2005-07-28

what i did on my summer vacation, part 4

when i left off last time, i was exiting Henrietta, NY for camp- formally known as Holiday Shores on Fourth Lake in the Fulton chain, between Old Forge and Inlet, in the Adirondack State Park, for a week of catching up with assorted Pelkeys old and new, former Pelkeys, etc. in all nearly 50 of us showed up on my Uncle Jim and Aunt Penny's doorstep to take advantage of their hospitality, and the proximity to the lake and other attractions in the area. as i mentioned previously, i was basically glued to my camera the whole trip, and it's going to take me a while to get to conventionalizing all those pics and videos- but i've managed to make it through the ones from our first day there, picked out the best of 'em, and reformatted them for this forum. here they are. as always, feel free to skip my steadily babbling brook of drivel and skim the pics.

by the way, if i'm spelling anyone's name wrong, write me and tell me. i'd rather start correcting it now, before i finish conventionalizing 600+ more files, than fix them all after the fact. and if i find out i'm wrong, knowing me, i'll prob'ly be obsessed and compelled to fix 'em. argh.

Loren and i shared a place with Mom, Dad, Chris, Nichole, Ethan, and Cole for about a week. i liked having a bed and a shower. Loren liked having a TV and an outlet to charge up his DS. i was totally due for a vacation! time out of work sitting at home with no money doesn't count in my book. it's been years and years since i took a trip anywhere, since the last time i was in NY, which i think was in 1989. Loren was due too, and not only did he get to meet a lot of family he hadn't seen before, but this was the longest stretch of time he's spent with Mom and Dad in years- a nice plus for all of us. i think my dad took this shot.

2005.07.03.00.02 (NY time until further notice)
Loren and me chillin' in our pad-for-a-week.



Loren's part fish: when he gets in the water he stays in for a long time. and he likes lakes, so this place was a natural for him. it was plenty warm when we got there too. nothing like a little help from the weather. didn't have to ask him twice go jump in when he got up in the morning.

2005.07.03.11.34
Loren coolin' his jets...


2005.07.03.11.55
...and then drying off...


2005.07.03.11.56
...while expounding philosophically about something or other.



this is another example of the difference between my new camera and my old one. the autofocus on my Kodak (DX7590) is really discriminating- it pinpoints things more accurately than my Fuji camera did. it's a double edged sword really; the Fuji would likely have given me an image somewhere between how blurry Chris is and how sharp the focus is on Taylor, but balanced out the shot. Taylor's my 2nd cousin, i think, being the son of my cousin Crystal and her husband Derrick. this was the first time i ever met Taylor, who's a nice kid (kinda runs in the family), and pretty much your all-around AAA Little League stud. from the number of times Taylor and Derrick left camp for baseball scrimmages and games i think Derrick deserves a trophy as much as Taylor! pretty high level of dedication there, and the results to match. Taylor's closer to Loren's age than any of the other cousins present, which was khoul.

2005.07.03.12.57
Taylor and Chris


Taylor, full sized crop from the original- love being able to do that.



later on we went back to our place for lunch, and sat around on the deck chewing the fat (so to speak). i like the way Nichole's wedding ring sits kinda center stage in this shot; it kinda adds a flavor to the picture that i wasn't expecting.

2005.07.03.16.19
closeup of Nichole



it occured to Chris and me a little earlier that something was lacking.....beer! so we cruised for beer and chips and salsa and and and- you get the point. Chris always goes for the Genesee first thing when he's in NY; i'm with him: whatever you can't get back home is what to get when in Rome. this boiled down to Genesee in cans and Saranac (mostly Black Forest), though i'll cop to buying some Sam Adams too. hey i just remembered- i never had a red beer the whole time i was there....actually that sounds good.....not sure how it would taste in the Kona Brewing Co. Longboard Lager i'm workin' on at the moment....

2005.07.03.16.20
Chris indicating he's on his fourth beer. i didn't plan for the label to show so perfectly; if Chris did it on purpose i didn't catch it.


2005.07.03.16.20
Mom and Dad were ready to do a little relaxing i think.


not that i was really keeping track, but once Chris mentioned it, i had to admit i was keeping up with him. Loren took this one of me doing my best Chris impression. don't worry, i'm keepin' the day job.

2005.07.03.16.21
my fourth too



camp's a long established tradition, especially for Uncle Jim and Aunt Penny. at 6:30 everyone around gets together for food at their house- i'm glad i didn't have to cook for 50 of us. a different family takes care of the food each night, but other people (read: mostly the amazing women of the clan) pitch in. Aunt Penny gets honorable mention here- she always seems involved (after all, it's her kitchen!). what a lot of work! it takes a mountain of food to feed this army, but it sure is fun. during the day, pretty much anything goes, everyone goes off doing whatever they're doing, but at 6:30 it's all about food. and then it's all about dessert. and this next picture definitely takes the "longest caption ever" award.

