First up…WE MOVED!!!

Two blocks.  Down the street.

Teressa found this adorable rental house that just so happened to open up when we needed it. Fate really. That was back in February, and we moved in late April.  We’ve been spending most all of our free time painting, gardening, settling in and building furniture (more on that in a later post).  Oh, and obsessively catching up on This Old House. Tom Silva is turning into my personal hero.

It’s a great house, and we’ve just about got all of our stuff where it needs to go. Best part of the house?  Teressa and I both have our own workspaces, so now we can both burn the midnight oil on projects and not annoy each other.  Although, I do kind of miss being able to spin around in my chair and annoy her with some thing on the internet…but now I can just yell it out around the corner.

A Trip

In early July we both made a trek up north to Chicago for a joint, but separate, bachelor/bachelorette party for our good friends Zach & Cortney. Since we were already booking flights we decided to stick around for a few days and check out the Chicago scenery and finally drop in on Ben & Martha.  As per usual I forgot to take pictures of the people we went to visit and got hung up taking pictures of the environment.  Here are a few photos from the fabulous architecture boat tour, couldn’t recommend it enough.  I ended up spending most of my time focusing on the gorgeous bridges and towers that line the Chicago river, and pushing them a little further than normal, but Teressa is already planning on framing a few…so mission accomplished.  What can I say, I’m really just trying to impress her.

A Camera

Which brings me to my new favorite gadget.  While Teressa probably wouldn’t admit it my gadget lust has subsided over the years. I’ve been more interested in what I can do with the things I have (ala Merlin and John), and not so much on the latest and greatest.  However, Canon has been introducing stills cameras that have a built in HD video mode…and I finally had to break down and buy one.  The t2i to be exact. It’s fantastic.  I’ve been shooting video personally/professionally since I was about 10 years old but I’ve never owned my own video camera.  One word; revelation. I can get up a 6am and run around town shooting magic hour sunrises and I have zero permissions to obtain to do it.  Well, except for Teressa’s…but I tend to make up for that by bringing back bagels.

If you can’t tell I’m super excited to be able to scratch this itch again, and I can’t wait to show you some of the actual results.  But patients…video/mograph is a dish best served slowly in this regard.  To tide you over dear reader, here is a daily from my matchmove test on some footage I shot from the river.  Now I just need to roto, animate, composite and color correct it.  Who said technology was making things easier again?  Freelancing/Day job tend to get in the way of me making pretty short films for fun..but trust me they are coming.

There’s an update on what’s going on around here.  I’m going to quite promising to post more work/freelance related stuff on here until I’m ready to post it.  Creating impressive demo reels is hard, and I keep getting distracted by actual work (thanks boundaryvfx guys), but I promise it’s coming soon…if for no other reason than my mother might finally be able to understand what it is I do for a living.  It’s something with computers and cameras I think….

I love Ben’s art. There, I said it.

Yesterday we had a lovely coffee date with Ben and his blushing bride to be, Martha (see bennyandmartha). Martha and Teressa were there for wedding planing business, more specifically the pastries and cakes for the reception. I couldn’t be more excited that Teressa is helping out, as I get to be the official cake-taste-tester while she figures out exactly which recipes are working and which ones are not.

While the ladies discussed all things bakery, Ben and I sat on the other end of the table and nerded out about TVs, movies, video games, and most of all his latest artwork. Ben hooked me up with four of his latest Moo cards to promote his awesome etsy store and blog. Check out the store to get full sized prints, and more importantly check a few of my favorites including “Watcher,” “Super Dee” and “The Start of Something Big.”

Teressa and I spent most of our down time split between the fantastic Stephen F. Austin Hotel and checking out the historical and political sites of Austin…including the gorgeous State Capital and the LBJ presidential library and musuem. The latter being a very moving museum and display of his Presidential archive and artifacts. Both Teressa and I found ourselves wiping away tears while reading a passage from one of Johnson’s State of the Union speeches. As much as the country loved Kennedy, it was really clear that Johnson was the president who brought home the promises of JFK, including equal rights, the American dream (via his Great Society) and most of all the space program. I have to say that I really walked away with a much greater respect for the man. It also reminded me that we HAVE to stop by the Eisenhower museum in Abilene sometime. I’ve driven past it every time I visit my parent’s and have always been in too big of a hurry to stop. That changes next time.

All and all it was a fantastic and beautiful wedding, and Teressa looked like a million bucks on my arm. Also, it was really nice to take a vacation. We haven’t left town for a trip in over a year and it was really refreshing to spend 4 days with my lady…but it made going back to the ol’ grind more than a little tough. My only complaint was that we couldn’t seem to find any of the local flair that people equate with Austin. Everyone we talked to said Austin was like a big Lawrence, and in the sense that there is a College, lots of bars and restaurants they were spot on. But we couldn’t seem to find any kind of local, quirky shops that we’ve come to love about downtown Lawrence. Oh, well…maybe next time!?

Oh and Matt & Libby, thanks again for the sunglasses…I’ve never felt like such a hipster!

The Gordon Wedding

Last weekend Ryan, one of my best friends for more than 20 years got married to our new honorary Hutchinsonian, Joah, in downtown Lawrence, KS. It was a great weekend of catching up with old friends and watching two people we love tie the knot. If you’ve been on facebook this week you’ve seen the photos from the weekend start to trickle in, but I thought I’d post a few on here to commemorate the event. I’ve said it a thousand times since last weekend, but congrats again Ryan and Joah, and thanks again for including me in your wedding party.

