11 lb - King Salmon caught at Racine Harbor - Racine, Wisconsin

 

My two fishing buddies and I went to Racine Harbor yesterday and I caught an 11 lb King Salmon (Chinook) at 5:30 AM!  I used a Moonshine glow K.O. Wobbler spoon lure.

My Boga grip weighed the fish at 11 lbs.  I didn't get a chance to measure it in length, but I'm 5'10" tall, so you can estimate its size from the photo taken by my friend Jim with my Lumix LX-5 camera.

I filleted the fish at the harbor's fish cleaning station, but later skinned them at home.  I used my dad's old "Food Saver" vacuum bag sealing system to package up the fillets.  Actually the vacuum sealer is new since he bought it before 1998 but never used it.  It works great!  Looks really professionally packaged!

Arlington Park - Horse Racing 8-17-14

We had another Balanced Exposure field trip to the Arlington Park race track today.  Students had the opportunity to photograph the races to freeze the action (see first photo) and also to try a technique called "Panning" where we follow the horse using a slow shutter speed to blur the background while keeping the horse and rider stationary.

It is not as easy as you might think to do this.  You are more likely to blur most of the images you take rather than get a good one that freezes the horse and rider while blurring the background.  We shot these images at 1/500 second, 1/30 second, 1/20 second and 1/40 second while keeping our ISO's at 100.  Shot in shutter speed priority mode, the camera chose our apertures.

My friend Rodrigo V and his wife Terry joined our group as well!  Rodrigo was my mentor at the Chula Vista Police Department over 25 years ago when I worked there at the crime lab!  He's been an evidence technician and latent fingerprint examiner for a long time!

Chula Vista Crime Lab Photos

I had lunch today with one of my mentors from the past... Rodrigo V from the Chula Vista Police Department and his wife Terry! I had not seen Rodrigo in at least 20 years.  He and his wife came to visit Chicago and so we all went out to lunch to catch up on all the years that have passed.

Rodrigo was the evidence technician at the Chula Vista Police Department when I was there interning at the PD while waiting for a full-time position to open up.  Ultimately, I left Chula Vista PD to work for the San Diego District Attorney's Office where I got my court qualifications in both Forensic Photography and Forensic Audio.  While I was at CVPD, Rodrigo was one of my mentors... teaching me the ropes at the crime lab.

I had worked at the San Diego Police Department prior to working at Chula Vista PD and initially was a little disappointed to go from a large police department to a smaller police department.  But after working at CVPD, I quickly learned that smaller departments can actually be just as rewarding.

I recall that the police department needed to have some photos taken to show the various jobs that the crime lab did on a daily basis and so my photo was taken for that purpose.  Look how young I looked back then!  And check out those glasses!!

According to Rodrigo, these photos remained at the crime lab for about 25 years!  Just before he retired from the department, he grabbed the photos and gave them to me as a gift today!  I was so surprised to see them because I had forgotten all about them!  Amazingly, the images were in great condition and still mounted to the original display boards!

It was great to see my old friend and mentor again after all these years.  I consider the friends I made while working in San Diego among my very best friends.  Some had already retired, moved on or passed away, but they are always on my mind and in my heart.  I need to get back there for a visit!  I have been away too long!

Brookfield Zoo Images

A couple of images from my recent Brookfield Zoo field trip with my students.  Images taken with a Nikon Df camera, Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VRII lens on aperture priority.