Friends and Family – Page 5

holiday sweets

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

Good morning folks. I hope your holiday preparations are winding down and that you have plans for a relaxing time with family and friends. Our shopping is done and we are putting the finishing touches on wrapping. So, I think we are in pretty good shape for Sunday's main event.

I'll be travelling over the next week and posting might get a little spotty as I am driving from Ohio to Georgia and back. I'll make posts along the way and let you know what I am up to. However, they might not be daily and they might not be first thing in the morning as usual.

Have a fantastic holiday.

#pookiebunnysaturday

Posted on December 17, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

Over at Google+, I just invented #PookieBunnySaturday.

This one is mine, You will have to get your own Pookie Bunny

Have a great Saturday folks.

camera shy

Posted on September 30, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

This is one of my friends from the farm. She is incredibly camera shy and I can never get her to look into the lens. She has a wonderful smile, so I will keep trying.

my birthday hafla

Posted on September 1, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

Sometimes you live in a waking dream. A dream so wonderful that you hardly believe it is real. So was my birthday. We celebrated my birthday at a halfla. Not familiar with the term? Hafla translates from Arabic as "party" and is a private event at which belly dancers dance for each other and not for the public. Family and friends tag along but the focus is on the girls showing off for each other.

Although my wife has been belly dancing for years, I have never been able to attend a hafla. I've been invited a few times, but always thought it was really for the girls. This time, Jodi insisted.

All evening, I enjoyed watching the girls dance. As different groups of girls showed their skills, they were cheered on by the other girls.

Some danced in gropus and others danced individually. There were many troupes fromt eh area in attendance. Almost all of the women you see in the images and at least one of the men are dancers.

As much as I enjoyed watching the girls dance, the highlight was when they called me oput ot the center and danced around me with theior veils. Talk about turning red! That is what I call a birthday celebration! Thanks all of you wonderful ladies, I had the best birthday of my life.

Oh and in the last image, my wife is the pretty one dancing on the right of the image. My life is full of suffering.

wedding kids

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

I don't normally shoot weddings but when a great friend asks you to help out, you say, "YES, I would love to shoot the wedding!" That is what you say. It's not that I am too good to shoot weddings, it is more like I am terrified to mess up somebody's once in a lifetime event. One where you can not go back and have a "do over".

I shot lots of great images but I will not show them all to you. I mean, who wants to sit and look at pictures from a stranger's wedding? I do however, want to share these photos of the kids at the wedding. They are what made this a really wonderful event for me. This particular image is of my favorite little girlfriend, Josie. Josie is the daughter of the afore mentioned great friend.

This little boy seemed to get a real kick out of the flower's scent. It was as though, for the first time in his life, he did not smell like Play Doh, Crayons, and Cheese Doodles.

This little girl had the biggest eyes that I have ever seen. She was also pretty shy, not liking strangers and flash units.

Same boy as before. Later in the evening, he changed out of his micro-tux and showed us how to breakdance out on the floor. He was all boy and all energy. I'm glad that he didn't have a brother to multiply his activity level.

Josie has reached that age, where entertaining babies has become fun.

To wrap things up, here is a picture of Dad helping out with the clean up work. I don't know about you but, wedding kids can be the best part about attending weddings. They are all dressed up in little dresses and suits and looking their best. How can you not like that?

living the life

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

When I was young and growing up outside of Boston, my parents had two VW vans. They were not as fancy as this one but, for a kid growing up, we drove in style. The oldest was a 60s era rectangle with two doors on the passenger side. Dark blue on the bottom and a white top, we called the vehicle Fritzi. The 70s era microbus was light blue and had the first sliding door that I can remember on a car. In so many ways, these vans were ahead of their times.

When our family would go camping, my father would take out the center seat and replace it with a plywood box he had made. the box acted as storage but, would also fold out into a bed. Fritzi's windows had striped curtains for privacy when camping. We really looked like a hippy family when we were heading down the highway as we played I Spy and Punch Buggy.

We didn't have a lot of money when we were young. My father had to do all of the maintenance on the VW himself and I can remember that there was not much heat to speak of during the cold New England winters. However, when you are young, you don't realize any of that. All you know is that, when you all piled into Fritzi's cavernous interior, there was adventure ahead of you. Camping trips, beaches, forests, zoos, and road trips all bore witness to my family rolling and laughing down the road in a big VW bus. We might not have had much money but, we sure thought we were living the life.

Exposure	0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture	f/5.6
Focal Length	35 mm
ISO Speed	100

This image was shot just after dawn and was steadied using a tripod. I had been out shooting the sunrise over a field of corn when, I spied this church van on the way back to my car. I thought the rich morning light created a nice atmosphere for the bright colors. The original image had a giant power pole on the right hand side and heavy electric lines in the sky in front of the van. I removed them in Photoshop because they distracted from the van.

dancing in the streets

Posted on July 17, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

Yesterday was the Urbana Street Fair and for the fourth year in a row, my wife and her friends danced on the court house steps. I thought you might want to see some of the fun that you might have missed if you were not there.

In my humble opinion the girls get better and the crowd gets bigger every year. During the festival season, they manage to dance a dozen or so shows. Some events are fairs, some are galleries and some are for charity events. All are fun.

Bonus points for those who can figure out which of the camera shy girls is mine.

last day

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

Meet my sister, Kelly.

