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Exploring iPhone Portrait Mode

:: Tags: Camera, Dylan, Photo, Too Cool!

Well I finally traded up to the new iPhone Xs last weekend and I have to say, I am impressed. Like everyone else, I’ve been hearing a lot of hype about the new portrait mode, so I spent a little time trying it out around the house. I use to have to use my large Nikon DSLR to get nice portrait shots like this, but now… actually being able to do this with your smartphone camera… that’s huge! Here are a coupe of photos with the iPhone Xs and portrait mode turned on.

Carbon Leaf @ The Birchmere

:: Tags: Evening Out, Fun, Holiday's, Photo

I’m starting to suspect that this is becoming an annual event for my brother and I, but who knows. I do know that Julie and I enjoy the venue and the band, so I guess it’s a good way to ring in the holidays. Here are a couple of photos from Carbon Leaf’s annual Christmas holiday show at the Birchmere Music Hall in Alexandria, VA.

BSA NCAC Service Project

:: Tags: Dylan, Friends, Photo, Project, Scouting

This year our family has become even more involved in Cub Scouts than previously would have expected. The recent shake up in leadership left the Pack without several key members due to the older Scouts and families moving on to Boy Scouts. With that, I found myself being talked into volunteering again… this time as the senior Webelos Den Leader. Since my son Dylan was a Webelo this year, it was nice to be able to lead his den and teach all the boys about the outdoors. Scouting at the Webelos level is a lot of fun and the adventures are more geared towards outdoors, camping, cooking and outdoor survival… all of my favorite things.

Being a Scout leader also requires you to gather the boys and encourage them to volunteer for service projects around the community. This year, with a Webelos Den of 13 boys, I had my hands full, but always found time to help out with Pack events. One of our service projects for the year was to help out at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC during the BSA NCAC National Mall Project. We had a great total pack turnout and at least half of my Webelos Scouts showed up to help with the Mall Project

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Nationals Home Game

:: Tags: Dylan, Evening Out, Friends, Fun, Photo, Sports

Now that my son Dylan is a little older I’ve been meaning to take him to a Nationals baseball game, but for one reason or another we just haven’t had the time. Yesterday my brother called me up out of the blue and said he had a friend who worked for a company that was a huge sponsor of the Nats and that she could hook us up with tickets for the next home game. It was a very last minute thing, but jumped at the opportunity… and everyone had a great time including Dylan who got to hang with the boys at the ballpark and chow down on a huge box full of Thrashers style boardwalk fries!

Bermuda – Fall 2018 Part-2

:: Tags: Beach, Bermuda, Dylan, Family, Fishing, Food, Photo

For our second week of two straight, we wanted to do more than just hang out on the beach and at the club, so we made plans to venture out a bit and set up a half day fishing charter. Dylan and I ended up catching most of the fish during our charter, but I think everyone had a good time. It’s hard not to enjoy yourself being on the water in Bermuda. And yes, we cooked and ate fresh local seafood that night! We also tried a little evening fishing from the docks at Tucker’s Point, but didn’t have as much luck as fishing from the boat. We rounded out the week with some golf and more beach and pool time. Use the link below to check out all the photos.

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Bermuda – Fall 2018

:: Tags: Beach, Bermuda, Dylan, Family, Photo, Travel

With Bermuda being one of our favorite vacation destinations, this fall we decided to spend two weeks in a row at our home away from home. We also invited my brother to join us for the first week. It turned out to be a beautiful week with perfect weather. Uncle Mike and Dylan had a great time bonding at the beach and pools and we all enjoyed dinner at the beach club. Here are some of the photos from our first week of this trip.

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July 4th Fireworks

:: Tags: Dylan, Holiday's, Photo

‘Dylan and Julie waiting for the DC fireworks show to start’ – Arlington, VA

Living just minutes from downtown Washington, DC has both it’s advantages and it’s disadvantages. One of the advantages of being so close to the city is having the ability to go to major events like the Capital July 4th Fireworks show which they put on at the mall every year. We’ve gone downtown to see the fireworks on several occasions, but the crowds really aren’t are thing, so most years we just opt to watch them on television.

Another option is to find a tall building in Arlington, just across the river from DC and watch them from the rooftop. This year, since the weather was so clear, we decided at the last minute to drive over to the Ballston Mall parking garage and see if we could see the show from the top parking deck. The fireworks were a long way off, but it was still a good show and it only took us 5 minutes to get home afterwards.

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Bermuda – Spring 2018 Part-2

:: Tags: Beach, Bermuda, Dylan, Golf, Panoramic, Photo

‘Aerial View of the Tucker’s Point Golf Villas & Residence Club’ – Bermuda, HS

We had such a fantastic time at Tucker’s Point this week! The weather was perfect, the food was great and the beaches and pools were clean and warm. I had a chance to take a lot more photos this week and decided to see how my iPhone camera did with some landscape, sunset and evening photography. I’ve posted several of the photos here for your enjoyment, but for all of the pictures from the second half of our spring trip, just use the link below.

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Bermuda 2017 Part-2

:: Tags: Beach, Bermuda, Dylan, Family, Golf, Photo


‘Dylan at the end of another great beach day’ – Tucker’s Point Beach Club, Bermuda

As promised, here is the second installment of photos from our most recent family getaway to Bermuda. I’ve been doing a lot of landscape photography lately and trying to capture some different styles of both the sunset and seascape theme. I’ve also been working on using shadows more in my images, but that doesn’t always work out well when taking random photos with a cellphone. It might be time for a cellphone upgrade. Click the link below to see all the photos from the trip.

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Bermuda 2017

:: Tags: Beach, Bermuda, Dylan, Family, Photo, Travel

‘The view overlooking Castle Harbor from TPC Golf Villas’ – Tucker’s Point, Bermuda, HS

This years annual family vacation to Bermuda turned out to be one of the great ones. First off, this year we opted to do our fall financial meetings on the island, so the entire family made the trip for the week. This was a real treat for Dylan because he doesn’t get to see his cousins who live in Toronto as much as he would like. Having them all together for the week was a really nice treat. There was good food, lots of beach and pool time and we even got to enjoy a good view of the major Solar Eclipse of 2017. Click on the link below to see the first batch of photos from the trip.

‘The family getting ready for the Solar Eclipse of 2017’ – Tucker’s Point, Bermuda, HS
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