Confession: I’m an Olympics junkie.

Therefore, the next couple of weeks of my life are pretty much pre-empted for very little else (sorry NCIS and The Amazing Race, that’s what my VCR is for!). Okay, I do have to continue showing up at work during the week, sleep during the night, and shooting/editing the sessions on the calendar between now and the end of the closing ceremonies …

… but just know the best way to reach me is via email during this time period. Because if I’m not at work, in the car going to/from home, work, sleeping, showering, or shooting sessions, I’m listening/watching whatever sport is being broadcast on the NBC & Universal Sports networks I pick up at out of DFW. And, well, I become grumpy when someone interrupts my patriotism fanaticism with all things Olympic. Don’t believe me, ask the members of my family and a friend or two how I responded to them during all the pre-Olympic coverage on Universal Sports when they interrupted my attention from world cup skiing and luge (okay, I should clarify, more like my attention on the gorgeous yesteryear Winter Olympics locale of St. Moritz, Switzerland that I was taking a virtual vacation to - the hostels there are probably out of my accomodations budget!). Imagine how much worse it would be if I had cable/satellite and all the various NBC affiliated networks to watch …

And please — if the regular NBC station is airing snowboarding or curling, please know I’ll respond as soon as its over or during a commercial break

I promise not to post too much Olympic-related stuff here. But I won’t promise not to on my personal blog if you’re a fellow Olympics junkie.

Oh, and the significance of the teepee image at the beginning of this post  …

  (a) its an encore image from The Roadtrip taken during our stop in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada last June. How huge is this teepee? Large enough to see easily from the main highway coming in from Lethbridge on the other side of the city.

… and (b) from the Medicine Hat, Alberta website: Originally constructed for the Calgary 1988 Winter Olympics, the Saamis Tepee is a tribute to Canada’s native heritage. Built entirely of steel with a concrete foundation, the tepee is ringed with 10 large circular story-boards depicting aspects of native culture and history. Below the Saamis Tepee in scenic Seven Persons coulee, lays one of the Northern Plains archaeological sites – the Saamis Archaeological Site. This self-guided walking tour will show you one of the foremost important archaeological sites of the Northern Plains. The area was once a buffalo camp and meat processing site. Experts believe over 83 million artifacts are buried at the site.

This week’s quote that I wholeheartedly agree with … came from an email forward of all things:

A Birth Certificate shows that we were born

A Death Certificate shows that we died

Pictures show that we lived!

… and on that note, back to editing images from recent client sessions I go! I’ll share snow photos tomorrow … I only have eight gigabytes worth to convert from RAW to jpeg …

http://kellymoorephotography.com/mooreblog/?p=5782  

The deadline to vote is at noon on Friday the 13th!!!

Just scroll down the poll (just after the text with the deadline details — the page may take a few minutes to load) until you find my name and picture (its alphabetical — I’m the girl on the white steps in a teal tee — the profile photo above in fact!) .

You can vote once per computer — so you can vote from every computer in your home as well as at work (if you have internet access).

Also, please share this link with everyone you know — the “spread the love” links below allow you to post this blog post on Facebook and MySpace — or on the far right, click “email a friend” to email this post to your friends and family.

I’d greatly appreciate it — thanks in advance!

Update: The results have been posted — and sadly I wasn’t the winner. But please go congratulate the photographer who received the majority of 13,000 votes!

So — as a belated celebration of National Public Lands Day (it was yesterday, Saturday, September 26th) and to lead up to the airing of Ken Burns’ The National Parks miniseries, I thought I’d share a few of my absolute favorite images from the parks we visited.

