Sunday, September 14, 2008

Another Weekend Adventure

So once again I hopped in the "Swamp Donkey" and took a drive. This weekend I went South on the Richardson Hwy to Paxon. Unfortunately, The weather was not in my favor this weekend. The drive was BEAUTIFUL...probably my favorite so far. The road is in fantastic condition and it takes you through some gorgeous snowcapped mountains and glaciers! The rain, on the other hand, not so beautiful. My pictures did not turn out as well as I hoped. The sky was very over exposed and the ground was extremely underexposed (in other words...the sky is too bright and the ground is too dark.) If I would have had the patience I could have set up the tripod, put on my GND filter, and bracketed all of my shoots...but the drive was over 300 miles round trip and all of my shooting was done on the side of the road. I did get a few shots that I am not too disappointed with...I hope you enjoy them:

The drive started out with excitement...I saw my first moose on the highway!
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I ended up seeing three moose on this drive, but this is the only picture I had time to snap. They are surprisingly sneaky for being such a huge animal. The second moose I saw I actually had time to get my camera out and slow the car down, but by the time I got to the place where she was...she was gone. How does a 7 foot, several hundred pound, dopey looking walking venison steak hide in 2 feet of brush? Crazy.


Ok..here are some mountains =)
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(the sun came out for a little bit. If you look closely, there is a faint rainbow in this shot)

And here is my favorite from the drive:
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OK...about my week teaching:

This week went pretty well. Monday and Tuesday were a little frustrating, but the week ended well. I have a loud voice that carries very well. If the student's were chatty, I have been able to get their attention by just talking loudly. That sounds like a great plan...but kids are smart. They realize that if I am able to get their attention because of my loud voice, they are able to keep on talking and they will not really miss anything because I can still be heard. I fixed that. I now refuse to compete with 33 other voices. I can, but I won't. I told my classes that if I keep trying to talk over them, I'll be mute by the end of the semester. Now all I need to do is start giving directions in my soft voice and go on with class. If they didn't hear the directions, it is not my fault they were not listening. They have responded very well to this new strategy =)

That's pretty much all that is exciting that happened at school. Today, I need to go back into class and work on a new seating chart for orchestra...fun!! I cooked the moose I had in the freezer today. It is awesome. I made a moose, rice, and mushroom dish...Moose-a-roni, the Athabaskan treat - DING DING!!!

I hope you all have a great week!
~Mr. Lockwood

2 comments:

Greg said...

Glad to see you are getting out and cooking in.

SNOWKITTY said...

I was just looking at your photos from Alaska and they are incredible!! I am a music teacher in the foothills of the N.Sierra in California. I have been to Alaska 3 times to compete in the Iditasport competition that starts in Anchorage. I may try to get up there in the May just to see Alaksa in a different light. Have fun educating. I am Snowkitty