Contrary to popular believe I am not dead, nor is this website. I’ve just been busy and like any habit, once you get out of it, it can be hard to get back. Regardless, I’m going to start off 2010 with a random assortment of photos documenting 2009. Enjoy!

 

Saturday I went hiking with Matt and my cousin Logan. We decided to try and locate the natural bridge in the Mark Twain Natl Forest. If you read this blog regularly you may remember last winter when Matt and I tried to find this without success. This time I came prepared with gps coordinates and a detailed topo map of the area. The natural bridge has no trails leading to it and there are no signs. If it weren’t for the fact that it’s indicated on some topo maps no one would probably know it existed at all. It seems strange that something so big would be hard to find but in the maze of steep hillsides and trees you really don’t even notice the entrance until you are practically right on top of it. Luckily this time the maps and gps allowed us to find this hidden splendor. Click photos for larger versions…

It’s a lot larger than it looks in the photo.

Note how small Matt is in this photo.

We stopped for a sack lunch inside the cave. Again, this photo makes it look deceptively small.

Saturday night Andy and I went to a bball game at my alma mater. Thanks to some of my special connections I was able to take some courtside shots. Although since we were sitting on the 3rd row it really wasn’t even necessary to go courtside to get them. Here are a few of the pics (click them to enlarge)…

Mmm, chocolate covered broccoli

However as of yesterday we are back on the same playing field – and both in our last year of twentydom. Grant chose to celebrate this by eating chocolate broccoli fondue in front of his friends, so I am not entirely convinced that he has truly caught up with me in terms of being wise.

Anyone who follows this blog or my photography knows of my obsession with trying to photograph storms and lightning. Last night I noticed some flashes of light coming from the north side of the house…turned out to be one of the most easily photographed lightning storms I’ve had the opportunity to shoot. It was also one of the creepiest and there was almost no thunder…kind of reminded me of the movie War of the Worlds.

Since the strikes were somewhat predictable (as far as lightning goes) I decided to take a gamble and use my telephoto lens to get in closer. Which made the lightning stikes larger, but it also severely reduced my chances of actually catching a strike in the frame.

Turns out I have become pretty decent at manually focusing my camera in the dark on something that I can’t see!

Ironic license plate in the drive-thru

Perhaps the best part of the drivethru was the car’s license plate in front of me. It was FD4 Y(zero)U. Food for you! Ha. The new numbering format on Missouri plates might make them harder to memorize, but at least it allows for some coincidental phrases.