365 / 10: Yeast is Yeast (and Ywest is Ywest)

Doing a little homebrew tonight. Currently dissolving 11 pounds of honey into a pot full of water with which to make honey wine, otherwise know as mead, the beverage of choice for discerning vikings everywhere. My photo today is dedicated to yeast, those miracle plants without which the magic of fermentation could not take place!

Camera: Canon 7D
Lens: Canon EF 100mm 2.8 macro

Lisa On Location Photography

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365 / 9: Johnny Football!

I confess, this is not the photo I planned for today. But when the opportunity presents itself, who am I to say no? Truly, a thing of beauty!

Camera: Canon 7D
Lens: Tamron 28-75mm 2.8

Now Playing: Texas State vs. Louisiana Tech
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Friday Night Videos

Whatever happened to Urban Dance Squad? I utterly loved their hit "A Deeper Shade of Soul" back in the day. The video is simple, but they look like they're having a blast. And I really dig that Charlie Brown shirt. I need to get one of my own.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Jerry Harrison.

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365 / 8: Mission San Xavier

Well, anyone who knows my photographic interests realized as soon as I agreed to participate in this 365 Photo Challenge with Lisa that I'd be including some infrared images. I'm a huge fan of the otherworldly look of infrared when done right. I suppose the only surprise is how long it took me to get around to actually shooting some IR for this challenge--a full week! Today's effort is a false-color infrared image of the San Xavier Mission replica at Aquarena Center in San Marcos.

Camera: Canon Rebel XTi/400D 720nm infrared-modified
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm

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365 / 7: Honey Locust

Thought I'd go for a little change of pace today, with a simple, straightforward image: A corkscrew seed pod of a honey locust/thorny locust tree.

Camera: Canon 7D
Lens: Tamron 28-75mm 2.8

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Scuba IV

So, technically and officially, my scuba lessons are complete. That went by fast, or was it just me? My third lesson consisted of equipment checks and procedure discussion, but go cut short because we were unexpectedly locked out of the pool. We followed up the next day with an extended pool session, and covered a whole heck of a lot of ground, er... water.

After a quick review of skills learned last week, I was introduced to deep-water entry. Then we went through air share and other emergency procedures. I learned what it feels like when you run out of air (believe me, it's unmistakeable). I learned that it's possible to have a severe coughing fit with your regulator in place and come out no worse for the wear (that wasn't in the lesson plan--I just kinda winged it). Finally, we did rescue procedures. The last was a bit complicated--NAUI is one of the few scuba certification organizations that still includes this training, but I feel it's important information to know, if only to prevent a well-meaning diver from making a bad situation worse and endangering more lives.

And... that's it. By taking private lessons because of my hectic schedule, I've completed the entire pool training component in a two-week period. The learning curve is amazing. Even more amazing, I've successfully mastered all the skills--at least enough to satisfy the novice-level requirements. All that remains for me to earn my scuba certification is A) complete the online testing (which I'm in the process of working through now) and 2) complete my two-day open water certification dives. There's good news/bad news on that last front. The bad news first: The next scheduled open water certification dives are this weekend at Lake Travis, which I can't make because of preexisting schedule conflicts. The good news? There's a dive trip scheduled for Balmorhea State Park in early December that will count for my certification dives. Even though it's a bit of a drive, Balmorhea offers warmer, crystal clear waters that makes for a far better dive experience than Lake Travis or Canyon Lake. Score me!

Since that dive is several weeks weeks away, there's a concern that my newly-learned skills would atrophy in the interim, so we've set up one additional pool session to revisit all the things I've learned these past two weeks, and also to give me a chance to work on buoyancy control (which is one area I still haven't got a handle on 100 percent).

But still, wow. Almost there. Hard to imagine, but 20-plus years of delayed gratification is about to be resolved in my favor!

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365 / 6

Rumor has it, there was an election of some sort yesterday. Living in New Braunfels, one of the deepest crimson communities in the red state of Texas (81 percent of voters cast straight-ticket Republican ballots yesterday) the reaction to the election outcome has proven somewhat impassioned. I call this one, "Letters To The Editor, November 7, 2012."

Camera: Canon 7D
Lens: Tamron 28-75mm 2.8

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