Jim Cook's Photography Journal

New Blog

2007-08-28T11:38:00.000-04:00

Ok, you may think I have abandoned this blog -- well -- actually I have. My new blog location is:

http://www.jamescookphotography.com/wordpress

Key West Rocks

2006-12-05T10:01:00.000-05:00

I finally talked Melissa into taking a vacation. So we decided on Key West. This is our first time at Key West and it rocks! After we got here, we decided this was going to be the honeymoon that we never took. We thought the drive down from Florida to Key West through the keys would be fun so we flew into West Palm Beach and drove down. It was about a 3.5 hour drive but we took our time and stopped a couple of times along the way.

Here is a picture we took with my macbook by the pool as we lounged yesterday.

Yesterday we took a few tours. Once was the Jimmy Buffet tour. It was fun and if you take it make sure you get Tim as your guide. He rocked. Then last night we took the haunted ghosts tour. It was very fun. Ray was our guild and you should definitely get him if you can.

We are talking about coming again next year, but next time we will fly right into Key West and skip the drive. This time of year is great in that Key West is busy, but not crowded. We could eat anywhere we wanted without needing to wait at all. Duval street reminded us of a Caribbean Gatlinburg. :-)

Today we checkout and head back north. We are going to spend the night in Del Ray beach and then fly home tomorrow.

Emily Heflin - Miss Teen Scott County 2006

2006-09-19T23:59:00.000-04:00

I had the awesome opportunity to photograph Emily. The camera sure loves her! I captured hundreds of awesome images and I put together a slideshow of some of the images. Click on the image to see the show.

Some Photos Taken Over The Weekend

2006-08-13T23:02:00.000-04:00

Chloe Belle

2006-07-27T01:31:00.000-04:00

Mojo

2006-07-26T10:59:00.000-04:00

Jack

2006-07-25T23:41:00.000-04:00

Daily Tips To Improve Your Photography

2006-07-23T08:14:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine, Dan Watkins, has an awesome blog that he posts daily photography tips on. This is definitely an great place to learn new things and he updates it daily. So that rocks. Go check it out:

http://dailyphototips.blogspot.com

photographs.wordpress.com

2006-06-29T21:56:00.000-04:00

Bad boy Jim has not been posting on his blog. And it isn’t like I don’t have tons to post! So I have plenty of content coming. Just need time to do it. What has been partially consuming my time is a web site, http://photographs.wordpress.com which contains some awesome photographs. I am the main editor of the site. Go check it out!

Candi & Steve e-session

2006-06-03T09:14:00.000-04:00

Here is an image from a recent engagement session

Sunshine

2006-06-01T13:39:00.000-04:00

Meet Sunshine.

Natalie & John

2006-05-29T09:58:00.000-04:00

Melissa and I went over to Louisville to assist our friend Candi Gurgon (www.capturedbycandi.com) shooting the wedding of Natalie and John. We had a wonderful time. We almost melted like a Popsicle during our outside shoot in the sweltering Kentucky heat. But it was worth it because we got some awesome shots. This was the 1st time we have shot with Candi and it is always fun to shoot with new people as you always learn new things and it is always more fun to shoot with friends than shoot alone. Candi’s eye for photography is amazing. I can’t wait to see her shots. Here are a few of mine:

We will be shooting again with Candi on a fashion bridal shoot on June 10th.

Rolex 3 Day Event

2006-05-14T19:37:00.000-04:00

Ok, I admit it. I took these pictures over 2 weeks ago and I am just now getting around to edit them and post them on my blog. Shame on me. But I don’t feel too bad because my niece, Katie, didn’t get her pictures on on her blog till a few days ago. Shame on her! Anyway, Katie comes to visit me every year to go attend the Rolex three day event at the Kentucky Horse Park. This year I decided to go along and see what was all the excitement about. It was freaking awesome! I had such a great time shooting with Katie. She taught me all the tricks of the trade to get great shots. I can’t wait till next year when we can shoot together again! It was soo much fun!

A trip to Yuko En with Melissa and Mike

2006-05-14T08:56:00.000-04:00

Yesterday afternoon Michael wanted to go out and take some pictures. Melissa graciously agreed to come along and shoot as well. We three went to Yuko En to take some photos. It was an overcast day and about to rain. That didn’t make for an ideal day to shoot. In fact, about 15 minutes after we arrived it started to sprinkle. So we cut your photography short and went and got ice cream! Here are a few shots that Michael and Melissa took.

Here are a few silly shots that gave Melissa and Michael much enjoyment taking.

Anne Mason Run 2006

2006-05-14T08:21:00.000-04:00

Yesterday morning, Melissa did the warmup for the Anne Mason Elementary School fund raising run. Instead of doing normal candy bar sales, the school decided to do something around fitness. What an AWESOME idea! So the kids gathered pledges for their participation in the run. It was a huge success as there was plenty of participation and everyone had a great time. I went along and took a bunch of pictures to record the event. Here is a slideshow:

March Of Dimes Walk 2006

2006-05-01T10:50:00.000-04:00

Melissa and I had the pleasure of photographing the 2006 March Of Dimes walk in Lexington on Saturday. I put a slide show together. Click on the image below to see it.

Karate Tournament

2006-04-22T18:21:00.000-04:00

Today Michael competed in a Shaolin Kempo karate tournament. He came in 2nd place in black belt sparring and 2nd place in black belt Kata. I am totally impressed — especially because Mike has been busy with school and has not regularly attended his karate lessons. Here are some pictures from the event today.

MS Walk Slideshow

2006-04-16T18:18:00.000-04:00

I put the images from the ms walk into a slideshow. Click on the image to see it!

A few pictures from the MS Walk

2006-04-15T21:00:00.000-04:00

Jazzercise students from around central Kentucky participated in the Multiple Sclerosis fund raising walk at the Kentucky Horse Park. The students besides raising money and participating in the walk, also did the warm up. I went along to take some pictures.

Jazzercise students warming up.

Melissa’s legs.

Students from the rear.

Melissa leading the pack.

Melissa being a drill sergeant!

Melissa having fun.

Henrietta doing her “groove thang” . (p.s. Lisa Eddy put me up to this!)

Melissa and Cindy McGeorge.

After the warmup, Melissa and her students started the walk. This gave me an opportunity to take some pictures around the Horse Park.

A little boy touching the horse.

I also saw some famous horses. Here is Cigar.

And here is Da Hoss.

A barn cat enjoying a lazy Saturday morning.

I saw a cowgirl.

And an Indian and Sheik as well!

