Put On Your Game Face!

Tonight,  I was perusing the wedding photographic society forum.  A comment was made to another forum participant that he needed to add an avatar to his profile so people could associate a face with a forum post at our bi-monthly meetings.  This is something that I have not done yet either.

So I grabbed one of my favorite models and photography assistants named Sophie Jackle.  She was so thrilled that  I was going to actually allow her to touch my camera.  This is something that she is typically not allowed to do.  One would think that this because of my concern that she may accidentally damage my gear.  Actually, I may also be afraid that she would show me up with better and more creative photography.

Anyway, I sent up my 580EX flash unit with a 28 inch umbrella soft box as a key light.  I sent my 430 EX II with a grid spot for a rim light.  The intention here was to make a simple casual head shot for the forum.   I put my 50mm F1.8 lens on my camera and installed it on my tripod.  Nothing fancy.  Just trying to take a simple head shot for the forum.  The tripod would help make it easier for Sophie and me less nervous. 

H

ere is the headshot we ended up with for the forum.  I merely demonstrating what a game face was to my daughter Sophie using a souvenir I bought at one of my trips to Lambeau Field.   Here is the shot she took.  See I told you I should have some concern about her showing me up.  Great job Sophie!!!

Remember in previous posts,  I mentioned that we had to keep things even in our house between our two daughters. This works between fathers and daughters also.  Here are a few examples of  Sophie’s game face.

So next thing we knew, we heard footsteps. Apparently, our game face growls sparked this sweet and innocent little girl’s curiosity.

 

She is so cute and innocent.  I had to share another one also.

 

Remember that keep it even stuff.  Well, here are some shots of  Savannah’s game faces.

 

For good measure, one  rather loud one without the  helmet.  Apparently, she wanted to make sure you knew who was giving you the  game face !!


Now we had to pull out another one of my helmets for this “brown helmet” game face variation. 

 

Finally and last but not least,  a game face duet with a little Gene Simmons mixed in for good measure.

Did I tell you that both of my girls are requesting to dress up as Gene Simmons for Halloween this year?  Well, of course I had nothing to do with that request.  Do not believe my wife Jackie if she tells you otherwise.  Do you see my Mr. Simmons figurine perched on the shelf proudly watching Sophia doing her Gene Simmons imitation?

Till next time.  See ya soon!!

Note: Facebook readers can see bigger and higher quality versions of these photos by clicking  the “View Original Post” link on the Facebook page  below.  This will show this same post on my blog website. 

Easter Baskets – NC style

What do you think about when you hear the term “Easter basket” ?  Some will probably think about the typical woven basket the children closely guard and fill with some candy encapsulated plastic eggs that have been age appropriately hidden for them to find.   This term may also have others pondering  a family get-together with grandma’s home cooking or childhood stories of the biggest chocolate bunny they had ever eaten.

Well, this Easter  came on the “heels” of  Carolina Tar heels winning the NCAA men’s  basketball national championship game the previous weekend.   Other basketball teams like Wake Forest,  Davidson,  NC State, and Duke also play a little basketball in North Carolina.   Apparently just not quite as well as the Tar heels - at least for this year.   It seems that a North Carolina family  Easter celebration that included a few of these Easter baskets was more than appropriate.

 

Well, Grandma was not going to be left out.  First up, Grandma Carole!! 

All the kids get into the act

With a little basket height adjustment, a couple of dunks:

 

As a Tar heel  grad and fan , I love this sequence especially the ending(look closely):

 

This epitomizes the Duke season !!!!!  Go heels!

For those that attended this Easter basket session, the entire gallery can be found here.

See ya soon!!!

Linda Craft – A Hurricane of a Realtor

Back in November, after months of discussing our daughter’s school situation, we decided to put our house up for sale.  We met with a discount real estate broker who came to our house to evaluate the  listing price for our home.   Our goal at the time was to attempt to sell the house before the end of the school year with a pipe dream that we would sell it before the Christmas holiday. 

Very shortly into the process, we discovered that you get what you pay for when dealing with discount real estate brokers.   He promised to get back to us within a day or so with listing price.  Well, the day or so , turned into over a week.  We finally gave up on him.

