Scattered Thoughts . . .

O ver the long holiday weekend a couple of weeks ago when we had Lukey and Kenzie staying with us, Kenzie had a couple of days of soccer tournaments so we spent quite a bit of time at soccer games.  One of the days was rainy and we left soaked but the next day was quite a nice autumn day which was a very welcomed change after the rainy and chilly day. Kenzie is doing quite well in soccer now.  Actually...  I believe she is the leading scorer for her team this year and she has a few assists!  She is certainly one of the fastest on the field and she is able to put quite a bit of power into her kicks.  Occasionally, she plays on the defensive line and does well there as well stealing balls, blocking shots and passes, and disrupting the opposing team's offense but I feel she is far more useful on the offensive line.  It is really fun watching her excel in soccer now. On the way to the soccer tournament, below...  I think she is trying to get her head in the right frame of mind for socc

S ince my last two video experiments created by using only still images captured in a fast burst mode on the camera were successful and actually came out better than I expected, I decided that perhaps I should try to come up with a way to effectively mimic old Super 8 home movies too.   For this new experiment, I chose a short clip of our grandson, Lukey, playing tabletop shuffleboard at Agave Taco & Tequila Casa. ________________________________________________________ I should start with a disclaimer...  This particular video clip was perhaps the most challenging clip I could have chosen for this experiment.  I did this purposely just to see what I could do.  This video clip was a high contrast clip with deep blacks and dark shadows.  Additionally, it was a highly compressed video which minimizes any leeway in editing the file.  In the future, if I want to mimic old 8mm/Super 8 home movies, I'll use a more appropriate clip captured using more appropriate camera settings. ____

I n mid-August, we went to another one of Kenzie's figure skating lessons and practice sessions.  I really enjoy going to these sessions because, when the rink is empty such as it is during these sessions, I have access to the ice from one of the team benches rather than from behind hockey-puck-marred glass in the stands.  When I'm on one of the team benches, I have no marred glass in my way...  no safety nets in my way...  I can even open the door in the boards to get down low to the ice rather than shooting down on Kenzie.  Shooting photos at ice events is far more difficult because of all of these aforementioned obstacles when needing to sit in the stands.   I always shoot a lot of photos during these practice sessions so, as usual, I came home from this practice session with far more photos than I need.  I sometimes shoot video during these sessions and I did on this day too but, for some reason (really multiple reasons), I'm never really happy with the video files.  

A ce just recently had his second birthday and Gee and Papa gave him a new bike for his birthday. We spent the whole day with Ace and Liza over the weekend.  All of us also spent the afternoon with the rest of the family at a local park.  Before we went to the park to meet with everyone else, we had some breakfast and then went for a walk while Ace rode along on his new bike.  He was pretty excited to be scooting around on his bike. Ace and I went out to the road while Gee finished up the breakfast dishes so I got a few photos of him before the four of us started on our trek around the park... When Gee and Liza were finally with us and ready to go, Ace seemed more interested in picking up small flowers and rocks.  He must have had a few of each in his pockets by the time we started on our walk around the park.  Liza must constantly find rocks in her washing machine! Ace has been watching Lukey pop wheelies on his bike and so this was Ace's version of popping wheelies... He only mad

A bout two weeks ago, we went to one of Kenzie's figure skating lessons.  It was actually nice to step into winter for a bit rather than be in the heat and humidity! This was the first lesson of Kenzie's we've seen since purchasing her a new pair of figure skates.  We're happy to say that we noticed a significant improvement in her skating since her ice show back in February!  I'm sure part of the reason for such a significant improvement is simply due to her getting older and stronger.  However, since she was clearly more sure-footed and fluid at this lesson and practice session, we have a very strong feeling that the biggest reason for her significant improvement is due to the new skates. Both Sheila and I feel as though she could be a pretty good figure skater so we're hoping she sticks with it.  Of course, getting ice time for practice is difficult for various reasons so growth comes slowly which can be frustrating for the skater.   _________________________