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Saké (365:129)
Saké (365:129). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. This might be one of the last pictures taken on my Nikon.
More about that tomorrow. Today was a photography day, but not an ‘I went out taking lots of pictures’ day, though lots were taken. I spent most of the day sifting through the recent wedding pictures, then this evening we did a baby shoot to immortalize the latest family addition wearing the family christening gown, which is over one hundred and twenty years old. I now have another 150 pictures to sort through, looking for the 4-5 really good shots that is all I need in among all the duplicates. Babies are such wriggly critters it takes a load of pictures to catch them just right, or maybe it’s just because I’ve not done many baby pictures. More probably it’s because I frighten them.
Had I planned ahead I’d have taken a picture of me taking the baby pictures, I didn’t so I thought of I’d take a picture of Ginger and I enjoying the warmer weather and some end of the evening Saké that Ginger’s parents left with us when they popped in earlier in the day.
This isn’t bad for a three-second exposure.
Today’s extra
A sneak preview – one of today’s shots of Natalie Anne in the 124 year old family Christening gown. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Lighting test (365:128)
One word adequately summarizes my day – Meh.
Church in the morning, where Lanie and other kids received recognition for their service. In Lanie’s case a silver cross for five years in the choir and a certificate of thanks for her work as an Acolyte.
After church I went home and worked for a while; some web development for a customer, and I gave myself an update of the UK’s VAT rules which have changed significantly, with knock-on effects to online purchase processing. It looks like I’ll have to brush up on my php scripting too.
Tomorrow I have a family photoshoot to do, so I set up the lighting & backdrop rig in advance and ran a few test shots – today’s picture numbers among those. We tried to get a picture of the shorn Blue Kitty, but unlike Getzger who was very obliging and sat fairly still, Madame kept running around. I managed to salvage one very poor picture.
Today’s extras
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EFM Retreat (365:127)
Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. This week’s EFM class was held on a Saturday
so we got out of the classroom and spent the day in a cabin by the river. It was very nice to sit in the screened porch going through the lessons and exercises; a day of good company, conversation, discussions, food, and coffee. I have really enjoyed this class throughout the year. It’s been challenging, hard work, engaging, highly informative, and we’ve also had some great fun. Thursday nights have become a great anchor point for my week. Unfortunately, we’ve only two more sessions before we break for the summer. I’ll miss the class, my classmates and mentors.
During our mid-morning break I noticed something move out of the corner of my eye and heard a small knock on the front door. On investigating further I discovered a small bird had flown into the door and was laying stunned on the mat. Checking the bird books at home, we found it was a migrant – a Male Wilson’s Warbler. After about twenty minutes it recovered and flew off.Before we finished for the day I explained about my 365 Days project and asked if anyone was willing to be in my daily picture. Everyone was, and this is the result. Thanks Guys!
To get the best out of this picture I would have needed to use a diffuse fill-in flash. I didn’t have the flash gun and diffuser with me (the weight of EFM books was quite enough), so I had to settle for an over exposed background. Had I been thinking I’d have taken a separate background shot with no one in it and merged the two – there’s hindsight for you.
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While I was out being educated Lanie spent the day working the parking lot at Arts Fest with the Youth Group and Katie went with Ginger and they enjoyed some time out in the Kayaks on Lake Springfield. However, the home highlight of the day had to be Ginger, Katie and Lanie shaving Blue Kitty to give her a lion cut. When Blue Kitty eventually comes out of hiding I might try and get a picture.
Today’s extra
Male Wilson’s Warbler -
Studying with cats (365:126)
Studying with cats (365:126). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. This week I did my studying on a Friday.
That’s because the class has been moved from Thursday night to Saturday so we could have a mini-retreat. I had two (long) chapters to get through today so I set aside most of the day to get it done. I started off working in the lounge, when Lanie came home from school she wanted to watch a DVD so I moved to the peace and quiet of the bedroom to finish my studies. The cats also thought this a good idea as shortly afterward they came and joined me. Today’s picture features me (obviously), Tubby, Getzger and Blue Kitty, who was being unnaturally social and at the same time a pain; she was constantly trying to sit on my books.
