Falcon Photography

When I made mention of the website beforeidieiwantto.org the other day, I was also going to mention that there was a movie called The Bucket List that was based on that concept of creating a list of things to do before you “kick the bucket.” Saw it. Made me check to see whether I was living my life right. Think I am.

Well, I read this morning that Dave Freeman, co-author of the book “100 Things to Do Before You Die” died last week.  Dave was only 47 years old. He has been attributed with starting the “before you die” style of books. According to a BBC article, Amazon list more than 150 books written about things to do before you go. According to CNN, Dave had a list and he was only about halfway through it. Hmmmm.

I guess if you plan on starting a list, ya better get to working on it. I think I want another bowl of ice cream before I… go to bed!

How would you finish that statement? My list is pretty long so we won’t go into just yet.

I came across an interesting website that ask that exact question of people and then captures their response on a Polaroid picture. The website beforeidieiwantto.org is a project set up by two people, Nicole Kenney & ks rives, who are asking this question of people and capturing their answers on a Polaroid picture. They intend to follow up with the people they’ve asked this question of… five, ten years later (or longer) to see if these people have accomplished their goal they set. I think they have got a great idea and I applaud their effort.

Does you brain immediately start playing the “Hey Ya!” song by OutKast when you hear or read Polaroid picture?? I do!

OK, so back to my list… a couple of things come to mind.

Before I die I want to…

• Celebrate with my parents on their 50th wedding anniversary this year.
• See my wife walk across the stage at her law school graduation.
• Know that I made a positive contribution in in the lives of my customers and also in my photography profession.
• Travel to the seven continents.
• But wait! There’s more… the list goes on and on.

OK, let’s make this interactive. Drop me a comment on things you would like to do before you die.

A moose, her two kids, a garden and a sprinkler:

Pulling up into the driveway I spot something between my house and my neighbor, Eric’s house. It was just a glimpse but I swore to myself that it was a small rabbit. So getting out of my car, I walk down the driveway to retrieve the garbage can and I steal another peek between the houses. Yep, a little bunny is about two feet away from my neighbor’s air conditioning unit. As luck would have, I have my camera.

I quietly pull out camera and sneak over to very carefully lean around the corner of the house ready to capture Peter Cottontail (or Paula??). I am afraid that just the sight of me will cause it to hop away. I look though the camera around the corner and he is still just hanging out. I snap a few pictures. Lean back around for cover to check the camera. Yep. Got some…. now if I can zoom in a little more it won’t look so much like a brown rag in the grass!

I snap a few more and then decided I probably have frightened Peter enough. Pack camera away and went inside. Here are three pictures of Peter (yes, I named him.) watching me with great intensity. One thought that crossed my mind when I verified it was a rabbit… “even with all this concrete in Houston, wildlife still blooms .”

I’ll keep an eye out for Peter and try to snap a few more if he pokes he head my way.

Maybe he will be around next year for an Easter Portrait session. Maybe you will come by too!

So a couple of weeks ago I was in the backyard with our dogs, Boudreaux & Roux when I noticed some mushrooms coming up in the grass. I thought “Hmmm… should I get my camera?” Well I didn’t act on that thought until a week later after that patch of mushrooms were replaced with even more and bigger mushrooms.

Get the camera, tripod, and macro lens to capture some pics of these very nice sized mushrooms or in slang terms: caps, ‘shrooms, & toadstools. The dogs were naturally curious in what I was doing so I suffered a few broken ‘shrooms due to paw abuse.

After getting a few choice pictures, I thought I would share. In writing this post, I thought I would figure out what kind of mushroom these were (’cause I knew you would ask.) and to my surprise, I found out that these mushrooms are poisonous. To people AND dogs! Thankfully our dogs have never shown much interest in eating them but rest assured that I will be diligent in removing future toadstools from the yard. If your dog has already ingested some of the mushroom, read Sandy Moyer’s article on mushrooms poisoning and how to help.

Below are the three pictures of the different stages of the Amanita phalloides mushroom. This might help you to identify this bad ‘shroom from a good one.

1st stage of growth

2nd stage of growth

3rd stage of growth

So… if you see these little caps growing in your yard and you have dogs, please remove them. If not for you, do it for Fido’s sake!