tweetlebeetlebattle.com Blog

First Flight (Photo by iFLY),
originally uploaded by shutterjunky.

Sharon got me, as a birthday gift, a indoor skydiving session, and Jay was so excited about the idea that she got him one too. So we all went down to iFLY in Union City yesterday and all of us flew. In fact, Jay did it once, thought about it some, and then begged to it again! Then he talked about it for hours. It was an amazingly fun experience for all of us!

Here’s the site: www.iflysfbay.com. The wind tunnel is amazing. When they crank it up all the way, the wind reaches speeds of 170-180 miles per hour, which is enough for an experienced flyer to “sit” on. For our beginner flights, it was more like 115 for me, and 105 for Sharon. You understand from experiencing this just how powerful >110 mile-per-hour winds are.

Soft Focus,
originally uploaded by shutterjunky.

For my dad’s birthday in early April, we went to the UCB Botanical Gardens in the Berkeley Hills. The clouds and wind made it a bit chilly (seems like that’s been the case all Spring this year), but we had a great time anyway. Here’s Lucy in her parka enjoying the scene; it’s a bit out of focus, notwithstanding my effort to sharpen her eyes, but I think it’s a great shot of her otherwise.  For more pictures (including of the gardens themselves), check out the Photo Page.

Uh Oh,
originally uploaded by shutterjunky.

Earlier this April, we had a second go at Jay learning to ride his pedal bike without training wheels. He succeeded with flying colors! In the week after this picture was taken, he was even able start on his own. (Luckily he figured out stopping a while ago!) I thought his expression in this picture was particularly great.

Stars,
originally uploaded by shutterjunky.

Just a random nature shot for fun. I used a macro lens to get in very close, and the shallow depth of field enabled me to emphasize the pistil, leaving the petals as more of an abstract background. This was taken in my parents’ backyard.

As some of you know, I have this notion that one day someone might actually want one of my photos to display or even send a postcard (maybe even enough to pay for a print … maybe).  In that spirit, I’ve started a bit of an online portfolio at www.imagekind.com.  You can follow the links in the sidebar of this page to find my very early efforts at assembling a gallery, as well as preview some of the printable pictures.  I’m clearly a rookie when it comes to producing saleable prints, but ya gotta start somewhere!