Fall Has Finally Arrived

In case you wondered, fall does eventually come to Atlanta if you wait long enough. Although there are so many evergreen trees around our neighborhood there are now patches of very brilliant color. These five trees are along the parking lot of a Jehovah's Witness church near us.

The Waterproof Camera Shots From Our Trip To South Padre Island

When Laura and I visited South Padre Island in September it gave us the opportunity to finally use a waterproof camera we were gifted at our wedding for our eventual honeymoon to Greece. Well, the camera was sitting in America during our wonderful weeks in Greece so we were happy to get the chance to finally use the camera.

The beaches of South Padre Island give you a sand bars that go on for miles. You can have water up to your chest and then a few feet further out it will be back down to your waist. This let me get some photos that look like I'm in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico but in reality I'm not that far out at all.

I'm sure a few people wondered what I was doing taking photographs of waves.

The sun came out for a few of my photos.

A pelican flying by. 

I did some snorkeling while we were there but the beach was entirely sand so there weren't too many interesting rocks to find. I'm not proud to say over the course of the weekend I ended up losing two snorkels and a set of goggles into the Gulf having the waves knocking them off my head. The water was very sandy and not too clear so once they were out of your grasp they were gone even though they could be floating just a few feet from you. 

This shot catches Laura in a shadow and is my favorite photo from the group.  

These last two demonstrate what happens when the lighting changes and you are shooting on film. These photos were taken about 15 seconds apart with the only difference being the sun came out for a few moments in the second shot.

Meeting Jason Carter

Last Friday Democratic candidate for Georgia Governor Jason Carter came and spoke at Laura's American Politics class. Carter is President Jimmy Carter's grandson and currently a Georgia State Senator for District 42 which is in East Atlanta. The event was open to the public so I tagged along and as I was the husband of "Dr. Dean" I got to have a pretty good seat. He reminds me of John Edwards [I say that in the most positive way possible] and has certainly earned my vote on Tuesday.

And here's a view of a photo taken by the campaign:

I was hoping to get a chance to score an autograph from him and so I brought along a card of his Grandfather to sign. When I asked him if he would sign it he told me he hadn't seen one of these cards before so maybe I'll track down another copy and mail one to him.

I like the card and maybe one day when I run into President Carter down at the Piggly Wiggly maybe he can sign it too. It reminds me of an episode of The Simpsons which shows on of the treasures at the comic shop The Android's Dungeon was a photo of Sean Connery signed by Roger Moore.