I saw lots of horses out in the fields. Here are a couple

Here is a close up.

MS Walk Animation

2006-04-15T19:35:00.000-04:00

Today I went with Melissa to the MS walk. She was leading the Jazzercise warmup. I took a bunch of pictures and I will post soon (probably tomorrow), but I wanted to share this little movie I made of her students. I think I needed a tripod!

BW Melissa

2006-04-08T14:53:00.000-04:00

Here is an image I converted to Black and White. Well it is more brown and white, but it works for me!

Gallery Hop At Midway

2006-04-07T21:43:00.000-04:00

Tonight Melissa and I went over to Midway Kentucky to the Gallery Hop which featured lots of artists and music plus wine and bourbon tasting. Yum O. When we arrived we decided to eat. We chose to go into The Black Tulip and get something to eat. The place was crowded, but luckily for us a 2 person table just opened when a table for eight ended up only needing a table for 6.

Here is a picture of the place from the outside:

Here is a picture of the inside:

Of course a fine meal needs a good glass of wine. A pinot grigio hits the spot for sure!

Here is a picture of our Shrimp and Avocado salad that we had as an appetizer:

Here is a picture of Melissas awesome Alaskan Halibut:

Here is a picture of Jim’s filet:

The food was awesome and we plan to go back often.

Here is a picture of some musicians playing on the street:

After dinner we walked to the Quirk Cafe (which was featured in Southern Living Magazine) and had dessert. I had key lime pie and Melissa had Kentucky jam cake with caramel icing. A perfect ending to our gallery hop. I neglected to mention that we had a WHOLE bottle of Pino Grigio with dinner and that was the cause of me forgetting to take a picture of our desserts!

Blog Face Lift

2006-04-07T11:47:00.000-04:00

It has been about a year since I started my blog and I think it was time to give it a face lift. In case you don’t exactly remember what it looked like, here is a snapshot of the old version.

I think I like this new version better. The original blog was put up without much forethought and I didn’t know how long I would actually keep up with blogging so I didn’t put much thought into it. This one is a little more refined, but I suspect I will change it again in the future.

Black And White

2006-04-03T18:03:00.000-04:00

While I like black and white (b&w) photographs, I have never been overly fond of them. As such, I tend to not do much work in b&w. But in order to force myself to appreciate b&w photos more, I played around with some b&w processing of pictures today. Here is one:

Photo Fun

2006-04-01T17:36:00.000-05:00

There are so many effects one can apply to pictures that it seems like there is limitless freedom to create artistic pieces of work. I took one of the pictures of Tiff from a couple of weeks ago and played with it and came up with this. That is one of the reasons I love photography so. My ability to create works of art is only bounded by my imagination. Sort of looks like it belongs on a CD cover.

Happy's Head Shot

2006-03-30T10:39:00.000-05:00

I think Happy wanted me to take a head shot of her because she jumped up on my posing stool and started talking to me. Being the dutiful servant that I am I pulled out my camera and took this shot. I hope she is pleased with it.

www.jamescookphotography.com refurbished

2006-03-28T10:51:00.000-05:00

Today I launched a new version of my photography web site. Click on the image to go take a look.

Greek Sing

2006-03-27T20:19:00.000-05:00

Mike’s fraternity participated in a charity musical contest called Greek Sing at EKU. His frat came in 2nd place. I personally thought they should have won because they were clearly the best! Here are a few pics:

Tiff Photoshoot

2006-03-26T19:17:00.000-05:00

Tiff is just so much fun to shoot. Here are some pictures from the Scott County Park today.

Tiff and Mike Couple Shoot

2006-03-20T00:03:00.000-05:00

Mike brought his friend Tiff from college home this weekend and she was gracious enough to do a photo shoot. I am very pleased how it turned out. Click on the image below to see it. Enjoy!

Finally catching my breath...

2006-03-18T15:27:00.000-05:00

Busy busy busy I have been. I was back from California for a short while and then I was off to Florida to present at a computer conference. While there I assisted Garrett on 1 wedding and 2 engagement shoots. Here are a few pictures from one of the engagement shoots.

Blogging the easy way

2006-02-28T17:45:00.000-05:00

If I just post photos and don’t write anything about them, it is pretty easy to keep up with my blog!

Another Photo

2006-02-28T00:42:00.000-05:00

I am going to post one or two photos a day to get back in the swing of things…

A Couple Of Pictures

2006-02-26T13:41:00.000-05:00

I was out in California last week. I have over 7000 images I need to go through. I plan to post a bunch over the coming weeks as I have time. My schedule is jammed packed and my blogging activities have taken a back seat. But here is a couple of photographs of Jasmine.

Ok, here are a couple more bonus pictures…

A Field Trip To The Kentucky Horse Park

2006-02-12T16:47:00.000-05:00

Ok, so why have I been so delinquent on my blog posting? Well, lately most of my spare time has been spent on computers and not photography. I am studying and learning a new language and framework for web development. The language is Ruby and the framework is Rails. Since this is a photography journal I will spare you with the details. In the near future I will be going to Mike Colon’s photography class and I will be learning a lot and will certainly have tons of photographs to post. So I will pick up the pace again.

On Tuesday last week my photography class went to the horse park to take some photographs. Here are some of my favorites I took while there.

We went into the indoor stadium and some people were playing indoor polo. So I grabbed a few shots.

Horses Of Kentucky On A Saturday Afternoon

2006-01-28T17:42:00.000-05:00

Melissa and I went out and took photographs of some horses for my assignment this afternoon. Here are some of my favorites.

Really wanted to get an awesome eye picture. The 85MM F1.8 does the trick. This horse was close to the fence.

The rest of these shots were with my 70–200 lens as the horses wasn’t usually close to me. This next shot was in terrible light. When seeing a horse along the side of the road in a fenced area I don’t get to pick the best position for lighting. I have to take what I get. This poor position caused heavy back lighting which resulted in a low contrast shot. Using photoshop I increased the contrast and silhouette the horse a bit to give it an artsy look. This is an example of a confirmation shot.

This was a friendly horse who came up to the fence.

In January you can see that the blue grass is anything but!

