Roundshot ... Take 1

Today I had lunch with John, Chris, Stan & Peter Lorber in the temporary "Clubhouse" aka double-wide trailer. After lunch we scouted locations. Peter specializes in panoramas & uses a Roundshot 90 5-inch camera. He has one of five in the world. It's pretty crazy. If he shoots a 360° image, the negative is 5 inches by 23 inches!

Not to be outdone, Chris takes some blog pix.

Not wanting to be left out of the blog, Stan comes after me with a branch.

mmm ... jelly!

I went to the beach after work. There were a ton of huge jellyfish washed up on the shore. They were pretty big ... about the size of a volleyball. GROSS!

a tucked tail :o(

Tally was not happy I was packing. This weekend I worked mostly on my photo archives. The file drawers alone filled 40 boxes. There is still a LOT more film to pack. UGH!

We went out in the backyard for a little fresh air. Tally was so upset that she wouldn't eat at all today. She turned down filet mignon & chicken! I can't say I've ever seen her do that before. I felt so bad for her.

Thursday at work

Today I got some presents from Janet. She is TOO funny ... "Boss Lady Hand Cream ... Soften'em UP ... Rein'em IN!"

Chris & I were working on a headshot nightmare all day. We took a break for a Chinese lunch. Here are our fortunes. Is someone trying to tell us something?!?

In search of the Giant Golf Ball ...

I found a hidden treasure camouflaged amongst the trees.

Stan does his best Indiana Jones impression.

It sure is big ...

... and heavy!

The bird in the middle takes off with a fish while an anhinga squawks from the water & a pelican swoops in for the steal.

They sure are building a nice sandbox!

While we were in search of the rare Giant Golf Ball, a scuba diver was collecting standard sized ones from the water surrounding 17.

This can only mean that one woman hit her ball in the water on 17 compared to hundreds of men.

GROSS! The diver told me they clean up real good.

I call this photo "STEVE."

Monday at work & play

Today we scouted locations for a shoot we have to do tomorrow.
The clubhouse is lookin' good!

After a brief wrestling match, Ward & Stan become posers.

Cindy, Stan & Ward in the bird's nest.

After work, Chris, Beth & Shelby met me at Ace Hardware to pick up my new Weber grill. The directions said it would take a professional 15 minutes to assemble & 30 minutes for a consumer. I'm not sure how long it took us, but it was pretty easy. Shelby helped even though she doesn't have opposable thumbs. Chris & Beth were entertained by my sideview mirror pecking cardinal.

Once a conedog ... always a conedog!

This weekend I went to Chris & Beth's house to dogsit for Shelby. I had wondered if she would be sporting her cone. I guess she didn't want to disappoint me. This morning Shelby came to the door to greet me with a squeaky sheep in her mouth. She was pretty happy to see me. Last night I had a huge adrenaline rush after letting Shelby out in the yard. We were coming back into the house from the patio but we had to open the door extra wide to allow for cone clearance. Bailey, one of their three cats got out onto the patio. I figured it was no big deal & I'd just catch him. Bailey knows exactly where there's a big tear in the screen & headed for freedom into the VERY dark backyard. Luckily I caught him, but it was a close call. I figured he'd be hopping the fence.


I had to shoot thru the screen door to get these herons in my backyard.

Birthday Girl!

Today we had my office birthday lunch at Aqua Grill. It was delicious. Even though I don't believe a dessert can be considered a dessert without chocolate as it's main ingredient, the key lime pie was really good (and I don't even like key lime pie). From the picture it looks like I ate the whole thing, but I only had two bites. I'm not so sure I would have shared if there was chocolate involved! ;o)




Chris missed lunch since he was off today. He had to take the day off to catch up on his blogging. He hadn't posted anything since mid December & I told him there's no excuse for being a blog slacker. Was he subliminally trying to tell me that I make him work too hard? I don't buy it. I wonder if it would be against TOUR policy to make blogging one of his performance objectives? Anyway, his blog looks great. To celebrate the momentous occasion of his blog update & my birthday, Chris, Beth & I went to Chizu for a sushi dinner. We didn't take any pictures. I think Chris doesn't want my blog to be better than his! ;o)

Tools of the Trade

This morning I had new carpet installed in the master bedroom.