The Tetons …

Jenny Lake — Grand Teton National Park

Jackson Lake — Grand Teton National Park

Old Faithful — Yellowstone National Park 

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park

Lake McDonald — Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park

Devils Tower

Mount Rushmore

Oklahoma City National Memorial

Oklahoma City National Memorial

Before I go further, I’d like to thank each individual that entered their own family or nominated another family into the Giveaway — a small thank you should be arriving in your inbox soon

Over the weekend, The Committee sent me their votes … and after tallying them up, the winner is … the Till Family of Athens. I heard about this family recently from multiple sources, but one individual who asked to stay anonymous nominated them for the Giveaway …

I would like to nominate Kevin Till and his family for your contest. He was a student at Athens High School. He is a very fine young man and was full of life every time I saw him, a people person. He has had a brain tumor, but has taken a turn for the worst as of late. I recently found out he has lost some use of one side of his body. So time is precious for him and his family. Since photos capture a lasting memory that can be treasured for a lifetime, I think your contest would be one of the greatest gifts that could be given to him and his family that they would treasure for the rest of their lives. Please help this family capture some wonderful memories while they still have time.

Once I had the votes in, another individual who has been closer to Kevin and his family as of late helped me faciltate contact with them over the weekend. I wanted to make certain that their session is completed sooner than later as he has so many dreams he wants to accomplish already. So please leave the Till Family some congratulatory comments and remember them in your thoughts and prayers as they need every one they can get right now.

Around this time last year, we (CMP aka ROLP — our former business name) held the Sweet Summer Faces contest, with a complementary session being the grand prize. Well, we’re at it again this year — although with a new business name, we’re also changing up the contest a bit …

This time around we’re focusing on families! Why? Well, to be honest, I got to thinking about the contest and in the process, realized that other than setting my camera up on a tripod and running back and forth setting the timer, the last time my family had a portrait was when I was 10 years old. Approximately 18+ years ago. So — I know my family cannot be the only ones who haven’t had professional portraits in years!

Why the essay, you ask? Simple — I want to see a family truly deserving receive a full portraiture session — one they otherwise wouldn’t have, whether due to financial setbacks, all the children growing up and going off to college, a parent in the military, health setbacks, or maybe they give all they have to help others and just don’t think of spending that money on themselves instead.

The Details:
So, tell us about your family — or a family you know that is deserving — 500 words roughly. To make it easier, you can fill out this form and copy and paste your essay in the essay section. After you fill out the form, attach a snapshot of your family (no old professional portraits — we can’t post those due to copyright restrictions!) so we can feature you if you’re the winner! If you have any problems attaching/uploading snapshots to the entry form, you may email them to christina@christinamccall.com.

The Deadline:
Entries and snapshots are due by midnight on Monday, August 24, 2009 — CMP will post the winner on Monday, August 31, 2009. Judging will be conducted by a committee of individuals I’ve selected who are not local and are unlikely to know any of the families entered.

The prize:
– A complementary 90 minute to 2 hour custom lifestyle family portraiture session (maximum six people) with one outfit change (total of two outfits) at two locations within a 20 mile radius — sure, we’ll get a handful of formal portraits, but we’ll also photograph your family as you are — location to be determined by CMP within Henderson, Kaufman, Smith, or Van Zandt Counties.
– Full editing of 30-50 photographer selected images with blogged sneak peeks, an online gallery, and an online slideshow
– A 10×20 luxe mounted storyboard featuring images from your session (photographer selected)
– A 2010 Computer Desktop Calendar featuring images from your session on cd (photographer selected)
– CD with web quality watermarked proofs of all color images from your session
– (1) 8×10 premium print of the family’s choice
– 10% off any additional collection or a la carte purchase
Prize value: $350

What are you waiting for? Submit your entry + email me your snapshot ASAP!!!

… and the grand (combined) total is …

142!!

I set the goal of 150 comments — in increments of 25 comments = $25 to a pre-designated charity. So — while only 8 comments shy of the 150, I will be making a $25 donation to each of six charities …

$25 to the USO 
$25 to the Veterans of Foreign Wars
$25 to the Paralyzed Veterans of America
$25 to the Wounded Warrior Project
$25 to the Humane Society of the United States
and …
$25 to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital

How will you know that I’ll be making these donations? Well — I get paid every other Friday at my day job, so I will be writing out the checks (or donating online) to one charity each payday (or over the weekend immediately following said payday). And after I write out the check/make the online donation, I will photograph it (of course blurring out my bank/credit card account info) and post it here on the blog. So starting this Friday (well this coming weekend) through the first weekend in October, you’ll see a weekend post every other weekend regarding the donations. They’ll also be tagged with the comments for charity tag so you can easily locate them.

