It could be worse?! Much worse!!

Just when you think spring is really starting to come along and photo missions are just around the corner, the weather takes a turn for the worse and you end up in the hospital with a ruptured appendix! 

After several winter kayaking cruises on the Mississippi, I thought that spring had finally arrived. Of course Minnesota winters don't let go that easy! So, after kayaking on the Sauk river below the dam in Cold Spring, I didn't feel so good. Stomach cramps thru the nite and then things got bad quick. By early a.m. Sunday I couldn't stand straight and the pain was really quite interesting. A guy really hates to admit that it might be a good idea to go to the emergency room. After a nice bumpy ride with pain lancing thru the midsection, I pretty much crawled into the emergency room, got admitted, had a scan, started an IV, and all the other fun stuff, and it's off to surgery for a ruptured appendix. Apparently a person can walk around with a ruptured appendix for several days and get away with it. But not for long!!

Also found on the inside was a partial bowel blockage with gangrene, along with the results of walking around with a ruptured appendix. This will usually result in a bit of a hospital stay. So after 11 days, I finally got to walk out to meet the spring... Or Not... 

Now it's snowing! Another blast of Minnesota winter, 4-6 inches worth!! I suppose that I could look on the bright side. While the winter weather is sticking around for another few days, I'm cooped up recovering anyway.... 

Bottom Up? Or Inside Out?

Here's a different way to look at a light bulb.... I happened across this interesting looking light bulb at a new deli that is currently under construction. The lights over the counter were a rather large glass reflector/diffuser with a weird type of elongated bulb. The filaments were what caught my eye, so I just had to grab the Canon G10 out of my lunch box and get some macro shots... Here's a look at the outside of the glass, and the filaments... 

I went to macro mode on my G10 and just had to look from the bottom of the light and found a much more interesting angle to view the light from... 

 After a bit of tweaking the RAW file in Photoshop and some saturation adjustments I think this shot is a much more dynamic abstractish macro... 

I think there were several lessons I learned from this. Always carry  a decent backup camera. Take a minute to look at things from a different perspective, and shoot a couple of extra frames (RAW if possible)  just in case...  

Canon G10 1/60 second, f2.8, 125 ISO, in Macro mode

Stash The XBox!

This new blogging thing might be just the diversion needed to stash the Xbox 360 for awhile and get back to some creative endeavors! 

With Flickr as another outlet for some much needed photo critiques and a new blog, I should be able to keep busy for a good portion of the winter! Let the creative juices fly!? 

Here's a macro I shot the other day while attempting to get ultra sharp water drops dripping from the faucet.  

Canon 5D,  1/100 second ,  f/8.0,  ISO 100

Minnesota Weather?!

It's another wonderful weather day in Minnesota. At least the temperature is a fair bit above zero. So inspiration is lacking on a dreary overcast day. Lets explore Flickr, and while we're at it, lets start a blog on Blogger?!

So here it is, the beginnings of Al Braunworths bloggin'...