Not quite the crack of Dawn... more like the tailbone.

Okay, it's a few minutes before 5:00AM on a Saturday and I'm wide awake. Not wanting to put this time to waste, I got a load of jeans in the washing machine. Might as well since I'm up.

I wrapped up the week at the office and freed up my Friday afternoon so I could take off. It was so nice outside and I really hadn't taken a break from work in some time. Originally, my plan was to come home and work on my yard but that didn't materialize. I decided that I needed... okay WANTED to experiment with some nature photos. I looked around online and decided that my location for the day would be the botanical gardens. Before heading that way, I checked out their site online and went ahead and downloaded a membership form to join up. I was pretty sure this would be a place I would frequent.

On the way over, I stopped off in Madison for some lunch with Joe, a friend of mine from my days at The 'Graph. He shares my interest in video games so I offered to let him check out my Sony PSP in-person. He dug it. Caught up with him a little on the latest happenings in Stalag #5 which is always good for a chuckle.

Arrived at the gardens a little later and got my membership stuff taken care of then I wandered out onto the property. It was a nice place but it was still early in the season so not much was yet in bloom. You could tell that there was a lot of potential though. Kyle, who also had schemed to take off work early - joined up with me in a membership also (what a trooper) and we did more scouting around the place. Definitely a lot of possibilities for photos and videos. Soon after, my sister joined in the fun as well. Spent several HOT hours shooting different things including a goose that was being uncooperative and wouldn't look my direction despite Kyle making all sorts of noises.

I don't know about you, but anytime I spend outdoors in the sun usually drains me. We all felt this as we sat down to an early dinner at Macaroni Grill. I had the Crespelli de Mare which was fantastic! Went home right afterwards and reviewed my shots. I got some good stuff, some of which I've already posted. Spent the remainder of the evening doing more photo stuff and reviewing some footage Kyle took for a side project he's working on. Last stop of the evening was Logan's where we just hung out. I had a Corona (see pic on Kyle's site for the size of the lime they stick in your bottle) and a bowl of soup.

Sleep happened at this point.

What's on tap for today? Barring a last minute call from Nashville to head up there to shoot at the NASCAR Busch race, I'll be sticking around here. Weather permitting, I'll be heading over to a nearby location to shoot a friend's son for some football pictures (he's a kicker for a local HS team). No plans other than that. I may actually just take it easy today since my last few weekends have been jam-packed.