Tag: Winter

Medicinal Spirits

The smell of scotch whisky used to make me throw up.

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What's one way to relax and prepare for the soreness of digging out from under 30 inches of snow? Why, a dram of Laphroaig of course. The scene was backlit so I used my Nikon SB600 for some fill light.

I started drinking scotch and whiskey only recently. For many years I avoided the drink because it would make me gag. This was something I developed after having a really bad experience in my youth. I got drunk after a girlfriend dumped me. A little too drunk. I had a little too much Johnny Walker. Ever since then the smell of scotch was just too much to handle.

It was my brother-in-law who turned things around for me. After I turned down an offer of scotch one night he asked me, "have you ever had a single malt scotch". Er ... no. "Try it", he said and handed me a dram of a Macallan ingle malt Scotch whisky. I reluctantly pulled the glass to my mouth fully expecting to hurl. To my surprise, I did not. I was cured!.

I tried Macallan 12, 15, 18, Glenlivet 15, Oban 14 and attended a few scotch tasting events and I thought to myself, "This is awesome!"

I wanted to try American Whiskey -- I learned there was a spelling difference -- and Bourbon. When in Rome.

I tried Woodford Reserve on the recommendation of a local bartender and sorta-kinda-like it. Then one day I discovered, The Whiskey Jug, and after several hours of education, I went on a hunt for Laphroaig 10 Year and Woodford reserve Double Oaked. My brother-in-law had warmed me to avoid peaty scotch. He said they weren't as smooth.

One sip of the Laphroaig and I knew he was wrong. This scotch has character. The Macallan, the Glenlivet, and the Oban were normal in comparison. The Laphroaig is never boring. It's the scotch that I could spend the weekend with. Slainte.

Working Hard

A few weekend's ago, nature pissed on the Princeton area. For over 36 hours, a snowstorm dumped its load. By the time the wind and snow had stopped, we had over 30 inches of snow piled in front of our doorway and front door. I could hardly see my car. Bhavna and I dreaded going out to remove the heavy powder, so we waited until the next day, Sunday.

We opened the garage door and worked for over 1-hour shovelling snow from around the car. Once we had removed enough snow, I parked the car on the street while the kids and I removed the rest of the snow from the driveway. This was backbreaking work. The snow was the heavy packing kind. Great for making snowballs and snowmen but a PITA for parents who need to get to work the next day.

After digging out and surveying the work we had done, I suddenly remembered an image I had seen a few years earlier. The photographer had taken images of himself in various poses in his driveway. I tried to create something similar. My photograph is exposed facing into the driveway. The photographer had composed his scene facing out from his garage. He had an image of himself sitting in a lawn chair, drinking hot chocolate while observing himself working in the snow. Our lawn chairs were in the shed in the back. The shed was inaccessible due to the aforementioned 30 inches of snow in the backyard, so I improvised. I used an image of me sipping some scotch while leaning against a shovel.

I learned how to use Photoshop layer masks last summer. This is perhaps not the best work I've done with masks, but it was the most fun. Five images were used to create this composite.

Looking Down on Servis Road

Servis Road runs along the Sourland Mountain Range in Skillman, New Jersey near the border with Hillsborough. The road is a very short loop road that begins and ends on Hollow Road and is barely wide enough for one car to pass, much less two. I took this from the top of Servis Road looking down onto Hollow Road. This is a three image HDR converted to B& W in Silver EFX Pro.