It's A Girl!!!! (98% sure it is anyway)

OK, so those three bright white lines to the left of the arrow mean that we are having a little girl!!! The two bright white circles even further to the left are supposed to the bottom of the pelvis bones I think...anyway, we are now expecting MOLLY SHAYNE around the end of May.

This breaks all the Evans traditions of Boy Evans's having boys and Girl Evans's having Girls, I'm the first boy in 3 generations to have a girl as the first baby!!! WOW!!!!!!!! This is just amazing!!

Busy Day, Lazy Night

Here's a look at the chaotic life that is my desk. This is about a 8 inch by 10 inch section of my desk, the fairly neat part! My desk is it's own ecosphere. But I can usually find everything without too much trouble.

Winter Woods Walk

Old House, Cold Morning

Sometimes it's nice to have a crisp morning and an old house. There are two houses in the above photos each with two pics. Can you figure out which two pics are sides of the same houses?

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Solstice and All Other Good Tidings To All

Sometimes, It's All About Texture

Verbal Photo Blog Day

OK, so with today's blog I'm going to describe a photo to you seeing how I'm too tired to post an actual photo. Here's the scene...

I've just finished 5 and a half hours of covering a coal company's Christmas Party at the Holiday Inn Heart of Town. So imagine 500 Coal Miners in a ball room with 6 open bars, a couple of African American DJ's (Really Cool and Funny Guys), 6 open bars, and a dance floor. Now imagine One photographer, One photographer's assistant, One photographer's wife (also an assitant), 2 Santa Hats, a Christmas Tree, Three Fake Presents (empty boxes wrapped as Gifts), and a portable Studio along with 6 open bars, 500 Coal Miners and 2 African American DJ's....and a partridge in a pear tree.

There's your Verbal Photo Blog for today......see you tomorrow!

Playboy has celebrity interviews?

I have some studio lights at my studio for the weekend, a luxury I don't usually have, and was playing around with some self portraits. I think self portraits are the most difficult types of portraits. Not only is it tough setting up the shot, like most people I get self conscious when the camera is pointed at me. That's one of the reasons I like being behind the lens, that means I'm not in front of it.

Anyway, I took some goofing off shots just to loosen up and my wife saw them and started laughing. I told her I was putting together some for my blog and she said they reminded her of the celebrity interviews in Playboy. Of course my first reaction was, "What interviews in Playboy?". She made me create a printable copy of these for her "Creative Area" only in a horizontal format.

Anyway, these turned out OK but they lost a lot of detail and color when I shrunk them down for the web. I am trying to save up and get some good studio lights, I can't wait!! Until then, my crappy screw in slave flashes will just have to sufice.

Now, where did I put that Playboy?........

WV Capitol Architecture

It is almost that time again. For the second year I am going to take on the job of a photographer for the WV Legislature. My job is to photograph everything possible for the House of Delegates in a nopartisan way. Sometimes it's a pretty tough job as I average anywhere from 3 to 5 miles a day running around inside the capitol. One of the greatest things about the job is actually working inside this magnificent building. It's so beautiful. Below are a few shots from inside the capitol around the main hall.

This shot I call "Arches A Plenty". It's from outside one of the elevators on the main floor.
A shot from around the well area.
This shot looks over the well and into the House Chambers.
Check out a little history of the WV Capitol. This link takes you to the main WV Legislature Website. I guess I will be seeing you guys in the Office of Reference and Information soon!!

Wedding Cake...Yummy!

I am editing and cleaning up the photos from a wedding I photographed a few weeks ago and here is a couple of photos of the wedding cake. It was really good and that's just one of the fringe benefits of being a wedding photographer. Let's hope it tastes as good a year from now when they eat it on their anniversary.

Mine and Heidi's was actually really good. My grandmother wrapped it up for the freezer with instructions on how to do so from my mom. One year later we ate the whole top layer we kept, tasted just like it was fresh. We were delighted, and absolutely amazed!!

Mostly Full Moon

Here is tonight's moon. It's not quite full but almost. The full moon is on Thursday but I think it's going to rain and be cloudy. My largest telephoto lens really sucks and I can't get quite the detail I was hoping for. I would love to have a good telescope for some astrophotography!

Here are some really cool astrophotography shots.

Helicopter Pass?

So, I was out trying to capture the nearly full moon over Charleston tonight when Healthnet came flying by with the spotlight going full on right towards me!! Here's the shot....



AND here's the truth :) ...... Actually, this shot is from a night last month and the "helicopter spotlight" in the top right of the frame is actually the real moon overexposed. The moon on the left was shot tonight with a telephoto lens and inserted into the shot. It looks a little odd because of the size.

Retro Logo

Can you name the company who's location has this logo, or rather character, on the side of it's building? It's real "logo" is very well known and would be a give away. BONUS POINTS: Name the location where this photo was taken.

Dharma and Bailey Dogs

Here's a collage of our dogs that I made to fit into one of those multi hole frames. It actually says "Our Dog" on it in etched letters so we had to add an " 's " to it because we have two dogs.

HELP!! Santa and his elves puked in my yard!!!

NO, this is not MY yard. My yard, and house, remains beautifully undecorated in perfect Grinch style! Next year, after the baby arrives, I promise to decorate my house. I do however refuse to let Santa puke all over it!



