The Orange Sailor

It is a rare event that I have the pleasure of sailing with one of my sons. I would also imagine that it is a rare thing that anyone sails on Lake Oahe with the official FIFA World Cup colors of the Netherlands football team. But both were true yesterday as my son Brian and I headed back to the Spring Creek marina after a night in Mission Creek."Sailing" isn't exactly what we are doing here, since the wind was unreliable. But it was a beautiful morning with the sky just beginning to clear. And I suspect that Brian's bright orange shirt made us visible to both fish and fishermen.Canon 5DII 1/250s f/11.0 ISO200 17mm

Didgeridoo

This young woman is a street performer we encountered a few years ago while strolling along the Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Spain. Even before I saw her, I knew I was hearing a didgeridoo, which makes a kind of a droning sound.Was she a good didgeridoo player? Perhaps a virtuoso? Frankly, I couldn't tell a good didgeridoo sound from a bad one since we don't have many players in my home town. But I did put a coin in her collection plate. I liked her style. And her big didgeridoo.

The Little Tourist

More than once in the US when I have pointed my cameras at a child to get a candid photo, I've gotten dirty looks. For that reason, I don't take many photos of kids when I am wandering around.But in this case, I couldn't resist. Plus, I was in Lisbon, Portugal, and his parents smiled when they saw me taking his photo. It's a different culture, I guess. The location is the Jeronimos Monastery and what I like about this picture is the child's casual stance. I also like how he is looking at me in a way that isn't fearful or suspicious.

Still Life

Deb and I were in Lisbon on the last day of our visit to Portugal when I noticed these two people pondering something off in the distance. I was immediately reminded of a famous work of art by Duane Hanson called "Tourists." And so I snapped the photo. I'll have to admit that my wife and I come closer to looking like Hanson's tourists than this Lisbon couple does, though I think my wife is much more stylish.You might be interested in knowing that Duane Hanson casts his fiberglass and resin figures from real people. Most of the people in my photos are real, too.

The Happy Fisherman

Most people fish Lake Oahe for its walleye. But my friend Peterson thought finding northerns would be just fine and on day two of our fishing/sailing expedition, this is what he found. I don't have a scale on my sailboat so we had to go looking for a fisherman who did. Total weight: 20.2 lbs. Scott has been fishing in Canada for 30 years but this is the largest northern he has ever caught. And I helped.If you want to see the exact location where we caught this fish, check out the Panoramio link. There may be more.

06-01-10 Reprise: Helping Hand

I am enjoying a short hiatus from my "Photo A Day" blog and am showing you a few of my favorite posts from the last year and a half. I'll be back on the job with new photos from London and Portugal in a couple weeks.

Engaged

Studies show that when children are young, they tend to like school. Kids that age are curious, creative and engaged. By the time the same children are 17, they have changed. As a rule, they aren't particularly curious about the subjects schools present, they don't consider themselves creative and many certainly aren't engaged. Why?As a life-long teacher and learner, I have my theories. Do I dare suggest that high schools reward those who are compliant and good at memorizing and punish those who aren't? Go rent "Joe vs. the Volcano" and watch the factory scenes. If you ask me, that's how kids see high school.

Swan Dive

Some peered cautiously over the edge (me). Some jumped in feet first (Brian). And one did a swan dive (nicknamed "Grom.")This was taken at a place called South Point on the Big Island of Hawaii. I don't know Grom's real name but I do know that he was very athletic and half crazy, from what my son Jon told me.

Scotty

Yesterday, in the process of sifting through the photo collection of my aunt Gladys, we came across this photo and it made my wife laugh. There aren't many photos of me that aren't posed. But this one appears to show me as I really was. Waiting in the Roadmaster with tousled hair, I look a little like an eager puppy ready for another ride.I don't know who took this picture, but it is a great candid photo from a wonderful angle.

An Angel Dances the Charleston

Gladys, born in 1912, passed away yesterday at the age of 97. She was my father's sister and when I was growing up, we would make the trek out to Olympia, Washington, every other year to visit her. Like my aunt Betty in California, Gladys moved to the west coast from South Dakota looking for opportunity.Throughout her entire life, she was an amazing woman. She was organized, decisive, caring and deeply involved in her church. She was a driving force that even time and sickness couldn't slow down. Diagnosed with cancer in her 70s, Gladys scheduled her treatments early in the morning so they wouldn't conflict with her home visits to shut-ins and "real" sick people, as she liked to refer to them.In 2004, Deb and I visited her and we watched in amazement as she stood behind her walker in the day room of her assisted living center and, at the age of 91, danced the Charleston. We laughed and applauded.If any angel has a special place in Heaven, Gladys does. And she is no doubt entertaining all the other angels by dancing the Charleston.

03-25-10 Betty

Betty is my 89 year old aunt. At age 18 she left South Dakota for California and has lived there ever since. At age 18 she showed a willingness to explore and she recently showed the same willingness when we carted her all over the Los Angeles area.

In this photo she is sitting complacently in the lobby of the Norton Simon Art Museum in Pasadena. I thought a full day of visiting places like Hollywood, the Santa Monica pier and an art gallery would do her in. But she never slowed us down!

03-22-10 The Art Lesson

Oddly, I was reminded of the famous Rembrandt painting, "The Anatomy Lesson," when I was processing this photo. It was taken at the Norton Simon Museum of Art in Pasadena, California and it shows an art class pondering a work by Picasso.