As a thanks to everyone for commenting, I have a few prizes to award! After tallying up the count, I used random.org to determine the winners …

The 11×14 mounted print goes to … Cheryl!

… and because I had so many online and photographer friends (on top of clients, coworkers, and friends from over the years) rally to help CMP reach the Comments for Charity goal, I decided to add in two 8×10 mounted prints and a set of postcards … random.org chose …

Evie (8×10)

Jen Gentry (8×10)

and …

Vinita (postcard set)!

I also ran a Twitter contest for a set of eight postcards (created by me) – those that responded to or retweeted my travel tweets were eligible.

The winner of that postcard set was … Photomomma!

And I have to recognize the two individuals who commented on nearly every post from The Roadtrip: Timber — my best friend — and Lydia — the awesome harpist featured here back in May. Look for a surprise in both of your mailboxes as well!

So …. Cheryl, Evie, and Jen — look for an email in your inbox asap and let me know your mailing addresses and the image you want for the mounted print! Vinita and Photomomma — let me know your mailing addresses asap as well, the postcards are in hand and ready for shipping!

Thanks again so much to all of you!

In other slightly off-topic news, check back later this week for the the travel photography gallery information plus the first of two contests I’m about to announce!

On our last day of traveling, we took time out to visit the Oklahoma City National Memorial in downtown OKC. If you follow me on twitter (or see the twitter updates that post to my Facebook profile) — or run your cursor over the recently link on the menu at the top of the page, you’ll notice the following tweet or status update I posted late yesterday evening: “I never fail to get teary-eyed/emotional when I edit/view images I’ve captured from (now) three visits to the OKC memorial – like right now.” I have no shame in admitting that by the time I wrapped up the sneak peek file prepping, I had tears streaming down my face once again and a runny nose.

April 19, 1995 is one of the three events/reasons that lead to my choosing my graduate majors (of criminal justice and political science) and what used to be my dream job of becoming an FBI Special Agent. Ask me where I was when I found out what a fellow American did to the people of OKC and our country and I can tell you as clearly as I can tell you were I was when I witnessed the Challenger explosion, when Princess Di died, the attacks on NYC, the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania, and the Columbia tragedy. So to me, the least I can do when I pass through Oklahoma City is to take a few minutes and stop to remember those who lost their lives over fourteen years ago. I’ll be headed back to Oklahoma in a few weeks and I assure you, I plan to make another visit either coming or going (once I finalize what route I’ll be taking).

When we passed through there was a biker rally of some sort going on in Bricktown and near the memorial, so we had to detour to get to our ‘regular’ parking near the bus depot. Rather than describe each image as I normally do, I’ll let the images do the talking with the exception of one.

And Jesus Weeps …

On my first visit in 1999, all I had with me was a disposible film camera, yet of the three different times I’ve photographed the And Jesus Weeps statue at this particular angle, that first one is my favorite. You can view it and my other OKC Memorial images here (in my flickr photostream) — that image has never been retouched, only was scanned directly from the print.

This entry is one of two that’ll be posting today — images from the Oklahoma City National Memorial will be online this evening.

Last night I promised to keep the roadside and windmill images to a minimum. Well … I loved the colors too much, so I compromised. There are quite a few, but I combined several of them into collages instead Due to combining several of these, they’re not in chronological order — but a mix of images from both Nebraska and Kansas unless otherwise noted.

Note the top right image — the teeny tiny combines upside the ginormous windmills. I wish there had been a Ford or Chevy truck by the combines and/or windmills to really give a comparison!

These were captured in Ogallala, Nebraska — our second time of traveling along the Lincoln Highway during the trip (first time was in southern Wyoming).

