We had a great weekend with our family.  Karisa and Tegan flew down Thursday afternoon.  Alethea, Justin, Camdyn, and Charlie drove down Friday. Johnmark had to work and was missed by all.

Photography on the Mall

Alethea and I had a woderful time exploring the Washington Mall with our cameras.  Unfortunately, it was a cloudy, hazy, drizzly day.  We learned most people fail to take quality photos because (1) they forget the basics -- lighting, focus, paralax, depth of field, etc. (2) they are trying to preserve memories rather than create memories -- photos should "make a statement" about the human experience, (3) they make statues out of people and props out of statues -- strive to capture the human spirit being touched by the spirit of life, the awe of human encounter with greatness, (4) they fail to "enter into" the photograph -- photographs that make a statement carry the impression the photographer was an active witness/participant to an event in time and thereby invite the viewer to transport into that event, (5) they fail to have fun, if necessity is the mother of invention, joy is the energy of artistic creativity.  I am not certain if our teacher was pre-post modern philosopher or a perpetual fine arts student.

Vacation 2011 - Group Shot

Vacation 2011 - Cades Cove Friday Morning

Vacation 2011 - Thursday

Dollywood:

2nd Week of Vacation - Day 2: Hiking

Our entire family is staying in a cabin in Townsend, Tennessee this week.  We arrived a few minutes apart from three directions on Sunday evening.  Yesterday, was spent tubing the Little River (no pictures).  Today, we hiked to the water falls at Tremont.  The hike is becoming a tradition with Cheryl and myself; the trail and water falls are not on published maps so that few people know about them.

Also noteworthy is the first family group shot with Tegan.  An historic, if not quality, photo.