Since 2009, the retirement home of Shot On Site Photography... the source of the finest sighthound performance images in the world. As of August 1, 2022, the blog will become much more photo-centric. Not only will I post images from the homestead in the foothills of the Little Florida Mountains, and surrounding environs, but also tips about shooting, editing, archiving, software, hardware and more. The political rants will become few and far between (but not eliminated! It is 2022 after all!)
Monday, July 24, 2006
Wrap Music
Next, we want to try the #30, Basil Cashew Chicken. Check it out on the menu. If there's one of these where you live, give it a shot. Very tasty stuff.
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Mas Mushrooms
Some more of the resident fungi here at our campground in Grass Lake, MI.
While researching these "fruits", I happened upon this excellent, humorous, and informative website about mushroom hunting.
Laugh, and learn.
These look like Pierogies. Top view of the colony in the previous post.
But I'm pretty sure about this one. I've seen these in the supermarket. I think. Anybody knows, let me know. If this is the last post you ever see here, you'll know I got impatient and went the "trial and error" route.
Nah.
Calling All Mycologists!
I decided it was time to let the events in the rest of the world take care of themselves, and I should get back to covering what's been going on locally. Thus, the following images. I want you to know I sacrificed my body to the deerfly and mosquito hordes to get these..
Or individually, like this one.
They can also be ugly.. like a fungal version of moose puke!
No weaklings, they push themselves up out of the earth..
...to become impressive, blood-red goliaths like this. I'm not sure this is an edible variety. I wouldn't want to try it.
I do have some shots of mushrooms I'm 98% sure are edible.. I've seen them in the supermarket. I think. There's that 2% that worries me. Anyway, I'll have to upload another gallery, because it seems there's a numerical limit to the number of images I can put in one post. So, I'll leave you with the perfect parting shot:
I mean, what's a bunch of toadstools without, well.... you get the idea.
My One and Only Tour de France Post
Floyd Landis will win the 2006 Tour de France. Hopefully the French can maintain their sense of humor. Americans will have won the last eight Tours, and 10 or 11 of the last 20! (I can't remember what year LeMond's first Tour win was).
Wanna be a Big-Time Pro Cyclist? Drink Beer!
Friday, July 21, 2006
You Ain't Never Seen Anything Like This.
I found this on a blog called "Bike Hugger", (I know, it's a bit warmer and fuzzier than I like), while looking for more nuanced information on the Tour de France than I can get from friends' blogs. It's a decent blog, despite the name, and I may link it, eventually. I'll have to give it a little time to ripen.
Prepare to be amazed.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
It's OK... He Activated the Cloaking Device!
I'm not going to even give you a hint.. you gotta go there and RTWT. It's too funny. (Or scary, if you're the photographer.)
New & Improved!
The "Express" Feed
Click here to see if your favorite newsreader is "atom-enabled".
Note: This is not RSS but is similar. I may switch to RSS at a later date, and will let you know.
Who are the Bloggers? Who Knows? Pew Knows.
Their Pew Internet & American Life Project recently completed a phone poll of a few thousand internet users, and a separate, smaller poll of bloggers to tell us who we are. And it seems most of us are,
" focused on describing their personal experiences to a relatively small audience of readers and that only a small proportion focus their coverage on politics, media, government, or technology. Blogs, the survey finds, are as individual as the people who keep them. However, most bloggers are primarily interested in creative, personal expression – documenting individual experiences, sharing practical knowledge, or just keeping in touch with friends and family."
That pretty well sums up my intent. Well, that and keeping the old tip jar full. I see that's doing as well as the old Google ads! I'm relieved.
You can read the entire Pew report in PDF format here. You can also click back to the Internet & American Life home page and take the poll. Quite interesting.
So... why do you blog?
Monday, July 17, 2006
Holiday RV Park Flora
This is the trillium. A true harbinger of Spring in Michigan.
Apple blossoms.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
More Balloon Fest Highlights
That's A Lot of Hot Air...
About 40 balloons mass launch for the "hat toss". Pilots have to gauge the wind direction and speed to properly come across the field and toss a hat onto one of several poles that are placed there.
Nice try... but no cigar.
Old Mac Donald may have been funky, but this was my personal favorite.
Will add some from the small air show later...
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Old Mac Donald Had A...