Sign on the left I found interesting — the Dog n Shake?!?! Sign on the right — in Blackwell, Oklahoma. The best chicken fried steak I’ve had in a mom & pop owned restaurant — I just wish I’d been hungrier so I could have finished everything on my plate (you get two medium sized CFS’s with your meal). They also have these ginormous cinnamon rolls that are at least 6″ in diameter. And I hear the pancakes are delish! The evening we were there, the cook and only waitress on duty were constantly busy with no break time until right before we left. Both were kind and hospitable, coming to check on us as well as asking if we enjoyed our meal.

In southern Nebraska …

Southern Nebraska

Southern Nebraska or Northern Kansas

Southern Nebraska or Northern Kansas

Northern Kansas

Somewhere in the OKC area

Don’t forget to check back this evening for the last of the ‘major highlights’ from The Roadtrip 2009! And — please — leave a comment here on the blog (or the RSS feed posting on Facebook) so charity #6 will benefit as well! Thanks in advance!

On to images from Day 2 in South Dakota (and a bit of Nebraska) …

We started our day out in Spearfish … which, due its location along both an interstate and US highway, has quite a few vintage/retro hotel signs (along with a few other businesses with neon light signs). This one was my favorite, however:

I also spotted this (beginning to) fade mural/advertisment in the downtown area — if you know me, you know that I’m a bit of a Dr Pepper addict, but I do love retro and vintage Coca-Cola marketing too!

Then it was on down the road to Keystone, the small town just outside of Mount Rushmore. We briefly stopped at the Gutzon Borglum museum there in town — lot of information about his life and some of his other works, but you get a decent amount of the same information at the museum at Mount Rushmore National Monument (and you don’t pay extra to see it). Plus you can photograph the items inside the one at MRNM, whereas you can’t at the private museum. After we detoured through the gift shop, we then headed on up to Mount Rushmore itself (important note: The National Parks Pass will not get you into MRNM, its technically free, but you pay $10 to the official concessionaire to park.)

This is Gutzon Borglum by the way …

Because there is only so many ways one can photograph Mount Rushmore, I’m just sharing a few of my absolute favorites …

After we left MRNM, we headed on southward, passing by the Crazy Horse Memorial … this is from the highway:

We briefly stopped in Custer — watch out for the camera by the sudden speed limit drop sign (no warning!) coming into town that’s on a fairly steep incline — for gas and a restroom break while my travel companions were busy with that, I instead darted a couple blocks down the street to photograph some more vintage/retro hotel & restaurant signs and some buffalo of the painted variety …

Despite appearances, no, we weren’t racing the train … just liked the color combination …

This business had a ton of new and old tractors … this is all the old ones!

Nebraska roadside …

Another windmill …

Ever wondered what to do with your old tires? Here’s an idea I find as amusing as the boots on the fenceposts … no, I didn’t get a photograph of the boots on the fenceposts, too hard to catch in time in full manual mode! Btw, I saw probably 15 of these within about 5 miles along I-70 and the road we turned off on to head into Ogallala.

I’m hoping to wrap up the last two ‘travel days’ worth of images into one more post — I figure I’ve endulged you all in enough roadsides, mountains, and windmills that I can curb the remainder of Nebraska and Kansas (which we passed through on Day 1 — see June 12-13 posts for those images) down to a few images and feature Oklahoma instead.

We headed out of North Dakota (after suffering our accomodations there, it was safe bet we’d have the car loaded and out of there as early as possible. I’ll spare you all the details … ) and made our way into northern South Dakota. Belle Forche to be exactly. Pronounced “bell foosh” btw.

What’s so important about Belle Forche, you ask?

Its the Geographic Center of the United States. I know, I know, South Dakota isn’t smack in the middle of the country if you’re thinking in regards to the 48 contiguous states. But — if you factor in the last two states to join the Union in 1959, Alaska and Hawaii, it is. Hey, I just report what the signs and travel brochures (and sometimes Wikipedia) tell me!

