No more Flickr

I have deleted all the photos I had on Flickr. It wasn't very many, but I don't want to do business with them anymore. I was listening to Kim Komando show this weekend and she talked about how Flickr is not a very trusted site. I know I can't keep my photos completely safe, but seeing as how it seems people troll that site for photos to steal, I'd rather not have any of mine there.

I will continue to watermark my photos as well as post a photo a day on my other blog(when I am available to do so), and eventually add them to my private website. Not interested in hosting them somewhere else for now.

Guess I'm a dummy!

At the library today. Checked out "Digital Photography for Dummies". Huge, thick book. I'm about halfway through it. Learning alot. I suppose I could just point and shoot all the time, but I'd like to be able to control how the shots look at times-when I have time to think about it. Still get so confused over all the f-stops and shutter speeds and ISOs and what the numbers mean. And I've been taking photos for over 20 years. Sigh. I guess I've been mostly lucky up to this point. I hope this book will help me take much better photos. Still adding a photo a day at my other blog. It's fun looking back through photos to find something that matches the theme. Have not had the chance to go out and take a photo that applies-only using old ones. And I have quite a few to choose from. Used one from 1989 yesterday! Fun times. :)

Playing too much Warcraft

Just in case anyone is wondering. I got sort of hooked on getting something done and lost track of time. Sigh.

Father's Day weekend

Did not get much done these past 3 days. Well, depends on what you mean "done". These are some of the things we did in the last 3 days: signed up for library summer reading; research on some Blount County cemeteries; about 10 Rutherford County cemetery pages done for website, not uploaded yet; car tires rotated; more photos developed(more hockey photos); buy Father's Day gifts; watch "Blazing Saddles"; watch Tiger come from behind on last hole to tie up US Open; watch "When We Left Earth" on Discovery Channel; and lots and lots of World of Warcraft!

That about sums it up. More work to be done on cemetery section of website coming today.

Graveyards in the Smokies

Quite some time ago I really wanted to be able to visit and photograph all of the graveyards and cemeteries in the Smoky Mountains. After spending my honeymoon hiking six miles to one-and then not being able to walk for a couple of days-I realized that I won't get to most of them. But I cannot resist the ones that are more accessible. With our visit to the Smokies a couple weeks ago, I was able to add one to the "visited" list.

Cades Cove is an area in the western part of the park, located in Blount County and one of the more popular places for people to visit. The one-way loop road attracts thousands of cars a day in the hopes of seeing bear in their natural habitat(see post a few days down). There are three church cemeteries, easily visited and well marked. There is the Cable Cemetery, located near the visitor center at the far western end of the loop road. The Lawson Cemetery is not far from the Dan Lawson home, but it is in the woods and up a hill and not often visited. I finally was able to visit one that I had not previously, the LeQuire Cemetery. It is not far from the end of the loop, in a field near a pullout. There had been a fence up(as there is around most of the inner edge of the loop), but on this visit a section of fence was gone and a large path was cut into the high grass of the field leading out to the small graveyard. Finally I was able to visit when so many times I had just looked longingly as we passed by. To my dismay, there are absolutely no marked graves here, just a few simple fieldstones. But at least I know now and have photographed it(below).

We also took a trip through the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, a smaller version of Cades Cove just outside the town of Gatlinburg. It is darker and hillier though. Many of the trails start from this area, as was evidenced by the many parked cars at each of the trailheads along the way. Parking at the back end of the Baskins Creek Trail and walking about 50 yards along the trail leads to the Bales Cemetery. I've been there previously, but had not taken as many photos. This time the gate was open and I ventured inside to get many more photos, including the "one little headstone" photo below.

A final cemetery we visited was not in the park, but certainly in the shadow of the mountains there. It was the Huff Cemetery, in far eastern Sevier County, almost into Cocke County. We went in search of this cemetery to look for Revolutionary War Soldier Joseph Large. Luckily the graveyard was easy to find next to the road, and well kept. Aside from some obvious signs of vandalism, this was a very nice little cemetery. Strange how my camera battery died JUST as I photographed the marker for the found soldier. I took it as a sign, just to say "hey thanks for looking for me". But then I'm weird like that.

Finally got the photos back!

Yeah, so Kroger was a day late with them-I will be going to Walmart and using the one hour service from now on. Can't handle waiting a week!

So what were the photos?
Roll one...Battle of Franklin/Nashville reenactment, October 2004

Roll two...kiddo playing softball, IRL race July 2005

Roll three...hockey, Predators vs Columbus Blue Jackets, ?2002 or so

Roll four...lots of pix of kiddo, Memorial Day at Henry Horton State Park, 2002

So nothing spectacular, but some good memories!

