Boxing Day

Today was a relaxing day...slept in, enjoyed a nice breakfast with our friends before they headed home. We got some rockband in last night and had some fun playing Jenn's new boardgame she got for Christmas. Corey and her hubby Dale stopped in and visited on their way through to visit their family. Jenn, Corey and Dale all jammed and it sounded awesome, Corey played the new Seagull awesome, that baby of Jenn's sounds amazing. I am jealous, I wanna learn how to play now....anyway, not much new here...just loving holidays. :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

Well, it's here, Christmas time for 2008. I can't wait....Jenn said I can't wake her up early.....heheheheh....we'll see about that. I love Christmas and CAN NOT wait to see Jenn open her gifts, she's gonna FLIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It'll be awesome, YOUTUBE video to come.....it'll rock. I CAN'T WAIT...hehehehe, it's 2am and I am excited I can't sleep. :)

Christmas Eve!!!!!

I made a playlist of some good Christmas tunes for people to enjoy. I also have a new list for 2009 of songs I am playing on my iTOUCH and they will be posted after the holidays. Hope everyone is having a good Christmas Eve. It's warming up here, only a mild -25ish, lol....oh well, where do I need to go today in this cold? I am going to go relax and enjoy Christmas Eve. :)

Merry Christmas

It's Christmas time and in a few days the 25th will be here. It's a special time of year for so many and a time I like to reflect on life. I am so thankful for all of the gifts I have been given. It's a time of year where so many have so little. Jenn and I have a nice warm home, great friends, 3 awesome cats and families that love and support us to no end. This past year has been one that I feel I have made some positive changes. I have a very positive attitude about this Christmas Season and look forward to time with Jenn and our friends. Christmas day we're having friends over and just looking to have a great time together.

To everyone that I have worked with in photography this year I wish you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS. May your holiday be a special time and bring you lots of great moments to cherish. Stay warm and safe and here's looking forward to an awesome 2009!! My plans for the holiday....

- xbox (fallout 3, NHL 09, Gears of War 2, Rockband 2 to name a few)

- Bluray and DVD's (we rented a lot of movies, my other fave thing to do)

- Be with Jenn (go skiing (maybe) and skating, hot tubbing in Sherwood Park)

- Visit my folks in Creston, BC (depending on weather)

Christmas Holidays are HERE

It's official, I am on 2 weeks of wonderful holidays. I can sleep in, do lots of fun things and forget about work. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ouch Oilers

Okay Santa, please, please, please......get a new coach for the Oilers for Christmas. I want them to win again, be a team I can be proud of. This joke of a team they have now isn't doing any Oiler fan justice. Ohhh well, 5 cups makes a fan have higher expectations, I need to see some Oiler dominance again please. Thanks Santa. :)

Long day today, got home at 9:30pm from the concert. A long day at school...hope the parents enjoyed the concert, it was a packed house. Anyway, I'm off to avoid watching the Oilers lose.....3-0 last time I checked (cringe). But yay!!!! Christmas is close at hand.

All I want for Xmas for the Oilers is a new coach please

Please Edmonton, get a new coach for Christmas. I am so annoyed with the lack of effort they are putting out. If anyone gave that amount of effort in their "REAL" job, they'd be fired. I blame the management and the coaching. This team is payed near the top of the league, they have skill players and yet they struggle in so many areas of this game. Their PK is weak, their goaltending situation is a joke, 3 goalies? Come on, make a decision already and give this team some focus. Start coaching these guys and getting them to put a consistent effort out on the ice. Losing 9-2 to a young team like Chicago, at home in front of a BIG crowd of fans is an embarassment. I guess MacT was just giving Chicago an early Christmas gift. What a goof he is, doesn't start a goalie who on the prior game had a shut out, sits players and makes line up changes after a shut out...this coach drives me and a lot of other fans nutty. It's time to change, they are going to always be an 8th place team at best under this leadership....sadly it doesn't seem to bother anyone in the organization, just the fans.....