From left to right — War/Veteran Monument, Geographic Center of the US Monument, and state historical sign regarding the Geographic Center of the US. The actual geographic center is about 14 miles north, then 8 miles west (or something like that) of Belle Forche, but because its in the middle of a privately owned pasture, they put this one in town to make it easier for everyone to visit. (In case you’re curious, the geographic center of the 48 contiguous states is Lebanon, Kansas.)

Right there at the visitor’s center and location of the images above is the Tri State Museum … lots of local memorabilia, including a number of vintage cameras and record players.

Afterwards, we headed on down the road towards Spearfish. After we located our hotel and emptied most of our belongings into the room, we jumped back in the car and headed west — to Wyoming — to visit Devils Tower. Here is all the nifty geological and geographic facts — as well as information about the Indian legions about “Bear’s Tower”. For the record, it was formed by the intrusion of igneous material … in case you were curious.

Btw, all of these ‘red rock’ formations pictured in this blog entry are part of the Spearfish Formation … details are here.

Yeah, I got a little artsy with the one above … and patriotic with the one below …

On the trail …

Btw, you can climb Devils Tower. However — there is a voluntary climbing ban during the month of June when Native American tribes conduct ceremonies around the monument, a sacred site for many tribes. Climbers are asked, but not required, to stay off the Tower in June. The items you see tied in the trees are prayer offerings left from their ceremonies … more info here.

After Robby having been a state qualifier in powerlifting during his junior and senior years of high school, we had to see if he still ‘had it’ … looks like he does!

And … what would this post be without the zoology lesson from one of the Prairie Dog Towns …

Cute? Yes. Sociable? Yes. Natural performers? Yes. A bit heavier than their Texas cousins? Yup.

Next … The Black Hills of South Dakota — including Mount Rushmore.

I left off on the last post while stuck in traffic in Regina, Saskatchewan … apologies ahead for the image-heavy post. I figured ND usually gets overlooked by most folks …

The next morning we knew we had a very long drive ahead of us (who knew it takes as long as it does to drive North-South across North Dakota?!?!), so rather than visit a couple of the sites I really wanted to go see in person while in Regina that construction and exhaustion prevented the night before, we headed on south instead. I really didn’t take a whole lot of images until we reached the US/Canada border because (a) it looked just like the day before (I’m sure everyone’s tired of fields and mountains by now!) and (b) I figured the less electronic gadgets I had in sight when we crossed the border, the faster that would go. So many of these were actually captured with the point and shoot …

This is the only image I’m pulling from the few taken as we headed south in Saskatchewan towards the border — doesn’t this remind you of the Windows generic wallpaper, at least in the XP operating system?

We actually detoured slightly when we crossed the border — we went to a 24 hour crossing (rather than one of the ones with shorter hours on the ND border) at Raymond, Montana. As the primary agent double checked the cooler to make sure we weren’t bringing back any perishable items, the one in the booth kept looking at me. Either it was the fact I don’t look my age or the occupation I listed when I applied for a passport card earlier this year — my day job, that is (I’ve had a passport for nearly six years, but preferred to leave it at home since this was a land crossing, not air or sea).

Just before pulling up to the checkpoint …

Hmmm, turn around and go back to Canada while I can … or head south?

The old border inspection checkpoint …

A few miles into northeastern Montana, I spotted this — please excuse the blurriness, but I have to wonder what they’re referring to, last chance for what?

Carved bear spied at small park about 50 or so miles into Montana …

Just after we crossed back over into North Dakota, we had to make a detour due to construction … along a 15 mile stretch of gravel road. The plus side was the scenery …

Scenic pullover along US Hwy 85 in the Badlands

Closeup of the sign above …

When I hinted there was something beautiful to stare at in western North Dakota, this is it — Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Most people don’t realize that the man who helped preserve so much of our national lands has a park named after him. I honestly didn’t know until a couple of years ago when a reality show had a blip (due to a wrong guess on a clue) about the park. Even still, until I sat down and began planning The Roadtrip, I didn’t realize just what beauty was actually within the park’s boundaries.

