Cave In

My name is Rob, and I'm a slacker. Time flies sometimes. What I thought was a week of missed postings has actually been two.

Whoops.

Anyhow, here we are in the second week of March, and I'm gonna write about Valentine's Day.

It's ok. Just pretend it's a month ago.

I was supposed to be in North Carolina and travelling back home on Valentine's Day this year. This was both awesome and awful all at once. Awesome because I wasn't going to have to plan anything. Awful because I was going to be out of town that day.

Well, as it turned out, I didn't leave town after all because of the snowpocalypse. This, as most things do, turned out for the best.  I planned, and executed, a thing.

That morning was cold, and dreary, and gross. What better to do than go caving?!

And that's what we did. We visited Cathedral Caverns.

We showed up just after noon, when the tour was supposed to have left. Pulling into the parking lot, it seemed a little sparse.

When we walked up to the ticket booth, inquiring if a tour had just left, the gentlemen behind the counter said something to the effect of:

"Uh... you're the first two people today. Let me see if I can't find someone to lead a tour for you."

He did, and we got a private tour of the cave system.

Kick ass!

The tour guide was as laid-back as can be, and was all kinds of excited to tell us everything he could about the cave.

We got to take our time, ooh and ah over all the formations, ask questions and get detailed answers.

Oh, and I brought my camera, so I got to take some pictures.

That's what you're here for right?

Check out my flickr page to see everything I walked away with!

Snow Day

My name is Rob, and I'm not really a southerner. Sure, I was born and raised in Alabama. But I don't have the accent, I hate the heat, and I love the snow.

People down here seem to be scared of it. They might even have a right to be, on occasion. We're not really properly equipped to handle it down south. We don't have snow tires, or chains. We don't have snow plows, and the roads rarely get salted. Not to mention that we usually end up with ice on the roads instead of compacted snow.

So when there's even a threat of a dusting around here, the whole city pretty much shuts down. And, ya know what? That's ok with me, because it means I get a snow day. Plus, if you've got the wherewithal, you can still get to basically wherever you need to, even with the road closings.

Last week, Huntsville experienced a snowpocalypse.

It was Tuesday's forecast that called for a few inches of snow.

Sure enough, Monday night the news was announcing all the closings for Tuesday. My Girlfriend and I stayed up late Monday night to wait for it.

It was worth the wait. By the time we went to bed there was a fresh dusting covering everything in sight.

The following morning, after realizing her office was closed, we took a stroll around the neighborhood trying our best not to leave footprints on the newly fallen blanket covering everything.

By that afternoon, as per the norm in Alabama, all the snow had melted into a wet slurry.

But that's ok, because the forecast for Thursday was calling for 6 inches all over Huntsville.

Again, Wednesday night, we stayed up enjoying the snowfall.  We ate chili, and harvested the makings for snow-cream.

My Facebook feed was blowing up of cell phone pictures of people's front yards and mailboxes all turning white.

I knew I was going to have to get out with my camera to record the peacefulness and calm of this new perfect blanket that nature had so graciously bestowed upon me.

I knew it wasn't to last, and in the morning the place would be littered with footprints, and tire tracks, and bare spots with snowmen nearby.

It was about midnight that I trudged out into the median in the neighborhood and set up shop.

It was late, and cold. Fortunately it didn't take very long to walk away with two shots I was happy with.

Seeing the cold, calm, beauty of newly fallen snow, it still baffles me as to how anyone can dislike it.

It Doesn't Take a Rocket Scientist

My name is Rob, and I'm a Huntsvillian. Huntsville is famous for two things: Rockets, and us thinking we're famous for more than one thing.

We're like those guys who have 7 top-10 radio hits and yet no one knows the name of the band.

We have the nation's second largest research park, right behind Silicon Valley. We're home to Space Camp. Huntsville is one of the top ten best places to live and start a business according to Forbes. We had the most Ph.D.s per capita in the US until recently. Oh, and we developed the Saturn V Rocket which put the human race on the moon.

That's what really sets us apart from everyone else, we built a big freakin' rocket.

What's this got to do with photography, you ask?

Well, anyone who fancies themselves a photographer in Huntsville has one picture in their portfolio of the same thing.

the 1:1 scale model of the Saturn V Rocket at the US Space and Rocket Center.

It was only recently that I capitalized on the opportunity to get my cliche shot of Huntsville.

The vantage point I chose was the over-pass where Sparkman drive goes over I-565. The time I chose was shortly after sundown, because who doesn't like a picture taken at night?

Anyway, without further adieu, I present to the internet my quintessential shot of Huntsville.