A herd of horses trotting along…

Postcard Viewer

2006-01-25T21:15:00.000-05:00

Postcard viewer is an awesome photo gallery flash program. I purchased a copy and modified the flash program to be more suited to my liking. It causes some pixelation in my photos, but otherwise I think the program is a really cool way to display photos. Here is an example:

http://www.jamescookphotography.com/postcard/georgetownAtNight/

Horse Of Course Class 1

2006-01-25T18:56:00.000-05:00

Yesterday evening was my 1st class. Wow, did I get a firehose full of information! Karen is incredibly knowledgeable about photographing and drawing horses. We talked about confirmation shots, how not to distort the horses features, various things that go into great shots, characteristics of breeds, parts of the horse, muscular system of horses, skeletal structure of horses, how to know when a horse is angry, history of horse racing, and many other aspects which I need to go back to my notes to remember. The 2 hour class went by extremely quickly and I really enjoyed it. I have a ton of homework. My homework includes:

Studying breeds so I can recognize them
Learning the parts of a horse (withers, chestnut, hock, etc…)
Printing off some of the horse I shot at the festival of the horse and identifying their breeds
look through some books she gave me
and go out and take photographs some horses.

The 1st class was held at Artworks. This class will consist of many field trips including horse farms, Keenland, and Kentucky Horse Park. I am so looking forward to going out and photographing horses! I will blog about my experiences and photographs from each class.

On the topic of identifying horses, I just got this picture in an email today from my friend Carl Pursel. Now I know what a quarter horse is!

Picasa Collage Maker

2006-01-23T23:26:00.000-05:00

I was just playing with Picasa’s collage maker. It rocks. Here is a sample image I made in less than a minute

No Luck On The Slots

2006-01-22T23:28:00.000-05:00

Well, when I go to a casino, I only play the slots. Well Vegas was unkind to me as this video will attest.

Slots Not Lucky For Me

Vegas Baby

2006-01-21T12:28:00.000-05:00

Last week I was in Las Vegas. What a spectacular place to take photographs. I can’t wait to go back and catch some of the awesome shows. Here are a few pictures from the week:

The Horse, Of Course

2006-01-13T19:10:00.000-05:00

This week I signed up to take a class, The Horse, Of Course, which is provided by ArtWorks. I took a portrait photography course from them and it was taught by two instructors Jami Henson, and Karen LaBach. Karen is teaching The Horse Of Course, and while it is being offered for drawing students, it is suitable for photographers as well. This will give me a good introduction into equine photography to see if I like it. I live in the heart of horse country so it seems silly for me not to learn how to properly photograph horses. Here are a couple landscapes I took with horses in them. I took them a couple of years ago. Lets see if I can improve upon these in the weeks to come.

Melissa On TV!

2006-01-06T21:28:00.000-05:00

Melissa was on the local television station today talking about Jazzercise. Actually she was there with her friend and fellow Jazzercise owner Cindy McGeorge. It is so funny to let Melissa tell the story but in essence Cindy and Melissa had things all planned out based on previous talks with the station. However, once they were brought out of the “green room” during the commercial break right before their live segment, everything changed at the last minute and they only had like 1 minute to get their act together. They did great adapting to the new agenda as you can see in the movie below. Click on the image to see the quicktime movie that I recorded of their segment.

85MM F1.8

2006-01-06T17:28:00.000-05:00

Got two new lenses today. I am first going to talk about my Canon 85MM F1.8. This is my first prime lens and I am in LUV! Here is a shot at F1.8 to demonstrate the depth of field:

Notice how everything is blurry except for the end of the box it came in. The lens on the table is my 16–35.

Now look at the gorgeous portrait shots I can take with this puppy!

I still need to work to get the hang of this lens, but so far, I think I am going to be shooting with this lens quite a bit!

Dinner At Murray's

2005-12-30T22:48:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday Melissa and I went to eat at Murray’s in Lexington. It was delicious.

Melissa had the sole.

I had the filet with a wine and wild mushroom reduction sauce.

The food was great! Well, I don’t know if the food was really that great or not. It could have been that I was with my dining partner.

Guacamole For Lunch

2005-12-29T14:40:00.000-05:00

Today for lunch I made my super secret recipe guacamole! mmmmm good!

I keep changing and experimenting to improve the recipe. Today I added some 3 cloves of garlic. Boy, the garlic is sticking with me this afternoon, but it certainly improved the recipe!

Radial Blur In Photoshop

2005-12-28T12:12:00.000-05:00

I was playing around with the radial blur filter in Photoshop cs2 and here is the result.

My Prize Arrived

2005-12-27T13:04:00.000-05:00

My prize arrived! Yea! I have been wanting one of these things but didn’t know exactly which one to get. I am glad Mike Colon already picked it out. Obviously he researched these things because this one is perfect! This is the new home for my compact cards! I asked Mike to autograph it. It says “Jim, You Rule! MC”.

And the winner is.... ME!

2005-12-21T12:24:00.000-05:00

I already mentioned that I am attending a course in February that is being taught my Mike Colon. Well, I have been looking at his web site and reading his blog. A few days ago he posted about being excited because his photos were going to be on the cover of 3 magazines. He offered a prize to the 1st person who could guess 2 of the 3 magazines. Well I was poking around his web site and I saw where we referenced 3 magazines. So I emailed him using those 3 magazines as my guess. And low and behold I got an email from him that I won. He blogged about me winning too! Here is what I won:

Mayhem in Bethlehem

2005-12-19T11:54:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday (yes a week ago), Melissa and I went to Northside Christian Church to see Mayhem in Bethlehem.. It was a play/musical that the K-5 choir put on. Our good friend Rhonda Currier is the director. Melissa and I had a wonderful time. Rhonda did an outstanding job directing the kids. They were fantastic. Of course I took my camera along and took some pictures. Here are a few.

Maskrafters - Miracle On 34th Street

2005-12-10T22:47:00.000-05:00

Melissa and I went to see the Maskrafters put on the play, “Miracle On 34th Street”. We had a great time and as always, the Maskrafters rock. Melissa and I are becoming big fans of Randy Hall. He has been in the last 3 Maskrafter productions that we have seen and he just rocks each time. Randy provides the comic relief and he is exceedingly funny! His mannerisms and facial expressions are great. Randy is in the last picture and on the left in the 2nd picture. Pat Conroy was Kris Kringle and he was great as well. Since this wasn’t a musical I was hesitant to take bunches of pictures because I didn’t want to disturb the people around me. In the musical productions there are plenty of applauses and the music is loud so I can take more pictures that way. But I was satisfied with the pictures I did take.

Here are some pictures I took tonight of the play.

What's Up?

