Matt, Amy and I checked out the New York International Auto Show over the weekend. It was a lot of fun and I suspect that Matt will have more to say about it in his blog soon. For now, check out my photo gallery.

My favorite car was the Jaguar XK (not pictured in this entry, but it is here in the gallery). At 75,000, it’s a real bargain! I also enjoyed the Smart Car and the Mini, but the Jaguar stole my heart. The photo in this entry is of the Maybach, which is apparently the car that rappers drive, or something.

This weekend Matt and I head to the auto show in New York. I consider myself fairly knowledgeable in cars, but Matt is a bonafide fanatic. It’ll be fun to see him in such an environment. And with Amy and me there, you know there will be lots of photos.

I’m excited to see what the 2009 Honda Fit looks like. Just this week I had a dream that I was in a Prius. It was really nice in my dream, but didn’t have a lot of leg room. I can’t wait to sit in a new one and stretch out my legs.

A number of people have asked me what Nikon School is so I thought I’d take a minute to explain. Nikon School is not really a school; it’s two seminars (one is an intro and the other is advanced) that take place a few times a year across the country. I had considered doing it in Boston, but Amy suggested that we do it in New York, since we both have the same camera and it’d be fun to do it together.

School was actually a large ballroom on the 18th floor of Hotel Pennsylvania and we were two of about 400 other students. There was a pretty big range of ages represented - from high school kids to grandparent types, and then we 30-somethings in between.

Amy and I weren’t sure what to expect. Would there be a lot of those annoying students who know everything, or the ones who try to stump the instructor? Or would we end up beside chatterers? First thing was first. We made a pact that we wouldn’t make friends with anyone. We didn’t need any zealous camera freaks monopolizing our quality time.

The first instructor came to the front of the room and introduced himself as Bill Durrence. Bill Durrence has been doing this kind of thing for 15 years. Bill Durrence is from Savannah, Georgia, and has a white beard, pleasant drawl and an aversion to yankees. I immediately adored him. Bill explained the basics of digital photography, including exposure, shutter speed, aperture, and basically all the buttons all over our camera. Our second instructor was Reed Hoffman, who seemed the complete opposite of Bill, but also very likeable in a Midwestern kind of way. Reed went through the history of digital photography, file formats and the science of organizing photos. After our lunch, Bill came back and talked about the craft of photography - how can you play around with settings to make photography your own art. After that, Reed came back and went through digital editing programs and printing tips.

I came out of the whole thing loving my camera all the more, feeling a little overwhelmed, but since then things I’ve been reading for months are starting to sink in. Things are starting to click.

Nikon person or not (and really, there are a lot of good camera makers out there) I think anyone would get a lot out of a seminar like this.

Amy and I only did day one of the seminar. Day two is more of the editing techniques. Maybe next year!

Ok, so I found a template in Wordpress that I’m going to stick with. My next step is to go in and search and replace all of the photos from Typepad to Wordpress. I am sort of avoiding that step. After that, I want to find a really good photo plugin.

My old site was sans serif, but I’ve taken the serif plunge. I guess as I’m getting older, this big Georgia font is easier for me to read.

Over last weekend, Amy and I went to Nikon School in Manhattan (Our instructors were Reed Hoffman and Bill Durrence). It was a fantastic experience and we learned a lot, much of which we tested out on a short excursion in Amy’s Astoria neighborhood the next morning. There are galleries on our facebooks and I will try to post some of the photos here. Not incidentally, the photo that is my banner above was taken in Astoria while playing around with white balance settings.

The trip was a battery refresher. I had a lot of time in the car to think and listen to podcasts and music and reflect on my life, since I feel like I’ve been too busy to do that lately.

Cape Ann, Massachusetts

While on vacation one morning, there were just a few of us in the yard when a deer walked up to the driveway. She seemed comfortable in our presence and I was sure at one point that she would come right up to me. Alas, after about five long minutes, she finally backed off and headed back into the woods. It was a nice close encounter.

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I am off to enjoy a week-long vacation. So I won’t be posting here. Or anywhere. That’s what vacations are about.

In late December, I took a trip to Cambridge to see my friend Jamie - I have not seen since him he visited me about 7 years ago while I was living in Northampton. Jamie was in town for interviews. I took some photos as we strolled about Harvard Square before meeting up with him. I don’t know why I didn’t publish this blog entry before. Oh well.