One of Jackie’s friend suggested using one of the more successful full service realtors in the area.  With the market the way it was, we needed to have any advantage we could get in selling our house with a price that we could accept.   We knew that the number of years in the business did not necessarily provide the best measuring stick when evaluating a particular real estate agent or broker.  We needed to measure based on the number of homes that were sold by the agent/broker in the area especially recently in market.  In essence, experience does not always equal success.

The same friend suggested that we contact one of the most successful firms in the Raleigh-Durham area named Linda Craft and Team.  Since my wife at the time was mostly handling the search for the real estate assistance,  I was not really up to speed with the real estate movers and shakers in the our area.  I remember when she mentioned that we should talk with Linda Craft,  I immediately recognized both the name and face.  In our area,  Linda’s likeness can be found on yard signs(mostly marked sold) for home listings, and sides of her moving and signage trucks,  and easily found through search engine searches.  This type of visibility is a definite advantage especially in the tough real estate market that we were facing.

We called the office expecting to speak with one of the members of Linda’s team not Linda herself.  One of the first steps in working with Linda Craft and Team was  to meet with Linda Craft herself to discuss a game plan to sell our home.   Upon meeting Linda, we quickly learned that in this case experience does equal success.   Linda was very interested in understanding why we were selling our house and not just getting another listing for her firm. 

In our initial meeting,  she suggested on several occasions that we may want to consider getting our daughter some reading tutoring instead of the selling our house in this tough market.   This was a good sign for me that we would not be just another “listing notch” on her belt.   She spent some time explaining very patiently the current market and what we could expect with both a selling time frame and price for our home.  She also shared her very detailed and thought out staging/sales/marketing plan that was presented in organized home selling book.   We knew that if we were going to sell our house that this is the firm that we should should use.

We made the decision to take the plunge and sell our house for the sake of both of our children’s future education. 

We used Linda Craft’s firm for both the selling of our home and also as our buyer’s agent.  Linda assigned Jessica Hunt as our buyers agent.  So the expected goal was to leisurely look at properties with Jessica and hope that our home would sell fairly quickly in this market. 

Linda sent a “home stager” to provide us with advice on getting the house up for sale.  We followed her suggestions and replaced the carpet,  touched up the walls, re-arranged furniture, performed some yard work, and de-cluttered the house.  Well, Jackie(wife) was the bigger part of the “we”  on this effort as I was out of town due to work for part of this process.   She is a Jackle of all trades – mother, wife, best friend, painter, organizer, home decorator etc..  By the way, the people that replaced the carpet were suggested by this member of the Linda Craft family.  They were prompt and did an excellent job. 

Once the house was ready, the next step was to have Linda’s photographer take marketing pictures of the home and have a walk through with all the buyers agents from her firm to add it to the list of options for her clients.  The house was finally listed and ready to sell.

The effort paid off.  Within 24 hours of the listing, we had a showing and an offer that was real close to the listing price.  The house was sold and the rat race to find a new home began since the closing of the sale was going to be about a month later on December 19, 2008.   I am very impressed in how flexible and patient Jessica Hunt was to make sure that we made our goal of buying a new home in the right area for our child’s education with this deadline. 

It seemed like we spent most with our time for the next few weeks with Jessica and her lovely daughter Saige.  Bringing Saige along on the house hunting was a stroke of genius  as this occupied our two children(2 and 6 years old at the time) while we talked business.  As a side effect,  our kids now have a new friend that they can not stop talking about.   We now have not only a great real estate agent but also a couple of new friends.

Late November and early December was a complete blur.  After house after house of searching we finally found a home that met our needs. 

We scheduled the closing on the same day as our sale.   We used Linda Craft’s third party resources for the punch list items,  moving services , and another other moving related items.  Linda Craft is a one stop shop for all the resources that we needed for the move.  Check out her web site for more information. 

Backing up a bit in the Jackle timeline,  a couple of years ago I promised Sophie that I would take her to a Carolina Hurricanes game.  This promise was made on the heels of a successful father-daughter trip to Lambeau field  on one rainy day to see the Green Bay Packers play the Seattle Seahawks.  

Another perk from working with the team was a pair of Carolina Hurricanes tickets.   These were not just any tickets. These were Lexus Champions club tickets with premier gold parking passes.  This evening included two food buffet lines, drink tickets, and some of the best seats in the RBC arena.  Not to mention who better to spend a few hours with than my lovely daughter Sophie and one class act realtor named Linda Craft.  My daughter is still talking about this night.  The only problem here is that I will never be able to replace the royal treatment we received if we decide to go to a game in the future.  That is a small problem to overcome (fingers crossed).

