ken zirkel

Our garden has had its ups and downs. Most notably, a hailstorm in late June devastated several plants, tearing leaves and stripping branches off of the green peppers and several other plants.

But when we got back from vacation, we were greeted with our first big harvest. We had several cherry tomatoes, large tomatoes, chard, and the biggest zucchini I’ve ever seen.

I was looking for a lightweight tripod for travel, something that would fit in a suitcase and be reasonably compact and light to carry, but still be sturdy and usable enough to support a DSLR with 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. For quite some time I’ve owned a Manfrotto 3021PRO, which is an inexpensive aluminum tripod and very usable. The Manfrotto is a great tripod for use in the studio or driving around in the car, but it is a bit much to carry on plane trips or hikes.

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We’ve had a fun and exciting week exploring the Pacific Northwest. Specifically, we explored Seattle WA, Portland OR, Mt. Saint Helens, and enjoyed a weekend at a beach house in Depoe Bay, OR. View my gallery of happy snappies or read more for the full report.

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I happened to be free this weekend, and my friend JB told me about a special event at New Yorks’ Governor’s Island. It was “City of Water Day”, and paddlers were invited to visit the island under their own power. So I packed the canoe on top of the car and drove to Red Hook, Brooklyn, where JB and I departed with about two dozen other paddlers and a Coast Guard escort, and headed across a portion of lower New York bay. In the canoe I placed my Brompton folding bicycle, and JB had arranged to have a Swift folding bike delivered to the island.

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Look up “healthier life” and you’ll see my picture. Or something like that.

From this benefits administrator site.

The wife spotted a notice for an evening canoe trip, and after work I quickly threw everything together at the last minute. The Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council was sponsoring a group trip at a local pond (actually a section of the Woonasquatucket that has been dammed). It was a lovely journey and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This was my first paddling on a river in years. The kids claimed to have done it only for the ice cream promised at the end.

There’s a few more on Flickr.

A photo of mine recently won Grand Prize in a photo contest sponsored by the Brown University Annual Fund.

Here’s a good-looking Will Richardson, expounding on the benefits of the Tetratrike. What a handsome guy, but he looks familiar …

We had a blast during our beach house vacation on Long Island’s North Fork. See the gallery for more.

According to the clicktools product, I do. Maybe my wife would disagree, though.