TRNP is actually made up of two units — North Unit and South Unit. My images are from the North Unit, as we only had time to spend at one unit. Although I wanted to see the petrified forest area at the South Unit, it was highly recommended to us to go to the North Unit. So that’s where we headed off to …

Heed the warnings …

So … are the NPS outsourcing the Ranger duties now?

… and the custodial ones as well?

A memorial just outside the park for a local resident

Note the cross on the small knoll/hillside

And a lush green farm setting to end the North Dakota images with …

Next up — probably another image heavy post from day one in South Dakota + eastern Wyoming (we ventured back over to see another natural & national landmark — Devils Tower) …

(2) Go check out the newest entry at Photo Lovecat – Christina McCall Photography was mentioned in today’s post written by Jillian of Jillian Kay Photography under the subsection ‘give give give give give’! Thanks so much Jillian!

Now, back to the belated post y’all are really here for — its okay, I get it. Its all about the photos after all

Day two (of two) of the Canadian portion of the trip started out by leaving Medicine Hat, Alberta and heading eastward. However, before we left the city, we ‘located’ the ginormous teepee we could see coming into the city the afternoon before. Its actually called Saami’s Tepee. Built entirely of steel, 20 stories high, it stands along the Trans-Canada highway as a monument to the native people of North America. Originally built for the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1988, it was later relocated to the site of a century-old Indian winter camp. (see dad, all those postcards I’ve *collected* over the years are good for something!)

If you look closely at the circles on the interior side, they’re mini murals. I photographed each one and will post it and some other detail shots not featured so far after I’ve finished posting the major highlights …

And next to it is the beautiful work of art …

Then its on down the Trans-Canada highway towards Saskatchewan … along the way I photographed a few things when I wasn’t analyzing the map or reading the very good book I picked up in Lethbridge …

Stopped briefly to fix a quick lunch in Swift Current … so, out of curiosity, how exactly does life make sense in Swift Current?

Then we had to veer off the highway to see Mac … the Moose, aka the mascot of Moose Jaw (derived from the Cree indian word *I think* moosegaw *something to do with the wind, I think!* … as well as the visitor’s center next door

After leaving Mac behind, we continued on towards the capital of Saskatchewan. I have to let you know that the capital, Regina, isn’t pronounced ‘ree gee nah’ … it rhymes with ‘angina’. The extremely good lookin’ Canadian border agent bluntly informed me of that when he asked where in Canada I was headed. We’ll leave it at that. I can’t bring myself to pronounce it properly, however, without busting up laughing. Sorry. Really sorry. Please forgive me Canada, I know the city’s named after a queen (well, her middle name) …

Anyway, back to Regina’s sights …

Along Dewdney Avenue …

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Heritage Center …

A Mountie …

Sheet of currency featuring the RCMP

Letter from King George on Buckingham Palace stationery (from 1939)

Modern day RCMP vehicle

Two new mounties on patrol … don’t they look vaguely familar …

Mounties – in – training. We found out while in the gift shop that we were there on an RCMP graduation day, so we saw a couple of cadets with their families (one in the dress uniform) as well as a veteran officer.

Stop — Arret! That second one’s in French …

Sushi Bank?!?!

Construction in downtown Regina. If that wasn’t bad enough, try navigating. Wouldn’t it be easier to keep numbering along a street out to the, oh, 10,000 or beyond block? Nope, after so far, it went from Victoria Ave to Victoria Ave East. Add in all the NW, SW, SE, NE, 1st Street vs 1st Avenue, and well, being the navigator, especially from the backseat, is the most frustrating part of traveling!

And finally, while waiting to turn, I spotted this next to us:

So, Regina, what does ICBM mean to you? I assume not ‘Intercontinental Ballistic Missile’?

Next up, a few more photos headed back towards the US of A and some sights in western North Dakota. Yes, there actually is something there to stare at — and its quite beautiful