One of the great things about kids, is that they can surprise you at almost any moment.
This little gem was drawn by Madison, as she waited for me to wake up on the Friday before the long Memorial Day weekend.
While she was drawing, she was using her Apple iTouch to take pictures of her progress, and then send them to her mother using iChat.
Needless to say, when I woke up I was a little blown away by my budding little artist!
Update
5/30/2012 – When Madison got home yesterday, she presented us with a permission slip that suggested that another piece of her artwork had been selected for possible publication! We have yet to see this creation, and are very excited about the possibility of seeing her work in published form! Stay tuned for further details!
There was some spirited discussion on who might attend, and much speculation about the weather, since much of the past week or so, has been very cloudy and rainy.
When I woke up on Saturday morning, and looked out the window, only to find the skies still thickly clouded.
This was not good.
With coffee in hand, I went to the Chester County PA Photography page, and started a new thread, trying to finalize the details for our rather impromptu meet-up, later in the night.
Throughout the day, I kept looking at the sky, and try to figure out which way the clouds were moving.
In the mid-afternoon, I took both my kids down to East Ward elementary school, to burn off some energy in preparation for the evening, and when we started to leave, I was beginning to see increasingly larger sections of blue sky, which was very encouraging for a night of photographing the Super Moon.
By the time dinner had been prepared and consumed, the cloudy skies had returned.
Just before I left, I quickly checked the radar for clouds, and the hourly animation strongly suggested that there were big clear pockets of clear sky, coming down from the north, and would be over us within an hour or so.
Using Creek Road (Rt. 282), I got to the boating side of Marsh Creek State Park, within 20 minutes, and was able to find easy parking because many people were already packing up and leaving for the night.
After parking, I started to get my gear, but hesitated from getting it all out, because I still feared that no one was going to show up.
When I reached the predetermined meeting point, I was very delighted and relieved to see several other people standing there with their cameras!
It was very nice to know that I am not the only crazy one!
After the various introductions, I headed back to my car, and grabbed my gear, heading back to the group to setup for the rest of the evening.
As the night wore one, we talked about various topic, and exchanged various stories about photography, family and life.
We also tried to identify which towns were glowing against the sky line, as well as experimenting with flashes and flash-lights.
At 23:35, when perigee finally arrived, the clouds were still as thick as when we started, but it did seem a little brighter, which could also have been from us standing in the dark for the past three and half hours.
It was not long after, that we packed up our gear, said our good byes and headed home. In reading the subsequent posts on the Facebook page, it seems that everyone had a good time!
As many parents know, once two siblings get together after along day, their combined energy level seems to quadruple if not more.
So with the lengthening of the days, I started to take the kids out for a late afternoon energy release at Shamona Creek Elementary here in Downingtown.
We have been here many time before, but not at sunset…
So started a personal project of trying to capture 30 days of sunsets!
Sunsets (Chester County) – Day 1
Sunsets (Chester County) – Day 2
Sunsets (Chester County) – Day 3
Sunsets (Chester County) – Day 4
Sunsets (Chester County) – Day 5
Sunsets (Chester County) – Day 6
Sunsets (Chester County) – Day 7
These images represent just a few of the photographs that I have taken during the early phase of this project, and more can be found over on Flickr.
This past Saturday, December 10th, was the annual Downingtown Good Neighbor Christmas parade, and that night I processed my images into the early morning hours, and finally posted them to both my SmugMug and Flickr accounts at about 4 AM on Sunday.
Early Monday afternoon, I got a call on my cell phone from Josh Maxwell, the mayor of Downingtown, asking me if he could license one of my images. Needless to say I was very excited, and we exchanged several e-mails in regards to his request.
Josh Maxwell, Mayor of Downingtown
At around 11 o’clock Monday night, while I was still online, I noticed that the mayor had posted on Facebook the image that we had chatted about earlier in the day.
I quickly jumped up to Flickr and SmugMug to get an idea of what my view usage was, and I was extremely surprised to see that my Flickr account had already jumped to over 1800 views within 20 minutes, and with each refresh, the numbers just got higher and higher.
As I watched, I also realized, that my total number of views was reaching the 50,000 mark very quickly, and by 12:20am, the 50,000 mark had been broken!
50,000 Total Views on Flickr!
It was very difficult to go to sleep because of the adrenaline of reaching this new milestone and seeing that the views just kept climbing and climbing.
When I finally woke up later on Tuesday and check Flickr, my view count was over 8000 views.
Throughout the day, I monitored my Flickr views, and by early afternoon, I had reached over 10,000 views for a single day!
10,000 Single Day Views on Flickr!
Needless to say, this was by far the single largest days reviews on my Flickr site, and my SmugMug site had also seen a dramatic increase in views! (Final Day’s Total – 10,428)
I definitely want to thank all those new visitors and especially Mayor Josh Maxwell for contributing to these new milestones!
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