Enjoy it while you can!

The other night my wife asked me to guess how many pictures I had taken in 2012. See she has a handy dandy picture management software package to organize our pictures. After a couple wild guesses, she informed me that I was 64 pictures short of 7000 for the year. When taking into account the number of pictures I deleted in camera, I’m sure I was well over 10,000 snapshots. Yes, I believe in the method of statistical picture taking.


All of this digital mastery got me thinking could I possibly pick a set of favorite pictures. So yes, after a careful 10 minutes of consideration here are my favorites.

The first picture is more of a favorite due to what is behind the picture than the picture itself. See this is the first set of Point Shoes for my daughter Alex, the culmination of years of dance practice and dedication.



The next picture is a rehash of a picture from last summer’s visit to the Chihuly exhibit at the Dallas Arboretum. Here are the Blue Heron’s. I just loved the shade of blue lit at night.



The remaining pictures come from the two blockbuster trips that we went on last year celebrating ‘enjoy it while you can year’. The first picture from these trips included getting the family up at 3am and driving to the top of Haleakala for the freezing experience of watching the sun rise above the clouds. It’s a bone chilling wonderful 10 minutes. This is the moment when the sun just breaks through for the morning.



Of course we were about a quarter mile off the top of the mountain when Jill said, ‘You forgot the Terrible Towel!’ I slammed on the breaks and tripped back up to the top for the Terrible Towel around the world shot.

The next shot is the first of my favorite accidents and proof of statistical picture taking. By taking a crazy number of pictures during the Magic Kingdom Halloween firework display I got this cool silhouette view of the castle.



Keeping with the theme of happy accident pictures is the following picture Kilauea volcano on the Big Island. The mystery light on the right side of the picture is the guy on his cell phone who inadvertantely walked into my 30 second exposure until I motioned him away. His wife admonished him with my favorite line of the year, “Can’t you see he’s a photographer! Get out of his way!” So, at least one person on the planet thinks I’m a photographer.


A couple interesting facts are that thet glowing orange area is the size of five football fields and the stars on the right side of the picture are part of the Southern Cross.

Now we are down to my two favorite pictures. This picture was after our night at the luau and returning back to our room. The girls had a case of the giggles all ready when Alex yelled ‘Hot Lava’ a old elevator trick that her mother taught her that requires that you quickly jump up using the railing in the elevator in order to get out of the ‘hot lava’. The picture is a little out of focus and the flash washed them out more than I’d like, but the picture is such a pure moment in time.  That is why it is a favorite of mine.  Sarah couldn't stop laughing, apparently laughter keeps one safe from hot lava. That is what I love this picture and why I’m so happy that when I heard the call of ‘Hot Lava’ that I quickly swung around and snaped this shot.



Finally, the following is my favorite picture. This one I’m actually proud of. It’s from the USS Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor. See you actually get very little time on the memorial as they run a constant string of shuttle boats and one group is always leaving when the next group is coming in. I was able to intentionally linger a little longer than I should have. When I looked back to the rear of the monument I noticed one of the memorial volunteers, an elderly gentleman, taking a moment at the wall of remembrance. It’s simply about the moment, the space, the quiet respect and the light that made it all come together.



So, 7000 pictures – I think I need to pick up the pace in 2013.