Photography Bloopers

Have you ever taken a photograph and been so focussed on the foreground subject that you didn't notice intrusive backgrounds? It is a common blunder. Here are a few examples from a quick look at some of mine.

Here is a group shot of us at a "dead city" in Syria in 2005. Notice the guy standing in the background? Actually, we noticed he did that on purpose, as I believe he staged for subsequent photos as well. Jeremy is quite prolific with making backround poses for strangers' photos (I wish I had an example, like the one where he is stuffing his mouth with food at a restaurant table behind a photo setting).


Here is a shot from our 1976 trip in the Netherlands. Notice anything?


This was just last week in Verboort. Suzanne used this photo in her blog, but had to edit out the lady in the awkward standing position.

This photo is the crown jewel of such examples. I'm sorry, Barry, but I can't help laughing out loud every time I view this photo.

If I had more time I could find many more examples. I'm sure there is one of my graduation from BYU with a flagpole sticking out of my head, but I can't locate it just now.

Pics from the 70's

Here are some random pictures from the 1970's that I must have scanned into the computer along the way. Looks like a couple of Pam's kids joined in this one:


Anyone know what year this would be? 1974?


I see baby Blair, so this must be 1977.


Here is our home in Meridian, ID. Note the front of the '66 Chevy in the driveway. The US flag in the window was the fad at the time to give support for the hostages in Iran, so this should be 1980, plus or minus.


Our two boys, probably late 1979 or 1980. Anyone know the location? Perhaps Newhall, CA.

I think this picture was on Facebook a few weeks ago. The gang in Vienna in 1976.


Early 1977 in front of our duplex at China Lake, CA.

That's Eric in Germany, 1976.

Let's see, must be late 1973 or 1974. How old is Jason here?

A Most Beautiful Place

We love living in Oregon. One of the reasons is that there are so many beautiful, scenic places, and so much variety. If I had to pick one place we love to go, and where we have so many memories from over the years, it would be Cape Kiwanda.

We have stayed at the Thousand Trails campground there many times, as we are the beneficiaries of my parents' membership there. Here is one camping site we have used a number of times:

Here are a number of photos taken in the last few years:

Here is a link to a post Suzanne wrote about Cape Kiwanda: http://topomountain.blogspot.com/2010/06/cape-kiwanda.html

It's so nice that this place has not just the beautiful views, but wonderful memories associated with it.

European Delivery, 2010

I'd had past experience with diesel vehicles, owning a 1981 Rabbit Diesel (great mileage, but no fun to drive), and renting a Volvo in Europe in 2002 (which I loved). One reason I did a three year lease on the 2007 335xi was that a diesel version of the 335 might come out soon, and my financial models showed it just as cost effective to lease back to back as to buy and hold. (The reasons for this are beyond the scope of this post, but perhaps another time.)

I liked my 2007 335xi enough that I was prepared to just keep it, but before making a final decision I ran the numbers again and found that buying a 2011 335d would work out to cost less, due largely to an additional $4500 "eco credit", plus $900 energy tax credit. Bottom line, due to these incentives plus European Delivery discounts, I was getting over 20% off MSRP.

So we planned another trip to Germany on the way to visit Bridget and her family in Dubai. I'll give details of the trip in subsequent posts and focus more on the car for now.

We flew out of Portland on Wednesday morning, Oct. 13, and arrived in Munich the morning of Oct. 14. We would have liked more sleep but there were things to do and places to go, so we headed right to the BMW Welt via S-Bahn and U-Bahn. The BMW Welt is a fabulous, futuristic building on the site of the BMW Munich factory where they deliver new cars to customers. They really roll out the red carpet for you and we were pretty impressed with the whole delivery experience. We were provided complimentary passes to the BMW museum and a factory tour, plus vouchers to use at their restaurant and gift shop. Here is our first view of the car coming down the stairs from the premium lounge.


Here I am driving the car around the "victory lap" to exit the building.


We drove that afternoon to Austria, went to bed early, and got up early to continue on to Budapest, and then on to eastern Slovakia the following day. Lots of fun driving on freeways and rural highways.

We were worried about car theft in former eastern block countries, and had it parked securely in Budapest behind a locked gate. But in Slovakia there was no secure parking available. We stayed two nights at Hotel Alibaba in Humenne just parked in their lot out front. The hotel staff assured us not to worry, that they had never heard of a car theft in Humenne. Still, I was relieved each morning to see the car safe and sound in the lot.

