. In an effort to mix things up a bit I thought I’d include a couple of pictures of us enjoying the scenery.

Friday evening we took Alek, Katie and a couple of kids from youth group to Kansas City for a Church event. We needed to be on hand to collect them again Sunday afternoon, so we left Lanie in the capable hands of Ginger’s cousin Betsy, put Getzger in charge at home and once we’d dropped the big kids off we turned around and went back to go camping at Berry Bend on Harry S. Truman Lake.

We didn’t bother taking the kayaks; we had a very nice quiet day sitting watching the lake and wildlife instead. It gave us a change to try out our Trekker chairs. I was dubious about sitting so low to the ground, but they proved very comfortable. The great thing about the chairs is that they use our existing Therm-A-Rest mattresses for the seat and seat back so there’s very little extra to carry. Which brings me to a problem. My Nikon weighs in at 2lbs. I need something lighter for backpacking, or I’m going to have to compromise somewhere else. We’ll see.

While sitting here we saw loads of different woodpeckers, hawks, and other birds including a bald eagle. We also watched the squirrels and chipmunks rushing around. Over the course of the weekend we also saw a deer, possum, coyote, and evidence of a beaver.

I never did get a chance to read the book I brought along, and I don’t think Ginger got much knitting done either.

20 November 2010 | Copyright © 2010 Gary Allman


Oh noes

…Getzger Cat realises that the pictures of him sitting on the bed yesterday might end up on Facebook.

Getzger Cat continues to amaze and amuse us

21 October 2010 | Copyright © 2010 Gary Allman


Tricia makes a splash

 

Christ Episcopal Church Block Party, September 19, 2010 by Gary Allman

The most popular ‘stand’ at the block party was the ‘dunk tank’. It was so hot that afternoon we might have made more money by letting people pay to be dunked.

Slideshow of all the block party pictures

19 September 2010 | Copyright © 2010 Gary Allman


Christ Episcopal Church Springfield, Block Party 2010

Christ Episcopal Church Block Party, September 19, 2010 by Gary Allman

Slideshow of all the block party pictures


19 September 2010 | Copyright © 2010 Gary Allman


Sunrise and fishing on Table Rock Lake

Sunrise on Table Rock Lake by Gary Allman

We were up early and ventured down to the lakeside to see the sunrise. Fortunately the water was very warm as I had to wade in up to my waist to get these pictures of two fishermen who were quietly trolling the lake.

The peace, tranquility, light and mist on the water more than made up for being up at six-thirty.

20 June 2010| Big Bay Recreation Area | Copyright © 2010 Gary Allman


Christ Episcopal Church Father Daughter Dance

 

Father Daughter Dance 2010 by Gary Allman

I was asked if I would take pictures at the Church’s annual father daughter dance. I’m glad I did as I managed to get several nice portraits. This one is my favorite from the afternoon’s shoot. Here are a sample of the afternoon’s pictures.

18 April 2010 | Copyright © 2010 Gary Allman | Christ Episcopal Church Father Daughter Dance


Lessons at Grey Campbell Farmstead

In a moment of temporary insanity I volunteered to help chaperon a group fifth graders (10-11 year olds) on a school visit to the oldest surviving house in Springfield, which dates back to 1856.

The main house has just two rooms, there’s a separate cook house, granary, barn, cemetery and of course privy.

One strange aspect of the visit was the almost constant gunfire which the farmstead staff said came from a civil war skirmish. The actual source was the nearby (250 yards – I measured it on Google maps) prison firing range. I’m not sure if the guards need that much practice or if it’s a physiological gambit to keep the inmates in line.

Here we see some of the children using slates to do some proper *British* English spellings as part of an example lesson.

13 April 2010 | Copyright © 2010 Gary Allman | Grey Campbell Farmstead


Cutting Wood

Cutting wood by Gary Allman

We had just finished cutting wood and loading the pick-up, when I spotted this picture of  Tom, his son, and the truck silhouetted against the sky. I deliberately under exposed the picture with this treatment in mind. I think the composition would be a little better if we hadn’t already loaded the wheel barrow.

We’ve spent several Saturdays working at this location which is around 25 miles South of Springfield.  It has a wonderful view of the Ozark hills, albeit spoiled by Highway 65 and the advertising hoardings that stand alongside it.

05 March 2010 | Copyright © 2010 Gary Allman | Off Hwy 65, South of Springfield, Missouri


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