As many of you know, I run my business out of the house.  There are 2 rooms dedicated to the office and studio.  While I love the arrangement sometimes I miss the human interaction you get from your co-workers.  Chloe keeps me company during the day which means when I talk out loud I am not talking to myself:)  This is her idea of keeping me company:

The curtain thing is new.  Not sure if she wanted a little sun or was feeling a little cool.  Happy Friday!

One thing I have never been good about is leaving work go.  Taking time off to spend with family and friends.  A goal I have this year to make an effort to forget work for a few hours or an entire day and live life a little more.  So when my husband mentioned going to the Mid-Ohio Race Track to watch AMA races I knew I had to make the effort to go with him.  I have been in the same room with him when he has watched the races on TV and to be honest, I never found them very exciting.  With a wedding already schedule (I was 2nd photographer at the wedding) for one of the race days it meant that Sunday was the day I had to make it happen.  We got tickets for the grand stands as we have never been and had no idea what to expect.  Since I knew I was going to be on my feet 8+ hours the day before the races I really did not want to have to stand for 4+ hours of racing.   Turns out general admission tickets would have been fine because you can bring in all your own stuff and basically have a good time in one of the viewing areas.

I had a great time at the races!  Honestly, I did.  It definitely left me incredibly tired as we spent over 4 hours in the sun, heat and humidity.  Looking forward to maybe going back next year or catching some racing at another venue in the future.  Below are some images from the stands.  I really was there to enjoy the day and made no effort to create any great images.  Just a reminder of the day and a little playing around on my part.

The first race had a lot of action in our part of the track.

This racer was impressive.  After going end over end through the sand he gets the bike up and started.  Finishes the race and even does the cool down lap.  Did I mention that the left handbar, windshield and a bunch of other pieces got ripped off the bike in the crash?

I would pick an underdog for each race.  I picked this guy because the bright color of his bike.  He did not do so well as after a few laps he never came by again:)

The last race features modified XR1200 Harley’s.  Really cool to watch them race these bikes.  It was only the 2nd race of the season for this series.

In July I normally keep my schedule pretty light so I can tackle some projects.  That leads to camera withdraw.  When you are used to having one in your hand 4-5 days a week it is strange not to touch it for a few days.  This morning I decided to take a break from a project and go shoot outside.  We had some fog that burned out before I went out but left plenty of moisture behind.  There were a lot of spider webs all over the place as well.  I was wishing for a macro lens but settle for my 50mm f/1.4.  It was nice to shoot for myself with no expectations.  Also glad I was out before the heat & humidity crept back into the day.  It was definitely a nice break and I made great progress on my various projects today.  I wrapped up my gallery updates which was huge and have moved on to some planning for an upcoming project.  Below are just 3 images from my morning.  Hope you enjoy.

If only the neighbors house was not in the background.

Alaska, where there is a ton of open space, great mountains, wonderful people and cooler temperatures.  We were fortunate enough to go to Alaska during their summer where the high temperature we experienced was 71 degrees.  The sun seems to shine for 24 hours but they claimed sunset was 11:40pm and sunrise was 4:20am.  It was definitely an amazing experience and I only wish we had more time to explore the huge state.  That would also mean unlimited funds as it is not a cheap place to visit.  Airline miles and a free place to stay a few nights definitely helped make this trip happen.  Below are just some of my images from the trip.  I only took one camera and 2 lenses as I truly wanted this to be a vacation.  My goal was just taking snapshots not getting huge up on making the perfect image.  I hope you enjoy the snapshots and can get a little feel of what Alaska is like.

On the road to Homer, Alaska.

10 points if you can find the 2 mountain goats:)

A far view of the Homer Spit.

Sea life.

We took a ferry over to Seldovia for the day.  On the way there they talk you past Gull Island.

There are wood carvings all around the island made by chainsaws.

The view from the little bookstore/coffee shop.

Lots of bald eagles around.

We even took in a little baseball.  The Alaska Baseball League.

View of Anchorage on our way back to the airport.

Using some airline miles, Mike and I got to travel to Alaska for vacation last week.  Mike’s brother currently lives there so we went to visit.  We definitely lucked into some great weather.  Now I am in catch-up mode.  All emails and voice mails will be returned today.  Two quick images follow from vacation.  I am sure there will be more shown later but for now this is it.

View from the road on the way to Homer Alaska.

Us in Hope, Alaska.