Belgium

We finally made it to one of the restaurants in Washington DC that I've been wanting to go to ever since Renee started to plan her Pentagon Detail. Its a little Belgium Gastropub specializing in delicious Belgian food and BEER called Granville Moore's. Unfortunately when we arrived there was a 45 minute wait for seating, but they gave us a buy one get one free drink coupon to a little bar down the street.

The Red and The Black was a great place to kill time. They had some great beer (bottle only) and played reruns of the original American Gladiators (not this new crap). Once our table was ready they called my cell phone and we ran over to our patio table. Here Renee is sampling one of the many fine Belgian Beers. Belgian style beers are best known for their lack of any consistent style but all having an incredible drinkability despite the fact that many of the beers approach 10% ABV.
The service was pretty quick and the food was AMAZING. Belgian food is pretty simple, it consists mainly of mussels and french fries (they call them frites).Renee's mussels were cooked in Bacon, Blue Cheese, Shallots, Spinach, White Wine, and Lemon Juice. I had the steak et fromage sandwich...
After dinner we relaxed with another beer and Renee snapped this pretty crazy picture with my face all blurred out like what happens to you after you watch the video in the movie the Ring. On our way back to the Metro (subway) we stopped at Union Station for a quick photo shoot.

The Dark Knight

I could talk forever about this movie, but to really do it justice I'm just gonna leave you with a quote. These are the first words that came out of my mouth as Renee and I walked out of the theatre.

"That could possibly be the greatest movie I have ever seen."

pause for dramatic effect

Go see it.

Tim and Nikki

It's about time...

The long awaited and overdue slideshow from Tim and Nikki's Wedding. For those of you who forgot the wedding was in Waterford Michigan. The Ceremony was at Our Lady of the Lakes Catholic Church and the reception followed at the Fountains Golf and Banquet Club.

I had an awesome time in Michigan and can't wait to get back out there. Until then enjoy the show.

CLICK HERE!!!

ps. keep an eye out cause I actually make a few guest appearances in the slideshow as well.

Delays

Sorry for the lack of posts, but its been a difficult week. Renee has moved to Washington DC for the next 3 months. She has taken a temporary detail to work at the Pentagon for some big Army Environmental wigs. So its now up to me to keep up the house, the pets, and the blog...which is no easy task.

This past weekend was actually her first weekend in DC and since it was the 4th of July I decided to go visit her and see the sights. The fireworks were amazing and there was a ton of stuff going down on the National Mall. I have a bunch of pics to post, but my laptop died. As I was downloading the images and composing the post, I got the notorious Blue Screen of Death. Usually you can just restart and go on with your business, but this screen means business. Every time I restart the computer within 2 mins the screen comes back and the computer shuts off. So you'll have to wait a few more days for the killer images.

Sorry for the delay, but they'll be worth it.

The Damage

The picture from the end of the last post really sums it up. Stuff got broke.

The tall and skinny version is that $20 camera bags are $20 camera bags and I need to properly protect my gear.

As we were leaving the hotel I was pulling my roller bag with my laptop case and camera bag drapped over my left shoulder. I then attempted to open the trunk of the rental car with the key in my right hand when all of a sudden, THUMP. The camera bag smacked the ground. It landed perfectly flat on the bottom of the bag, which translated to the glass part of the lens.

How the bag landed

How the camera looks inside the bag.

I quickly dropped to the ground and sat there stunned at what happened. I was SPEECHLESS. So after I composed myself I grabbed the bag and opened it up. Everything looked ok, but as I pulled the camera out of the bag I noticed the glass shards.

The filter was smashed, but I was able to remove it with some force and decided to snap a quick shot of it for the blog. Well as I composed my shot and hit the autofocus, I heard the motor make an erie grinding sound and slowly the image came into focus. The D300 appears to still be in pretty good shape. The mount for the lens is now a little tight, but everything else appears fine. The lens on the other hand is pretty shot. It doesn't like to zoom or focus, manually or automatically. I'm gonna send it off to Nikon this week to get an estimate for repairs.

Upon inspection of the bag this clip was determined to be the culprit. Its a swivel clip and the feature that allows it to swivel popped out of place.

It's almost like this was a sign for me to get my new dream camera, the D700. It was just announced last night and contains the one feature the D300 lacks, a full frame sensor. Luckily enough my camera still works, so I'm sticking with it, but I'm shopping around for some new glass (lens for you non-photography folk).

Now that it has been a few days I'm feeling much better. At first I was pretty pissed, but now I've come to grips with the situation and am ready to move on.

Tim & Nikki Goetze Wedding

This past weekend Renee and I got to travel to Waterford, Michigan (Suburbs of Detroit) for the wedding of our friends Nikki Pietrzak and Tim Goetze. It was my first time in Michigan and it was incredible. I got to ride over 8 Mile rd and listen to Kidd Rock. It can't get any more Detroit, MI than that. As a guest at the wedding and not a photographer I tried to keep my distance from the couple and let their paid photographer do his thing. But guess what, I got some pretty sweet pictures anyway. So many that I hope to have a slide show up Wednesday. But in the mean time I can't help but share a few of these with you.

So here is Nikki and her father walking down the isle towards Tim.
Amazingly enough she made it up the isle and went through with it. Here is Tim celebrating is success.
The reception was held at the Fountains Country Club and Golf Course.
They had a chocolate fountain and a MASSIVE cake made by Tim's Mother (I believe).
During the reception Tim was a good sport and even encouraged the Tapping of the wine glasses.And she couldn't look any happier.

She was even happy enough to clean the floor with her beautiful new dress. This "alligator" dance is a Michigan thing, so don't ask me. I'm still trying to figure it out.
I guess I would expect it from locals like these...
After that they got a little dirtier. Check out her eyes, talk about love.
Near the end of the reception, Tim's Dad had a special treat and got the DJ to play the "If I were a Rich Man" song, where Tim continued to do is traditional finger snap and body shake dance. For those of us who work with Tim, this is classic Tim.
Man, what a great weekend. I hope you two have a great time in Hawaii. I can't wait to hear all about it.

Unfortunately with the good also comes the bad...Who ever said grown men don't cry has never had their new D300 w/lens fall to the ground. The happy news couldn't wait, so I'll post more about that epic shattered filter tomorrow.

VICTORY is Mine

As I've said before, I am currently only a part time photographer. Between the hours of 0630 and 1600 (and whenever my blackberry buzzes) I'm a Chemical Engineer/Systems Engineer for the US ARMY. So in the spirit of being all that I can be, I decided to become a "Professional Engineer" or licensed engineer.

The "PE" is the Principles and Practices Exam given by the NCEES a non-profit licensing group for engineers and surveyors. Basically, twice a year they organize an 8 hour long test designed to torture engineers. Its the culmination of 4 years of documented engineering work and an additional 8 hour exam taken at the start of the 4 years of work called the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam.

I think the hardest part was the long wait for the results, but that's now over. After waiting 74 excruciating days, the results from the PE exam finally came in the mail and I PASSED!!!


Its now time for a nice cold refreshing beverage to celebrate my success.

Oh yeah and the fun doesn't stop here, Renee is planning to take the PE next year in the Spring of '09. So wish her luck, even though I know she's gonna do fine.