Earlier in the week while working out ideas for my next backpacking wood stove I thought up a couple of ideas that might improve the current one. When I’d finished preparing for class, I went out and made a couple of modifications and set the stove aside for testing. After dinner we tried it out with great success, bringing a pot containing just under a litre of water to a rolling boil in around fifteen minutes. Result.
Today’s alternate shot & extras
First, two cats turned up… 
With a couple of modifications, the stove now works well. -
At the High School Orchestra concert (365:125)
I give up, I forget what I did today.
I know what I should have been doing, but I can’t remember what it was I did. School run; check. Go to Katie’s concert; check. And very good it was too. I’ve not been to any this year as the concerts always take place on a Thursday when I’m at class. That’s all.
Oh and never try to take pictures with Ginger while children are around. That explains my expression in this picture.
Today’s alternate shot & extras
I was trying to get a picture with Ginger, but somehow the irrepressable Lanie managed to get herself into the shot. 
High School Orchestra concert 
A rather blurry Katie leaves the stage during Hadyn’s Farewell -
Crossing Camp Creek (365:124)
Gary Crossing Camp Creek Today we hiked the white and orange trails at Busiek, only this time we did them backward, starting with the Orange trail and then the White trail. This had the advantage of getting the most of the creek crossings out of the way on the way out instead of on our return. The hike started with an unexpected extra crossing because the bridge across the creek to the shooting range was washed out.
If was a bit cold at first, but the weather was glorious and now everything is starting to go green the colours were wonderful. The trail was very muddy in places, and I had great fun slopping through all the mud in my bare feet while Ginger struggled to keep her shoes dry. I took today’s picture while I was standing in Camp creek washing some of the mud off. We did the six odd miles of the two trails in plenty of time to pick up the big kids from school.
We had an early start at Church this evening. Ginger because she and Lanie are singing with some other mothers and daughters on Mother’s day, and myself for a meeting. Alek helped out in the kitchen. While the kids had youth group the parents spent their time chatting.
We finished the day with Gin and Tonics and the last of the Star Wars prequels – Revenge of the Sith. Thank goodness, now we can watch the good movies in the series.
Today’s extras
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Running Water – Busiek State Forest and Wildlife Area
Ephemeral Creek at Busiek. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. You can read more about our hike here.
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Ephemeral Creek at Busiek State Forest and Wildlife Area
Ephemeral Creek at Busiek You can read more about our hike here.
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Making huaraches (365:123)
Making huaraches (365:123). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. I meant to make a to-do list today.
So I ended up doing all sorts of things that didn’t really need doing and missing out on things I should be doing. Oh well.
I’ve been promising to make Ginger, Katie, and Lanie some huaraches for a while. This afternoon, I gathered the stuff up and made them each a test pair to make sure the fit of the final shoes will be correct. In today’s picture, I’m cutting out one of the soles on my scroll saw. Using the scroll saw is probably a bit of over-engineering, but it’s the most suitable cutting tool I have.
While I was making huaraches Ginger took Katie for her driving exam, which she passed. So after dinner I took Katie down to the Mall parking lot where she drove around for half an hour before it got dark. We’ll be spending a couple more hours in the parking lot before I let her venture out on the road.
Ginger and I finished the day watching the movie Beyond the sea which we enjoyed even if it was a flop with the critics.
Today’s alternate shots & extras
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Drawing (365:122)
Tonight I was working on the design of my next backpacking wood burner.
Today after posting a couple of pictures I sat down at my desk and got on with some (paid) work for a change. My efforts were put on hold while Ginger’s parents came visiting, and again for the afternoon school run. By dinner time I was finished for the day, apart from writing a fairly long e-mail discussing the work and setting up a call in the morning.