I LOVE the Oilers and seriously want a new coach for Christmas. :) Speaking of Christmas, it's our Christmas Concert tonight, so I expect it to be a VERY long day. Great news is I am SO close to holidays after today!!! Yipeeeeeeeeee.

Last Monday of Work for 2008!!!

I have been playing with textures a lot...and using CS4. Love the textures and starting to find better ways of editing with them. Also loving that the year 2008 is almost done and holidays are on the doorstep. Hoping to stay warm and safe this week and looking forward to some rest and relaxation. :)

Hardstyle Republic - Resistance is Futile

I had to check out this style of dance again on youtube. If I could dance, I wish it could be like this. :) hehehe, I am too old but man, that is cool. I'd love to put down some moves like these guys, lol. :)

Christmas is Close

The holidays are coming quick. I am busy with work, trying hard to complete this part of the school year. So much is going on it does make my head spin, there is so much to do it almost makes teaching seem like a secondary thing I do. I am really hoping to get some photoshop time soon to do some more edits and hopefully do some new shoots before 2009 hits. However I do need to relax and re-charge the battery so I am ready to go again in the new year. I hope everyone has a happy holiday.

Thanks For the new Tool

Thanks to an awesome photographer friend for the cool blog template.....lets me do cool stuff like this. :)

~ Jenni B ~

~ Jenni B ~, originally uploaded by Randy Pond.

Another Jenni B Edit

~ Jenni ~

~ Jenni ~, originally uploaded by Randy Pond.

recent edit

Michael Jordan

a GREAT inspirational movie about success and failure.....wish more people thought like that about life. Too many people give up...

Nickelback - Something in your mouth

Got this song stuck in my head...hehehe

~ Samantha Valentine ~

~ Samantha Valentine ~, originally uploaded by Randy Pond.

Recent Samantha Valentine Edit

~ Hot Shirt ~

~ Hot Shirt ~, originally uploaded by Randy Pond.

Another recent edit

~ Red Couch ~

~ Red Couch ~, originally uploaded by Randy Pond.

Recent Edit of Lana

Weekend is here

The weekend is here....it has been a long week. 2 nights of parent teacher interviews is rough, makes for lonnnnnng days. I am excited to do some shoots this weekend. I have some portrait work that should be fun. It's also the time for December to enter in, xmas lights are popping up all over town. It's a beautiful time of year. I personally would like some snow, it sure makes it feel more like winter. If it's going to be cold, I would like snow with it.

JACOB the PHOTOGRAPHER model photoshoot testing softbox

This guy is cool...I want this set. :)

Photography Mentor

For photographers intersted in sharing and learning more about photography from other photographers, check out this cool website. It was shared with me by Smileyeyes and has some cool features. You can have your work critiqued by your peers and there is also live interviews done with professional photographers. I have not had much time to do much on the site but it sure looks interesting and possibly helpful. :) Here it is photography mentor.

It's hard to believe Christmas is so close...such a busy time of year for a lot of people. Stressful too, with people shopping, making travel plans to be with families. It sure is easy to get lost in the confusion and mad hustle. I am looking forward to just having time with Jenn and our 3 cats. Yesterday was fun, Nestor came by to visit and watched the Grey Cup with me. It was Finnigan, Nestor and me, the 3 dudes, watching the game. Finnigan is just a cool cat, loves to chill out. I also got 2 achievements on NBA 2k8, versus my buddy Nestor. Kobe Bryant's and Kevin Garnett's. I'd like to get NBA 2k9 so Nestor and I can continue our rivalry in the next edition of basketball.

It's a very busy week ahead and I sure hope to stay away from getting sick. I will have to drink a ton of water today and just have lots of sleep. Anyway, not much is new, had a maternity shoot cancelled on the weekend so I am kind of slowing down the photography. I am excited to be doing a photo shoot coming up of a Dodge Viper. That will be very cool...it's a portrait session...more details to come and hopefully some pictures. Other then that NOT a whole lot on the photography front for moi. Just a lot of things to wrap up from previous shoots and always edits to do, I could never run our of material to edit. Mass hard drives full of images, sitting and waiting for me to work on. I am not sure how other photographers are but I never get to edit even half of the shots I would like to.