At the end of the Hurricanes game,  Linda  asked Sophia what color of hockey jersey that she was interesting in getting.  We left the game with smiles on our faces as this was one of the best father-daughter evening that one could expect.  The Hurricanes won in overtime over the Pittsburgh Penguins to clinch a playoff berth and I had another enjoyable conversation with Linda. Thanks again Linda !!!!!

The next weekend was Easter weekend.  I was away at my mother’s home in Wisconsin surprising her on her 70th birthday and Jackie and the kids were at grandma’s house in Winston-Salem, NC for the Easter weekend.  Jessica contacted us to let us know that Linda had purchased a hockey jersey for Sophia and she was dropping it by.   Fittingly enough, she placed the jersey in a cooler on our mud porch at the new house.  

When Sophie arrived home on Easter Sunday,  I asked her to help me  with something.   I needed her to carry in whatever was in the cooler on the mud porch.  You should have seen Sophie’s excitement as she pulled out the jersey from cooler. Imagine for moment a girl running, jumping and screaming for joy as she proudly wore her new jersey.   Well, since then it is almost impossible for us to get her to take it off. 

I find it very fitting that this process began with a plan focused on Sophie’s education and ended with a special gift from Linda Craft also for Sophie.  Linda Craft, you are best!!! We truly truly feel part of the Linda Craft family.

Ok,  you know that a one of my blog postings would not be complete without some photos.

Sophie and Linda Craft at the game:

 

Shots of Sophie proudly wearing the new jersey around our house:

 

 

 

“Hit-and-miss” weekend.

The past weekend was another busy weekend for the Jackle family.  I will call this past weekend the “hit-and-miss” weekend.  The good news is that the “hits” out numbered the “misses” but one of the “misses” was a big one.

Hits:

Friday Night “pre-Easter” Easter egg hunt – We packed up some of Jackie’s famous coleslaw, some plastic Easter eggs,  two kids, and a camera and headed to our friends house in Wake Forest for a Easter egg hunt.   Beside the hunting festivities, we ate some charcoal broiled northeastern hotdogs, baked beans, coleslaw(of course), and drank either some punch or an adult beverage or two (depending on the age and the designated driver status of the participant).  Also, we watched our precious children punctured  a piñata and scurried happily to indulge in its contents.  Last but not least, we had a surprise visit by one quite large and fuzzy pink and white Easter bunny.  The bunny could jump right out of his birchen stocks.  Quite amazing actually!!  Photos and blog post to commemorate this event will be coming shortly.

      

Saturday night Hurricanes–Penguins Hockey game -  As Sophie would say,  “Daddy you promised me that you would take me to Carolina Hurricanes game since I was four.  I am now seven and it is about time!”  Last Fall, we contact Linda Craft and Team to help us sell our house and move to a better location in the Raleigh area for our Sophie’s (and eventually Savannah’s) education.   We sold our house in less than 24 hours and moved just before Christmas to our new location.  Besides just the sale, the resources for moving, plumbing and electrical work for the our new kitchen all came from Linda’s resource list.  If you ever has visited Linda Craft’s office, you may get the impression that she is a Carolina Hurricane fan.  That is to put things lightly.  One may also think she is married to Rod Brindamour with all the pictures of the pair of them in the office.  She offered us some Hurricanes tickets for an upcoming game.  I gladly and appreciatively accepted this offer and set the date for the April 4th game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.  I was finally off the hook with my daughter with the help of Linda Craft.    So the father-daughter date night was born.  Linda provided us with a truly VIP treatment as we were treated with Premier Gold parking passes, admission to the Lexus Champions Club, free food, and drinks, some of the best seats in the RBC center, and last but not least a Hurricanes overtime win that clinched playoff spot.  A side effect, was my wife was a little bit jealous.  Pictures and a dedicated post to follow.