2005-12-10T12:15:00.000-05:00

Ok ok —– I haven’t been consistent with my Blog this week. I think with all my traveling I got out of the habit. I tend to think in the evenings just before bed that I forgot to blog that day. So here are some thing that happened this week:

Received an awesome Christmas card from Karen LaBach this week. Karen was my instructor from a photography class I took in the spring over at Cardome. Her card was hand made and she had this old time photo of her and her husband on it. It rocks! See the photo of it below. Ignore the blemish on her husbands face as I accidentally spilled some water on it.

Melissa and I are going to see Miracle on 34th Street tonight that is being put on by The Maskrafters .
I signed up for another photography course. This one is going to be in February in Los Angles and will be taught by Mike Colon. I will be attending with a bunch of photography friends as well. Here is an example of his work he did for Grace Ormonde for her 2006 magazine.

I took a bunch of pictures on Tuesday at an IBM Spirit function at the Southern Nights exhibit at the Kentucky Horse Park. The function wasn’t the best photo op to take pictures of, but I had a blast using some of the techniques I learned from Gino’s Bootcamp I attended last month. Yikes! I just realized I never blogged about it. Guess it got lost in all the activities I was in. It was awesome. I will blog about it in the future. Here are some pictures from Tuesday:

I am also making a DVD of the pictures I took in October for the IBM Spirit Fall Fest and IBM is going to be showing that next Saturday at another IBM Spirit function.
Donny Osmond is producing a book of photographs from his 2005 tour. He is soliciting photographs that people took. Well, Melissa and I went to see him in Columbus on May 12th. Here are the the pictures I took. I am going to submit some. Wish me luck!

Clay Aiken Concert

2005-12-05T23:45:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, November 26th to be exact, Melissa and I went to Cincinnati to eat and see Clay Akien in concert. We didn’t get back till late and I didn’t have an opportunity to post then and I am just getting around to posting now.

Anyway, the first thing we did was eat before the show. We ate at The York Street Cafe in Newport Kentucky — just across the river from Cincinnati. This place was absolutely AWESOME and I keep begging for Melissa to go back.

We started out with a bottle of Pino Grigio wine that was heavenly.

Next the salad with home made dressing was the best I have had in a long time!

My steak was to die for! I loved it and I cannot wait to go back and order it again. I do not think I have had a better steak in my whole life!!!!

Melissa loved her halibut. It was very good, but my steak was better. I think Melissa will get the fish again.

We were stuffed — but we could not resist the deserts. They were to die for, but we agreed that next time we will just get one dessert. Too much food and we regretted eating that much later in the evening. But it was good at the time!

After supper we went to the concert hall. It had an awesome chandelier.

We had 1st row balcony and the seats were great! We could see everything perfectly.

Here is me and my honey getting ready for the show.

The opening act was William Joseph. That dude rocked on the piano.

Click HERE to see a quicktime movie of him playing.

And finally here is a movie of Clay performing. Click on the image below to see the quicktime movie.

An awesome evening!

Showit Web

2005-12-04T12:05:00.000-05:00

My slide shows are created using a program called Showit Web. It is da bomb diggity. I love that program because it is insanely easy to use. Well, I posted my pleasure using their program (as well as dozens of other photographers) and they used my quote on their web site. Go check it out Showit Web Showcase .

They asked permission to point to one of my shows so I sent them a list of all of my shows and told them to pick one. Well, they picked my favorite show, Melissa Fall. This probably isn’t my best technical work — but the model rocks!

Jazzercise Christmas Parade 2005

2005-12-03T20:40:00.000-05:00

I have been out of town for the last week. That explains the lack of entries on the blog. But I am back and don’t have any travel plans till next year. So expect regular updates.

Today was the annual Georgetown Kentucky Christmas parade. Even thought it was raining before and sprinkling during the parade, everyone had a great time. I put together a slide show of the images. Click on the image below to see the show.

Thanksgiving at the Curriers

2005-11-25T10:20:00.000-05:00

Melissa, Mike and I went to Wayne and Rhonda Currier’s for a Thanksgiving day meal. Wayne is an AWESOME chef! He makes the most exquisite meals. Wayne and Melissa spent most of the meal talking about recipes and what ingredients were in each dish. I didn’t really pay that much attention. I was busy stuffing my face with the awesome food. I don’t care what was in it — I just know it was great! Here are some photos from the day…

Wayne in in the kitchen surveying his feast making sure everything was ready.

Once he said it was ready — it didn’t take long for people to get in line. See who is 1st in line?

Wayne whipping up home made whipped cream for the desserts!

There was four… FOUR I tell you… desserts! All were excellent.

This next one is a pumpkin roll and I think it was my favorite of the four.

Here is a photo of one of the desserts. I plated it up before I took a picture of it! The place cards were written by Rhonda. She has awesome handwriting skills.

Had to take a few pictures of Allegro, their cat. He is an awesome cat who is as friendly as can be.

There was a little boy named Michael who was 4 years old — but seriously looked like he was 8 to 10 years old. He was very tall! He had fun posing for me and I had fun taking his picture. Here is one that doesn’t do his height justice, but is a fun photo none the less.

And I will finish off with an artsy type photo. Not only is Wayne an awesome chef, he is also a gifted pianist and singer as well.

Dinner and a Movie

2005-11-23T23:11:00.000-05:00

Tonight, Michael, Robbie, Melissa and I went out to eat and see a movie. We went to Golden Corral to eat. Love that place. Didn’t remember to take any pictures of us eating. Then we went off to see the current Harry Potter movie. Don’t wanna spoil the movie so I won’t say anything other than (1) if you liked the other movies, you will like this one, and (2) this one is a little more scary from the others (Melissa squeezed my hand very tight several times in the movie). Robbie and Michael were way too cool to sit close to us. So I popped over and took a few pictures of them. Mike tried to stop me and Rob made a face at me. But I got them both!

Abingdon, Va

2005-11-20T17:50:00.000-05:00

My poor lonely blog… I have been traveling like a fool and haven’t had an opportunity to keep it up-to-date. This last weekend (Thursday-Saturday), Melissa and I traveled to Abingdon, Virginia. We went there for a long getaway weekend.

Abingdon is a historic town with plenty to see and do. But the main attraction is the Barter Theater. We went and saw two shows, the Spitfire Grill (Very Good) on Thursday, and The Scarlet Pimpernel (AWESOME) on Friday.

Melissa got us FRONT ROW seats! Woot!! Here is a picture of us sitting waiting for the show to start.

While there, I had Melissa do some posing.

The Martha Washington Inn is located in Abingdon. We didn’t stay there, but we will next time. It was pretty awesome inside as well as outside.

There is a hiking trail called the Creeper trail. It is an old rail road trail. One can rent bikes to ride on the trail. It was a little chilly so Melissa and I decided to walk along the trail for a bit.