Just too hot

We went out looking for something to take photos of yesterday. We tried to find a long hidden cemetery, but were just not looking in the right place-very close, but just a bit off(I can see it in the aerial photos, but the area from the ground looks a bit different now). Then we headed in a round about way to Cannonsburgh Village in Murfreesboro. Would like to have stopped at a few graveyards along the way, but we were in sort of a rush I guess. At Cannonsburgh there was a wedding taking place, and I felt a bit odd walking about taking photos. Did take a few, but it just got so darn hot that we left and then went home. We should have left earlier in the morning. Oh well. Anxious to put my camera to really good use and don't want to drive around alone now.

I've also been really bored lately. Not "bored I need something to do" but "bored and I have loads to do but I don't feel like doing anything at all". Sorry. I'm trying.

No actually I'm not trying anymore. I am not allowed to voice my opinion anywhere, when I do I am chastised. I should just shut my f'n mouth and crawl in a hole.

Brad Paisley

Before I stop posting about random stuff here, I just wanted to take the time to say HOW MUCH I LOVE BRAD PAISLEY!! I cannot listen to his CDs enough, they are simply the best music I've ever heard. I love him!!

Started a new blog

Need to separate ideas. So I have started another blog with Blogger here. This one was turning into a "photo of the day" when I really wanted it to be just about Rutherford County, Tennessee as well as the cemeteries I come across when I go graving. It also became a venting place. I don't want that. So here is where I will post things now...

This blog will be all about cemeteries and historical places in my county.

Scouts Pix is a "photo of the day" blog. I started it today.

My World of Warcraft blog is where I talk about how much I hate the game but can't stop playing it every single day. >.<

My Myspace page, isn't updated often, but it is where I am going to go to vent. I feel more comfortable screaming at idiots there for some reason. And if the Dems win the White House, there will be LOTS of complaining from me.

I also post in the Find A Grave forums, though not often and I am virtually invisible there.

So starting today, less talking here, more photos everywhere!

It will be like Christmas!

In cleaning up a few months ago and going through loads of boxes and throwing things out I found a small treasure. Sad but true, I found a bag FULL of used rolls of 35mm film. There are at least 20 rolls if not more, I have not counted. I've been meaning to take them in and have them developed, but well I am Queen Procrastinator and basically forgot about them. Last night I dragged them out and I will take in about 4 or 5 a week to the Kroger for developing. I can't wait to see what is on these rolls!! I'm hoping for things like Cape Hatteras and more places back in Texas. Who knows! There may also be loads of old hockey photos. I can't wait to find out!

One little headstone

I liked how this photo came out of this one little headstone in a small cemetery in the Smoky Mountains. I have a list of who is buried there, but I have not looked up to see who this is yet. I just like how the photo came out.

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Universal Studios

Sad to hear about some of the sets of Universal Studios going up in flames yesterday. I've been there several times, it is such a cool place. We go nearly every time we visit California. So I was inspired to scan some of my old photos and add them to the website in the California travel section.
http://www.kimshockey.com/travel/ca/universal.html

I know it's only movie sets, but once you experience something and photograph it, it hurts a bit when you find out it has been destroyed.

We aggroed bears!!

So we went to the Smokies. And THEN we made the mistake of going to Cades Cove on a nice Saturday morning(well, we didn't get there until about 11am). We were almost all the way around, had only seen a couple of deer, lots of butterflies and about a billion nasty cicadas when it happened. Lots of red lights up ahead, vehicles are stopped, flashes can be seen going off in the woods. We were about 7 or 8 cars back and I hopped out with my camera to see what the fuss was all about. As I got there a nice old man pointed out that there were 2 bears, about 20 yards back, laying down in the woods. I got a higher vantage point and with my zoom lens in the darkness of the forest, I was going to be happy to come away with a photo like this one:

So I snapped a few shots and was about to head back to the car. They had made it up to where I was and my mom and kiddo had gotten out wanting to see it for themselves. As I turned to go back I heard "HERE HE COMES!" and turned to snap this shot:

UH OH! I thought! GET IN THE CAR! NOW! In my haste I kept turning to try to get closer shots, but they mostly ended up like this one...focusing WONDERFULLY on the branches and bushes between the bear and I:

We got in the car and what does Mr Bear do? Finds himself a good tree beside the road and gets to really itching a spot on his side. We were laughing up a storm, so excited at what we were seeing! The truck you see was parked right in front of us, we were so close to the bear!


Then I realized the other bear was headed our way too and I rolled down the window. In all this time I had been panicking and freaking and was so excited, I was getting ticked because the camera wouldn't focus and was taking forever to recharge the flash. It finally HIT ME to turn OFF the flash and use the MANUAL focus! Doh! About that time I nabbed this shot of the other bear very near our car:

We said our goodbyes and thank yous to the bears as he watched us drive away...

Of all the trips I've made to the Smokies and Cades Cove, and I've seen quite a few bears, this was the closest and by far the most memorable! It was incredible!

I have much more to say about the trip, but we just got home and I wanted to get this up ASAP!