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Criminals, Cops, and Cherokees in B.F.E.

The back of a Florida State Trooper’s police car doesn’t smell like I thought it would. I figured bad aftershave, stale coffee, and tired sweat would be the eau de jour. This one just had that pungent new car smell wafting through the steel divider. — What would have been an average, long, and boring 11 hour trip from Tennessee down I-75 to Florida turned into what my mother likes to call, “an ordeal”. Somewhere around Macon, Georgia, we stopped toRead more
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Summer in Tennessee

After our massive tour of New England and Michigan, we’ve settled in Tennessee at my mother’s home for a while. Her home is on a beautiful lake at the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, about half an hour south of Knoxville. We really love being here – in most ways, it’s the complete opposite of Jakarta or Manila, and is just what’s needed after those mega-metropolitan cities. It’s exceptionally peaceful and relaxing, with the only noises coming from boats cruisingRead more
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Traveling around New England

We’re on American soil, after having arrived in New York City on Tuesday at noon. Total travel time of 36 hours wasn’t nearly as bad as it was in 2008, but we had some interesting experiences along the way. More on that later. My father met us at JFK and we’re currently traveling New England. Tuesday we powered out of NYC, and stayed the night south of Boston. Wednesday, we followed the coastline up through Maine. Today (Thursday) we’re inRead more
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How to Photograph Lightning

Due to many requests, I’ll share some tips for photographing lightning. Please note there is no ‘one way’ to do it; this is just a jumping point from which you may want to start. This particular photo I took reached the front page of Flickr’s Explore. So what camera and settings did I use? Canon 5D Mark II| Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L | at f/4 for 7 seconds | ISO 100 Stay safe: Ok, this is obvious but still, ifRead more