Snuck a shot of Melissa as she was enjoying the walk.

As usual, when traveling we eat well. One night we ate at The Tavern. It was a very old and rustic place to eat. Here is a picture of Melissa with the natural lighting. The strong light to one side of her face is known as Rembrandt lighting. It is signified by the triangle of light that you can see on her left cheek. Gives it a spooky sort of feel.

The steaks we had with blue cheese and a wine reduction sauce was AWESOME!

We shall be going back to Abingdon again. We plan on going when it is a little warmer so we can rent bikes and see more of the creeper trail.

www.jamescookphotography.com update

2005-11-13T13:31:00.000-05:00

I spent some time this morning updating my website adding some recent photographs. It was time for a facelift and I also reorganized it a bit. I am also adding easy access to slide shows on the front page. Click on the image below to go check out the site.

More pictures from my trip!

2005-11-13T09:31:00.000-05:00

I am seriously behind editing my pictures. Part of the problem is that I am trying out shooting in RAW and it has really slowed down my workflow as I work through the process. Anyway, I finally had an opportunity to work through my pictures from last Sunday. It was a full day, starting out with shooting photos all day, having supper and at Liana’s, and topping off the evening with a limo ride. Check out the movie!

Here are some pictures…

Bailey, Carson and Annie

2005-11-13T09:05:00.000-05:00

Renee Young, Melissa’s friend and fellow Jazzercise instructor, asked if I would be willing to take some pictures of her children for Christmas cards. Never wanting to pass up a moment to take pictures, I gladly agreed. So Friday we met up at the park and I took some photos. Her kids are awesome and very photogenic. They should be models! I really like how their photos turned out, so I made a movie of them. Annie, the black lab, wasn’t as cooperative as Bailey and Carson, but I think that added to the fun of the photos.

I'm Back!

2005-11-11T22:07:00.000-05:00

After a weeks worth of travels, I am back and ready to blog. (Till Sunday when I am gone for another week). My trip to Atlanta and then to Phoenix was insanely awesome. I learned a lot and had a wonderful time as well. You can’t beat that combination. Last Saturday I flew to Atlanta where my friend Liana organized a photography get-together for the weekend (Saturday thru Monday). On Saturday she organized a fashion bridal shoot. Here are some photos from the shoot.

And here is a bunch more pictures from the shoot.

Canon SD400 -- Lost and Found

2005-11-04T17:42:00.000-05:00

I am getting ready to travel. I am heading to Atlanta tomorrow to participate in OSP-South which is where a bunch of photography geeks (well actually awesome photographers) are getting together for some fun and education. Then I am heading to Phoenix for a photography bootcamp. I am hoping between the two activities my photography will have some improvement.

As I was getting my stuff in order, I couldn’t find my Canon SD400. It wasn’t in the usual 20 places I usually lay it around the house. After thinking back, the last time I remember having it was on Wednesday evening at Cici’s pizza. While Melissa and I was there, one of her students, Stephanie Borden, was there as well eating with her mom. So as I was going back to the buffet for 2nd’s (or was it 3rds — who can keep track anyway), she spoke to me saying how she liked how my pictures turned out from the Halloween party. I didn’t realize she was even at Cici’s till she spoke. Before I continue with the story, let me give you some background. Every year Melissa has a pot-luck at her class to celebrate her anniversary. Well, Stephanie always fills her plate overflowing with samples of all of the scrumptious deserts. So I always make a point to take a photo of her plate. She is like Melissa in that she can pack away the food and remain slender. Here is an example:

Now back to the story, as we were talking she made a off-hand remark about me not taking pictures of her eating. I laughed and when our conversation had completed I went back to the table with Melissa and it hit me, I have my SD400, I should have just snapped one right then. What the heck, so I went back and snapped this picture.

She laughed and back to the table with Melissa I went and I showed her the photos and we laughed. That was the last I remembered using my camera. So I called Cici’s to see if I left it there. And sure enough they had it! What an idiot I am. So I drove over to cici’s and asked for the camera. The manager looked a little dumbfounded and was a little surprised to see me. I wasn’t sure what was up, but I said I could describe it. And he asked that I do that. So I told him it was a Canon SD400 – A little tiny silver camera — and the last pictures was of a girl sitting in that booth (I pointed to the booth) over there. Well he smiled and said that he was expecting the girl to show up and was disappointed it was me. But he gave me the camera cheerfully. As I turned around, I said “hey I know the girl…” and before I could continue, he raised his ring hand and pointed to his finger and said, “I am married”. So I smiled, turned around and left.. You can see more of Stephanie below, she is the one I called “The Hottie” in the Halloween class picture.

Six Flags Guy's Daughter

2005-11-01T20:35:00.000-05:00

Melissa and I were laughing about how awesome Jessica’s costume was and how she reminded us of the six flags guy. So I made this cartoon.

Halloween 2005

2005-10-31T22:39:00.000-05:00

Halloween is Melissa’s favorite holiday. The day started with Melissa dressing up like a cat for her Morning class at the pavillion. Melissa took my SD400 over to take some pictures. Here is a picture of Melissa and Renee Young who teaches the morning class. Gina Cain took this picture with my little Canon SD400.

And here is a picture of her class:

Then Melissa dressed up as a movie star for her evening class.

I call this next photo, The Hottie, The Nerd, The Senorita, The Witch and The Cowgirl:

Here is her whole class picture:

You can check out all of the pictures from here jazzercise class by clicking on Jazzercise 2005 Halloween.

Finally Robby asked us to stop by dairy queen and this is what we found! Rob is coming out of the closet!

Melissa commented that Robbie sure makes a pretty woman. Here is Rob striking a pose with a hottie. Her name is Rachel Byrd. She is the one who dolled Rob up with the rosey red cheeks and the lipstick.

Melissa Music Video

2005-10-30T11:04:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Melissa and I went out to eat at our current favorite place to eat, Wallace Station in Midway. I wanted to take some photos of the fall colors. I pretty much ended up taking quite a few pictures of Melissa.

After we got home and I saw the AWESOME pictures I took of her (I guess I should be more modest), I decided to make a movie. Well one thing led to another and I ended up making an MTV-like music video. I posted it for you to see. The format is in quicktime and the movie is very large 25mb in size. So only try to view this if you are on broadband. The original movie was 125mb in size, but I compressed it for Internet viewing. Therefore the quality suffers a little, but it still is pretty good. Once Melissa saw this her first comment was “I wish I knew you were going to do this as I would have worn different clothes.”

