Just a reminder, it's not too late to send in your nomination(s) for the Big Christmas Giveaway, but you gotta hurry... deadline is midnight tonight to write in for a deserving person/family to receive a complimentary photography session including $1500 in custom photography products (prints, canvases, books/albums, DVDs, etc.), and if your nominee is selected you'll also receive a complimentary photography session with a $250 gift towards prints. For complete details, go here. Don't miss this opportunity to truly bless someone this Christmas season.

Just a quick fly-by post. Filler, really. Not much blog-worthy material today, so bear with me here. Every year a group of guys here in Dallas gets together in mid-December just before the holidays to celebrate, well, manliness. No reason, really. Just an excuse to convene for a night of testosterone stories and female-less fellowship. Not everyone knows everyone first hand at these events . It's sort of a six degrees of separation kind of thing with my friend John Wisz playing the role of Kevin Bacon. Everybody knows John. I played softball and football with him for years, and you won't find a nicer, more genuine guy. A man's man, you might say. He started this annual tradition several years ago, and it's turned into quite an ordeal where we rotate steakhouses each year. We had about 26 guys show up for for this year's installment at Nick & Sam's in uptown Dallas. Merry times had by all. While I don't think I would put this year's spot at the top of the list compared to a couple of the establishments we've visited in years past, still a great meal with fantastic service. If you decide to try it out, bring a credit card or two... it's not cheap, but for me it's one night a year where it's just about hangin' out with guys bein' guys. Can't wait 'til next December already. I brought my camera, but didn't really use it. It was pretty dark in there, and Nick & Sam's doesn't feel like the kind of place you wanna be firing off a flash all night. I did snap a couple of their cool wine cellar on the way out, though. (see above)

Little Zoe is making herself at home at the house for the weekend, and she can be pretty persistent about letting me know she likes to go for walks, regardless of what time it is. If I'm up, she's ready. We've been having pretty cruddy weather here the last couple days with a dreary perpetual mist and some fog, but I noticed on the way home tonight this otherwise depressing recipe creates some interesting light at night where things just kinda glow. Cool stuff. So I talked Zoe into going for a quick walk down the street at 12:15am and grabbed my camera. Here's a couple images taken handheld with the D3 at ISO 5000, f/2.8, 1/20th - 1/40th of a second using only street light. A little noise in the images 'cause they're a little underexposed, but not too bad.

Poor Zoe. It was a little wet out and she was a disaster by the time we got back to the house. Looks like I should stick a pole on her back and mop the floors.

Not too long ago I noticed my little corner of the web was coming up on another milestone - 100,000 visits. I'm excited, bewildered & humbled. I've had these new digs since mid-May of this year, so to see the odometer turn over 100k already is pretty fun. To celebrate this otherwise meaningless milestone, I'm going to give away a little stocking stuffer this Christmas season in the form of a $25 iTunes Gift Card to the 15th person to leave a comment on the blog after the counter all the way at the bottom of this screen hits 100,000 (it's currently at 97k & change). Since I have no way that I'm aware of to actually know who the 100,000th visitor is, here's how it's going to work. After I see the milestone has occurred, I'll post an entry on the blog, and the 15th person to leave a comment for that post wins the free gift card to the Apple iTunes store. The comment has to be for that particular post (it will be obvious which one you need to comment on), and you need to include the words "I need some Manilow!" somewhere in your comment. If you're completely repulsed by the idea of admitting you need some Manilow, you may substitute Air Supply instead. To prevent anyone from posting 15 quick comments to steal the prize, you can only post a maximum of 2 comments for this post. If I see you've commented more than twice, you will be ineligible to take home the tunes. Thanks so much for stopping by the blog from time to time, and good luck!