Find something else to do Lloyminster Blog Stalker

You in Lloydminster that checks my blog non stop.....find something else to do with your life. Turn your computer off maybe, you don't need to always check my blog. It is annoying and just a bit creepy. Plz take a hint.....move on......stop reading my blog. Thanks.

~ Samantha Valentine ~

I went back to a shoot with Samantha Valentine and did some new edits. I think she is an awesome model, so much fun and very creative. It's SO easy to take amazing pictures of this girl.

Today I go in to the hospital for the doctor to cut out 2 moles that I think need to go. I have had moles taken off before so hopefully this is just standard and will not come back as anything bad. It's hard to know though and I am just happy to be getting this taken care of.

This week sure has gone fast, it's already Thursday, wow, the year is blowing by like mad. I hope I can catch up on some work this weekend. Go Oilers tonite, they have their hands full with the Wings. Also looks like creepy Lloydminster blog stalker is back after taking a break from constantly checking my blog....guess this person has nothing better to do then blogstalk me.

Andy and April

Youtube April and Andy Video

Andy and April's Wedding

These are some highlights from Andy and April's Wedding

Jenn Video

A video I had to make for Jenn cuz this song makes me think of her all the time :)

~ Weekend Ends Peacefully ~

Well, it was quite a week. I did some good relaxing with my cats. Nahla, Scully and Finnigan. They sure are a bunch of cats. It makes it tough with two cats and no Jenn around to help with them. I think Nahla and Finnigan are slowly becoming buddies and Scully is going to take a LONG time to come around to the new man.

I have to say that my buddy Sonny and I have had a BLAST playing the new Gears of War 2. That game is highly addictive and cool. We're pretty awesome for a couple old video game dudes. I have to say a sad weekend for Edmonton teams. Esks are out, Oilers are back to their losing ways. I am going to have to quit watching sports....I am not sure when Edmonton can get back to winning but it sure doesn't look like they want to. I hope Mac-T gets the axe. I am not sure how much he can keep losing before the owner or someone in power can smarten up and fire him. Time for a change Oilers....this less then average hockey is getting tiresome. Jenn and I decided we're not going to waste our money going to games until this franchise gets a different direction. Since games are on TV we can be Oiler fans that way and save our money for other entertainment.

I can't believe November is almost over. Xmas is around the corner, that is awesome. I can't wait for holidays and time with my beautiful wife and our 3 cats.

Lightroom Presets Video. Seim Power Workflow photo editing

Gavin knows his lightroom, this video sums up why I like lightroom so much.

Lightroom Work

just a quick video, the quality isn't great but gives an idea of how I edit on my 64 bit lightroom 2.....(drool)

3 Cats

Cynthia McLeod and Jon Matthews Concert

Cynthia and Jon rocked Vegreville last night. It was awesome to hear her play and Jon has mad talent too. They are playing in Edmonton tonight at the Trap and Gill. They are two talented people and Jenn and I wish them nothing but the best as they continue their tour.

Busy Times

It's another busy week. Working on edits for April and Andy again. Also loving the Oilers 2 game win streak, yipeeeeeeeeee. I'll post Halloween pics shortly. Hope to get back to updating my blog more.

-Randy

Mission 07 - Permanent Halloween Costume

If u ever thought it was silly to be in a costume on halloween....this guy had to wear his a Loooooong time.

Shantelle Edits

From an old shoot with the amazing Shantelle. :)

Blog Stalkers FEEDJIT

I have the FEEDJIT addon to my blog which shows me who checks out my blog. It's been interesting to see the different places around the world and some info about them. I can even check a worldwide map to see all the flags of countries.

Edmonton, Alberta arrived on "Randy Pond Photography"
Red Deer, Alberta arrived from randypond.ca on "Randy Pond Photography"
Coello, Illinois arrived on "Randy Pond Photography"
Lloydminster, Saskatchewan arrived from ca.search.yahoo.com on "Randy Pond Photography"

It is interesting to see the same ones over and over and over and yet never recieve any comments. The Lloydminster one checks 2-3 times a day and always searching for me through yahoo.ca and almost borders on creepy stalker status. Anyway, I know some people checking my site are photography clients, friends, people I know but also some are just strange lurkers and kind of makes one wonder. Anyway.....I guess u never can tell.