To view the movie, click on the image below.

Artsy Blaster

2005-10-27T23:23:00.000-04:00

I haven’t done any artsy kind of photos lately. Here is one of Blaster and the lower half of Rob.

Mike's Movie

2005-10-27T19:00:00.000-04:00

Mike made a movie that rocks! Here is a link to it:

Mike's Awesome Movie

Out Of Shaving Cream?

2005-10-26T23:28:00.000-04:00

I was looking through a few of the pictures from yesterdays photo shoot and this one caught my eye So, I figured I would share it. It is apparent that Mike needs to shave.

Mike and Natalie

2005-10-25T18:19:00.000-04:00

Mike and Natalie stopped by yesterday and to my amazement actually agreed to a small photo shoot. This is the 1st time Melissa and I met her and she is awesome! I think Mike actually enjoyed one of my shoots. I will attribute that to Natalie’s positive influence!

Phi Tau Parents Day

2005-10-23T20:02:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago Melissa and I went down to EKU to visit Michael. It was his fraternity’s parents day. We had a great time and the young men in the frat are awesome. We didn’t know what to expect, but we very pleasantly surprised by the excellent manners these young men had. Here is a picture of Mike:

They 1st had a little presentation and then we had a cook out.

Corn Hole gaming was the activity of choice.

Midway Kentucky Rocks

2005-10-23T11:13:00.000-04:00

While Melissa and I were out taking some fall photography we stopped by Midway. Midway is this very small town just off of I64 between Frankfort and Lexington. The town got its name because it was the railroad midpoint between Lexington and Frankfort. This small little town is pretty awesome and if you are in the area or traveling by, you really need to stop in and have some food and visit the stores. Here is a picture of about 1/2 of downtown Midway.

Getting back to my story — as Melissa and I were driving around we were near Midway and we saw a sign for Violet’s Bakery. It was in the middle of the afternoon and we decided to stop in and get a snack. The bakery is in downtown Midway. We parked and I grabbed the above photo before we went in. It is a great little bakery shop. There were several people in there all looking at the showcase having a very hard time deciding among the various treats. There was a young lady and young man behind the counter. Both had a familiar look to them. I was especially intrigued by the young lady as she was behind the counter and seemed very eager to service the next customer — but the indecisive customers were not noticing her. Her looks and actions reminded me of a young Helen Hunt. So being the photojournalist that I am, I raised my camera and took a shot. UGH — the camera was still set for outside shooting so the lack of indoor light cause the shutter speed to be slow and the image turned out a little blurry. I am somewhat embarrassed to post this, but what the heck — I will just consider the motion blur and artsy type photo.

Melissa and I were waited on by the young lady. We purchased a Macadamia cookie and an oatmeal raisin cookie. When we went outside and before I could tell Melissa that they looked familiar, she said “you know who that was don’t you?”. And I said no, but she does look very familiar. She said the she was the lead in Oklahoma. It hit me like a ton of bricks that was indeed who she was. So I went back in and asked her if she was the lead. And she said yes! Wow what a treat to actually meet a local celebrity like her. She also informed me that John, the young man next to her (John Killie – I looked it up in my playbill), was in Babes In Arms. I think he was also the stage manager for Oklahoma. Well before I left I asked if I could get a good picture of her and she graciously agreed. Again my camera wasn’t set properly as I was excited in the heat of the moment But this one turned out much better. Here is a picture of her in the store and her picture on stage.

She is very photogenic. Hopefully I will get an opportunity to take photos of her again in the future. I asked if she was going to be in future Maskrafter performances and she is considering trying out for next summers performance of Kiss Me Kate. Hope she gets a major part as she was awesome in Oklahoma. I still don’t know her name — I need to find the old Oklahoma playbill somewhere! I found it! Her name is Samantha Tackett.

Here is a picture of John on stage from Babes In Arms.

What strikes me funny is when I see people in different settings than what I expect, my pea brain has a very hard time placing them. Oh well, maybe senility is setting in early for me.

After we ate our cookie on the street, Melissa decided that she needed some coffee to go along with it. So she stepped into the Quirk Cafe. It is a newly remodeled building. Here are a couple of photos from inside. The 1st one is of Melissa ordering her coffee.

And here is a picture of the steps to the lower level. The main level is the coffee house and the lower level is a book store.

And finally here is a picture outside of one of the newer buildings in Midway.

Midway rocks and you never know who you will see there. So go visit it!

Infrared Kentucky

2005-10-23T07:42:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Melissa went around the countryside and I took several pictures of the fall colors. I also had my IR camera and took these pictures. Kentucky is GORGEOUS!

Brandon and Irene Cannada

2005-10-22T22:01:00.000-04:00

Melissa popped into Kroger to get some items. I waited in the car and was passing the time playing backgammon on my cell phone. As Melissa was getting in the car I heard my name being called. Looking to my left and there was Brandon Cannada. He wanted to thank me about the nice blog entry that I did. Which was really nice of him. He is a terrific young man! Here is a photo of him in the company of a lovely young lady. I didn’t get her name, but I presume that she is his girl friend.

We were busy talking and I didn’t notice that his mom was in the back seat till he mentioned her. Here is a picture of Irene and her daughter Shelby.

We chatted a for bit. I don’t remember the last time I talked with Irene or Brandon and it was really nice talking to them. We talked about taking some head shots of Brandon and I am looking forward to doing it. Hope it works out.

Jim and Melissa's Most Excellent Day Trip To Elizabethtown

2005-10-22T21:56:00.000-04:00

Melissa and I took Friday off. We decided to take a day trip somewhere. It was raining and the whole state of Kentucky looked as if it was going to be raining all day so we decided to plan something indoors. Looking at the Kentucky travel site, we ended up choosing to go to Elizabethtown and seeing 1776. 1776 is a musical being put on by the local community theater group. We headed out about noon and we knew we could take a leisurely trip down to E-town. In the mornings paper we read about Wallace Station in Midway (which is on the way). Wallace Station sounded like a pretty decent place to get something to eat. So we stopped on the way. Wallace Station is out in the country and off the beaten path.

Once we were inside, the place was PACKED! Always a good sign for a place to eat.

The food was KILLER. This is an awesome place to eat! If you are ever near Midway, eat at Wallace Station (it is a can’t miss) and get a Santa Anita! We actually got two different ones, the Santa Anita and the Mulberry meets Midway. Both were great, but the Santa Anita is killer!

My poor over exposed picture doesn’t do the sandwich justice. The Santa Anita is the near (over exposed) one.

