A sudden a-ha! Planet Da Da

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I would be somewhere between impressed and astonished if you could tell me what song’s lyrics inspired the title of this post. That’s without using a search engine, of course!

The sudden “a-ha!” came last night when I walked past a distribution box for the Dakota Beacon magazine and noticed that my favorite father & son moment was portrayed on the cover. This photo was taken one evening when little PJ and I parked ourselves on the hill behind the University of Mary and watched the sunset unfold. I had set up the camera behind us with a timer, and was able to catch a few shots of this quality time with my boy.

Helpful guys have given me advice on fatherhood since long before I actually became a dad. I’ve filed it all upstairs, and so far I haven’t had any bad advice. All the corny things that guys have told me about “once they’re born, you’re never the same” or “they’ll change you…they’re a ton of work, but they’re worth every bit of it” have been absolutely true. Advice like this came from clients, casual acquaintances, close friends, and family. Apparently the guys I know take fatherhood seriously enough that they only dispense the best of their knowledge to a father-to-be. I’m forever grateful for their help.

The one piece of advice that touched me the most came from the Beacon’s publisher, Steve Cates. He lost a son in a car crash a while back and told me that there isn’t anything he wouldn’t give to have more time with his son. He told me to cherish every moment with my boy (I only had one at that time) and always make time for him. That really left an impression with me, and I’ve done my best to make sure that I don’t deprive my boys of time with Daddy. It’s so easy for a guy like me to work my tail off on something that “needs to get done” and let time sneak past. Thanks to Steve’s guidance, I’m on guard for that sort of thing.

So far this morning I’ve been back and forth between my two boys. I got to cuddle with Jonathan this morning while his big brother was still asleep, and then after I fed PJ his scrambled eggs I wrestled him over to the couch to watch a few minutes of cartoons. Then I showed him my aquarium screen saver and gave him my big keyring to play with, and he scampered off to explore the house with mommy. Now I’m calming down a fussy two-month-old Jonathan, and just got him relaxed in the crib. Yeah…it IS hard work, but the most rewarding job a guy could have.

PJ’s only one year old and already has his first magazine cover! I’ll have to make sure to give it to his mommy to put in his scrapbook. Cover photo or not, I’m just joyful to have a father-son moment like that eternally preserved in one of my favorite photos ever.

Pioneer owl

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It’s amazing what one might see when one looks up now and then. That’s especially true of walking through Pioneer Park at dusk. That’s when I spotted this owl…exposed once for the sky, once for the blast from my Speedlite flash. He didn’t seem too inconvenienced, waiting several minutes before taking flight. That gave me plenty of opportunity to decide whether I wanted to photograph his silhouette or illuminate him with the flash. I chose both.

Scheels Sports sticks to their guns…or lack thereof

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Don’t let the title of this post fool you; I’m not actually mad at Scheels. I am a little inconvenienced, though. They’re the local dealer for Panther Arms, the manufacturer of the rifle I want to buy. I looked on the website, picked out a particular model, then marched down to Scheels to put in my order. Denied.

Scheels has long had a policy against “assault weapons” including AR-15 variants, but has since softened a little. Nevertheless, they’re only willing to stock or sell certain DPMS models…and the one that I’ve got in mind has a collapsible stock. Not gonna happen, at least not at Scheels.

They’ve got every right to sell or not sell whatever they want, so I’m not upset about it. Just the opposite, actually; I’m happy to see that someone has a set of principles and is willing to stand up for them, even if it costs them a lot of money. In the mean time, I’ve just got to find another dealer. Scheels just lost a pretty expensive sale, though! Even though I’m not mad I’ll probably buy the optics for this weapon elsewhere, then declare the matter settled.

Near miss…not

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I was actually pretty surprised that this shot held up. I was in the driver’s seat of my truck with my 300mm image-stabilized Canon lens when I noticed this, so I pointed the barrel upwards and went for it. No, I was NOT driving! I was scoping out some nature with the trusty camera.

The ubiquitous leaf

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In the 90’s, the “swoosh” was the most notable logo design cliche’… not that I pretend to know anything about design, other than what I see. I’m a simple caveman when it comes to graphic design…but some things even a caveman can see. Where every logo coming out of the late 90’s and early 00’s had to have a swoosh or other curve conveying motion or speed, now it seems the leaf is trendy. At least, that’s the case in Bismarck.

You may recall my post from last March comparing the new Kirkwood Bank & Trust logo to the already established Lending Tree logo. If I was an executive at Kirkwood, I’d be a little ticked. Corporate identity is not cheap. They probably paid tens of thousands of dollars for that little piece of foliage. Besides, what does Kirkwood Bank have to do with trees?