    

Saturday night Tar Heels win -  If you ever want to see an excited look on Sophie’s face, just mention to her that she can stay up to “midnight.”  This excitement comes from her first new years eve dropping of the ball experience.  I promised her that after the game she could stay up and watch the rest of the Villanova-Carolina final four semi-finals game with me.  This could result in her staying up to midnight.  The good news is that the Tar heels did not drop ball and are competing for the national championship this evening against Michigan State.  Since the games starts after 9 PM eastern standard time, it will be a late night for me tonight. Go Heels!!  P.S. Sophia fell a sleep on the couch at about 10:45 PM. :)

  Sunday Savannah’s 3rd birthday party-  Though her birthday is actually on Tuesday, we celebrated Savannah’s birthday with about 30 people at the Marbles kid museum.  This place is kid heaven!!!  I will save more details and photos for a later post once I get a chance to go through the hundreds of pictures that I took to capture the event.

Misses:

       DirectTV’s slow death- Since we moved to the new house, I have had many outages  for  HD DirectTV  that caused me to miss much of the ACC and NCAA tournament in HD.   Thank god for the HD feed on www.ncaasports.com  on my computer. Every time it rains I lose the signal.  I have had DirectTV for several years without an issue.   The technician came out on Sunday.  He was surprised from the placement of the dish by the previous installer that I was even receiving a high-def signal.  Apparently, we would not have a clear view to the HD satellites without cutting down some oak tree limbs in our yard.  The wooded lot is one of many traits we like about the house so that would not happen.  He marked the service ticket “NLOS”(no line of site).   This week we will be looking into other options for our TV needs.  Bye Bye NFL Sunday ticket and the NFL network !!!!

       My mother’s surprise 70th birthday party-  In another time zone and region of the United States  a surprise birthday party took place for the world’s greatest mom on Saturday in Racine, Wisconsin.  This is the one miss  I truly regret.   I called her last night to apologize for my absence.  In typical mom fashion, she was more interested on how things were going with me and how Savannah’s party went.  It made me feel a little better but  I still wished I was there like with my brothers and sisters to see her surprised face and share the special night with her.

The Savannah Look

Another weekend just ended, overall it has been a good one.  We went to a cousin’s daughters birthday party today and saw some people we had not seen in awhile.  Afterwards, we trekked to our old stomping grounds and hung out with group of great friends that all went to UNC- Chapel Hill to watch the Oklahoma–UNC men's basketball game.  The outcome was what we had all hoped for, the Tar heels are going to the final four. This victory also sets the record for most times in the final four for one team.   Great job boys!!!  

I came home and finished preparing the business information for our taxes that I will give to the CPA tomorrow.  

It is getting late, I needed to get my mind off of the numbers and paperwork and so I can try to get some sleep.  

So, I dug a little in my images that took this past week and found this one.  Something about this image really strikes me.  It was taken earlier in the week when Savannah has focused on watching a Disney movie.  Most likely, it was the recent DVD release of the Pinocchio.  This movie stays in the DVD player and seems to always be playing.

  As you can tell, the click of my camera and the flash of my off-camera flash unit were not enough to distract her from the focus on the boy with the wooden legs.   I hope you enjoy this image as much as I do.

Best wishes and good night!!

Coloring the Carolina Blue

Since last week was Sophia’s big birthday party, the family focus was more on the older child than our soon to be three years old Savannah.  Also, the previous weekend was the ACC basketball tournament.  Due to the rainy weather, we were not able to get any of those games last weekend due to a satellite outage.

This weekend was a different story on both fronts.  Sophia went to Grandma’s on Friday and I was able to spend some time solo with Savannah on Saturday.  We decided that we wanted to do some coloring and watch a little  March Madness.  In our house, we vote for a team with light blue colors.  Our children do not have a choice in which college that they can support(At least not at this stage).  

Both girls at an early age knew exactly that the “G” logo meant the Packers.  In fact, the Packer sipping cup is still alive and kicking in our house. Savannah calls it the “football” cup.  Her “pink” milk tastes best in this cup so we need to keep that one available and clean.  

Like her big sister before her, the next indoctrination for Savannah is to become a Carolina Tar heel fan. This is her fate with two parents that graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill.  During his college years, her father was fortunate to see a certain basketball player named Michael Jordan play at the old Carmichael Auditorium which was replaced in the 1980s with the Dean Smith Center.  Her mother on the other hand was a college senior when the Tar heels won the national championship in 1993. 

There will be no support in this house for college basketball teams that have a  “K” in either their name or their coach’s initials. That would be the wrong kind of blue.

Anyway, here are few shots from our time together.

 

Apparently, she did not like the call from the referee and blurted out something.  I asked her what it was and this was the look I got. 

Daddy put that camera away  I am watching the games.

