Breakfast in Sedona

Saturday morning at the crack of dawn four engineers soar into the east valley skies to break the monitonity of everyday life. There are many luxuries that a person could want. Most luxuries are either temporary of lack real function. A Cirrus SR22 GTS sets you free. Owning a private plane would be exciting and fulfilling and that's just how my friend Scott feels about having this privilege.

We took off from Falcon field just after 7:45am. What an experience. The Cirrus is so much more agile than a HUGE jet. We got up to speed and took flight so quickly i really didn't have time to be scared. Scott is a great pilot, explaining everything we need to know, walking us through all the pre flight checklists, and controlling the plane like a pro. Thanks Scott. Super fun time.

We were in Sedona eating breakfast within the hour. Flying is really the way to go. Not only is it fast but it's fun and exciting. Driving is for suckers.

Aimee the wonderful Sister

I'm a super lucky guy. Not only do I always land on my feet, always find the perfect girl (of the month), and always find myself in the right place. I also have the worlds best sister. She is an amazing woman and I love her in bunches.

So I bring my new Mac Book Pro over to show her and the first thing she wants to do is take silly pictures with photo booth. Nevermind CS3 or any other cool app I have loaded. We had a snorting good time. Have a look...

SX-70

How Fun!

I found an old Polaroid SX-70 camera at a garage sale. I had no idea what it was or if it worked when I saw it but I knew it had potential.

After bringing it home I did some research and found that they no longer make the film for this camera. Polaroid (and Fuji) still makes 600 and 779 film. Both have an ISO of about 600. The original SX-70 film had an ISO of 125. So I dug a bit more and found out that there are several ways to convert the camera for use with the ISO600 film. I decided to go with the easiest and least destructive method of replacing the auto exposure filter. There was a 2 stop neutral density filter and I replaced it with a piece of clear CD case that I fashioned to fit the AE opening. Good Stuff!

The results were better than expected. I thought the colors would be all crazy and washed out but they actually turned out really well. Have a look....

I added some of my new textures to this one :)

Textures in the back yard

I spent the afternoon over at my parents house today. I grabbed my sisters 5d and started shooting whatever I could find. I really have missed not having a camera these last few days.

Anyway my Dad has some cool rocks and pieces of wood just laying in his back yard. I found some great stuff for textured photos.

New Flow

Good times! My photography work flow just got 100x better. On Wednesday my Mac Book Pro came in the mail. Oh man is it silky smooth. I installed Photoshop and it just flies. It's such a joy to edit photos now. On my PC I could never get Adobe Bridge to work, on the mac it runs no problem. Big Sigh. Because of this cats and dogs now frolic together in fields, and all is right in the world. It's nice to have hardware and software that works together well. Here's a fruit of my labor...

KaTe

Kate is my friend. We work together and have the same job function but she is in a different group. Plus she is a way better engineer that I could ever hope to be. We have a funny friendship. At times I have considered her like a sister and other times i have grinded my teeth because she has angered me so. That's just the nature of out relationship. We both have foot in mouth disease and I have offended her several times but yet we remain friends. I think we both understand that we mean well and that's why we're still buddies. Anyway she asked me to take some photos of her but she wouldn't tell me what for. She said "It's for a myspace sort of thing." Ok great, put on some huge sunglasses, hold your phone to your ear, and make a gang sign - ok hold it - click - we're done here. I think she is gorgeous, she thinks i'm only saying that because we are friends. You decide.

Month of Laziness

I have been super lazy lately. My diet has be reduced to total crap. I've only been working out sporadically at best. What happened? I was a machine about a month ago. Is it burn out? I think it's really starting to effect me. I haven't been my super happy self. Work has really started to bug me. I got busy and my diet and exercise routine is suffering. I need to be in control of these things to be happy. I need a plan.

Get motivated -
I should read one of my favorite workout or diet books for inspiration.

Find a Routine-
Ultimate Frisbee has been getting in the way of my workouts. I wasn't working out a day before a game so I could be fresh. That's silly. I'm going to workout when I need to, just like I use to.

Reel the diet back in-
This will only be the millionth time I have done this. Good thing I know what to do. Kimkins for a few days and then on to the zone. Plan Plan Plan. Write lists, go shopping, cook ahead of time.

Crossfit in the morning-
I have all the stuff to do crossfit. I just need motivation to use it. I think getting soft is motivation enough.

