Phoenix Zoo

We went to the Phoenix Zoo on Friday. Here are some of the better shots from the day. At some point this year, I'd like to get something worthy of entering into a competition.

Valentines Dinner

Yes, yes, I know. It's been a week and a half since Valentines Day, but my biggest artistic endeavor in recent weeks was making dinner for Heather. I enjoy cooking and baking on occasion...particularly special occasions. So, I made Chicken Piccata with steamed asparagus and for dessert, I decided to attempt a recipe for Olive Garden's Lemon Cream Cake (Heather's favorite). I think it came out very well and I will definitely make it again...since I am now addicted to lemon cream cake.

Oh, and I got new running shoes. They look pretty fast...we'll see.

Snow in the Desert

Here's what the Superstitions usually look like...

Here's what they looked like today. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get some pictures. It's freezing out here...at least for us thin blooded desert people!

Very Superstitious...

Dirt Road

On Saturday night, my dad and I went out south of Florence to try to shoot the Horsehead and Flame nebulae (whoa, the words shoot, horsehead, and flame all in one sentence). Anyway, some high clouds rolled through, so it wasn't a great night for astrophotography, but I did get an interesting exposure of a saguaro at about 9:30. I shot this with my 50mm prime lens at f/1.8 for 161 seconds.

Oh, and the best part of the night...we found the Dirt Road.

Daybreak at Mercy Gilbert

I stopped to shoot this picture of Mercy Gilbert Hospital yesterday on my way to work. It was just before sunrise so the sky was just starting to glow. Nothing spectacular about this picture but I thought the lighting and colors were kind of cool...and it's the coolest looking hospital I've ever seen.

Rausch Christmas Card

I got our Christmas card designed this weekend. I was really going for an "old-time" Christmas kind of look. I had a friend take some pictures of the family and used 2 of those pictures for the card. I filled the background layer with red and then overlayed the larger black and white photo, reducing the opacity to 40%. Then I imported the smaller photo and added a white border and a drop shadow. After that, it was just a matter of finding the right fonts. Merry Christmas!

Tim Tebow

Props to Tim Tebow...Heisman trophy winner and fellow Christian homeschooler! story