And her husband, Bill. Notice that they are both wearing their best hiking gear… not! While both wore shorts, they also wore their dress shirts. Bill had his pen, glasses and case placed neatly in his shirt pocket. I don't think that Bill owns a single T-shirt. If I told you that Bill was a math teacher at a private school, would you be surprised?

I spent my last full day and night at their house in the North Georgia mountains. We had a really wonderful day of hiking and eating followed by some visiting with each other and finally, we capped the day off by going to bed early at 7:30. This seems to be very typical of my visits with them. We have a fantastic day, wear ourselves out and go to bed before the sun.

We started off by driving further into the mountains between Georgia and North Carolina. The day was relatively clear for a hot summer day and we could see for miles. The entire vista was uninterrupted nature. Mountains and forests without a sign of human habitation in site.

Once we were well into the mountains and near Highlands North Carolina, we stopped and went for a long hike at Glenn's Falls. The hike started through the forrest of tall pines, scrubby wild rhododendron and mountain laurel.

Eventually we found the falls. Three in all. They were wonderful to see and gave off a welcome cool mist. All told, we probably hiked two miles, all up and down hill. While Bill and I had appropriate hiking shoes, Kelly finished the entire trip wearing only a pair of beaded and bejeweled flip flops. Kelly kept asking how much further and Bill would only answer, just a little farther. Together they make a really warm couple to be around. They tease each other non stop and like to hold hands while they are walking.

On the way home, we stopped at Dry Falls, just a short walk from the highway. Typical of Bill's generosity, he wanted me to see the falls while we were up there. The wet spray coming from the falls resulted in spectacular green foliage and mosses along the trail

If you are ever in Northern Georgia and want to know of some local trails, just ask Bill. He might even go with you… just relax, ties are optional.

he’s my brother

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

Yes, I claim him. I know it's hard to believe but he is mine. Like all brothers, we have had a friendly rivalry for years. We need to show each other who is the most manly of men. We have categories like most hair, tallest, fattest, etc. We had to give up wrestling when we got older and neither one of us cold get on the floor or get up anymore (he always won so this was in my favor). For the record, I am taller but he has more hair. Our weight goes back and forth all the time so, I'll just call that a tie.

In reality, he is a pretty impressive human being (if you need a second opinion, he will explain why if you ask him). Let's see… he is part very successful software services sales engineer, part farmer and rancher, part hunter, part husband and father of three, part slum lord, and three parts legend in his own mind. He is smart, fairly good looking (almost as good looking as me), funny, big hearted, a terrifying driver, thoughtful, well spoken and a speak his mind kind of guy. No wonder I look up to him in many ways (though in doing so, I have to physically look down). Just look at the following two images.

The man has pet Canadian Geese! He has a large pond behind his house filled with about 20 geese, turtles, fish, musk rats, and the occasional beaver. Ordinarily this would be no big deal however, MY brother has them trained to come to dinner and hand feeds them! He even got me in on the act (the better looking but hair challenged one is me). We even pet them! Who does that? He is a regular Dr. Doolittle. He even has two pet horses and dogs to go with his geese. He picks up snakes! I run in terror from snakes and spiders, screaming like a little girl.

The man likes to get dirty but wears a good suit like he is a model in GQ (though Dude, you could use an update in your dress shoe style). When he walks into a room, he owns it. You know those beer commercials about the worlds most interesting man? I have always secretly thought they were modeled after my brother.

The real clincher is that he shares all of this with everybody around him. He wanted me to experience feeding the geese. He wanted me to know of the hidden windows at the aquarium (absolutely incredible views with no crowds).

So the next time you hear him telling one of is many incredible tales of his exploits, maybe hunting tigers on the back of his elephant while playing the violin, you will just have to consider for a moment and wonder… wow, did he really do that? I mean, he is a legend and there seems to be a lot of truth behind his wild stories. I have never been able to disprove any of them and have been witness to quite a few.

That's all for now, he just captured an alligator with his bare hands and is going to fry up some gator tail for me. I think we are going to wash it down with some beer he made with the barley he grew in his back yard during his spare time, just before he told the CIA where he had tracked down Bin Laden). Don't believe me? You prove otherwise!

As a final word to all of you out there with great brothers of your own… DREAM ON! This one is all mine! Get your own incredible brother. And you ladies? His wife will tear you to shreds so don't even think about it.

fishies, fishies everywhere

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Tim McMurdo

You know those days where everything clicks perfectly? All of your plans work out just like you envisioned. The people you are with are all having fun and enjoying being together. Sunday was a day just like that. After a fantastic breakfast and a bit of a sleep in, friends and family met together at the Georgia Aquarium. I had only been there once before, just after the place opened. At that time, the crowds were so large that I could not see anything. Sunday, the crowds were much smaller and we had time to stand or sit and watch the wonderful sea life.

Gerd and Cindy, Scott and Stephanie, Josh, and I… we made a pretty cool team. Everybody was just as enthralled with the watery critters.

We saw sharks, whales, porpoises, fish, crabs, snakes, rays, eels, star fish, jelly fish, otters, seals, and sea horses. I know that I must be forgetting many others. I was surprised at how well we were able to shoot through the thick glass. The tanks were well lit and we were standing in dim light, which led to vivid and bold blues and interesting silhouettes.

This image shows how I felt at the aquarium. Even as an adult, I was in wonder at what we were watching. If you are in Atlanta and have a few hours to spend, give some thought to visiting the Georgia Aquarium. You are guaranteed to come out feeling like a kid again. I would recommend Sundays through Thursday.