Happy Thanksgiving, Gobble, Gobble the holiday treats!

I know we are all feeling pretty somber right now, we have been robbed of a wonderful, kindhearted and amazing spirit in Colin Aldersley.

But I pray that your holidays are nevertheless filled with merriment, rememberance, love and hope. When I sit at the dinner table with my family tomorrow, I will give thanks to Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit for my family and friends, yes, you included.

I feel very blessed when I think of you.

Warmest wishes,

Mima Franco

Due to the recent loss of our dear friend Colin, I have received a request to extend the Motion challenge to the end of December.

My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.

Josh

Hi All,

Just wanted you to know that I and 7/others in my department are part of the upcomiming layoffs in April/2009. Our jobs are being moved to the Indianapolis facility. I will still be able to remain as a member of the club in California and of the website, but my role will be as a member.

Since the club leadership must consist of current employees, we will have to find my replacement. This will prove difficult as most of the members are retirees or former employees. There are a couple of people I will be talking to in Jan/2009 to possibly take over. I will follow-up with an update then.

A couple years back, our whole leadership was layed-off as part of the 'R4G' plan. By default, as the last-man-standing, I became club president. The website was the brainchild of the Brea Photo Club, born out of necessity to save the CA club from extinction.

The calendars we make & sell locally pay for California's share of the website and Miami sends us a check for their share, so the website for 2009 will be covered. But ownership may go over to Miami in 2010.

Nothing should change for anyone except me, my role will change, but only that. I will continue to be a member of the club and certainly of the website that brought your friendships to me. I am saddened that I will leave Beckman as it has brought many friends to my world over the 19/years.

I hope my new employer will be just as good a new home as it has been with Beckman. Please feel free to keep in touch with me at my personal email address; mimalu87@yahoo.com

Hi all.  Please follow this link to read and sign the guest book.  Thanks.

http://www.legacy.com/Link.asp?I=LS000120410330X

You may remember that the Miami photo club went to Morikami Gardens 2 weeks ago...this is a group photo from that outing taken by Alonso Martinez.  This is the last photo that we have from the club with Colin Aldersley in it. 

Left to right:  Bruce Reisman, Amy Kelly, Alonso Martinez, Colin Aldersley, Alonso's wife and daughter 

 IMG_0463 - Group.jpg  

Once in a while we meet someone who, in a strange way, affects our lives. This person makes us think differently than we otherwise would have. Or they make us look at things from a slightly different perspective, for the better. Sometimes, they just makes us realize how great life really is in this beautifully crazy world.

Colin Aldersley was this person to me. He has the same passion for photography as I have but he made me see things through the lens I would have otherwise missed. He took me to places in the Everglades I been to hundreds of times but never quite saw the same way before. He made me feel good about a lot of things.

I am sad to say that Colin passed away this morning.

Your adventure was cut short, too soon. Your explainations, stories, narrations will all be remembered with admiration. Your voice can still be heard in my head along with the vivid images of the walks through the Everglades and Morikami Park. Weather you accused me of doctoring my prints or patted me on the back and told me "Good Job", you will always be my friend.

May you travel the rest of your journey with the serenity you leave us with your pictures. I will miss you, Colin. We will all miss you.

Bruce 

 Vintage racers at speed 

If you've checked out my web site you will know that photographing auto racing is my main interest. Capturing the sense of speed while keeping the vehicle in focus is always a challenge. I've pulled out three of my attempts for this months challenge.

This hawk was on the roof of my car at work yesterday afternoon...just thought I would share this with everyone.  My coworker was leaving work and called me to tell me that there was a large bird on the roof of my car.  Funny, out of all the cars in the parking lot, it chose mine!  I shot this with a point and shoot and the photo is cropped...oh and I should mention that it left me a nice big poop all down the back side of my car!  As our on-site nurse Leigh said to me today...you don't get something for nothing!  So true!

 Broad_Winged_Hawk 

I took Kaley to the Ramble at Fairchild Tropical Gardens today.  Aside from selling plants, there were many other vendors selling their goods.  I thought that this one might be good for this challenge.  These things cost around $200!

 Water Spinner

I had a chance to visit Green Cay Wetlands a couple of days ago, just before sunset.  I was rewarded by some beautiful light, and plenty of subjects.  Didn't have too much time, but I was pleased with some of the captures.  My 40D continues to amaze me every time I use it.  C'mon guys and gals, give me some honest critique.....................

http://capturedinlight.zenfolio.com/p665770058

OK, votes are tallied - it looks like we have a clear winner, with a tie for second.

First place is "They're Here" by Josh Hed - congratulations, Josh!

Tied for second is "Spooky Iceberg" by JSHobbs, and "Scary Dragon" by Mima.

Thanks to everyone for posting some fun pics - looking forward to hearing what the next challenge will be!

cheers,

Kevin

Check out the cool new way to view slideshows!

If you are running Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, or Opera on Windows or an Intel Mac, with a quick install of Silverlight you should be able to view the slideshows using the cool new method.

If for some reason, you cannot install Silverlight, you can always opt out.  The system should detect if you are running a browser that cannot install Silverlight and simply use the old slideshow.

PS: I also changed how some things get loaded.  Let me know if you run into any problems with *anything* :-)
PPS: Next up will be a way to zoom into images, as requested.  It will be a silverlight app , just like the stuff above.

Note: I've noticed that the images at the bottom of your stories are not working, I'll get that fixed this week.  Take care!

Today Colin, Bruce, Alonso, Alonso's wife and daughter and myself...visited the Morikami Gardens in Delray Beach.  We had super weather, a nice breeze and beautiful scenery.  We enjoyed a nice lunch together after our photo shoot at the Japanese restaurant on site.  What a great day! 

Please enjoy a slideshow of this gallery on my website, but take some time to view each photo and get a little history of the garden.  Enjoy!

http://amomentintime.zenfolio.com/p49536253

P.S.  Photo of me was shot by Colin!  Great shot if you ask me :)

I know some of you have seen this photo before.  I thought it fit well with this challenge though.

Enjoy.

 Theyre_Here 

 Another side of Paris 

We recently took a trip back to Europe mainly to look up old friends and relatives that we hadn't seen for a while but managed to fit a few days with some friends in Paris before crossing over to the old country. I took plenty of shots of the usual sights but thought you might like to see another side of my favorite city.

I just posted a music slideshow to Youtube.  Hope you enjoy it  It's about 7 minutes long...Amy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-55pCVcTgU