Christmas

I might have mentioned it before but Teressa has a new job this year, and with that comes new obligations for the Holidays. So, we stuck around Lawrence a little later this year than previous Christmases and left town Christmas Eve in the middle of the afternoon. That left just enough time for us to zoom across the Kanza Prairie, change clothes, make it to Mass on time and then run over to Teressa’s mother’s for her annual Christmas Eve Chili. Let’s just say we made it, and with only about 15 minutes to spare.

After that, of course, led to exchanging of gifts at my parent’s Christmas Eve and then at her mother’s Christmas Day. I have the traditional shots of Christmas in my parents living room this year as always, although I sat in the wrong chair thus making the angles and zoom a little funny. Next year, I have to make sure to grab my chair. Unfortunately, there are no pics from Teressa’s house as on Christmas Day all in attendance are required to come over in their PJs whether they live there or not. Luckily for all involved I take a shower and slip into fresh PJs but this tradition includes a prohibition on taking photos due to the attire of those in attendance.

Christmas Aftermath

So far we haven’t gotten a chance to catch up with any of our friends as we are on such a short Christmas schedule, but we are hoping to remedy this tonight. Tomorrow involves a trip to the gun range to satisfy my Dad’s love of family and firearms (and safety of course), and then we’ll hit the road back to Lawrence and real life. I’m taking the week off in hopes of completing a backlog of personal projects, including the mock up of a weblog for my Dad’s new years resolution but more on that later.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays, and I promise next year I’ll be posting a lot more. I got out of the habit of brain dumping online and Teressa has definitely felt the burden of my bitching and moaning about current day events.

Well, after years of false starts and bad scheduling on our part we finally made it out the great Buchanan pumpkin day. My friend Ryan’s fiance, Joah, and her family host a fantastic pumpkin picking and carving day every year and this year was no exception.

Tradition has it that Gary, Joah’s dad, will buy everyone’s pumpkins out at the Schaake Pumpkin Patch? if you can carry them off the field. Although, I think we loaded most of them onto a tractor-hay-rack but hey, who am I to argue with the Pumpkin Patch tradition keepers.

Anyway, it was a great day of enjoying the Buchanan’s hospitably along with hanging out with friends. Here is a link to the rest of the photos on flickr.

Just wanted to pop in quickly and post some photos from what has become a tradition, to celebrate Fourth of July in Eudora. Joah’s parents were gracious enough to host us tearing up their lawn with horse shoes and an assortment of pyrotechnics. I was messing around a ton with shutter speeds trying to capture some good photos and I really like the way this one turned out. It reminds me of the crazy magician in the sword in the stone.

Joah’s mother, Peg, has a beautiful garden that I was able take advantage of without trampling to many of the flora. ;) This one is quickly becoming one of my favorite pics of the summer. I can’t tell you how much a fast lens makes me a better photographer. It does present problems when it comes to focus, but I love how it blows out the background keeping the focus on the flowers. Now, if I only knew what they were called.

Anyway, gotta hop in the shower and head off to work. Sorry I haven’t posted more lately, but we have the biggest week of the year for work next week and we are in crazy production mode trying to test and complete two new products. So far, so good…but I haven’t opened my todo list yet. Wish me luck. Oh, and here is a link to the rest of the photos from the 4th.

Oh, and one more thing. GO SEE WALL·E! I really think it could be considered one of the best movies of the last 5 years. Ben Burt’s sound design was amazing, as was the lighting and camera work. A truly revolutionary step forward for Pixar. Also, the character animation evoked such real emotion that it brought both Teressa and I to tears. When was the last time little flickers of light that came out of a computer did that? Yeah, I thought so. Best part? A classic 1960s Louis Armstrong song. Nothing brings a smile to my face more than the first notes of song uttered from that horn. All in all an almost perfect movie. I can’t remember the last time I thought that of a film.

Here’s quick camera phone snap from our shopping at Paper Source on saturday. Teressa was enamored with all of the pretty paper in the store, while I was immediately drawn to the robots. This is a reoccurring theme in our relationship. It also kicked in the way-back-machine.

In college Matt, Dan, Grady and I would get together and spend many an afternoon rocking out in our basement. One standard was a song by Matt and Dan entitled “When Robots Fall in Love.” We were so ahead of our time. By the way the song had a great hook…trust me. I wonder if we have a recording of that somewhere? Hmmm.

So, this weekend was a whirlwind of good friends, beer and food. Everyone’s favorite i70 nomad, Mike D, came to help us celebrate Ryan’s b-day which included a stop by the mechanical bull. Click the link to the check out the rest of the photos. As always click on a thumbnail and then the “download photo” link if you need a copy for yourself. ;) Happy birthday noob.

My old roommate, Jonathan Wesley, had a lovely wedding this past weekend and of course he invited all of us old roommates. Being that we’re a bunch of ruffians we proceed to eat all of his food, drink all of his beer and generally have an all around swell time. And if you knew Jon at all, you’d know he wouldn’t want it any other way.

So go ahead and click on Ben and check out photos of the rest of the old Arizona St., Station and Court House tenants…trust me it’s a flash back if there ever was one. I love weddings of good friends, I can’t help but smile the whole way through.

Congrats Jon and Kristi!

p.s. It was a Luau theme for the reception…hence the leis.

Benjamin has a show coming up on June 7th at Astrokitty Comics in beautiful downtown Lawrence. The show, entitled “Heroes and Villains of a Devoted Youth,” is a showcase of work baised on what else but the comic book, film and video game heroes and villains that we all grew up admiring. Of course you’ll have a chance to purchase some of the work, and even rub elbows with the artist himself.

I chatted with Ben on Friday and he said he had over 20 pieces ready and was in the process of framing them all for show. The girlfriend and I will be there to check out what should be an amazing body of work, hope to see you there too! I mean where else do you get the chance to purchase your very own ewok portrait?