The hair was a whippin'

As stated in a previous post, I attended a concert a couple of weeks ago.  Queensryche.  One of me and my wife's favorite bands of the 90's.  We've seen them many times before, but this time was different.  They have a new lead singer in the band and I wanted to check them out to see if they can still rock.  And the answer is....yes, they still can.  The other thing that drew me there, from past experiences at this venue(an outdoor summertime festival) is that you can get real close to the performers without too much problem and I can bring my full size camera in.  Alot of venues restrict you to a cell phone.  It was worth it.  Besides great music and meeting alot of people with the same musical interests, I got, what I consider, to be really great shots.....and lots of them.  So, instead of posting many times, I put them together in a little video and added one of their songs from the 90's.  Unfortunately, the wonderful web really does a number on compressing the bytes so when viewed full size it doesn't show how good the shots turned out, but you can still get an idea of the vantage point I had.  Enjoy!

What's better than....

The old adage goes,"A bad day fishing is still better than a good day of work.  What's better yet is when you're fishing with your grandpa.

Anatomy of a daredevil

As mentioned in previous posts this is vacation week in the Evilbear household.  All of us on vacation.  No work, no camps, no whatever.  We try to plan out most of the week with "family" type activities.  One of the days is usually spent at a local park district water park.  This year was no exception.  And we have been blessed to plan this day each year with what turns out to be one of the hottest days of the summer.  Thursday was our day this year to do the water park thing.  Each of the kids gets to bring a friend.(That gets mommy and daddy off the hook of going on these crazy slides and things.)  The friend Derek brought this year had been here before and he wasn't shy about telling us the things he's done there in the past.  Of course, I egg this on by right away asking if he was ever brave enough to go on the Double Dare Drop.  This is a crazy slide that my 13 year old daughter went on once last year, only once, and would not do it again this year.

Nick said he had been on it before and would do it again.  Well, guess what the first stop was on this fun day?  If you said "Double Dare Drop" you win.  The images that follow should give you a good idea of what he was feeling.  He, also, did not want to do it again the rest of the day.  Too funny!!

He's a good kid.  I hope he comes again next year, but I don't know.

Stormy Night

After the heat bath we've been in for the last week, it was nice to get a little relief with some stormy weather.  They passed through quickly, but left behind some rainfall and some pretty wild looking skies.  Of course, once I saw storms coming through, I grabbed the dog and my camera and we went sightseeing.  Here's a shot of a house that I'm sure looks perfectly inviting during sunny weather.  Tonight, not so much.  The second shot of the cornfield looked a bit more inviting.....in a Stephen King sort of way.

Where Eagles Dare

Just got back from a fantabulous trip to the Northwoods of Wisconsin for some rest and relaxation with the whole family..  No hard work of camping this time.  Just plain ole "bring the bags into mom and dad's house tell them what you want for dinner". Yeah, right, it doesn't work that way.  But, we had a really nice time just relaxing, fishing, swimming, and enjoying the heat wave that is engulfing the midwest.  I got the usual shots of kids and family, but the real stunners were some of the wildlife shots I got.  To make it even better, the shots of the eagle to follow were when all of us were coming back from a nice dinner in a northern "resort" restaurant.  My son and daughter got to see this magnificent creature closer than I ever did in my youth, and I grew up among the giant carnivorous birds.  It was really quite a sight.  The others are of an early morning drive I took one day.  Of course, there were the ones that got away.  While my son and I were heading out for a day of fishing, there was a bear along side of the road.  We doubled back to get some shots, but he was gone.  The other shot that I really regret not getting were of two fawn deer, spots and all, feeding in a fog covered meadow.  I saw them as I was barreling down a county highway and I slammed on the brakes.  Did the reverse thing for about a quarter mile and they were still there when I stopped.  But, as soon as they heard my car door opening, all I saw was tails bounding in the other direction.  Those shots will be for next trip, I'm sure.

Back to the 80's

Music is a big part of me as far as entertainment goes.  Pretty much all genres.  Some people say thats because I'm moody.  Makes sense.  Different genres for different moods. Many of my best memories are my years of going to outdoor concerts in the summertime.  And most of those were in the 80's and 90's.  And you know what that means................HAIR BANDS!   Yeah, I saw plenty of hair bands.  The dicitionary defines a hair band as "The word to describe a band that plays a genere of music commonly known as 'hair metal'. the music was well known in the 80's, and characterized by: all of the band members having extremely long hair, usually high pitched male vocals, and heavy, piercing, distorted guitars."  So, tonight I went back to the 80's and saw a couple of bands that were in the area- Great White and Queensryche.  And you know what? It was a great time.  Went by myself (wife copped out a couple days before the show), met some others that were there for the same reasons as me, and I threw my hair around with the best of them(those who know me and my hairline will be laughing at that statement).  I can't hear anymore, but that was going to happen eventually anyway.  Now, life is just more peaceful......sooner than later.  I took alot of shots tonight, some with my phone, but most with my camera.  I wanted to post several of them, but, unfortunately, at this late hour, I can't seem to where I downloaded the camera pics to on my computer.  I do know where my phone shots are on my computer so that will do for tonight.  I gotta say, my phone took some good shots as you can see by this one of some of the Queensryche members.

Duster

One of the highlights of growing up in the farming land of Wisconsin was the sound of the local crop duster flying over the house at 7 am. dusting the fields with its magic potions to help the farmers grow a healthy crop of whatever.  I swear, sometimes, you thought that plane was coming right through your bedroom.  As a kid, you immediately jumped up and ran outside hoping to witness the pilot's aerial gymnastics.  Some of those guys were true daredevils.  The really good ones would go under the telephone wires and between the telephone poles before pulling up to circle around again.  If I'm not mistaken, that's illegal to do these days.  While up north a couple of weeks ago, I was awoken to the sound of a cropdusters loud engine flying overhead.  I, maybe out of latent habit, jumped out of bed, grabbed my camera gear, rousted my son, jumped into the car and started driving around to find out which field he was headed to next.  Sure enough, a little farther away than I anticipated, but still only a few miles away, we found where he was performing his next show.  I started snapping away and I truly believe when these pilots see an audience they start putting on a show.  He made sure he was safe, but he added a few thrills like coming straight at us, at a low altitude, which made me drop my camera down from my eye once or twice.  Once I was comfortable that he had it under control, I was able to catch some decent shots.

Double Fun

In almost 50 years and uncountable days at the beach, I can't say that I've ever swam under a double rainbow.  My kids can, though.

Soak up the sun

Spent 4 wonderful days up in my home country of Wisconsin  a few weeks back.  One of the favorite places for my kids to explore is the Eau Claire Dells. After several days of camping we headed back to my folks house for hot showers and an actual sitdown dinner.  But, before all that we took a jaunt to the dells.  Perfect place for climbing rocks, river swimming, and catching some rays.
One shot is my daughter soaking up the sun, and the other is my two plus a friend allowing me to grab one nice panoramic portrait.