If you camp with me, this might just wake you up.

You’ve been warned.

When I travel to the west coast I’m treated to something I don’t get to see very often- sunrise. Especially in the winter time when the sun sleeps in past 10 AM (by my east-coast clock anyway). I wish I owned a nice DSLR, a telephoto lens, and had the practice to take good photos… In a place like this, good scenes aren’t hard to find. These are the kinds of mornings that make me a morning person.

For you camera nerds, this was taken with a Sanyo Xacti VPC-CG65 still/video point-and-shoot. It’s tiny, usually what I use on the ski hill for action shots, but the quality always surprises me.

Update: Contest entries have ended… time to decide on a winner!

Pay attention, you could win a Matthew Ebel dot net All-Access Pass for one month! My room mate RoninOtter took this picture as we were testing out some of his new photography equipment. Right after he posted it, C.C. Chapman mentioned it looked like a mugshot.

Well, C.C., you’re absolutely right.

So what’s the contest? Reply to this blog post and tell me:

1. Where I was arrested
2. What I was arrested for

The winning entry will be picked on Feb. 1 by a panel of random friends who haven’t entered the contest. Yes it’s totally subjective and will be based on whatever makes us laugh the most. If you really want to skew your chances, try photoshopping this and posting to your own blog, but make sure you link to it here in the comments with your official entry.

Contest ends at the end of January 2009 and you can enter as often as you like!

Leave your entries here…


Update: I thought it would go without saying that entries containing vulgar language or epithets would be deleted. Apparently, it needs to be said. Be tasteful.

This little HDR shot was beautifully set up by my room mate. Yes, that’s a blizzard outside the window. And yes, that is a very, very warm dog named Mountain on the couch. And yes, that is also mountain all over the easy chair.

Anyway, this is the only way to survive a New England blizzard, it seems… Warm fire, happy pets, and spiked cocoa.

I mean hot cocoa. Hot cocoa. Who said anything about Irish cream?

A lot of folks wonder why a lot of people call me “Birdman.” Well, this is why. Even a vicious aerial predator like this [tag]osprey[/tag] just looks so darn cute. Unless you’re a fish, of course, then you’d probably run away screaming. Not that fish could scream, it’s just a figure of speech.

Isn’t she cute though? I love it. I’d want a pet osprey if it wouldn’t try to kill me all the time.
[tags]pandeon, pandion, haliaetus, photography, wildlife, birds, raptors[/tags]