After a bit of surfing I thought it’d be nice to draw up my new design for a backpacking wood burner in Google SketchUp. Unfortunately the free version doesn’t allow you to intersect a curved surface with a hole (I’m not sure if the paid version does either). As the burner design is a set of cylinders riddled with holes this idea was going to be a bit of a non-starter. So I decided to hand draw a rough sketch to help me with the construction and think out the design. Today’s picture shows me completing my drawing.
It’s been a long time since I last drew something, I wrote a little bit about it back in February, when I pondered how much better my drawing might be if I’d just done a little every week. This morning I noticed Ginger’s portable painting easel and paint box by the bed, and that image must have stuck with me throughout the day. I draw technically, and it is a learned process; very much a process. Drawing is not something I can naturally do, the images don’t just flow from my fingers. I have great respect, jealousy even for those lucky people who do have this innate ability.
My Photography is the same. Technical, not emotional, produced by following a set of processes. Again I greatly admire people who can get emotion into their pictures. I’ve tried but I just don’t ‘get it’. I guess I have to accept my limitations, and make the best of what I can do. Anyhow, I think I’ll try and include a little drawing in my weekly activities, and see how it turns out.
Today’s other pictures
Up-draft gassifier backpacking wood burner 
Hamming it up for the camera -
Living with cats (365:121)
Living with cats (365:121). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Today I almost committed the ultimate 365 Days faux pas, because for the first time this year I forgot to take my picture. I was just climbing into bed when I realized. I threw on my dressing gown and headed off to the kitchen table for today’s picture.
The day started slowly, with a Sunday off from church. Lanie’s been in KC since after school on Friday at a diocesan youth event. This removed our need to attend the 9 am service at church, which we normally do so that so she can be in choir or acolyte. It was nice to take a break, and we sat in bed surfing and chatting all morning. I spent what was left of my day on the Interwebs and caught up on some outstanding voluntary work, as Monday I have some web development work to do.
Having had my bedtime postponed for photographic purposes, I wanted to get today’s picture out of the way as quickly as possible, I even left off my glasses, which meant I couldn’t check any pictures I took (it shows). So I proceeded to press the shutter and get it over with.
There is something about the sound of the lens focusing, the ‘beep’ of the focus confirmation and the clunk of the mirror and shutter operating that attracts cats. Normally Tubby is the most inquisitive, but today before I could count to one, Getzger was up on the kitchen table trying to get in on the act. In the end I gave up, so this picture which includes Mr. G. Cat Esquire (Not sure that any Americans, even if they are pure bred Abyssinian really qualify for the ‘Esquire’ bit) will do for today.
Footnote: The plaque on the wall behind me in the alternate shot reads: “Everything tastes better with cat fur in it” I can’t attest to this as I’ve not had much opportunity to try meals without cat fur in them to enable me to confirm or refute this statement.
Today’s alternate shot
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April 2011
This month signals the return of colour; there are only eight black and white pictures.
I’ve built two marginally successful wood burning stoves for backpacking and I bought a summer sleeping bag. We’ve only managed to get out hiking three times, that’s a disappointing 10.5 miles, bringing our year’s hiking tally to 81 miles. We did take the Kayaks out twice (nine miles) bringing our yaking total to a miserly 12.6 miles. We need to try a lot harder in May. I went fishing with Tom twice, and I even caught five bass. I had a hair cut, took wedding pictures, helped out with a youth group lock-in, and laughed hysterically at people’s Facebook comments on the royal wedding.
Plans for May will need to be the same as those for April only more so. We are desperate to get out backpacking, and the yaks need exercise. So lots more hiking and kayaking pictures. We ought to manage at the very least 16 miles hiking. I want to make my Mark III backpacking stove, so some more workshop pictures, or even pictures of a pot of boiling water. Now that would be a good result.