Uncle Now

Well, my sister had her baby over the weekend. Her girl's name is Charissa and has a big brother named Caleb. Lauri called me from the hospital on Saturday to let me know the good news. I wish I lived closer so I could capture some cool pics. Anyway, that's pretty much all the big news. I have been fighting a NASTY cold and pretty much totally sapped of energy. It's been really rough dealing with work, lots of stuff going on. Tons of P.D. going on, sub days, sick kids, sick staff.....IPP fun and more. Anyway, hoping after October ends it'll slow down. Who am I kidding? Then there is report cards, Christmas.....maybe xmas break will be when things calm down for moi. Anyway, back to work I go......hoping the Oilers can stop their suckage and get a win tonite vs the Beaners. I am not even gonna talk about the Eks, (cringe) they got pwned by the Dirt Farming Riders.

One Win Down

Edmonton went in to the Cow Town Den and stole a win from the godless Flames. That was awesome, :) now just hoping they can win tonight. Pretty strong start for the Oilers I'd say. Hope #44 isn't hurt. That would be bad for the Oil. Anyway, check my photo blog for recent April and Andy edits. Here is a teaser.

Edmonton Oilers 2008/2009 Season Opener

GO OILERS GO!!!!!!!!! :)

Oilers win!!!

Yay, the Oilers got their first win of the year on opening night. Great that Calgary is 0-2, loving that they are on a losing streak. Hoping Edmonton can sweep the home and home series but that would be tough. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Maternity Shoot

YAY Calgary lost in O.T. greatness, love when they lose. I also got to shoot Jamie and Theo tonite. Check my photography blog for more edits. :) Anyway, it's late and I need sleep. Hope I win in fantasy football tomorrow. (crosses fingers)

Awesome program to clean your computer

Everyone needs to check out this link. It's an awesome program to clean your computer up. Check it out, I found it very useful.
I LOVE that Calgary lost 6-0 yesterday. Poor O'Neill, she was not happy after her team got smacked around. Here is to hoping Edmonton wins vs the Avs. I am also going against O'Neill in fantasy football this weekend. She is 5-0 and is pretty cocky she will win. I am pretty sure she will win as my fantasy football team is injury ridden and VERY BAD. I am hoping for a Brett Favre miracle and that he'll earn me some massive fantasy points.
I am so happy it's Thanks-Giving Weekend, yay for snow today too....feels like hockey is back, snow+hockey. :)
Go Oilers!!!!

Christian the lion Reunion, FULL LENGTH MOVIE, London Lion reunited in Africa

If this doesn't warm the heart you are already dead.

Oilers 3rd Jersey

http://oilers.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?catid=4&id=22083

The Oiler 3rd jersey is an awesome choice. I do miss the McFarlane one but it's still an awesome jersey and I can't wait to see it on the ice this year. I think as an Oiler fan I'd wear any jersey they came up with because I am a diehard fan. Maybe for xmas I will score a sweet 3rd jersey. :) Here is to hoping. Have a good week everyone and happy thanksgiving this weekend.

Tuesday

October is a very busy week. Lots of work to do and time just speeds on by. Once the school year starts it just is a wild and crazy ride to June. It really never lets up, always something new to do.
Well, the Saints did what I expected. Lost...heheheh. That is why they say Sports Select is harder to win then even the 649. I did love how Bush ran 2 punts back for td's. That dude is FAST!!! The NFL is one tough league to figure out. It is very hard to find any kinds of trends in it.

Weekend is over

Well, football was fun. I have a chance to win two sport select tickets tomorrow night for Monday night football. If the Saints win I'll win a ticket of $49 and another ticket of like $30. I don't bet big, a whole $4 risked. However sports select is almost impossible to win so I would be shocked if it turned out.

