This is my dashboard... showing an empty gas tank... all the time. Seems every time I look down that stupid orange fuel pump icon is illuminated... it's become like water slowly dripping on the forehead. Kylie and I go round and round about this. She never lets her tank get below a quarter of a tank for two reasons. 1) She never has to worry about running outta gas at an inopportune time or place (is there such a thing as an opportune time??), and 2) driving on close-to-empty allows more of the sedament in the tank to get in your fuel system. I get that. Here's my thing, though, and I will likely stand by this for better or for wore until the day I breath my last breath... if I always fill up the tank whenever it gets to a quarter of a tank, according to my limited math skills, over the course of my life, I'll make possibly hundreds more stops at a gas station than if I just wait until it gets closer to empty before pullin' into the pump. And with that logic, even if I run outta gas once or twice, and it takes let's say 45 minutes to call someone to bring some gas, I still come out way ahead on the time gained chart. There. I win. [grin]

BTW, tech specs on the image above: Nikon D700 + 24-70mm f/2.8 lens at 30mm, ISO 800, f/2.8 @ 125th, traveling at 74mph.

Seems like so long ago, especially since Kylie and I drove to Nashville today, but I was in Portland yesterday for a quick day trip. Portland is a photographer's dream with so much character and an amazing backdrop to create images, and this is why this trip was a tragedy. I brought my D700 hoping I'd have a chance to give it a good workout, but the photography gods frowned on me this day; I only had a few minutes before dinner and a short time afterwards in the dark to walk around and grab some images. Portland is definitely on my short list of cities to return to in the near future for more of a photo safari. Not many this time, but here's a few.

This was the cool display wall behind the check-in desk at my hotel. Pretty crafty use of old half bottles of wine.

Speaking of hotels, I've gotta give a shout out to the Hotel Vintage Plaza and their fantastic customer service. They called while I was en route to the airport to let me know I had - ahem - left my Macbook Pro laptop in my room, and then they escorted it in a town car to the airport for a sweet reunion before my flight left. [insert slow-mo video of me running towards the driver as he extends my precious laptop towards me as he gets out of the car with the song "Reunited" playing as a soundtrack.] Besides, with cool boutique decor (see image above and below), a free wine happy hour and a killer location in downtown Portland, how can you not like this place?

Normally I wouldn't get too excited about an image like the one below, but the way the lighting came together serendipitously makes this one a keeper. It was actually very dark on this street, but I noticed when cars would drive by on the street, the lights from the headlights would provide great lighting on this scooter. So, I waited for a few seconds for a car to pass in each direction at the same time, and voila! BTW, for any photographer types reading this, the image below was taken at ISO 2000 with the 85mm f/1.4 lens at f/1.8 at 1/60th of a second. Pretty good noise performance, eh?

This art gallery was closed when I walked by, but I thought this view through a window screen made for pretty intersting art on its own.

In case you heard the rumors, they're true. Grabbed this shot on the way to the DFW airport yesterday.

It was sunny yesterday, so I - and several friends - took the day off. Don't get me wrong, we have a lot of sunny days here in Texas, and I don't take each one of them off. If I did, I'd only work 34 days a year. But we took a break on this day to enjoy a Frisco Rough Riders game in the middle afternoon. Coincidentally my new D700 came in yesterday morning, so it went to the game with me. Didn't take a ton of photos with it because I was too busy stuffing my face with free hot dogs and hamburgers, but here's a couple. Used a Nikon 16mm f/2.8 lens for this one of me and the gang.

The stadium only holds 10,000, but I think every school in the metroplex took a field trip to the game, and there musta been somethin' like 72,000 screamin' kids there.

This one I converted to B&W and added some grain and using NIK Silver Efex Pro. Love this Photochop plug-in.

Fisheye again.

Got my new D700 in... again. The first one I got last week had metering problems straight outta the box, but the shiny new one that came in the mail today works like a champ. It's hard to get too excited about it because it's basically the same camera I have in the D3 minus a couple bells and whistles, but I needed a 2nd camera in case anything ever happened to the D3. And those of you following the blog long enough know that - given my history and propensity for absent-mindedness - something will happen to the D3 sooner or later. Already has once. Took it out for a test drive this afternoon to kick the tires a bit, and she's a well-oiled machine. Here's one (doctored with a little Photochop love, of course), and more to come in the next couple days.