Now we see this: two adjacent signs, each sporting leaves. Granted, with a name like Aspen, a leaf is a no-brainer. When placed next to the Kirkwood logo, though, it reminds me of that funny similarity between Kirkwood and Lending Tree.

My annoying watermark obscures it, but ironically I noticed later that there’s a THIRD leaf logo hiding in this shot: the Country Suites hotel sign in the background also sports foliage! TRIFECTA.

Have you seen any other local businesses with leaves in their logos?

An angle you might not get from the local news

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I’m actually not referring to the combover photo, but I guess the local media stays well clear of that too, in order to preserve their access to the Senator.

I saw this article yesterday talking about how Kildeer Mountain Manufacturing (“Manufactuing” according to KX News) is looking forward to “sharing the award” of a big defense contract with U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan.

According to this press release, KMM’s “director of business development” is one Kristin Hedger, who tried a horribly misleading campaign against Secretary of State Al Jaeger last election cycle.

According to this post on the official ND Dem-NPL blog, Kristin Hedger offered as proof of her ND citizenship: “a letter from the North Dakota Tax Department and also the form that shows she lists North Dakota for tax withholding during her time working in Senator Byron Dorgan’s office, starting in May 2001.”

Is there something the Hedger family and Dorgan should be disclosing?

That local landmark to which I referred over the weekend

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It may not be well known to Bismarck-Mandan folks, but I’m sure anyone from Almont and much of New Salem know about the old Occident Elevator. I previously featured this elevator in my “Occident by Accident” post, after I stumbled upon it while out snooping in the truck. I love those full day photo excursions, and I hope to take another one soon!

The location of this elevator, for those of you with a GPS, is 46°50.429″ minutes North by 101°30.460″ West. Here are some other photos from the morning, featuring one of the reddest skies I’ve seen.

Here we can see the transition from the red horizon to the bluish sky above. The colors of these sunrises and sunsets can fall off pretty quickly, depending on the sun’s position relative to the horizon.

Not only was it red, the clouds were pretty dramatic as well. The best sunrise in the world is one where the clouds are doing all kinds of exciting things. This morning was exceptional.

Wow. As amazing as these clouds and colors are, somehow they lack impact without a noteworthy foreground object. The elevator pulls it off nicely.

I hadn’t planned on going out for pictures this particular morning, but I’m glad I did. I got to the location at exactly the right time, neither too early or too late. Once it was over, I pointed the truck back to the house to play with my boys. What a remarkable morning!

Amarillo – no, wait – New Salem by Morning

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Before things clouded up this morning, there was a fantastic sunrise. I’ve photographed most local landmarks over and over and over, so I figured I’d get outta town a little bit.

Little baby Jonathan was up and down all night; therefore, so were his mommy and daddy. I’d just finished a shift with him and gone to bed at around 5:30, sleeping until 7:00. Stacy was feeding Jonathan, PJ was sacked out, so I hopped in the truck for a little bit. I found myself west of town a little ways, and I wasn’t disappointed. The sky grew pink as I bolted toward a familiar landmark, one which I’ll post later this week. I stopped to take a panoramic photo of New Salem along the way. Sorry, no cow. There’s more to this sleepy little town than a big hunk of fiberglass named Sue.

Yawn…National Geographic does a stereotypical hit piece on North Dakota

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When I picked up my photography habit, I also subscribed to National Geographic. I love the pictures and thought I could get some inspiration from the pages of the familiar magazine, but sadly it was drowned out by a few recurring themes: secular humanism, the rampant destruction wreaked by the colonizing White Man, the worship of the planet, and tireless devotion to Global Warming. Whee. The first time my subscription came up for renewal, I let it lapse.

Now they’ve picked up another in an endless stream of cliches: the desolate prairie states. You can read this tripe by clicking here. It’s got the usual ingredients: we’re all but driven mad by the incessant wind; people here have always committed suicide because it’s so bleak; and we’re trying to change the name to Dakota to shake the state’s image.

While I have probably taken far more “fallen farm” photos than these jokers have, I’ve never done it to fit an agenda. I’m pretty sure they came out here simply to portray North Dakota the way they see it, and quite frankly I believe they’re wrong. Heck, they couldn’t even remember Minot in their list of cities…how much attention could they have paid to writing an objective piece?

I won’t even go into a lengthy rant about their attempted hit job on our state. No, I think Julie Neidlinger has done a far better job than anyone else could. I encourage you to read her take on the matter. In my opinion, she carries a lot more weight as a writer than any National Geographic hack ever could.