PACE twice a week-
MMmmm interval sprints, my favorite! I love doing these because it makes me feel hard core. OH Yeah!

Ok so now for the Goals -

Lean and mean in one month - I'm starting to get soft and i don't like it. I'm at my best when I'm super fit. One month is a good time frame because I'm still in decent shape.

NO more Lazy meals - Eating out is the best way to stack on the calories. Bring your lunch and cook your dinners! I will feel better for making the effort.

No Burn outs - I know what it takes to be super fit. I need to not go overboard to avoid burnout. I think that's what happened before.

Adventure boy at it again

As if Crossfit, PACE, and road biking weren't enough, I decided to run the Grand Canyon yesterday. There's something in my brain that continuously tells me to try and kill myself via exercise. My friends at work look at me with blank stares when I tell them what I do for workouts. Are they lazy? Am I normal? That was rhetorical, please don't try and answer.

The Grand Canyon is a beautiful place. Unfortunately I didn't really see it. I had my head down the whole time either trying to keep my balance on the way down or scouting out my next efficient step on the way up. I made great time down and up but I'm paying the price today. My legs are wrecked. My quads this morning yelled at me to stay in bed, my feet are numb, and my calves are seized up. Great! What a workout Riley! Here's to good health!

Needless to say I'm going to take it easy today. I'm going to ship my ebay items (YAY!), put up more stuff on ebay, and dream of workout sanity.

Inspired by Shannon

I recently sold my Canon 30D digital SLR because I am upgrading to the Canon 5D. The 30D is a wonderful camera and I had so much fun shooting with it. I have to upgrade because the 5D is so much better in low light and it shoots 35mm equivalent images. I have been waiting for the price to drop and BAM it happened just the other day. So 5D here I come.

I sold the 30D in a weird way. First I wasn't planning on selling it as quick as I did. I have some other things I need to sell and I still need to take pictures of them!! Oh well, it can wait until the 5D gets here. So to sell the 30D I went on to the OSP forums to see if there was a pro photographer looking to buy one. I always like dealing with pro's because they don't ask stupid questions and they know what they are looking for. I found such a lady and posted that I would sell my 30D for $800. She dilly-dallied for about a day. When I went check on the post the next day I had a PM from another photographer wanting to buy it ASAP. Great! I PMed back saying to call me or email me.

On the phone was a young woman full of energy and life. I could instantly tell that she needed this camera more than I did and she needed it fast because she had a wedding to shoot in three days. She called me at work and the camera was at home, she was on a budget and didn't want to ship it overnight, and she talked me down to $750. I think most people would of squashed the deal right there stating logistics and profit margin as the deal breakers, but not me. I saw this as a challenge.

I rushed home after discussing the details of the deal. I jammed the camera and a few accessories in a box, worked out the Paypal details, and drove it to FedEX. Bam! Done deal. I wanted to sell the 30D LAST of all the things I'm selling (more on this later). Something told me to sell it to this girl. Was it instant repore over the phone? Was it because we spoke the same language (camera)? Was it the time crunch challenge? I'm not sure.

I know my old trusty 30D is in good, no, great hands now. Shannon is a AWESOME photographer. I was reading her blog (reading is sexy) and the photos she posts are incredible. It's like she understands all the rules of photography on how to take good photos but she doesn't make it evident. Her photos are very interesting to look at. Even the type of photos that I normally would trash have an appealing style. Oh yeah and she has amazing style. From the way she dresses to her subjects to her shooting technique. Blows me away. I'm very glad that I met her and that she has a camera that I love in her hands. Check her out @ www.shannonleith.com Her blog is really cool and it has inspired me to start blogging again.

One last thing on Shannon. Through all our conversations I have noticed that she has a very positive outlook on things. This was the best part. I have been making a big effort in my life to fill my mind with positive thoughts and say positive things. I have this feeling that I attracted her to me, not in a dance club cologne sort of way, but in a law of attraction way. Or maybe it was just random chance, but wait would that be the same thing? Anyway, we have said some postive things to each other and it feels good. Just simple things like - Riley - "This 30D was my good luck charm" - Shannon - "I am glad to have the luck of Riley." This kind of stuff makes me smile and it is so easy to do once you get good at it.

There would normally be a picture of something relating to this post but I'm fresh out of cameras. I have some lenses but no cameras. lol