Returning the favor - a shoutout

A couple days ago, my blog friend Sue gave me a nice shout-out the other day, calling me one of the photogs she adores. I'm blushing! For the record, Sue is also a great photographer...she's got a good sense of composition/design, and can make art out of just about anything.

So, today is my turn to give her a shoutout. In her latest post, she talks about how one of her photos got used in an online article on NowPublic.com. Excellent! This is the first of many published photos for Sue, I'm sure. Oh, and in a shameless shill for her...her work is also featured for sale on RedBubble.com...

Stop by her photo site and take a look--she does really good stuff.

I'd intended to post on something else today...so look for another post from me later today...

Back home...

Made it home safe and sound last night (more like 2AM this morning!) from our Alaska trip. The word for those two weeks was "Wow!" Everything was just...WOW. The mountains, the wildlife, the scenery, the people, the...everything.

My pal Kathleen is an Alaskan, and I got a little taste of the heaven she lives in. Heaven, that is, during the summer--during the winter, not so much. I got the idea it'd be WAAAAAAAY too cold for me up there, so I'm happy to visit but wouldn't want to live there.

I was struck, over and over again, by a sense of amazement and wonder at all of the natural beauty God created. I tend to feel God's presence most strongly when I'm surrounded by nature, and I practically overdosed on it the past couple weeks!

Oh, and photos? I'm not kidding y'all, I took easily 200 pix a day. Now, some of those I tossed out, but I'm going through and editing others. I've already posted some of my shots on Picasa, and this one went on my photo blog today.

More (possibly stories, but definitely photos!) later...

My first photo contest

One of my non-running interests is photography. I picked it up in high school and I've come back to it now and again. Just before our vacation this year, I got a Nikon D40x camera and I've been really happy with it. I've also got some good friends who are teaching me a thing or two about composition, digital post-processing using Photoshop, etc.

A couple months ago I was flying home on a United flight and picked up their Hemispheres magazine...the August issue announced their annual travel photography contest. So I thought "What the heck?" and decided to enter. I'm submitting my pictures today (here and here). Who knows what will happen? But the good news is I can say "Yes, I've been in a photo contest."

It's like running...it doesn't matter to me if I'm first place or last, just being a part of it and being in the same event as some of the "greats" in the field (be it running, business, photography, whatever) is encouraging. I learn something from every contest I enter--how to do something better, and usually a thing or two about my limits and capabilities also.

Anyway...I'm off to the mailbox to drop off my entries. Wish me luck. (C;

More later...