Spent the weekend with Maureen canoeing the Fox River and hiking Starved Rock State Park. Here are a few images I photographed with a cheap Olympus waterproof camera and my Iphone. Next time I’ll take one of my big cameras, I think. But it was nice to just enjoy the scenery without being a real photographer. 
I had a fantastic time photographing the local Biggest Loser Competition these past 10 weeks. I followed 60 participants through their initial weigh in, training sessions, a Hyvee grocery store challenge, final weigh in, and a 2 mile race. Everyone worked so hard, and the results are obvious! Here are a few highlights from the competition, including before-after pictures of the two winners. Great job, everyone!
All event images are available to view at this link.
I ran a marathon. May 17th, 2009 will now forever be a milestone in my life. The weather was perfect. I ran the first half in just under 2 hours, which was 6.5 minutes faster than my half marathon time in San Francisco last Fall. I didn’t mean to do that, but it was a nice bonus. I slowed down in the second half, even though I was feeling pretty good, because I was entering new territory for myself. At mile 21, my right calf muscle was killing me, and my left foot was hurting too. Rather than risk further injury, I started walking, but I walked as fast as I could manage. I walked miles 22-26, and then ran the last .2 miles on the final stretch. Finished in 4:49:59. I didn’t think I was going to get emotional, but when I turned that last corner and started running again, I was wiping away tears all the way across the finish line. I’ve gotta say I’m pretty proud of myself and how far I’ve come this last year. So will I do another? Not planning on it right now, but you never know. But I’m glad I ran this one. I’ll definitely run some more half marathons. I already have my eye on one in September, as well as a 10K trail race in August. So the running will continue to be a big part of my life. Here’s a photo that Amy took at the finish line.
We have a friend who LOVES Groundhog Day. It’s bigger than Christmas for her. Since we’ve known her we’ve adopted today as a special holiday, and celebrate it with her. Our kids love it. Every year we bake cupcakes, and apply temporary groundhog tattoos. Sadly, the tattoos have not arrived in the mail yet, but here are this year’s groundhogs emerging to a dusting of snow. Hopefully, we can do the tattoo thing tomorrow. Happy Groundhog Day!
I recently purchased a holga film camera. A holga is a toy medium format camera that’s made entirely of plastic and shoots square pictures. It’s basicly a box that holds film with a plastic lens. Holgas can be purchased for about $28. The box of film I bought actually cost as much as the camera. Our friend Erin creates incredible art with holga cameras, and she inspired me to pick one up, even though I haven’t used film in 6 years. For my first roll of film, I photographed our son Ryan in the yard. Here are a few favorites.
