The Amaz!ng Meeting, Part II

Just a few from Friday . . .

At eight in the morning we all gathered for a live show of the Skeptics Guide to the Universe.

George Hrab, musician, skeptic, host of the Geologica podcast, and emcee of the conference, gets things started with a song and video.

Eugenie Scott, Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education (and a personal hero of mine).

James Randi having a laugh during his conversation with Jamy Ian Swiss.

Jamy Ian Swiss cracking up over something or ‘nother.

Carol Tavris gave Friday night’s keynote, “A Skeptical Look at Pseudoneuroscience.”

After the keynote we had a Friday the 13th mirror-breaking. Funny thing, this guy had a dickens of a time actually breaking the mirror as he was not whacking it hard enough!

Said mirror breaking was followed by a pinata . . .

. . . which was followed by the Skeptics Guide to the Universe fundraising dinner. Sweetie and I attended.

Four out of five of the hosts of the SGU podcast, Steven Novella, Bob Novella, Jay Novella, and Evan Bernstein.

The highlight of the evening had to be when Evan auctioned off his New York Jets jersey with the #15 on it, but instead of Tebow, the name across the back was “SKEPTIC.”

Evan’s demonstration for the people at the dinner who had no idea of who Tim Tebow is.

There are lots of photos in SmugMug gallery, but I think my favorite capture of the night was this shot of Bob and Steve Novella.

By this time, Sweetie and I were exhausted, so we headed to our room. We thought of attending Penn Jillette’s Bacon and Donut Party (start time” 11pm), but we were just too pooped.

Lots more photos at the TAM SmugMug gallery.

Day 195 – The Amaz!ng Randi

I took this photo of James Randi, the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) today as he was being interviewed by Jamy Ian Swiss about his mission to reveal Uri Geller for the fraud he was (and is). James Randi is an amazing force for skepticism and critical thought, and the hero of every attendee at The Amaz!ng Meeting.

Here he is from the front.

Day 188 – Reno is Artown

In Reno, July means Artown, a month-long celebration of the arts. On Friday nights there are concerts by the river. Last night we had to go downtown to meet some friends at a local watering hole but before that Sweetie and I headed over to the amphitheater to listen to the music and do a little people watching. I shot a bunch more photos and will likely post them later, but I’ve got to get these up as I should have been out the door thirty minutes ago.

Buddy by Lamplight

I’m going through my files and doing some clean-up and I came across this one of Buddy I took back in April. It must have been when I first got my 50mm lens. ISO 400, f/1.8, 1/10s. Handheld, hence the blur, and yet . . . there’s just something about this photo that I missed the first time around.

(Or maybe I’m just imagining it.)

Day 176 – I’d rather post these

I’ve been up to my eyeballs working on the photo gallery for the baby shower I went to yesterday. The gallery is here, if you’d like to take a peek. The father-to-be is our nephew, so this was a family affair and then some.

Therefore, I haven’t had a chance to go out with the camera, and rather than post something less than, I’m going to post some more photos I took yesterday. Hope you don’t mind.

Jezebel. I was playing with aperture priority and set my camera to f/5.6 at 100 ISO. The camera set the shutter speed to 1/15s. I also had the flash on, so Jezzie came out blurry except for her eyes. I kind of like it!

Nina – giving me her “look.”

Grandma and Grandson (My mother-in-law and our nephew) at yesterday’s shower.

Mother and Son at yesterday’s shower.

Roses for Michelle, from Matt.

Day 165 – Family Photo

I was playing with lighting again doing some self portraits using diffused flash. This is a cropped version of one of the shots. In the background is the family portrait taken at our wedding.

Day 155 – Black and White

I’ve been wanting to do more work in black and white. I took these of myself today and the goal was creating more dramatic lighting than I usually do.

Funny, in going through the many shots it took me to come up with these three, it’s like I no longer see the photographs as pictures of me. I find myself staring at them with an analytic eye. Are the eyes in focus? Any odd shadows? Nice highlight along the jaw-line. No, that one is off. I like how the chin looks in this one. Nice definition there. Oops, jaw and neck blend together on this one. And so on and so on.

Perhaps that is why I don’t feel odd showing these to you. Me. No make-up. Wrinkles. But to me, it’s just another face I lit and shot.

Day 140 – 15 Years

15 years ago yesterday I found the love of my life. 10 years ago yesterday we officially said I do.

I made reservations for us at Zephyr Cove at Lake Tahoe. Our cabin was a sweet little one-bedroom with kitchenette and a fireplace.

After checking in we walked about 50 yards to this beach. You can see the cabins through the trees.

I got a photo of Sweetie in the cabin.

We had reservations for the Captain’s Dinner & Dance Cruise on the M.S. Dixie. I’d never done the cruise around Lake Tahoe, so this was a first for me but not Sweetie. It was a very short walk to the dock where she is berthed.

A view of the lake from the pier.

Another photo of Sweetie across the dinner table.

We went to Emerald Bay and back. This is Vikingsholm.

The food was just okay, and the dance floor was about the size of a postage stamp, but the two-man band was pretty good, and there were people having a great time, and we did too. Some were celebrating birthdays and others were celebrating anniversaries like us.