More Fun With Dogs
Speaking of "birthday suits", we're now only two weeks away from the Art Fair at Turtle Lake Nudist Resort. Bet you can't wait for our post on that one!
Friday, July 14, 2006
Gentledogs, Start Your Engines!
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Another One In the Books.
Back in 1994 I was just toiling with the masses in corporate America. I was a Regional sales manager for a manufacturer of environmental testing equipment in Ann Arbor. (A company that has since been sold to a British firm who's brought their "nanny state" rules to the table... I'm oh, so glad I got downsized out of there! Rumor has it, they're on the sales block again. Whenever we have dinner with an old workmate, I'm told how lucky I am to be out of there. No shit.)
So, downsizes happen... I'd already been toying with the idea of a part-time photography business. Even came up with the "Shot On Site" name while I was still working. When the axe fell, I was forced out of a state of inertia, and into action. My first gig was the MGA trial in Metamora, MI.
Now, things were a whole lot different back then. My cameras- a Nikon FM, and a Nikon FTn Photomic, were totally manual, as were the lenses... including a 500mm mirror lense. This means I would have to focus manually on a moving object.. the dog.. and advance the film, manually, after each exposure. Of course, I was shooting film, (digital cameras were $10,000 behemoths that only the New York Times and wealthy gadget freaks could afford), and needed to run out on Saturday night to find a 1-hour lab to get the film processed. Then I would have to number each print, and put them in presentation books to show on Sunday. Many late nights were spent in grungy Knights Inns, drinking beer, watching ESPN, (or adult fare on HBO), while I performed these menial tasks.
Of course, this also precluded shooting Sundays, the second day of most trials, because I would be busy showing and, hopefully, selling proofs, reprints, and enlargements to the trial entrants.
If that first event, 12 years ago, hadn't been a success, I may not be here writing this blog post. I'd probably be greeting you at WalMart instead. But it was successful beyond my wildest imagination! Over $700 gross sales, which we still consider good for many events even now. So I decided to keep doing it, and the rest, as they say, is history.
There are a couple of heroes I should mention. People who helped make it happen.. First, is Jack Helder, who told me about someone he saw at a trial in Lexington, KY who took pictures on Saturday, and returned with stock to sell the next day. I believe that might have been Robert Nix, who I wrote about here. If Jack hadn't made it sound easy, (little did I know..) I might have looked for work elsewhere. The photo that accompanies this post is Jack's "Mali". This was my first "famous" image. I've said often that it's the picture that "made Shot On Site", and I'm not joking. It's been used by ASFA in brochures, and has been published often, even in the UK.
The other person is Dr. John Burchard, now of California, but back then he lived in Rhode Island. The MGA trial weekend had, as a bonus event, the ASA (American Saluki Association) Brahma Cup trial, so John and his then wife, made the trek out in their Argosy. John was sufficiently impressed with my work that he spent an unheard of $150 on proofs, reprints, and enlargements. Once I knew there were people with dogs out there, who recognized talent, I knew I was going to be doing this for a long time.
There were others there, that weekend, and they all made it possible. I have so much fun doing what I do, that it hardly feels like work. Switching to digital three years ago, probably has something to do with that, too. LOL.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Strictly Titillation
I Didn't Know They Did This!
Any toad experts out there? I've never seen a toad in these kinds of digs before.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Another Interesting Blog
Anyway, one of the routes follows something called the Tail of the Dragon, and involves an unbelievable 318 curves in 11 Miles! Photographers actually have businesses taking pictures of all the motorcycles, and exotic sports cars that traverse this route. This blog shows some of the action. (Make sure you scroll all the way to the last picture!).
This web page tells more about the road and the area. Gee.... we can't wait. Even the routes we can take with the motor home will be difficult. Not like this, though.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Matt has moved!
The dancing blogger... or the blogging dancer, whatever he is, has moved his blog to here. I wrote about "Where the Hell is Matt?" a couple of months ago. He was recently on Good Morning America, again. It was recently divulged that his globetrotting, dancing, lifestyle was underwritten by a chewing gum maker. This begs the question: How can Shot On Site get a freakin' sponsor? We'll make the whole motor home available for graphics. Except the rear window.
Matt's newest dancing video would appear to be just around the corner. It includes Argentina, Easter Island, New Zealand, Norway, and more. You can see the 2005 video at the website.