Kylie and I made a last minute, unplanned trip up to Princeton, Indiana over the weekend.  I'll talk more about that and post more images tomorrow or Wednesday.  It's late, and I've got an early start tomorrow, but here's a quick one...

Very empty and peaceful sky last night.

The summer scorch is also lessening at night this time of year which makes the dog walks more pleasant both Mia and Kylie & I.  Even with the lower temps, though, Mia enjoys a cold shower for a quick chill.  Unfortunately that requires either Kylie are I to escort her through this exercise.  Fortunately for me, it was Kylie on this occasion.

Took my camera for a walk this evening.  It's a poor substitute for a dog, but since Mia is on hiatus from walks until at least Wednesday, the D3 filled the temporary role nicely... and without any messes to clean up. Across the street from the otherwise suburban neighborhood I live in is some farm land... a refreshing holdout of nostalgia in an ocean of urban development.  I hope the owners of these two plots of land never sell, at least while we live hear because 1) it's a welcome reminder of my childhood days out in the country back in Ohio, and 2) it doesn't have the typical "fresh air" smell of most farms. A couple images from our walk near sun down...

It's time to wrap up last weekend's Austin trip and start lookin' forward to next year's photographer get-together 2.0.  To close out this year's edition, though, here's a few images from the drive home.  I love road trip photography.  I might even go so far as to say it's my favorite thing to do with a camera.  And unlike a couple years ago where I had to call up a buddy to navigate me back home when I got lost driving around out in the country side in the county I grew up in (I hadn't been back in a while, so cut me some slack, would ya?), now with a GPS in my phone I've got free rein to go anywhere without worrying weather I can find my way back to civilization... assuming I have enough gas to get there. The only thing I have to worry about with roadtrip these days is getting arrested for trespassing.  And lemme tell ya, there was a whole heck of a lot of it goin' on in these images.  My thing is, it's not like I'm stealing or vandalizing anything, and if the owners were around I would (well, might) ask permission, but considering they weren't and that this might be the last time I ever drive by these places, I felt the risk was justified.  Take for example these first two images. I was on a lonely old dead end country road, the land was surrounded by a 4ft barb wire fence, and there was not a soul in sight.  What wold you do?  I agree.  And I, too, decided to scale said fence to walk the property and get these two photos.  Some might say I was trespassing.  I prefer to think of it as "visually preserving American history".  In fact, when you (I) say it that way, it sounds like what I'm doing is not only justfiable, but noble and critical to preserving our heritage.  [somebody gimme a shovel... this pile's gettin' deep.]

Somewhere around Waxahachie, TX, I struck vintage automotive gold.  I saw a couple restored cars out front and naturally exited the highway and looped back around on the service road to take a few photos.  So far so good. I fired off a few shots of the red and yellow cars below...

... and then I began to whistle and inconspicuosly climb the 3ft padlocked gate to see what was behind the building of this vintage car slavation/restoration business.  Jackpot.  There was a plethera of old gas station equipment, signs, automotive parts.

I walked a little further and hit the motherload.  Way out back, hidden by a rusty old aluminum fence and some trees was a pasture of vintage automotive corpses... a final resting place for icons of American history.

I was a kid in a candy store, and I coulda stayed for a couple of hours if I wasn't providing lunch for the local chigger nation in my flip flops and shorts.  I got mauled... again.  But those few minutes were worth it.

Finally, this was closer to home back in Dallas just around the corner from the house.

The following is a visual recap of Day 2 in Austin over the weekend. We started off with a new experience for most of us when Monica lead us in a morning yoga session on the back deck of the house overlooking the lake. I felt like I was in one of those mid-morning follow-along-at-home fitness videos that are always shot on-locations with killer backdrops... except it was yoga... and I was that person you always saw kinda lookin' around to see what everyone else was doing to try and keep up. That person's never foolin' anyone, and neither was I... Yoga's a humbling - and ironic - activity. It's hard to find an activity that makes you realize how stiff and inflexible and uncoordinated you really are, but in a peaceful, soothing way. Anyway, it was a fantastic way to start the day (except that I wanted to take a nap immediately afterwards. Here are the yoga mats, our tools of the trade for Monica's session.

Next up, lunch at the well-known Hula Hut.

You can't take photographers anywhere without them, well, photographing.

Ahhh... here's Chad... our cheap and cheerful salsa boy.

A little painted table decor for our dining pleasure. [not pictured here: the ginormous tubular steak taco I inhaled]

Sharon, Michele and Kim by the door on the way out. It took us about 7 tries to get this image because people kept coming in and going out like this was a popular restaurant or something. Very inconsiderate if you ask me.

Fast forward to Saturday evening, and here you'll find a string of images from our pre-dinner shooting on or near Commerce Street. First up... Michele with some off-camera flash and another flash throwing a little light on the building behind her. I think this may have been then scene of the crime for the second wave of chigger attacks I was privy to.

Here's Karen in a parking garage with a light bulb above her and a remote flash providing a little separation from behind.

And here's Kim in an alley with a street light lighting her face and again an off-camera flash behind her.

And here's a few more random shots from streetside.

Love this shot of a this guy and his trumpet. Great suggestion, Chad, to have him put his opposite hand up to his ear.

And finally we finished off the evening with some late night shooting back at the house. karen had brought some studio lights, so we set 'em up, and fired away. Starting off... a group shot.

Then it just got ridiculous. For a little role reversal, the ladies donned some 'staches.

And then Chad and I, well, ... I dunno what happened here.

Sorry, Chad. I had to post this one because it's. just. funny. If you'd like to pay the amount listed in the anonymous ransom note I faxed over this morning, I'll gladly remove this image.

There we go. Finally... something a little more masculine from the guy crowd.

And somethin' a little more natural from the ladies side, too.

... or not.

Next up, our third and final day. Mostly images from the drive home... and a third attack of the chiggers. Stay tuned.