1. Late night stand-by, 2. Sprinky appears to be giving me the ‘evil eye’, 3. Family hike at Busiek state park and wildlife area, 4. Trying out my new sleeping bag, 5. More fun in the workshop, 6. Reconnoitre, 7. My once a week ‘Studying’ picture, 8. Gary and Ginger on a run ashore, 9. Meh, 10. A fairly typical Sunday, 11. Fishing, 12. Running repairs, 13. Laying down in my kayak isn’t too difficult, 14. Hair cut, 15. Batch-loaded, inverted down-draft gassifier wood stove, 16. Beauty and the (out of focus) beast, 17. Gary and Loyal at Christ Episcopal Church, 18. Gary by the Little Sac River, 19. Lunch break and ‘phone call – day hike at Busiek, 20. Late night self portrait at the kitchen table, 21. Slideshow, 22. 2.25am Youth group lock-in, 23. You’ll always find me in the kitchen at lock-ins, 24. Dirty Martini, 25. Easter Eggs, 26. Bedtime, 27. Compressor coupling, 28. Gary and Ginger in ‘Urban Market’, 29. Gary and Ginger watching the running commentary on the Royal Wedding on Facebook, 30. Silliness on the Sac River Trail
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Silliness on the Sac River Trail (365:120)
Silliness on the Sac River Trail (365:120) — The real picture is in the background. Ginger, Katie and I put in a four-mile hike on the Sac River trail today. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. The real picture is in the background. Ginger, Katie and I put in a four-mile hike on the Sac River trail today. I was expecting the trail to be very muddy, but it turned out to be surprisingly dry. During a brief stop, I thought I’d grab a quick safety shot. I had an idea in mind. So, it seems did Ginger and Katie. I could have gone with the more serious shot, but this one’s more fun. Ginger said she looks stupid – well that’s what you get for messing with my self-portraits. Katie’s comment was along the lines of “D’oh, you can’t see me licking mom’s hair – it was kewl.” Oh well, I’d wanted them out of focus in the background, little knowing the stunt they were going to pull once my back was turned, so tough!
We decided to stop for lunch at the old barn, where Ginger and I ate lunch on our last visit on March 28, We were surprised to find the building had collapsed, leaving just a pile of rubble where we had been sitting. The recent storms must have done for it, though checking the timbers there was a lot of termite damage which I’m sure escalated its demise.
After the hike we returned to Springfield via Braum’s where we each had a double dip cone. The calories in the ice cream cones probably exceeded the number of calories we consumed on the hike, but they were very yummy.
This afternoon I tried out my latest Backpacking wood burning stove again, unfortunately with no more luck. It burns well once lit, wood gas is being generated and it burns well too, but the stove is not producing enough heat to boil a litre of water in a reasonable time, or without adding more fuel. I sat and thought about it for a while; I’ve now got another design in mind, which is not based on any of the designs I’ve seen, but uses what I’ve learned about gasification and wood gas burners in general. Hopefully a I have a more efficient, easier to manage and more consistent configuration. Whatever happens I know I’ll have great fun designing, building and trying it out.
Today’s alternate shots & extras
This would have been today’s shot but I prefer the more irreverent picture. 
A reward for the day’s hiking 
The old barn had collapsed since our last visit 
Where has the barn gone? -
Gary and Ginger watch the running commentary on the Royal Wedding on Facebook (365:119)
And it was absolutely hilarious.
We both had tears of laughter streaming down our faces at one point. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pro-monarchy. I think the monarchy does a great job of marketing Great Britain plc, encourages tourism and there’s something to be said for maintaining tradition; no surprises I’m an Episcopalian then. What I do object to is the rabid hype, hysteria, tackiness and pure bad taste events such as royal weddings seem to encourage.