This particular location, which I will let remain nameless to protect the guilty, just seems to keep getting worse and worse. I give it just a few more years until John Amos will have to increase it's size, or this yard goes supernova and becomes self sufficient.

Huntington Cemetery #2

Here's another photo from the Cemetery I found in Huntington in the Fall. It's posted in my old blog archives. I have several photos from this place on our living room wall in a set of 3.


I believe this is Spring Hill Cemetery off of Norway Avenue. They even have a civil war burial plot and memorial. It's a beautiful place with lots of Trees and monoliths.

Driving Into Night #2

As I was coming back from Columbus I caught the start of rush hour. It really wasn't too bad at all but since I was in stop and go traffic, and was bored, I stuck the camera out the window and took these shots. I really like the color and compositions.

What was really interesting was the looks that I was getting from other drivers. Now, this was stop and go traffic so it's not like we were doing interstate speeds. Everyone who made any expression at all towards me, and this is the interesting part, had smiles and seemed to get a laugh out of it. Most people didn't even seem to notice but I didn't see any hostility as one might expect on the freeway.

Bored in a Comfort Inn near Columbus

Well, after a hair raising ride to Columbus this is where I spent my evening. Nothing worth reading about on CNN.com so TV it was. Can you guess what TV show is on the TV?

Lest We Forget

Here's a photo of the war memorial at the WV State Capitol. It honors West Virginians who paid the greatest sacrifice in 20th century conflicts. Here is a closeup of just a few of the tens of thoushands of names on the walls.

Macro Photo Find

I was looking through some photos I had forgot about in my archives. This is a shot I found while looking for macro/closeup shots for the PPS Focus On Pixels Contest. I actually had a photo, that I posted in my early archives, earn an honorable metion in this contest.

Congratulations Kara and Chris

A VERY beautiful wedding, may life bring you both happiness and joy for all the years to come. Thanks for letting us be a part of your special day and congratulations once again!

Flower Girls Make the Wedding

You can always count on the flower girl to do something unexpected yet memorable for a wedding. This little girl took a moment to make sure her mom knew she was thinking about her as she stood on her tip toes and waved wildly! Afterwards she went back to waiting ever so patiently for the ceremony to end and the processional to begin!

Weddings wear me out!

Sorry everyone, no photo today. I spent 6 hours photographing a wedding and am too tired to post any photos tonight. Tomorrow, Sunday, I have some really nice ones to put up but tonight I'm beat. Goodnight!

It was a most gorgeous wedding today and everyone was awesome fun to work with! Congratulations Kara and Chris and good luck with everything.

Take a rite by the upside down car and the gas pump.

I think it's amazing some of things people keep around their property. This is one of several junked cars lining the driveway of this undisclosed location. I get to see a lot of stuff taking insurance photos. This actually may not even be on the property I photographed, it's at the end of the "driveway". My low slung Subaru Outback only drug once on the way up!

The gas pump is actually working too. Usually I see them but they are stopped. There are several up this "holler" that still function. I have always heard that you could get free gas if you let people put a pump on your property, wonder if that is true?

Beckley Barn Finds the Light

This barn was in the only piece of sunlight around and looked nice with the rolling fields in the front.

Very First Season's Greetings

Some friends of mine wanted a photo of their new daughter for season's greeting cards. This is the one we all thought came out the best, babies are tough to get good portraits of!

Driving Into Nightfall

On the way home from Beckley this trucker passed me. I was doing almost 75mph going down the biggest hill between here and Beckley, the one with the old tunnel in it which aliens now use as an airport and the Government claims it does "training" in, but that's another story. Anyway, I was doing almost 75mph and this guy passed me doing about 80mph, and we were in a 60 mph zone!
The toll booth attendant looked at me like I was weird when I snapped this one!
And finally, my favorite of the trip, I64 just before the Greenbrier Street Exit Ramp. Can you make out the capitol? The harsh streak of light is from the light posts and my favorite part of the photo is the reflections in the side mirror. I really got some interesting shots with the slow shutter speeds and for safety, they were all shot in the Program mode and I wasn't looking through the viewfinder! I don't have a pocket cam so I have to use my Digital Rebel as my point and shoot camera! They take really nice photos and this is the 6.2MP model, they are now up to 8MP.

Reflecting the Wind..or lack thereof

Reflection of the sky and flags in front of the WV Workforce Development office in Beckley today, I was teaching. I tried to catch the flags while they were out but of course the wind wouldn't blow up strong enough when I was ready to snap away!

What's for lunch?

I've been traveling again, not quite as much as when I was a full time computer instructor but still a bit more than I like. The money is pretty good and with a baby on the way I need all I can get. Anyway, it's hard to find quality food so I usually end up with greasy fast food such as that seen here from Captain D's. How can something that tastes so good be so bad? It's quite unfair!

The OTree Corral?

These must be some really dangerous trees as they seem to be corralled and can't get out! Who knows?

Matrix Revealed

I took this photo of the BB&T building reflected in Laidley Tower. The way the BB&T building warps reminds me of the scene from "The Matrix" where the helicopter crashes into it.

Blogger Blogging!

I have been blogging most of this year (2005) but was hosting my own blog. I recently switched to Blogger.com mostly for the community and it's a bit more convenient to use than the one I was using.

You can check out my pre Blogger blog archives here.