On the way we got off the express way to check out Bardstown. Bardstown is very interesting and I suspect we will make a day trip to Bardstown in the future. While at Bardstown Melissa and I got a snack at BR31.

Even with our leisurely pace we made it to Elizabethtown in with plenty of time to spare. We stopped by the tourism office to see how we could kill some time. We contemplated seeing the movie Elizabethtown in Elizabethtown (how cool would that be?) but decided against it. So we killed some time in Best Buy, Barnes and Nobles, and Michael’s Crafts.

Then we had a most excellent dinner at Tumbleweed.

After dinner we saw an excellent show. 1776 was in the Performing Arts Center which is attached to Hardin County High School. It is an amazing venue and it will be wonderful when Scott County gets something of this magnitude. Here are some pictures from the show.

The show was out a little after 10pm and Melissa and I were home by midnight. We even had time to stop at A&W for a root beer float. This was one of the best day trips we have ever taken. Then again, I always say that after our day trips so we must be getting better at it!

Melissa is Ellie Mae

2005-10-20T23:38:00.000-04:00

I have blogged before about Melissa’s critters. Well she now has several raccoons that come and feast at our back deck. They are getting quite friendly and do not run when we look at them. It was impossible to take pictures of them because the back deck lighting was poor and the images always turned out poor. I always thought a flash would startle them and they would leave so I never used a flash. Well, tonight I decided to give it a try. And guess what? They are not frightened of the flash. I took a few pictures tonight and plan to take plenty more in the future and get some real good ones. They are just so dag gone cute. Here is the best one from tonight.

Just Some Snaphots

2005-10-19T23:33:00.000-04:00

Here are some snapshots I took today. Nothing spectacular, but these are my favorites from today.

Cookie in a tree.

Happy looking off my desk.

Mike protesting his picture being taken.

Cookie is outstanding in her field!

Mojo

2005-10-18T21:11:00.000-04:00

Mojo is one of our cats. My son Robbie gave him that name. Mojo is a sweetheart. Each of our cats have different personalities. Mojo’s motto is make love not war. And the phrase “curious as a cat” describes him perfectly. He especially likes boxes to hide in. He used to go to Michael for affection, but now that Michael is gone to college, he is all over Melissa and me.

Gray Cat

2005-10-17T20:56:00.000-04:00

I already took a picture of Cookie Cat and put it on the Journal. Here is a picture of Gray. Now all I need is Anna and I will have all of our neighbor cats.

Of course this was taken with my Mark II.

Mark II Images

2005-10-17T20:55:00.000-04:00

My Mark II arrived today. Yea! There is a lot to learn as this is very different from my old 20D. I am reading the book but the whole layout of the controls and settings are very different. I have no idea how to turn on a fill flash for example. But I am having fun with it. It is heaver than my 20D. It is bigger than my 20D. And it seems more solidly constructed than my 20D. So far, I am very pleased. Here are a couple of pictures I took with it so far.

Melissa Puts Up With Me

2005-10-15T18:17:00.000-04:00

This evening we went up to Cardome to take some pictures and let me do some photographic experimenting. I didn’t end up with any spectacular photos, but I now know about 50 different things that don’t work well. In the Melissa Is Trendy post from earlier today, I mentioned that Melissa is always willing to put up with my crazy photographic experiments. Today was no exception and here are a couple of pictures to illustrate what I was talking about; Melissa running and jumping.

Cookie Cat

2005-10-15T18:03:00.000-04:00

We have the sweetest little neighbor cats. Three in particular, Cookie, Anna, and Gray. This is a photo of Cookie. Whenever we come home she runs to greet us. She is the most friendliest cat to us, but to other neighbor cats, she tends to hiss them off and doesn’t want to be bothered. I suspect the main reason she comes is because Melissa rewards her with Temptations treats. It is the only treats we have considering our cats are spoiled and will not eat any other kind.

Lexington IGS Spirit Fall Fest 2005

2005-10-15T12:37:00.000-04:00

On Friday afternoon, many of the people who work with in or near Lexington got together for afternoon of fun and games. Many work in one of three different buildings and lots of us work from home so it was nice to be able to see people face-to-face. I was looking forward to this to give me an opportunity to hone my photographic skills. It was a real blast taking all kinds of pictures to document the afternoon’s festivities. I put together a movie of the event. Just click on the image below to see it.

Melissa Is Trendy

2005-10-15T12:23:00.000-04:00

Melissa needed a photo for an advertisement in the paper. Yes! A willing model!!! Well, actually Melissa is always willing to be my model and put up with my crazy photographic experiments! Here is one of the photos I took of her and added a little cross processing to make it trendy.

UPS SUCKS

2005-10-15T12:08:00.000-04:00

Well, UPS was late getting the MARK II into Lexington so it didn’t get delivered. Dealing with a woman at the Lexington distribution center was not very pleasant. Her customer service skills were poor to say the least. The promised call back by 10pm last evening never came. I called in and complained to the central call in number and I did get a response from a supervisor this morning — but their ground operations is closed till Monday. UGH — all in all — FED EX is now my preferred carrier. Guess I will quit whining now.

My Blog Is Lonely

2005-10-12T23:25:00.000-04:00

Yea yea yea — I know I have not been posting. It hasn’t been for lack of interest I assure you. I just have too many things going on it my life right now. I have a super busy schedule at work, I am working on my effects stuff, I planning out some career moves, I am planning to become and expert on Service Oriented Architectures (computer geek stuff), and I considering getting a certification on XML Technologies (computer geek stuff), I am planning some computer education, I am submitting invention disclosures at work, I am submitting papers for publication at work.

I also recently found out that I will be traveling to Las Vegas in January for a work related computer geek conference. I am hoping I will be able to spend some time on the front end or back end of the trip to be able to take some pictures while I am out there.

One final thing — my new camera won’t be delivered till Friday.

I hope to be able to get back to blogging about by photography by the weekend. I certainly plan to post a picture taken with my new camera on Friday for sure!!!

Ok, since I can’t leave this post without something photographic, here is a slideshow I made. A few days ago a bunch of us from work met for lunch and I was obnoxious with my camera as usual. I used my effects script that I am working on to tone many of the photos in the slide show. Anyway, enjoy:

http://www.jamescookphotography.com/movies/LexingtonBois

Dawn of a new era

2005-10-10T17:11:00.000-04:00

Ok, I decided to elevate myself from the minor leagues to the major leagues. I ordered a new professional class camera today. The EOS-1D Mark II N. Here is a picture of it:

Actually this is a picture I pulled off the Canon website since I don’t actually have my camera yet. I am hoping it will arrive on Thursday. I have read several reviews of people upgrading from a 20D to a Mark II N and they are all glowing. I am anxious for this baby to arrive.

