June 2008

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June 1, Sunday

It was time to paint a coat of primer on the ceiling after power washing the deck last weekend.  This is the "before" photo.

Jeff knocked a can of paint off of the ledge five minutes into the project.  The paint came off after two hours of power washing, but it knocked the wind out of Jeff's sails to continue after lunch.  The freshly washed areas made clean spots.

Painting above my head is difficult.  All of the paint runs towards the handle and the angle is awkward.  The slots in the wood are especially difficult to paint.  This section took 20 minutes.

June 4, Wednesday

Several waves of intense thunderstorms that spawned tornados rushed through the area during the afternoon and evening hours.  This area may get one intense wave of storms but not the wave after wave we received. The school kept the kids an extra hour and a half until it was safe for them to walk from the building to the bus.  Jeff's office was evacuated to the lower floors in the central hallways.  Jeff wanted to take more photos after he got home from work, but the constant lightning was too dangerous to go outside.  After things calmed down, the photos of cloud to cloud lightning shown above were taken on the covered front porch.  These last few days, I've seen erie, low lying, fast moving clouds of black, gray and green, but it started to rain or hail before I could get the camera.  I now know I have less than 60 seconds and have the camera close to the door.

Both photos were taken with the camera on the tripod, manual focus to infinity, manual camera setting at f/16, ISO 100, 20 seconds.  The photo on the left is at 24mm and the one on the right is at 100mm.  24mm is better because you never know where the bolts of lightning will appear.

June 8, Saturday

A telephoto zoom lens works really well for fog.  It's hard to see fog in front of you with a wide angle lens, but it's easy to see 50 to 100 feet away.  The dense fog occurred on a hot, steamy morning.  See more photos.

Jeff and Ryan spent the night on the USS Torsk, a World War II submarine, in Baltimore's Inner Harbor with other members of Ryan's Cub Scout pack.  It was an awesome experience.  How many times do you get to spend the night on a submarine?  See more photos.

June 8, Sunday

Ainsley's 7th birthday party at Build A Bear Workshop.  See more photos.

June 10, Tuesday

Interesting rotation as a storm cloud rolled by.

June 13, Friday

The kids on last day of school.

June 14, Saturday

Ryan's Cub Scout camping was cancelled within half an hour after we arrived.  The forecast deteriorated throughout the day and the possibility of hail closed the campground.  All I managed to get were a few photos of clouds before everyone left.

It started to pour while waiting in the drive through at McDonalds in Haymarket for a snack.

We drove ahead of the storm, but it poured again by the time we reached home.  All of the gear stayed in the van over night.  I have mixed feelings.  It would have been fun to ride out the storm, but it rained for hours, so it would have cancelled most of the planned activities.  We went home and didn't know what to do.

June 17, Monday

Shadow and Baci share a twig on their walk through the neighborhood.  It's funny to see them walk side by side carrying it.  The blurry dogs move too fast, so the camera focuses on the grass instead.

The peloton cycling through the neighborhood as we walk the dogs around the duck pond.  The cyclists were too far away for the lens I had to be in perfect focus.  The camera focused on the grassy meadow instead.

June 19, Thursday

Betsi and the kids went to Kings Dominion for the day.  No photos.

June 21, Saturday

We watched the Texas Rangers crush the Washington Nationals 13-3 with some friends of ours in the neighborhood.  This was our first time seeing either team play and our first time to the new stadium.  See more photos.

June 22, Sunday

A rainbow, setting sun, and a thunderstorm makes for some interesting photos.  Unfortunately, there weren't any bolts of lightning, only cloud to cloud.

June 23, Monday

Another hot, humid day produces afternoon thunderstorms and a rainbow.

June 28, Saturday

These are random shots because I liked the color.  The Accord has 56,218 miles on it and the airbag light comes on intermittently.  Both were shot with the 35mm f/2 lens at ISO 800.

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