Turtle Convention

I finally saw some turtles in the lake behind my house. There were 5 of them sunning themselves next door. As soon as I walked into my Florida room, they jumped in the water, really fast. I don't know how they saw me ... I was inside. Then I saw there were ten of them two houses down from me. I grabbed my 500 f/4 & 1.4x & shot them out the door.

At the end of the day, some Mallards went diving for dinner, then sailed off into the (black & white) sunset.

I shot the Prez ... with my camera, of course!

President Clinton joined Vijay Singh for a round of golf on THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass this morning. The weather was miserable. The Secret Service yelled at Chris for cutting in front of their cart on the way to the first tee. We had no idea who was in front of us since we could only see their backs. We just knew we needed to get to the front of the procession to get to our shooting position. Everything turned out fine. Chris is out on bail. Just kidding! ;o)

Hooked up

Today I had tanks installed for the gas fireplace. The previous homeowners never connected the fireplace. I'm afraid of what my electric bill will be when I run the heat, so I figured the fireplace would help me stay warm.

the mini move

Boy am I beat. The movers came at 8:45 am & it took 3 hours to move the apartment furniture, etc. I was up 'til 2:30 am wired & packing. There's not much left at the apt, maybe 2 or 3 car trips. When we got to the house, one of the movers said, "you got some crazy birds here! There's one in your garage & another one smashing into you car mirrors!" My car wasn't even in the driveway. Needless to say, I moved my car in the garage after they left. I wasn't told that this house came with "pets." Moving sure seemed to be a lot of work. I'm REALLY dreading the move from Weston. That's gonna be a NIGHTMARE!!!

Since it was a little cold in the house & I was wearing shorts, I opened the back sliders, put the Lafuma in the sun & huddled under a blanket. It was really nice.

"Walter" clouds

While walking back to my office after delivering some CDs to Golf 20/20, I noticed the sky was filled with amazing Walter clouds. They're actually Altocumulus clouds, but I've always called them Walter clouds (named for Walter Iooss, since they magically appear whenever he has a shoot). Altocumulus clouds, composed primarily of water droplets, are located between 6,500 & 20,000 ft above the ground. They're beautiful!


After work, I made one more run to the house with a carload of stuff. I had another bird-related incident. When I opened the garage door, a little bird flew in & wouldn't fly out. Instead, it continuously slammed itself into the ceiling of my garage. It wasn't the little cardinal that was attacking my car a couple of days ago. This one was about the size of a sparrow & had a yellow belly. After about a half hour of it flying around like a kamikaze, I called Evanne since she's so good with animal rescue. I ended up taking this huge piece of cardboard from the washer/dryer box & was able to corral it so it would fly out. Whew ... talk about an adrenaline rush! I'm exhausted!

a Colossal Squid is in the news

I'm not sure why, but I've ALWAYS been intrigued by the Giant squid. Today, a Colossal squid was caught by a fishing crew. I didn't even know Colossal squid existed! They're up to 46 ft long & are found in Antarctic waters. They're not related to Giant squid that grow up to 39 ft long & are found around the coast of New Zealand. Can you imagine swimming & seeing one of these?!? If calamari rings were made from this squid they'd be the size of tractor tires. This species has the largest eyes of any living thing ... they're the size of dinner plates. CRAZY!

installation, estimation & mirror pecking

This morning I had to be at the house for cable, high speed, & phone installation. I also had the master bedroom measured for an estimate since I might change the carpeting. There's a female cardinal in my driveway that is constantly attacking both sideview mirrors of my car. She's been doing it everday. It's a little crazy. Everytime I go outside, she's there. I guess I'm gonna have to park in the garage.

mmmmm ... cookies!

Today I got a surprise FedEx from Carolina Cookie Company. It was a house-shaped container with the most delicious cookies I've ever had, from my mortgage broker Mark. They were a big hit in the office.

exotic dentistry

Today I sent Dr Bellows an article on elephant chainsaw dentistry. Dr Bellows (Tally's vet) is one of fifty-five board certified veterinary dentists in the country. He does root canals on the tigers & lions at the zoo & has been a guest on Good Morning America. There's a great picture of him hanging on his office wall doing dental work on a gorilla. Here's a shot of him "working" on a lion. Note her missing tooth & the 2x4 propping her mouth open.

a stroll on the beach

Today I shot a portrait of my mom & Hank on the beach. It was REALLY cold!