Ok dad one glamour shot for you!

Go Heels!!

Gene Spolar finally gets a chance

 

Photo Credit: Scott Anderson – Racine Journal Times

As I pointed out in my previous posts, I grew up in Racine, Wisconsin as a Green Bay Packer fan.  In Wisconsin, both my older brother “Intense Dave” and I played YMCA youth football.  My brother played one season for the (in)famous “Cardinals”.  The Cardinals were led by coach, family friend, and devote NFL Cardinal(St. Louis at the time) fan Gene Spolar.   The YMCA cardinals, like the NFL cardinals, were not really successful in the YMCA league. 

In fact, the team was winless for several seasons. 

At the beginning of the season the year that my brother played on the team, Gene Spolar provided the team with a little inspiration.  He said that if they could win just one game, he would then shave his head completely bald.  The 70s was a time when bald was not in fashion.  Yes, the team did win that one game that eluded them for the past several seasons and Gene was a bald man.  I would like to think that my brothers effort on the field was the straw that broke the win-less camel back.  That was my recollection anyway and I will stick to it.

Today, it another David and Goliath story with the under dog Cardinals playing the favored Pittsburgh Steelers.  When I think of the Cardinals(now in Arizona),  I always think of our friend and coach Gene Spolar who never wavered or gave up on his beloved Cardinals.  It takes a lot of guts to be a Cardinal fan in Packer country.  Well,  yesterday, the Racine Journal Times paper columnist Peter Jackel wrote an article about Gene Spolar.  His sons Tony, Tim and Toby are taking Gene to Raymond James Stadium for the Cardinals- Steelers  Super Bowl.  Gene celebrated his 70th birthday on Friday.  What a present for you Gene!!!  I wish you the best on Sunday.

Packer Gnome felt at home in the snow

 

For people that know me,  it is old news that I am big Green Bay Packer fan.  I grew up in Racine, Wisconsin and have followed the Packers since the early 1970s after meeting Bart Starr at the local YMCA in 1971.  I also run a Green Bay Packer fan site called PackerIQ.com which has Packer trivia, NFL picks contest, user submitted Packer “tundra” trivia, and Packer news.   It has been around since 1998-9.

Over Christmas, I received a present from my favorite big brother “Intense Dave”(my only brother- but do not tell him I told you).   He sent me this Packer  Gnome that proudly lives at our oak tree by the driveway to our home.  I never thought he would experience the snow this quickly here in Raleigh, NC.  I am sure that he feels right at home. This picture was taken during our recent snow.

Good night Philip

Well, it was an interesting weekend in the NFL playoffs.  The outcomes of the games remind us of the parity in the NFL.  With the exception of the San Diego-Pittsburgh game, the visitors took it to the home teams.  So much for “home field” advantage in the modern day NFL playoffs.

The Arizona Cardinals will be in their first NFC championship game after beating the heavily favored Carolina Panthers .  Up until this season, the Cardinal franchise has only won one playoff game in 61 years.  As I watched the game,  I came to realize why  Larry Fitzgerald gets the press he does. He is amazing with his hands. He was catching everything that came his way.  The Arizona Cardinals defense (with a little help from the Carolina quarterback Jake Delhomme) showed that they really exist.  Guys like Larry Fitzgerald and Kurt Warner do their talking on the field and leave their egos at the house.  

Shut Phillip Rivers!

The San Diego Chargers squeaked into the playoffs with a late regular season run. After beating the Indianapolis Colts, they were touted as a team that could go all the way.  All the NFL analysts have stated that the San Diego Chargers are Phillip River’s team and not LaDamian Tomlinson’s team anymore.  If only Philip could play as well as he as his ego. 

I was glad to see the Chargers go down just because I am so tired of hearing about Phillip Rivers.  I understand that he went to college at NC state in my current home town.   Even as a Carolina Tarheel graduate, I enjoyed watching him as a player at NC state.  When he turned pro, the money and his head got the best of him.  I prefer a player that quietly does his talking on the field and does the talking with class off the field.  Maybe Phillip can learn a few things from LT.  I think it sends the right message to our children that idolize these players when they present themselves with class.  

Well, the Steelers did the job and we do not have to hear his mouth anymore this season.  Good night Phillip !!  Hopefully,  next year you will lead your team to better than a barely-over .500 record and keep your mouth shut and play with class.