Several people I know here (Springfield, Missouri) got up at the crack of dawn to watch
drool overthe events back in Blighty. They seemed much more interested in the event than the few ex-pats I know around the world.We spent some time exchanging irreverent and ribald facebook comments on the wedding. Comments of note included: “Why is no one in work today…” – my brother. “Today is a good day to travel” – a friend who is popping over to France, and pictures of another contact in her own wedding dress waving a couple of union jacks semaphore style while her bemused hubby ignores her and reads the newspaper. Should any of them stumble upon this rambling; you all know who you are. One of my sons claimed he was playing Mario on the SNES and posted “If he wasn’t getting married today, this is definitely what William would’ve been doing.” the other has just posted “I think that Sky Sports played a blinder today… Premier League Years versus the Royal Wedding. Only ever going to be one winner.” and then there was a whole string of comments about the frock which were so funny and inappropriate I won’t repeat any of them here or they won’t let me back in the UK ever again.
It was about then that my bright idea for today’s picture came to me. So today you see Ginger and I sitting in bed with our respective laptops, laughing ourselves silly.
Today’s alternate shot
Royal wedding watching on Facebook. It must have been the mention of a gratuitous nipple that did it -
Gary and Ginger in ‘Urban Market’ (365:118)
Gary and Ginger in ‘Urban Market’ (365:118). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Slight change of plan today.
Ginger returned from the school run with tidings of yard sales, not just any yard sale, but a church yard sale, so off we went.
To prevent rampant purchasing we maintain ‘to buy’ lists, the idea being that stuff not on the list doesn’t get bought, scotching most impulse purchases. On the whole it works, though I spent $4 on $30 worth of audio cables that wasn’t on the list. I don’t think we got anything that was on the list, which was annoying as I wanted to find a small aluminium pan to go on my wood burning backpacking stove.
We dropped off our goodies at home and decided to go out again and check out a couple of flea markets. I was waiting to find out if I was cooking dinner for class tonight, so we had time to spare. We went round three flea markets and today’s picture was taken in the third – Urban Market. Ginger has this habit of standing behind me when I take a picture of both of us – she says it’s so that she doesn’t look bigger then me, but the normal result is that I’m in focus and she isn’t. Anyway I’m taller by half an inch, I just choose to wear very flat shoes, so there.
I found an aluminium pitcher just the right size for the wood burner at the rather worryingly named STD. Now I’ll need to fire up the stove again and test it.
I made cottage pie for eight in the afternoon which seemed to be well received at class (no green beans or mushroom soup in my recipe). Mary’s cheesecake was much better than the cottage pie though – yum! Hopefully I haven’t poisoned anyone.
Today’s extras
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Compressor coupling (365:117)
Compressor coupling (365:117). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Tyres do not stay inflated around here.
Whether that be bike or car tyres, we seem to be continually getting the compressor out and adding air (that originally read ‘we seems’ I’ve obviously been subconsciously influenced by that obnoxious Ja Jar Binks character in Phantom Menace). Yesterday topping up one of the van’s tyres was accompanied by a large amount of hissing; the compressor’s hose had split near to the compressor coupling. I was too busy with wedding pics to fix it yesterday, so today I thought I’d try to fix the hose before settling down for my weekly EFM studying. The fact that this gave me a photo opportunity that didn’t involve me studying had nothing whatsoever to do with this you understand.
So here I am trying to work out how to take the coupling off. If I had my eyes tested and got new glasses I probably wouldn’t need the magnifying glass, but I have better things to spend my pennies on like food, shelter, drink, gas (Mon Dieu the price of gas), hiking and backpacking gear etc. etc.
The rest of the day was spent studying. I’d two lessons to get through this week so it was quite a slog, though thankfully the lesson topics were much more interesting than some we’ve had over the past few weeks.
