Literally. Was doing some shooting at a local ice skating rink today for the office. Walking around on the ice for a few hours in non-insulated boots gives you a bit of a chill I’ll tell ya. I started off using my studio lights, but the rink’s such a big place, it was hard to light the space I needed to evenly. I could do it with a bit more gear, but unfortunately I can only work with what I have available. Ended up shooting without flash and was still able to get some good stuff.

Oh, did some photos recently that may end up being used as senior photos. I was out trying some new lighting techniques and had a volunteer as my test subject. She was a real trooper. Here’s one of the shots from that shoot. Overall, I was pleased with the results I got.

I hope to have a couple more fun, interesting shoots between now and year’s end so look forward to more news about that.

Outside the world of photography, I picked up the Genesis collection disc for my PSP. I used to play Kid Chameleon and Sonic the Hedgehog on my Sega Genesis years ago. Now I have most of the good games released for that system all in one place. While I was in EB Games getting that, I did look closely at the Playstation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii. I’d lean more towards the PS3, but with as many hobbies and interests as I have, the last thing I need is something else to eat up what little time I have left! If I do get a system though, it should probably be an XBOX360 since Kevin owns just about every one of the best games on that console.

We saw some cold temperatures this past week. I think it got down to 11 or 12 degrees one morning – cold enough for me to use the ice jacket I bought myself a few weeks ago. I don’t like being cold so I went ahead and had my thick base layer stuff on… I stayed nice and toasty all day.

In other news, I got some work done on the house recently. Had my roof replaced as it did sustain some damage from a hailstorm we had earlier in the year. This was the same storm that dinged up my car as well. Luckily, it got repaired successfully with that paintless dent repair technique body shops are using these days. Anyway, there were about a dozen roofers working on my job. With that many folks, they were able to get the job done in only 2 days. I also had to replace a fan that was failing in my heat system as well. Those must be some of the most expensive fans around… cost just under $500 to replace. After it was replace though, I suddenly realized how much the performance of my heat system had degraded with the old fan. The new fan, despite being uber expensive, works fantastically.

I got a few more episodes of LOST under my belt also… steadily working my way through the Season 2 DVD’s. I still can’t get over how addictive that show is. HEROS wrapped up for the season last Monday. The last episode was just so-so. I hope it continues to improve as it goes into it’s next season.

Enough rambling for now.

No matter how many Sunday evenings I come to, it always seems that the weekend’s are much too short. I think the perfect length of a weekend should be 3 days. Why 3? Because with just 2, you can really enjoy only one day then the next you spend recovering or resting so that you’ll be all set for Monday. With the 3 day schedule, you can enjoy both weekend days and rest on the third.

That’s not gonna happen anytime soon.

Very busy weekend for me this go around. A friend of mine had a relative pass away and the funeral services were Saturday morning. Thankfully, I planned ahead and dressed warmly for the graveside service as the temperatures were low and the wind was blowing. Later that evening we attended a formal dinner and Christmas program at a friend’s church.

Music this morning at our church went well – had someone new step up to the mic and sing and she totally blew everyone away. She literally could go pro if she wanted to, but I’m glad she’s chosen to sing with us. On the music front, Kevin made a donation to Guitar Center and picked up an awesome Taylor T5.  If I had stuck with playing guitar, this would be one I would be drooling over now that I’ve heard it. That’s one nice instrument. Geez… I should start playing guitar again anyway even if it’s not my “main” instrument. I took lessons for 2 years I think so maybe it won’t take too much work for it to come back to me. Back in elementary school, I played the viola. This was after the piano. Then came guitar. I dabbled a little with the banjo before moving into the drums. I still have my banjo though. It’s the the Deluxe – the one on the left.

Now that I think about it, most all of us have been blessed to have some REALLY nice instruments in the band. Jack has his vintage Gibson Les Paul, Kyle with his Ibanez Jem, Kevin with his Taylor and his Roland Fantom and me and my drums (and banjo). We should all show up with all our “good stuff” all at once – turn up and let it all hang out. We’ll have to do that when we start meeting in a theater soon. Can’t do that in our current building – people would get hurt.

I was gonna write some more but I think I’m just going to head on to bed. Oh, I watched a few more episodes of LOST tonight…