Jim's Effects

2005-10-09T21:38:00.000-04:00

I have been working on a new photoshop plugin called Jim’s Effects. It basically provides many cross processing type effects as well as a few others. Here is a current view of theUI for it.

What it lets me do is quickly do some cross processing effects on photos that turn into something like this:

into this:

I still have tons of more playing around to do before I release it.

Babes In Arms -- The Movie

2005-10-06T23:31:00.000-04:00

I made a flash movie using Showit Web of some of the photos I took when Melissa and I went to see Babes In Arms. Click HERE to see the movie. The song, Johnny One Note, is a song from Babes In Arms.

Featured Artist - Jim Cook

2005-10-03T23:06:00.000-04:00

Well it is October and like I said in this previous post, I am the Featured Artist for October. What this entitles me to is to have three of my photos on display at the Chamber of Commerce and one larger one on display at Farmers Bank (the one near Wendy’s).

Here I am at the Chamber of Commerce office with my three award winning photographs.

And here is my night photo of the Scott County Courthouse at the Farmers Bank.

Babes In Arms

2005-10-02T17:16:00.000-04:00

Last night Melissa and I went to see Babes in Arms. As expected, it was an awesome performance! The people of Georgetown who have not attended one of the Maskrafter’s performances are really missing out. Scott county is blessed to have such a talented group of performers. Some of the performers were in high school, and I certainly don’t remember any talent like this when I was in high school. Here is a sampling of the pictures I took. To see them all, you can visit my gallery of photos.

Awards Ceremony

2005-10-01T16:58:00.000-04:00

I just got back from the awards ceremony and here is a small movie of the announcements of the awards for the photos. Click HERE to see the movie. The movie size is small, about 500kb in size.

Ok, next up for today is to go out to eat and then see Babes In Arms!

TRIFECTA!

2005-10-01T13:59:00.000-04:00

I entered 3 photos — and got 3 ribbons! Wootzers! This is pretty amazing. I enter my first art competition with the hopes that my work won’t be laughed at and I end up with three freaking ribbons! Three I tell you! Lest you think I am lying, here is the photographic proof!

1st place:

3rd place:

and honorable mention:

I am a little perplexed. I entered the non-professional category, but my 1st place ribbon is marked as professional. Not sure why, but I will take it!

I was originally going to display 3 of my infrared photographs at the chamber of commerce next week, but I think I will display these three instead since they are all award winning.

I will be walking around the next day with a big head and I am contemplating cutting off one of my ears.

Tubby Ball

2005-10-01T13:41:00.000-04:00

I am the proud owner of a Tubby Smith autographed basketball! Woot!

Steps 4 Pets

2005-10-01T09:39:00.000-04:00

Today is a big day with tons of activities, it all started out this morning with the Scott County Humane Society’s Steps 4 Pets fundraiser.

It is held at Evan’s Orchard. It includes a 5k race/walk, silent actions, plenty to eat, tons of animals, and a gorgeous venue. The morning sunrise through the clouds are particularly awesome this morning.

Melissa is very involved with this. She and her students provide the morning warmup and they use her sound system during the days events. Here is a picture of the warmup going on.

So much for the morning, next on my agenda is to enter some of my photos in a regional art show going on at Cardome. Then back to steps 4 pets so that I can see if I can outbid people on a Tubby Smith autographed basketball, or some Bengals/Packer tickets in their silent auction.

The Unknown Singer

2005-09-28T22:57:00.000-04:00

I just got around to looking at some of the photos I took last Saturday evening at the Festival Of The Horse. There was a pretty decent band playing and I took some pictures of them. I have no clue what the band’s name was nor the name of this singer. Hence the name of this post, the Unknown Singer. But anyway, I really liked this photo so I am posting it here.

Photo Wall

2005-09-28T22:32:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned a few weeks ago order some 11x14 prints of my infrared work. Well I finally got around to framing some. Here are 5 of them. I have room on the wall for at least 9. I just need to get some more frames. Excuse the poor photo but it was night and I was trying to get a picture with a flash. Very hard to not cause flare off of the glass covering the picture, so I took the picture at an angle.

B&W, Sepia, and Duotones

2005-09-26T23:06:00.000-04:00

I spent some time reading yesterday evening and tonight about black and white, sepia and duotones. According to the book I am reading, “The great strength of duotones for the digital photographer is that it combines the great dynamic range of colour with the emotional power of the black and white.” I must confess that I don’t have a big clue as to what all that means, but I did take a color picture and played with it (converted to B&W, added a black vignette, added a sepia filter, and then added some noise to it) and I like the resulting image much better. It really focuses in on the little girl. I liked it so much that I ordered an 8x10 of it from MPIX. Hope it turns out as nicely in print as it does on this screen.

Regional Invitational Art Show

2005-09-25T20:57:00.000-04:00

On October 1st 2005, there is going to be a regional art show at The Black Barn at Cardome. I plan to enter some of my photographs. For photography, here are 3 classes, (a) Color, (b) Black & White, and (c) Digital. I have no idea how digital is different from (a) and (b). I am going to call and find out tomorrow. October 1st is going to be a very busy day, with this art show, Steps for Pets, and Babes In Arms all happening the same day.

Festival Of The Horse

2005-09-24T23:29:00.000-04:00

Each September Georgetown has a celebration called Festival Of The Horse. Last night was the kids parade. The picture in my Cross Processing post from yesterday of Emily was taken during that parade. Saturday evening, there is a parade which celebrates horses. Here are some pictures from that parade.

Emily was in this parade riding in a horse drawn carriage.

This year, it seems like there were many more horses and people were more elaborately costumed. Here is a sampling of some of the photos I took.

First a trick rider standing on the back of a couple of horses.

Next a horse with the longest main I have ever seen.

I thought this horse had a pretty mane.

A zorse? A cross between a zebra and a horse!

I liked this horse a lot and this lady’s outfit. I am guessing this is some kind of Spanish horse.

The horse on the left below had the longest tail I have ever seen.

This little girl gets my vote for the cutest in the parade.

Whenever Melissa saw a dog, she had me take a picture of it. The dog on the left is riding in a wagon.

I liked this ladies outfit. Very regal.

This is just a VERY small sampling of the horses in the parade. It was excellent.