Penning Photography Daily

Tom Ford’s 80th Birthday

Happy Birthday Tom!

Tom’s my Father-in-Law, my Karen’s Dad. His 80th birthday is Monday, December 18. We went to visit this afternoon, after church and lunch with my sister Trish (a regular tradition).

Visiting family is a long-established tradition for both my wife’s family and mine. Sunday’s seem to be made for that. We catch up on events, and share about what’s going on in our lives. We brought some pictures from our son Christopher’s graduation. Tom gave me a carbon monoxide detector which he had thought was broken, but which was in perfect condition.

I took the occasion of Tom’s 80th birthday as a perfect opportunity for a family photo. It turned out ok to me. I wish I had my external flash and diffuser, but I had not planned on needing it. Karen said afterwards, that I would just have to start carrying all my equipment with me! I agree.

My last shot – The Serious Look

After the group photos, I said to Chris: One more shot – a serious look. He gave me this – He actually hates me taking his photo.

I love my son.

Can you tell?

Christopher M. Penning, B.S.

Tonight, our son Christopher, graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri. Hooray!

Pictured here are Matthew & Susan Harris with their daughter Jennie, my son’s fiance, Chris, Karen and me. A happy time. A milestone passed. A journey ended.

I cannot stop smiling as I type this. I’m very proud and happy.

I felt like yelling, “That’s my boy” when his name was announced. The protocol, stressed several times, was to applaud after all graduates from a college were conferred their degrees. That couldn’t dampen my spirit. All parents were encouraged to stand up as their son or daughter was given their degree. I stood proudly and snapped a blurry photo.

Wow. Being a parent has it’s rewards. Seeing a child of your own accomplish a tough task is one of them.

Sweet!

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum At Night

Abraham Lincoln has a Presidential Library and Museum in my fair city of Springfield, Illinois (the s is silent). I passed by here earlier tonight and saw the colored lights washing down the sides of part of it and thought it might be a nice place to capture at night. The Museum is full of exhibits illustrating the life of America’s 16th President. The Library has an extensive collection of Lincoln related material for the scholarly to research. I recommend the museum for a tour if you’re ever in the Mid-West of the USA. Stop by the Tomb, his house, and then take a short trip to the New Salem settlement near Petersburg, where Lincoln spent much of his early adulthood.

History is full and rich with people, events, and the development of civilization. When I was young, I was somewhat fascinated with history, but only really by the extra-ordinary events, people and civilizations. As I’ve grown older, I see more the richness that fills life’s moments in every culture, through all time. I would like to read and come to know more about people, places, and the events which are a part of this world’s past.

Will I take the time to learn more? I’d be richer for it if I did.

Clouds

Here it is, almost Christmas, and it’s in the 50′s F outside. What’s up with that?

After days of overcast, chill to the bone temperatures, Spring is in the air. Unreal.

These clouds took advantage of a great sunset and turned a nice orange glow for me yesterday. I forgot I took this until I looked at the photos still on my memory card tonight. Nice surprise.

Great to have surprises. I find that I get more of them if I open my eyes and get out of the way.

IMG_0001 – Number One On My Panny

This happens to be the first image I took with my current camera – my Panasonic FZ-30.

This camera is the third digital I’ve owned. I first bought the Olympus D-450 Zoom. A nice introduction to digital photography. It left me wanting more. I moved up to the Un-Equaled Olympus C2100 UZ otherwise known as the UZI – a mere 2.1 megapixels, but with a lens that was superbly sharp plus it had Image Stabilization!!! This was one of the first digital cameras with IS. I’ve got a very nice 16 by 20 print of this photo: static.flickr.com/120/270782262_cb139367d1_o.jpg on my wall at work and it looks great even at that size. That was a super camera – stolen when I made the fatal mistake of sending it through my checked luggage. I still miss it.

The Panny was and remains a great camera. It’s one flaw, is that the image ISO noise increases as the light decreases. Hence, my planned next camera, the Pentax K10D, which has IS in the camera body, a fast image processor, and very acceptable image noise at ISO 1600.

I love using my camera, and rejoice when I see an image which takes my breath away after I’ve taken it. I hope to be able to grow in my art of capturing life in digital photography.

I look forward to my next unboxing!

Floating H

Taken from my office looking at the Hilton hotel – the red H.

Funny how the rainy mist has obscured the top of the hotel, making it appear as if the red H logo is floating above the hotel.

The rain is a welcome event. It’s washing all the snow, ice and salt off of the streets from our ice-storm. The temperature is supposed to be in the low 50′s F this week. That’s a nice change from the single digit temps of just a few days ago. I might even be able to go to work tomorrow without my ice-cleats on!