In September my Green Card expires. So we finished the day looking at pictures of us; mentally earmarking those we want to get printed to use as evidence to support my application for the removal of conditions and the issue of a new (ten year) Green Card. And to do that we have to prove that our wedding and relationship isn’t a sham organised just to get me into the country. It’s a shame the US Government doesn’t accept Flickr accounts as evidence. As it doesn’t we will have to call on friends to write affidavits for us, and there’s the possibility of an interview, plus they’ll be taking my biometrics again.
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Bedtime (365:116)
Bedtime (365:116). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Memory. I wish I had one.
Possibly I did all sorts of things, but more likely I procrastinated at the computer. Actually a little bit of checking shows that I did some (paid!) work, and processed the first batch of Dash and Leslie’s wedding pictures, which kept me busy through most of the day. Lots of nice shots to pick from, though a fair bit of processing partly because of the orange lighting, and in one shot because unknown to me the bride was wearing a pair of black sandals, which showed when she was sitting down. Photoshop to the rescue – I lengthened the dress slightly to cover them up. Ginger asked how I fixed it, which given her experience of Photoshop I take as complement.
Of course the main reason for additional processing is my own lack of experience. It’s over twenty-five years since I worked weekends as a studio wedding photographer and I’m a bit rusty. I obviously need to try harder to get it right, in camera, first time. Working fast I deliberately decided to de-risk it and shot wide so I could crop later.
Of course I ignored any self-portrait opportunities I may have had during the day, so once again we have a hurried just before bedtime capture.
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Easter Eggs (365:115)
Saturday and Sunday Lanie made coloured Easter Eggs.
I was going to take a picture of them yesterday, but that would have involved moving the van out of the garage which doubles as my workshop and a sort of studio when needed.
It’s been raining almost non-stop for two days, we’ve had over five inches of rain and Ginger’s parents have had over ten inches. I was alerted to the backyard flooding by the sound of water pouring into the crawlspace under the house. By that time it was several inches deep, and while I did the school run Ginger sorted out the pump. On getting home I donned my waterproofs and cut a short channel down the side of the house by the back gate which let some of the water out, we’ll have to see how it goes.
I spent most of the day working at the computer; the church website is up to date, and I’ve cleared a couple of other items off of my to do list. None of which was worthy of a picture. I was tempted to get out my kayak and set it in the backyard for today’s picture. However, (1) it was quite dark outside (2) I’ve already broken a camera by getting water in it, and I didn’t fancy going through that again, and (3) that would not have been a documentary picture. So instead I set up a backcloth on my work bench, enlisted Lanie’s help to arrange her eggs and hold the diffuser while I took a picture of the ‘Camo egg’ she made for me.
I’m not too happy with the lighting on this shot, I’ll have to work out what’s wrong. I suspect I’ve used too much diffused light, even though I tried putting some direct light in from the left to bring up some shadows.
Today’s extras
Lanie’s Easter Eggs 
The backyard slips silently beneath the waves -
Dirty Martini (365:114)
Easter Sunday.
Up early, church, home, long afternoon nap, computer, and finally, dirty martinis.
A sloppy picture deserves a faux Lomo effect.
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You’ll always find me in the kitchen at lock-ins (365:113)
You’ll always find me in the kitchen at lock-ins (365:113). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. I managed around three hour’s sleep,
which I guess isn’t too bad. I was up at seven fifteen and helping out with breakfast. Before the end of the lock-in we held a short service in the church, and left for home at ten am. Instead of getting a nap, we went shopping, I spent some time at the computer and we had a visit from Dash and Leslie.
At seven pm Lanie and I were back at church for the Easter vigil. Either we didn’t do these back in my days as a choir boy, or the choir never attended, as this was my first. It was a wonderful but long service; we didn’t get home until after nine. At one point I was concerned that Lanie would burn the church down with her candle. That, fortunately turned out to not be the case.
Once the kids were all in their rooms for the night Ginger and I settled down to watch Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. We’re slowly going through all the Star Wars movies in episodic order.
Tomorrow we have another early start for Church and hopefully I’ll get a chance for a nap.
Today’s extras