2005.07.03.19.15
Mom and Dad talking with Chantalle and Ginger (off camera). that's my cousin Michelle, her daugher Natalie and Grey's wife Leslie in a clump in the background behind 'em. Aunt Carol's almost unseeable in the back on the far left. my Great Aunt & Uncle were there, this night only. i can't remember their names, but he's the one farthest to the back on the left- if you squint right you can just make out his right ear, though the rest of his face is obscured by the back of (best guess) (my "cousin-by-marriage's-husband"?) Bill's head. with Aunt Carol's geneology software i'm sure i'd find the proper familial association to be something more graceful than my attempt, and likely find my Great Aunt and Uncle's names too. i suppose i have a choice between feeling bad about not remembering them, or accepting that with so many people in our family, and being rather remotely located, i couldn't possibly know everyone well. all things being equal, when faced with two choices of attitude i highly recommend choosing the one that alleviates guilt. in the meantime, please feel free to email me as chastisingly as you feel is appropriate- provided you can embue me with a clue.


getting good crops out of huge originals is almost too easy


this is the aforementioned other half of my folks' conversation:

2005.07.03.19.15
my cousin Chantalle (couch, left) and her mom, my Aunt Ginger (couch, right), with my cousin Eva and her boyfriend Tom chillin' with Nichole and Chris's youngest, Cole.



after dinner, those so inclined headed down to the dock for a little evening fishing. they'll have to get bigger ones than this to feed our army....

2005.07.03.19.51
Chris, Ethan and Cole are always up for a little fishin'. that's my cousin Grey with his back turned.


2005.07.03.19.51
little tighter shot of Chris and Cole. one step backwards on Ethan's part and this would've been a better shot. you can fix some picture flaws easily, some take a lot of work....but bad composition is tough to do anything about.


i got to spend some time with my cousin Jim, which i'm pretty happy about, and met his girlfriend Laurie (sp?), who's really nice. i got a couple shots with her in 'em so she'll pop up here sooner or later. this shot's a good example of not watching out for backlighting. i'll either learn or i'll keep having to edit pictures. too dark, right? like i said before, some things are fixable with good tools. (photoshop beats the hell out of anything else i've used.) to fix this picture took about half an hour, mostly to accurately select the area(s) of the picture to modify. time well spent...but i think i went brain dead on this one and didn't save the full size edited version, only the cropped one- which means i'll prob'ly end up doing it again. glad i don't make that mistake too often.

2005.07.03.19.51
Jim relaxing on the dock with a beer. (orig)


(edit)


i know my cousin Eva better than any of my cousins, due in large part to her coming out and staying with my folks after high school for a year, not to mention coming out for my sister Melissa's wedding, and visiting her family a lot when i was a kid, since they lived close to my Gramma and Grampa Pelkey. but those are other stories. Eva's a lot of fun, and a goofball :) that's her boyfriend Tom; i was glad to get to meet him on this trip, he's a great guy.

2005.07.03.19.53
Eva and Tom. it's a good bet that stickin' yer tongue out'll get yer pic posted.


meanwhile, someone caught one (i doubt it was the first one, they were practically jumping out the water). i don't know if Uncle Jim (holding the pole) caught this one or Ethan (front and center with the fish) did. that's Chris holding the other pole, and Jim's son-in-law Bill (the Giants fan). almost hiding in the back there is Kelley, Jim's granddaughter. this shot's proof that size does matter. shrunk down you can barely make out Kelley, not to mention the fish.

2005.07.03.19.53
nothing succeeds like success


after awhile i started figuring out that the more people are in a shot, the harder it is to get a good picture of all of 'em. composition again. i'll learn.

2005.07.03.19.56
(clockwise from left) Tom, Jim, Bill (holding Billy), and Uncle Jim on the dock.


it's a pretty good bet that if you're totally crackin' up yer pic'll get posted too.

2005.07.03.19.57
Chris and Jim


now this shot is the one-in-literally-87 picture that makes snapping a million pictures worthwhile. they just don't get much better than this. this copy isn't really cropped, just shrunk way down. awesome. the best caption sent to me gets to replace the one i'm putting in for now:

2005.07.03.20.00
a little guy exacting some retribution from Grey, who abducted almost everyone in his school. (sorry...that's all i got).


here's another one that looks better full size, but this is good composition (yay!) that's my cousin Michelle's oldest boy Rob in the (killer, vintage-style) black T-shirt, and Grey's son Josh in the orange. first time i ever met either of those fine young gentlemen too. i did my best to give 'em a run for their money in a playground-style basketball game Loren calls Bump; i forget what Josh calls it. and who knows what them strange East Coast folk're thinkin' anyway....it's like a whole 'nother world. the game was a good suggestion on Josh's part though- Loren's always up for it, and he enjoyed it almost as much as i did. but that's for another post.....

2005.07.03.20.01
(left to right) Tom, Rob, Josh and Jim



i didn't get very many shots of Aunt Carol, but this is a decent profile. the lighting needs a little work though. flash error (read: pilot error). if it was the foreground messed up i would have fixed this one- gotta pick my battles though. if i'm not buried with more by the time i get done with these pictures, i'll prob'ly fix it. unless someone wants a better one of it, of course, in which case i'll hop right on it, lemme know.

2005.07.03.20.19
Eva and Aunt Carol.



it all boils down to having to sleep sooner or later. for most of us that means winding down first, and Loren's no exception. i think he's about as wound down as he gets right here.

2005.07.03.23.12
Loren sinkin' in.


that's it for now, next post more pics! unless i get an urge to write about the last few weeks first....

PEACE

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