PHOTO: Bee on Flower

Friday, 3rd September 2010 @ 8:19 am | Category: Photography

This is from my neighbor's small flower garden. After seeing this large bee hanging out on these blossoms I grabbed the camera (I ask my neighbor for permission first) and snapped some photos. The camera is about 12 inches from the bee. It seemed like a nice calm bee so I wasn't to worried about getting stung.



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My latest creation, philmartinez dot com

Tuesday, 31st August 2010 @ 7:31 pm | Category: Update

I am proud to announce the launch of philmartinez.com. This website is my active portfolio. It highlights my various areas of expertise and will be updated with notes about projects, science, coding, tech, et cetera.

Philobyte.com will still be updated with more personal events such as holidays, camping/hiking adventures, vacations, and so on. However, philobyte.com is not a good place for me to rant about coding syntax or talk about technology. This is my fun site and that's how I will keep it.

So check out my new website located at philmartinez.com and let me know what you think. Thanks!



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Sunflowers in Kansas

Sunday, 29th August 2010 @ 8:44 pm | Category: Photography

Last Wednesday my friend Jeff and myself visited a local sunflower field to take photographs. We arrived in the late afternoon as the sun was falling to the West. Since the flowers were facing the East, we had the challenge of shooting pictures towards the sun. This created a very bright and over-exposed picture and caused deep shadows to rest in the center of the flowers. I tried shooting at different angles and cycled through a variety of camera settings. Fortunately I was able to bring many of them to life in post-processing. Below is a few from the set. Check the entire group on flickr here.







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Nice weather and the hike

Monday, 16th August 2010 @ 10:51 pm | Category: Update

After several weeks of intense Kansas heat, we finally got a break. This last Sunday it was hovering around 80 degrees. After barricading myself indoors for the past 10 days or so it was nice to get out and enjoy the cooler weather. I decided it would be a great time to take a hike and also snaps some photos along the way. Clinton Lake has some great trails. The one I travelled was called the North Shore trails. The trails are about 23 miles long and are very well maintained. I spent about 3.5 hours hiking approximately 4 miles. Here are some photos from the hike. You can also view the entire set here.





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On top of The Oread hotel

Tuesday, 27th July 2010 @ 4:26 pm | Category: Update

Today I attended the monthly Lawrence lunch Tweetup. For this month we met at the Bird Dog restaurant located inside Lawrence's newest and grandest hotel, "The Oread". For dessert, the Bird Dog provided our group with ice cream. Interesting enough they served it in dog food bowls.

After the lunch we were invited to the top of the hotel for a brief tour. I was able to take some great pictures. You can either check out the photos from the entire lunch here or check out the tour shots at my events page.



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Float trip and camping at Blue Springs Ranch

Thursday, 1st July 2010 @ 8:17 pm | Category: Trips

My friend Caroline was nice enough to invite me on a float trip at the Blue Springs Ranch in Missouri. There was 7 total people going on the trip that involve camping, swimming, and of course floating.

We arrived on a friday night and set up camp. The next morning we were bussed 5 miles upstream and dropped off to awaiting rafts. After loading the rafts were shoved off and began the slow ride back towards the camp. Most of us didn't spend much time inside the rafts. The water felt good and the floatation device was used like a mini raft. Throughout the river we entertained ourselves with rope swings, water gun fights, sandbars, baby ducks, caves, and of course beer and wine.

The trip lasted about 4 hours and seemed to go by quickly. However, it was probably best that it ended when it did. I, and many others, was burnt. Soon after arriving back to camp it was obvious that most of us would suffer from sunburns for the next few days. I probably had the worst burns of all. This might have something to do with the fact that I did not use any sunblock. That's right, I wore none. Why? Because I usually don't burn. But since my back hasn't seen the sun at all this year it was prone to burning. I learned a big lesson! Anyway, other than the burns the trip was fun and hopefully I'll get a chance to go again this summer.

Check out all the pictures on my events page or on flickr.

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Building a license plate holder for my mom's Mazda

Tuesday, 22nd June 2010 @ 11:31 pm | Category: DIY Projects

My moms Mazda didn't have a standard bolt pattern for mounting a license plate. She stopped by my house on her way to Minnesota and needed to replace the 30 day tag before continuing with the trip. Unfortunately, no place in town had a plate holder that would fit this car. So I decided to make a quick trip to the hardware store and build a plate holder for her car. It took me about 45 minutes to get it built and mounted. Here are some pictures from the build.

Clicking a photo below with send you to a larger photo on my project flickr account.











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Photo: My Patio Tree

Wednesday, 16th June 2010 @ 9:30 pm | Category: Photography

The tree which shades most of my patio produces an incredibly beautiful display of flowers every spring. This year I was able to grab a few photos of the tree in full bloom on a nice clear day.

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