My grandfather, Papa, in his usual posture. He's over 90 and still kicking. In his youth he rode some of the earliest motorcycles with his brother. A picture of him on one of his bikes from the 1930's was published in American Motorcycle magazine.  

Nana, my father's mother, begged me not to take her picture. "I don't have any make-up on and I haven't done my hair!" I think she looks great. 

My beautiful nephew Johnny. He is one of the many overly-photogenic members of my family. If there's a bad picture of this kid, I haven't seen it. He'll turn three just after I leave. I hate to miss his birthday and I do feel guilty leaving so close to his party. However, I plan on writing him quite a bit while I'm gone. I hope he'll understand.

My good friend Ryan, who is indirectly responsible for my applying for the Peace Corps, took this picture in Turkestan. It's a mausoleum and I really love this shot. Hopefully he won't be upset to find it on my blog. 

Our Shi-tzu Cappucino. She's the most spoiled/needy dog we've ever had. All the dogs before her wanted nothing to do with us, but if Cappie goes a few moments without obvious displays of affections she worries we don't love her.  

Mom on the day we all went out to the Boise Depot for some family pictures. We had them taken by my boss Shannon from Lifetouch photography. She gave us three really nice poses, but we couldn't resist snapping a few ourselves. Mom had such a great time that day she immediately started planning a second trip out there.  

My baby brother Colin looking very studly. He was actually really sick this day, but he managed to drag himself out for family pictures at the Depot. 

From left to right this is my sister-in-law Tammie, my older brother Cameron and their son/my favorite nephew Johnny.

Here are my two very handsome brothers posing for an awesome picture at the old Depot in Boise. 

And here they are having a battle royale. 

Taylor, a bar/party friend and great rapper, is nervous about the flash on my camera. Whenever I take pictures at the bar I have to use a special setting to prevent red-eye and make sure the shutter stays open long enough. This makes everyone a little uncomfortable as a strobe light flashes in their face and I yell "Sit still!"

Artist Skylar deep in tought. Skylar made a series of shirts reading "I Potato Idaho" with an image for the potato. I have one and I really like it. Skylar's art pops up here and there all over Boise. At the moment he's painting a mural on the side of a restaraunt with his brother Marcus. Both of them are just too adorable.

This is my gorgeous mother. We stopped in a Starbucks after apartment-hunting for my cousin Sara. She's getting ready to move to Boise and work as a pharmacist for St. Al's. Mom was very excited about helping her find a place to live, but we both needed a break after a few hours. 

Here's Tyler at a bar. I took a picture because seeing him drink is such a rare occurence. The shirt he's wearing says Benetton. That's an early 80's designer brand. Occording to Tyler, he found it with all the original tags intact, making it very valuable. He chose to cut them off and wear it for the sake of fashion. 

This is Stephanie, Boise's sexiest and most talented architect. I like this picture because she isn't posing, she's just being herself. She's awesome. 

The very red phone booth at the Flying M. This spot was once voted "Best Place to be Seen" by the call-making public.

A blue Adam drinks his dark brown beer. He did not want his picture taken. I told him to toughen up, but that just made him cry.

Here I am looking very petrified in the Flying M, one of Boise's best coffee houses. I was hoping for a good picture but didn't see any possibilities. Then I turned around and saw myself in the mirror, so I snapped a quick shot.

A very blue Ashley sits outside of Lucky 13, waiting for her zuchinni/pepperocini/feta pie. I could delete the picture, but she's just too darn cute. 

Walking with Adam and Ashley to Lucky 13, an awesome pizza place in Hyde Park in Boise. This was one of the bluest days in Idaho history.

some notes on Boise

I'm playing with my new camera and gradually falling in love with it. I felt absolutely no confidence the first few times I used it, but now that I know it a little bit better, I'm really enjoying it.