Must … get … carbon … frame ….

My friend Marla sent me this video last night. Does the fact that I watched it four times in a row make me a cycling dork?

Yup.

“You must have great software”

I realize I run the risk of being labeled the magician who gave away her secrets, but this is so amazing that I can’t not blog about it. (Sorry Mrs. Tennis. That double negative just slipped out.) My dad’s been using a program called Photomatix for a while and has been able to create some amazing pictures using it. I never fully realized just how magical this program was until I tried it on two images I took in Banff.

Now before you get all critical of my photography I purposely “underexposed” the pictures to preserve the sky, figuring it was easier to pull details out of dark than light. And boy was I right. Look what this little program can do:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

(Apologies for the watermark in the “after” pictures. I haven’t bought the program yet and this is the author’s trial version concession.) The clouds aren’t quite right, but I’m sure they’ll get better with a bit more practice.

Somebody’s three!

Nick and Ronan spent some quality time playing yesterday afternoon at Ronan’s “adult” birthday party. It was his second party in one day (the earlier one was for the kids). That’s a lot of partying for a three year old, but he managed to hold up in fine 3-year-old style.

The big tease

We’re back from our whirlwind tour of British Columbia. We visited many popular destinations and even more not-so-popular destinations. I’m sorting through pictures and cajoling Nick to write the travelogue. In the mean time, I’ll tease you with the postcard picture of the Chateau Lake Louise.

The traveling cat

Every time Bentley hops into a suitcase or backpack while we’re packing for a trip, we think what fun it would be to bring him along. Unlike the cat in the following video, however, Bentley wouldn’t hang out in our backpack for very long.