We didn't get a lot of pictures of the car in scenic settings. But here is one parked by the cemetary in Poruba, where Suzanne has cousins and ancestors are buried.

While there were speed limits elsewhere, Germany is famous for its high speed autobahn. We did get a clear stretch of autobahn on our final day, and with the car now broken in we sustained over 100 mph for a while, and peaked at 125. Sadly, that experience is unlikely to be repeated in the USA.

Five and a half days ended all too soon, and we had logged over 1400 miles. Note the 34 mpg average, despite some spirited driving--love that diesel engine!

We dropped the car off at the designated location just north of Munich on Tuesday, Oct. 19, and took the train to downtown Munich, then the airport.

The car was loaded on the ship Maersk Wind in Bremerhaven on Nov. 6, will squeeze through the Panama Canal in a couple of weeks, and is due to arrive in Port Hueneme, CA, on Dec. 1. I figure I should have my new toy in our driveway as a birthday present around the 14th, inshallah.

European Delivery, 2007

In the summer of 2007 we planned a trip to visit the Palmers in Amman, Jordan. Since it was kind of on the way, I took advantage of a side trip to Germany to pick up a 2007 BMW 335xi. I had learned a few more things about BMW's European Delivery program since our first experience, thanks to the internet, and this time I was able to negotiate another 3% discount on top of the 7% standard European Delivery discount. A dealership in nearby Salem, Oregon, offered the best deal.

The delivery center in Munich was pretty low key. Just an industrial area with an upscale garage area for customer delivery. Here is the approach to the center, which I arrived at from the airport via S-Bahn and tram and bus.



I visited the famous medieval city Rothenburg. Here I'm parked by the old city wall.


I visited the village where my mother's maternal grandfather is from:

And I did a driving tour of my mission areas, including Duesseldorf:

Here is the car in Bacharach just before dropping it off in Frankfurt:

I caught the transport ship on a webcam as it passed through one of the Panama Canal locks:

Daniel and I took the train down to Salem to pick up the car seven weeks later. What a fun mini-trip that was:

I liked this car well enough to own it ten years, but things worked out differently, leading to European Delivery, Part III, in the next post.

European Delivery, 1997

I served my two year mission in Germany, and since then I have been partial to all things German. For instance, I always root for Germany in international soccer tournaments, such as the World Cup. And I am very partial to German cars, especially BMWs.

I never thought it practical to actually own a BMW, but a combination of a company stock windfall and a planned visit to Austria in November 1997 brought it about. I was in the market for a new car and test drove and researched many models. The BMW 328i was the clear winner and a 7% discount for taking delivery in Munich, Germany, was the clincher.

BMW offers a European Delivery program, where you work with a stateside BMW dealership to order a U.S. spec car for delivery in Munich. BMW provides insurance for driving in Europe, and there are a number of locations to drop the car off for shipment back to the U.S. dealer. BMW includes shipment and all other fees in the price of the car.

Here is the German license plate for the car:

We really enjoyed driving the new car in Europe, and it saved us car rental expenses. We picked up our son, Blair, from his mission in Austria and toured the country with him. It was a wonderful vacation overall.

One downside is the long wait after dropping the car off until it is delivered in the states, normally seven to eight weeks for the west coast. But along with the car come the memories of the European delivery experience.

Here is the car almost ten years later as we prepared to sell it.

And the original window sticker.

It took nearly ten years, but we decided to repeat the experience. Stay tuned for episode 2.

Lost in Budapest

When we visited Budapest last month, we parked the car at our hotel and bought all day tickets to use the public transportation. Here is a photo of "Moscow Square", a major transportation hub in Budapest. (Suzanne already commented about the Communist architecture of the building in the center in her blog: http://topomountain.blogspot.com/2010/11/one-of-these-things-is-not-like-others.html)


I enjoy not only the economy and convenience of public transportation in large cities, but the increased feeling for the people, the city, and the sites which is gained by "rubbing shoulders" with the locals and travelling as they do.

At the end of the day we made our way back from the Parliament building, across the Danube River, and to Moscow Square. We then took a side trip back to Castle Hill to view the city at night. Then back to Moscow Square and to the tram to our hotel. However, now it was dark and we couldn't recognize the correct stop. A slight panic set in as we worried about being lost at night in a foreign city with very strange sounding and spelling of street names. We studied the map and tried to make out street names, went past the stop, and got on a tram to reverse our course. Fortunately, we guessed right on our second pass and soon found ourselves safe and sound back in our room. And with another fond memory from our trip.