Dear Santa...

We all know that the Christmas season seems to start earlier and earlier each year.  Pretty soon, the stores will start to display Christmas decorations on July 5th.  I've been getting spam e-mails for a few weeks already from a few companies with Christmas specials.  The Sears tool catalog that came in the mail about a month ago was Christmas themed.  Enough is enough!  Let the mad rush begin the day after Thanksgiving like it's supposed to.  Not the Canadian Thanksgiving which was just a little while ago, the good old fashioned USA Thanksgiving.  The mad rush of trying to find just the right gift for everyone in just about a month, that's how it's supposed to be!

OK, that's my take on the whole thing.  What do I know, I hate shopping.  Well, I hate going to the stores anyway.  I'm a big fan of internet shopping.  I get to check on prices from hundreds of stores, and buy from which ever store I want.  No lines, no crowds, no screaming kids with upset parents, no driving around the parking lot looking for a spot, in short, my kind of shopping.  With that being stated, I've decided to step up on the bandwagon (not jump) and post a bit of a Christmas Wishlist.  Now, I prefer that nobody sends me anything.  I had a friend say something to me once that pretty much summed it up. "How about I give you a $20 bill for Christmas, you give me one, we shake hands, say 'Happy Holidays' and call it even"  That works for me!  It's not about the gifts.



I know my family is thinking about me during the holidays so to them I say, "Don't spend the time and energy!  I love you guys and I know (well I'd like to think) you love me.  Just send an e-mail that says Happy Holidays or whatever, that's more than enough."  I know my family, and I know that they probably won't listen to that so click here to see a wishlist I made for a few things I would like to have.  Notice, there is nothing on the list over $25 and I'll update it as I find stuff.  It's the thought that counts, and as I said above, just an e-mail is more than enough.

Back to the real reason I started this blog, to talk about Photography.  Well, as you can tell, I really couldn't think of anything to talk about today. I'm just going to the NAPP website to see if the updated the NAPP News video yet and then over to Photoshop User TV site to see if they have a new episode (This week they are supposed to be in their new studio).  I guess when I'm done with that, I'll catch up on reading the blogs that I follow, and look at my twitter feed to see if there is anything interesting to look at.  Maybe I'll try to make so HDR images out of the cool sunset I shot last night at the beach.  I took over 1100 shots yesterday at about 4 locations throughout the day, so I might have sonething to work with.  Here is an HDR from yesterday morning (click the photo to go to my gallery)

If I see something blog worthy (not like any of this was) in my travels, I'll post updates.