Dumb Luck

So the story goes like this:
Sunday February 1st was Jessica's christening. After the ceremony, we had lunch with the whole family at a local restaurant. We hired a photographer for the ceremony, but not for the lunch, so I took my camera. After lunch, we hauled everything out to the truck. (stroller, baby bag, blankets, gifts etc.) Somehow, my camera bag never made it back into the truck. I realized my error as soon as we got home, but by the time I got back, it was gone. Sunday night and Monday morning, I was inconsolable. The following morning, Diane's mother gets a phone call. A second cousin of Diane's was also at the same restaurant, and happened to park right next us, and left only few short minutes after we did. When they came out to their car, my camera bag would have been on the ground nearby. When they packed the car, they packed my camera as well, and didn't realize it until they got home later that night.

Talk about dumb luck.

If you are here, have you checked out my deviant art site lately? The main point of it is really to show off my panos and network with other artists and photographers.

http://immauss.deviantart.com/

Return to Blogging.

OK. I'm back. I really need to keep better track of this. With my college classes in the fall, and then the holidays and post holidays were such a busy time, I kind of slacked off quite a bit here.  Yesterday was Jessica's Christening. What a day. The christening went well. Narciso was there to take pictures for us, so we should have some beautiful pictures. After the ceremony, we had lunch at restaurant in Somma.  Villa Smeraldo. When we left, somehow I managed to leave my camera bag in the parking lot. When we got home, I realized it what I had done, and rushed back. When I got there, it was gone. Needless to say, I was crushed. This morning, Diane called me at work to let me know that somehow, someone found it. Will miracles never cease.  I'll try to get some of the pictures from my camera tonight and get them up to flickr soon.

IT'S OVER !!!!

Finally, I finished my classes. I took the history final yesterday morning. I don't think I did tooo bad. I'm pretty sure I passed anyway. Now I can finally start to get some life back. I hope.We are leaving Saturday morning to visit the states for a few weeks. So the next few days will be packing and getting ready. Additionally, I'm delivering all of the prints I sold at the international bazaar. I did pretty well this year. You can see our booth here:

Aaaahhhhhh School is killing me.....

OK, maybe not literally, but it sure has eaten up most of my time for the last few months. I took a Psych class with UMUC and it was 4 nights a week from 4:30 to 5:45. That class ended last week. Now all I have to do is finish the History class I'm taking on line and I'm ONE CLEP test away from my Associates degree!! Yippie!!! (Oh did you know the Yippies were a radical anti war/political party/activist group that started in 1968? I'm writing a paper on them for History.)

Anyway, there are loads of pictures that I have't even had time to look at myself. I've been spending a little of my time lately with my new online store for photos and the journal their.  So check out http://www.immauss.com/ Also, John K.  and I setup at the International Bazaar again this year, and I sold around 15 prints at the shop and took orders for almost 30 more! (I feel like a pro :D)

Massa Lubrensa

For Labor Day weekend, we took a short trip out to Massa Lubrensa on the Sorentine penninsula and stayed at the Hotel Delfino. It was incredible, relaxing and beautiful. I went out and took loads of pictures of the area, and Diane took loads of pictures of Jessica. The Panoramas will come when I get a chance to process them. (No telling when that will be.)
See the Whole set here

An update, finally.

She's almost 3 months old now, and growing like crazy. At last check, the day of her shots, she was 5.55 kg and and 60cm long. That's 12lbs 4oz and 23 1/2 inches.

Click here to see the whole set.

Pompei Piazza

Yesterday, I got up at 4 am to go to Pompei and get some pictures before sunrise. As you can see from my photo stream, this is not the first time I've done this. The one thing I have found it impossible to avoid at this time of day is the town crazy guy. It seems like every town around here has at least one. Pompei is no exception. When I first entered the Piazza, his bicycle was upside down on one end of the piazza, and he was walking around yelling at the the trees, the dogs, and the street cleaners. He seemed to not notice me at first. However, as soon as I started to setup for my picture, he comes over to say hello. Well, he kind of yelled it. I assume that was his intent, because his Neopolitan accent was so thick, I couldn't understand a single word he said. If you don't speak Italian, you have no idea the difference between Italian and Neopolitan. If you have ever heard a comedian or actor in a silly movie try to speak cajun, or pigeon, its kind of like that. It sounds kind of like Italian, but not really. Anyway, I politely tried to tell him in Italian, that I didn't speak Italian well, and to please excuse me. At this point, he had taken the front wheel off of his upside down bicycle and had been rolling it around the piazza. He yelled a little more and went back to rolling his wheel around. I coninued to setup for my picture as he walked on. At one point, he rolled his wheel across the entire piazza and it ran in to a small barrier at the front of the church. He then yelled something I can only assume was "GOAL !!". I didn't see him for a while after that, which was good for me as I managed to take most of my panorama pictures without him in them. (He did show up in one though.) As I was breaking down my rig and getting ready to leave, he came by again, with the wheel in his hand. He didn't look any different, (crazier or less crazy) than he did the first time he came up, but this time when he got close enough, he swung the wheel at me. I instinctly turned and took the wheel across the chest to protect my camera. The wheel also struck my tripod and knocked it over. He didn't really swing it hard, because it didn't hurt at all. However, he knocked over my tripod. I weighed my options on taking a swing at him, but in the end decided it was probably safer, and less expensive should something break, to just yell at him. I told him in plain Italian to "GO!". I picked up his wheel, which he had dropped after hitting me and my tripod, and threw it across the piazza, and yelled "GO!" again. After a bit of yelling, he finally walked away still ranting at the dogs, trees, and street cleaners, except now I could understand one word he was using in his rants. Photographer.


The things I go through for a good picture.

I just noticed that this is my 100th Post. WOOT!

More Pics

OK, I've been getting nasty grams from Grandma. Here's some new pictures. I had to work out some technical difficulties with the computer at home. Hopefully, we willget more regular updates now.

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Its August 8th 2008 at 8:08 AM

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