KCHS Spanish

I made a solo trip home (where I grew up) last night to see my family and to celebrate one of my best friend’s 30th birthday.  On the way up, I saw this and couldn’t resist pulling over at the rest stop on the Taconic Parkway about 30 minutes outside of Albany.  I can’t begin to express to you how cold I was standing there with a metal-body camera and exposed hands in the sub-zero temperature.  

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Reason enough to hike and get home, don’t you think?

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One of the first things you learn as a teacher is that students lie.  It doesn’t matter what type of school it is… public, private, gifted.  They stretch the truth and NO ONE is better at it than a teenager.  

Take the student texting for example.  No matter what you see, they are checking the time. Or the student who is headed to the nurse who turns into the hallway that leads to the cafeteria.  What scares me is this kind of harmless teenage deception turns into adult deception that costs you money or aggravation… or both.  Car mechanics are a PRIME example.  Go in for an oil change and if you aren’t careful, you walk out the building with four new tires, windshield wipers and a years supply of air fresheners.  

Today, I got some suspicious stuff in my mailbox.  NOTE:  THIS ISN’T A BILL.  I don’t have a subscription to ”X” Photographer magazine.  This isn’t a bill trying to get me to re-subscribe.  This is DECEPTION!  As you might remember, I am not a fan of certain NYC camera stores.  Now, I am boycotting ”X” Photographer magazine.  

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Hike number two is in the books! It was a beautiful 25 degree day on Mount Taurus in Cold Spring, NY.

Along the way Annie (a coworker and friend of my wife) and I saw a few things that caught our eyes. I saw this trail marker that had a silhouette of a bull on it that looked an awful lot like a tattoo I have.

Annie saw these random ornaments out of the corner of her eye in different places on the hike. 

 Once we got to the top I snapped a few photos to document number two in the books. 

Here is a quick video and don’t forget to turn up the sound!

  

Hike number three will be next Saturday. Anyone up for a cold winter hike can apply in the comment section! My wife already said she’s game to go

 

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I am not much for setting “resolutions.”  I’m more of a goal guy.  Goal number 1 of 2009:  To hike 75 times in 2009.  50 is doable, but 75 is a stretch… so I’m going for it.

Hiking used to be a HUGE importance in my life and I recently realized just how much I miss it.  I hike differently on different days.  Sometimes I fly up the mountain running with the fury of a thousand angry bees to get the burn in my lungs and muscle fatigue of a person who just finished a marathon.  Masochistic, I know, but who needs therapy after that.  Sometimes I like to lally-gag and listen to the sounds of nature.  The whistling of the wind as it weaves its way through the creaking trees that bend and sway in the perfectly blue sky can only be compared to listening to Pachelbel Canon in D Major… So heavenly perfect you can’t deny there is a God.
 

 

Hike number one (1.4.09)

If anyone is looking to go hiking, I’m going this Saturday!

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Roll out the welcome mat, pop the champagne… I have a new blog with a new location.  Time to update your RSS feeds!!!  The truth is, the more  research I did, the more I fell in love with the WordPress system.  So to christen my new blog, I’m going to share some of my favorite photos that didn’t make it to the old blog with some anecdotes to accompany them.

I love to shoot… I love to teach… I love to coach.  All three are a lot of work, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.  I didn’t post any photos I took this year during the fall cross country season to create some excitement for the athletes to see the photos at the end of the season when I handed them a disk with all of the images.  Some photos did get leaked though and this athlete saw this photo and gleamed from ear to ear.  ”That’s the coolest photo anyone has ever taken of me!”

I think this might be one of my favorite photos I took in 2008!

The pre-race prayer is a ritual long standing.  Although cross country is an individual event, it’s really a team sport.  Placement of an runner’s finish is important to the outcome of the team standing.  Their prayer not only includes the teams success, but also that each person finishes safely.  (* note, I teach in a Private Catholic School)

“Okay, this is a photobooth.  Do something fun and crazy!”

“Okay… that was a little more than I was expecting!!!”

This is from a wedding I shot at the Links at Union Vale in Dutchess County, NY back in July.  I can see this on a gallery wrap someday hanging in my office.

Anyone who has ever gotten married knows you don’t just marry the person, but also their family.  The second time I really spent time with Diana’s parents was at her college graduation.  After the ceremony, while everyone was taking photos, her grandmother referred to me as her grandson and nearly gave Diana’s mother a heart attack.  Luisa is a breathtaking woman who raised 9 amazing children in the Bronx, the eldest of whom is my FIL.

Any groom will tell you.. waiting for the bride to arrive is absolutely the hardest part.

Not long before the elections, I was shooting an engagement session an engagement session and came across this graffiti art.  I have much hope that this year will be better than last.

Growing up between Saratoga and Lake George, NY I am used to snow.  I love it… when it snows, I pray for FEEEET of it.  Powdery winter whiteness full of good fun.  It reminds me of the special times my father and brother and I would go to a local golf club to go sledding down some monster hills.  It reminds me of skiing with my friend during junior high almost every day during the winter.

All of my friends either have babies or are having babies.  Although it’s not yet time for Diana and I to have one of our own, I get emotional thinking about how exciting it will be to finally have one of our own.

I can’t wait to be a father… to play baseball with my son or play (GOD I CAN’T BELIEVE I AM ABOUT TO SAY THIS) Barbies with my daughter.

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