Where the Heck is Christopher?

The Fall Ball is a contra dance held annually at the Town House in Peterborough, New Hampshire. It runs 12 hours, from noon to midnight, with four bands and callers in turn. The hall is huge, and has a wonderful balcony. It’s a real pleasure to dance in, and the dancers are incredibly good.

I’d never been, before yesterday. The experience was wonderful, and I would go back in a heartbeat.

The balcony allows a large number of people to sit out, watch, and socialize. There are diners and cafes around, and it feels more like a festival. In contrast, the Dawn Dance is almost a religious experience.

For those so interested, I’ve posted a gallery of the best photos from Fall Ball 07.

Last week, we had a grand plan to hike up into the white mountains for three days over the weekend. The weather, always fickle, seemed to give us space to hike Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

Rain and snow showers were predicted with a mild probability, and we decided to go anyway.

It was absolutely spectacular. I took over 400 pictures.

As we started to approach the peak, other hikers said the trail was extremely slick near the top. It was very warm, in the mid 50s, and where we were, everything was soaking, dripping wet. After a while, we discovered that the wetness was melting ice, ice that covered the tops of the trees in a thick layer.

In the mountains, freezing temperatures mean freezing fog.

When we reached the top, the wind was stunningly cold. We took a group photo of us in t-shirts, and turned around. If we had continued, we would have had a 3-hour hike along a completely exposed ridge. If that ridge iced over the following day, we would probably not have been able to hike out on Monday.

I uploaded several of the best photos from that hike to a separate gallery page.

OK, so I finally purchased an entry-level dSLR after a considerable amount of research and eBay sniping. So far, it’s wonderful. I finally get to take pictures that are pretty! No more sun burns! Things I like about this camera a whole lot; fast shutter release, excellent low-light performance, fast power on, small charger, manual zoom lense, independent AE/AF locks, fast autofocus, fast continuous shooting, standard USB-mini connector, excellent battery life, and let’s not forget low cost!

My brothers, practicing floorwork after a hard crossfit workout. Brothers will be brothers!

I finally get to play with proper depth of field! I haven’t been able to really work DoF since I stopped using my DSC-F717 a couple years ago. This is extremely awesome!

Finally, three pictures from home and about;