Facebook unveiled their new design this morning… somehow I was able to see it last week even though nobody else could. Weird.

I like it… it will take a couple of days to get used to things again, but it is a lot cleaner overall.

If it’s not showing up right away for you, go to http://www.new.facebook.com to see the preview.

Thoughts?

I went down to Charleston Friday to put on a little photo workshop for the high school students at the Illinois Press Foundation/Eastern Illinois University High School Journalism Workshop.

I’ve helped out at the workshop for the past few years… this year I was pretty much in charge of the photo sessions. That was weird. I feel old enough around the kids… now I’m old enough to be in charge? Yikes.

After I got over the fact that I was at least ten years older than the students I had a pretty good time.

My first group had some pretty decent photos from their walk around campus. The one that wanted nothing to do with photography had some of the stronger images from the day.

Luckily I had some help from Jay, Eric, Robbie, Erin and Poulter.

Thanks to Jay for the photo of me working with Alex, one of my students from the first group.

My mom hates having her picture taken… so here’s a shot from a across the wetlands at the boardwalk on Lake Vermilion north of Danville.

Any time I come home for a visit we try to go there to look at birds and get a breath of fresh air.

Hope you have a good birthday, mom… although by the time you get online to look at this it will be close to your next birthday.

This shot of the moon is what you would see if you stood in my driveway for one-third of a second.

I’m going through my portfolio right now for a little presentation at the Illinois Press Foundation/ Eastern Illinois University high school journalism workshop down in Charleston that I’ve helped at for the past few years. Looking through my photos got me thinking.

It’s bizarre to think about how many hours I spent shooting the photographs for several years worth of assignments and editing down everything I shot that day to a few images that help show people what happened in front of my lens at that moment.

Add up the time spent getting the information to add to the cutline so the photos become more than just something to look at, but a way to record history…

Throw in countless nights narrowing hundreds of thousands into just a few frames in a portfolio for jobs or contests or presentations like the one I’ll be giving in about eight hours.

Thinking about all of that made me realize that I’ve spent days, weeks, maybe even months of my life on this portfolio… but according to the technical data in my photos my portfolio equals just about one-third of a second.

That blows my mind.

The kitchen is so close to being done.

Mal’s dad came over this weekend and put in the recessed lights… it’s amazing what a difference that makes. We still have to find a light that we like for above the sink (note the red flag hanging from the ceiling).

Mallory and I picked out all of the cabinet hardware (knobs for the doors, handles for the drawers), I just haven’t had time to measure, drill and put them in yet.

We still have to paint the wood around the glass in the windows white and put in the new white window trim. There are only a few little pieces of baseboard trim that I have to cut and paint before finishing.

There’s still a little bit of touch-up painting that needs to be done where the blue tape wasn’t on perfect and on the ceiling where I goofed up… but it’s a fully functioning kitchen.

It feels nice to be able to cook a meal without having to get water from bathroom or to wash dishes without using the hose out in the back yard…

See some shots of the “before” kitchen after the jump - More after the jump »

Some days I really wonder how I get a paycheck. That thought went through my head a few times today while I was flying over East-Central Illinois in a restored World War II Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber on an assignment for work.

The best part? Sitting in the nose turret and pretending to gun down local businesses.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a violent person… and I hate guns. But I think I might have to clarify that. I hate guns that I would have to carry and hold in my hand. Weapons mounted on a plane were kind of cool… especially very large automatic Browning 50-caliber machine guns.

One negative from the day — I lost my sunglasses during the flight. I’m pretty sure they got sucked off when my head was near an open vent in the radio room. Oh well… they were starting to hurt my ears anyway.

Flying is always fun… but getting paid to bring back childhood daydreams of being a fighter pilot is a pretty rough job.

Mal and I have noticed a lot of cats in the neighborhood since we moved in almost three weeks ago. We counted eleven roaming the neighborhood during a walk tonight. I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say that I have never seen this many cats wandering around outside.

I’m usually not one to give advice, mostly because I know no one cares what I think, but I would like to pass on one little bit of knowledge I’ve picked up recently.

Never buy your kids a sandbox. Don’t even let them play in one.

I’ve watched a good majority of the neighborhood cats use our neighbor kid’s sandbox as their communal toilet. I know how much cat crap Max produces in our litter box. I can only imagine the sand-to-feces ratio in that big, plastic turtle.

Anyway… here’s a picture of one of the neighborhood felines. It was just watching me from underneath Mal’s car when I came home from work last night.

Our view of the Monticello fireworks was a little less than stellar. I was pumped about shooting some fireworks. I had my tripod, fresh battery in my camera, cable release… the only thing missing was a view near the park where they were being launched.

I definitely didn’t plan for that many people in the area… or else we would have left much, much earlier. Oh well… I guess now we know for next year.

As mopey and frustrated as I was that night, it probably turned out to be better that we weren’t closer since some shells went off in the crowd.

From the News-Gazette article online:

Witnesses said the accident occurred roughly halfway through the fireworks display, and that two different shells strayed into the crowd.

William Mehnert told a reporter at the scene that he saw a shell fall toward the crowd and explode about 8 feet above the ground, but could not tell if anyone was injured from that burst.

Kristie Lovitt said she was sitting at the edge of a pond or small lake when she saw a shell rise over the water, fall behind her in the crowd, and hit the ground before exploding. Steve Towner of Monticello said he saw that shell explode and watched as a female fell to the ground, clutching her ears.

I face a lot of crazy stuff with my job… (tornadoes, fire, crime, baseball players, etc.) but I have a habit of going into mild shock when there are explosions/ gunpowder involved. If you know me very well you know why.

I guess I can live with the three streetlights, one pair of parking lot lights, SUV, minivan and motor home in my fireworks photo if it means staying safe…

Danny and Steph came up to Monticello Thursday night to see the new house and watch some fireworks. Danny and I picked up a few boxes of sparklers at the grocery store during a beer run. When you combine two photographers and their wives, some beer and sparklers it makes for a fun night of long exposure portraits…

More after the jump »

I love my sunroof… I don’t think Mal has ever used hers. I have mine open as much as possible… sometimes I love the fact that I drive so much. (More than 3600 miles this month even with a week of sitting in the airport parking lot)

Anybody else have one, but not use it? (I’m still talking about sunroofs)