2 August 2012 Thursday, continued:
Liam has a guinea pig. His name is Elvis. That's all you need to know.

Lisa and I were in Charleston, West Virginia, visiting her family. It's our annual summer journey. Clear across the country, it takes a while to get there. But it's always great to see them.

3 August 2012 Friday:
On Tuesday, while in Putnam County, we were on our way to Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant when Lisa saw a large life-size cut-out of Terry Bradshaw, famous quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, winner of four Super Bowls, and a sports announcer. He was standing by the window of an antique shop. Everything else in the shop was an antique, so the Terry Bradshaw cut-out seemed rather incongruous.

Aunt Sandy loves Terry Bradshaw. Absolutely adores him. So my first thought was, "This is clearly a sign that we should buy this for Aunt Sandy." And so we did, jamming him between the seats of our cars for the ride home. And when I went to pay for this, the guy said, "My wife is going to be so happy that he's gone from the window front." I replied, "So by doing this, we're helping your marriage?"

Flash forward to this day.

Lisa walked up to Aunt Sandy's to distract her and make sure that she wouldn't glimpse me carrying Terry Bradshaw up her driveway. Ten minutes later, I knocked loudly on her front door and hid to watch the mayhem. Aunt Sandy freaked! This photo is basically what she saw when she flung open the door: Terry Bradshaw saying hello with his beaming smile.

Yes, life is good.

This is a view from Aunt Sandy's driveway. Gorgeous, eh? Bears and old coal camps lie just beyond. Only minutes from the city, but already in wilderness.

Gazing upon the forest, I found myself thinking about Terry and Sandy would be happy, frolicking in the woods, having pancakes on the veranda.

My new photography love for the past year or two has been long exposure photos, including not only waterfalls but night sky photography. I love it. There's something about it that also relaxes me, perhaps the act of looking up at the stars and slowing down to soak it all in. Michael Kenna has a quote which sums it up for me:

"Getting photographs is not the most important thing. For me it's the act of photographing. It's enlightening, therapeutic and satisfying, because the very process forces me to connect with the world. When you make four-hour exposures in the middle of the night, you inevitably slow down and begin to observe and appreciate more what's going on around you. In our fast-paced, modern world, it's a luxury to be able to watch the stars move across the sky." - Michael Kenna in "Photographer's Forum Interview"- Winter 2003 by Claire Sykes

So when the skies were relatively clear - it had been cloudy and raining for much of the trip - I wrested myself away from watching the Summer Olympics to take a few shots of the West Virginia night sky. There was a lot of ambient light already, but I do enjoy the way the clouds look. This was taken at approximately 10:30 pm.

Geek Stuff:
Title: West Virginia Nights
Info: 15 second exposure at f/3.5, ISO 800. There was already a lot of ambient light, so I could get away with a slightly smaller aperture and only a fifteen second exposure. Nikon D7000, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens, Feisol tripod. "Light painted" trees in foreground with head lamp. Taken at 10:30 pm.
Photography: Ken Lee
Location: near Campbell's Creek, Charleston, West Virginia, USA.

The trips to West Virginia seem to always go by too fast. At this point, I've been to West Virginia quite a few times. When I met someone from West Virginia in Sonoma County in June, they said, "Does it take a little getting used to?" I replied, "It's a beautiful state with really nice people. There's nothing for me to get used to." She smiled and nodded.

Left: Photography by noted flat celebrity photographer Dina Thistlethwaite.