I am pleased to announce that my photography will be featured at October’s artwalk in Joplin – which is this Thursday (15th), roughly from 6-8pm!

I will be sharing a space with Jason Shelfer at 515 S. Main and I think his wife may do some light catering of the event. So I have been very busy the last few days getting my stuff ready for my first official ’show’ here in Joplin. I think i’ll have about 15 of my favs nicely framed and on display. It’s totally last minute so our gallery may not be as fancy as some of the others, but I am sure our works will not disappoint!

Anyways, I hope everyone comes out and stops by!

The Maple Leaf Bike Ride is coming up on Saturday, Oct 10. I would like to encourage everyone to come out and participate. Last year me, shelf-life, mom, and dad all did it and had a blast. I would also like to point out that I had the distinction of finishing dead last in my distance category (74miles).

Here are a few reasons I think you should do it:

• Riding bikes is fun!
• Proceeds go to the construction of new area trails!
• Those are really the main two reasons I can think of.

There are routes for riders of all abilities… anywhere from 15mi for the casual rider up to 100 miles for the people with legs of steel and $6000 bikes. Mom and dad did the 35mile route and thoroughly enjoyed it. I like the 70-80ish mile routes. Regardless of which route you choose, it’s lots of fun to get out and support area trail projects!

Here is the website with all the info and online registration:
http://www.carthagemapleleafride.com/

This week Marian Days, the catholic vietnamese festival is going on in Carthage. I always look forward to it, mainly because it’s about the only time I get to use chopsticks. Also, Jason Shelfer was able to snag a menu with english translations this year, so that made things a bit easier.

I am a big fan of Phở. Not sure what all is in it… probably best not to ask. Last year I had Phở Gà, this year I went with the chín (beef) version. It was splendid and very herbally, maybe from the fresh cilantro, basil, sprouts and jalapenos. Either way, I’m all about the Phở.

I think some of my friends, such as Grant would like eating at Marian Days. Colby on the other hand, would probably not.

Here is the stand where I got some Mango Boba… which was splendid. Across the way was a fruit stand selling all kinds of weird things including Jackfruit and my favorite, Lychee.

I am not sure what was going on here, but this event is actually a catholic gathering. It was pretty cool.

After the candle march they had some songs and stuff, maybe a mass or worship service. I will admit I am fairly ignorant on the ways of Catholicism.

As of yesterday I am officially registered for this year’s edition of the Tornado Alley bike ride and am already getting excited! Last year I did the ride with my co-worker Shelf-Life and having never done a distance ride, it completely trashed both of us.

I am hopefully that with two distance rides under my belt and 230 miserable miles on the Katy Trail I will be a little more prepared this year. For those who don’t know, the TA110 is a bike ride in Joplin that offers bikers (sorry… cyclists) a choice of routes ranging from 35 miles to 110 miles with nice rest stops along the way…crossing through potentially all of the “4 states”. Last year I naively chose the 77 mile route and I signed up for the same this year.

I highly encourage everyone to come out and ride. I am proof that you don’t have to be an expert or have a fancy bike to have a great time.

Click here for a recap of last year’s excitement…

I was up late last night sorting through all the pics that yesterday’s storm provided. So I finally narrowed it down to just 2 that I will post here. There was another one that would have been cool, but I moved the tripod during the exposure, so it was blurry.

I decided it’s kind of harder to photograph lightning during the day because it’s hard to keep from overexposing the image. Also, I missed the best lightning strike of the whole storm while I was fidgeting with the tripod leg. Never did get that ‘exceptional’ lightning pic that I’ve always hoped to get, but i still got a few good ones.

Enjoy!

-click for larger version-

-click for larger version-

This time of year makes me really glad to live in tornado alley. I get such a kick out of crazy wicked storms rolling in, although I could do without the damage like the one a few weeks ago did.

Tonight after work a series of tornado producing storms rolled through the area, which I’m sure most of you are more than aware of. As usual I found a nice spot and set up my camera, hoping to take a few cool storm snapshots… which I did. What I also found was that I could make a very rad animation out of all the images put in sequential order.

Obviously it would be better had I left the camera pointed at the same spot, but taking still photos was my objective and this video time lapse was really more of an afterthought. But still cool nonetheless. Notice the swirling motion of the clouds and the way the wind is blowing the grass in the field into the storm as it approaches.

I took these photos from the roof of my garage with the sound of tornado sires from several distant towns in the background. Fun stuff. I got a couple cool photos, but I’ll post those later.