To see latest images from a wedding I shot check my photography blog linked off my website. I also had a lot of fun on Friday, see the youtube video below from the rockband competition at our PD day. Big thx to Mister Hay who organized it....we didn't win but wow that was fun and very cool. We never expected it to be what is was....in front of all the people...we figured it wasn't going to be such a big deal. We also didn't plan on people practicing and going all expert mode. I would of been able to play hard or probably even expert had I put in practice time. However with the 3 ladies I am not sure we all could have done expert. But congrats to the band that won. However I don't know if they deserved the xbox hehehe. A little birdy told me they already have a Wii in their staffroom complete with a plasma screen tv. Now they are totally set.

I had a lazy day today, wish I had more stuff completeted but all in all it was a good weekend.

-Randy

Rockband 2008 PD DAY EIPS

~ Rock Band Competition ~

On Friday I get to go to a P.D. Day in the Park. Our district is having a rock band competition during the afternoon and it should be fun. I am going to be playing bass and 3 other staff at our school are joining in to play and sing. What is at stake? Well, if we win #1 bragging rights over other schools. :) Yeah, we teachers are a competitive bunch. The other big deal is we could win an xbox 360 and the rockband game and gear. I would LOVE to win that for our school. The kids would love it too. I am not sure we can win I've heard some other schools have been practicing and are taking it quite serious. I am not sure how our band will do, we're calling our band Simple Minds, hehehhe. Mainly because I am in it. :)

On a hockey note, Cowtown beat the Oil 4-0 in preseason, good thing it's only preseason. I am happy that the Oilers added a tough guy. Hope they can protect their super stars and not get pushed around, This tough guy sounds awesome, 6'6" and 250lbs or so I've heard. It's gonna be cool to see the Oilers have a better season. It'll be HARD to not do better then they did last year considering how BADLY they played.

Preseason Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers got thier first win of the preseason vs the Panthers via the shootout. Shades of last year as this has been a shootout filled preseason for the Oil. I am waiting for the regular season to begin as preseason is always decieving in the sense you never know who will be playing where. I do love the depth the Oilers appear to have this year. Lots of youth and speed...they added some gritty guys as well. I don't think they'll be as easy to push around as they were last year. Who knows, I am a diehard Oiler fan and I won't be really able to brag about my team until they start to prove themselves on the ice. I am just hoping they are better then Calgary for once, lol. I am sick of that whole Calgary mania that has swept over Oil country. It's time to put that madness to an end and start some Oiler mania. The weekend is here and I need to rest up and do some work as well. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend too.

Adobe CS4 News Today

Adobe is releasing info about it's next CS4 today. I am VERY interested to see what new they are offering. What caught my eye when reading about it was the 64bit support. I now have a Vista 64 bit machine with 6gb of ram. This makes my workflow so quick and I love how seamless I can edit from lightroom to photoshop on it.

From Adobe's site these were the features that got me most excited:
Industry-leading color correction enhanced
Enjoy dramatically enhanced color correction with reengineered Dodge, Burn, and Sponge tools that now intelligently preserve color and tone details.

Adjustments panel new
Simplify image adjustment by easily accessing every tool you need to nondestructively adjust and enhance the color and tone of your images; on-image controls and a wide variety of presets are also included in the new live and dynamic Adjustments panel

Masks panel new
Quickly create and edit masks from the new Masks panel. This panel offers all the tools you need to create editable pixel- and vector-based masks, adjust mask density and feathering, easily select noncontiguous objects, and more.

Auto-blending of images enhanced
Easily create a single image from a series of shots that have different focal points with the enhanced Auto-Blend Layers command, which smoothly blends color and shading and now extends your depth of field, automatically correcting vignettes and lens distortion.

Auto-alignment of layers enhanced
Create accurate composites with the enhanced Auto-Align Layers command. Move, rotate, or warp layers to align them more accurately than ever before. Or use spherical alignment to create breathtaking panoramas.

Extended depth of field enhanced
Combine a range of images, each with a different exposure, color, and focal point — with options to preserve tones and colors — into a single color-corrected image.

There is probably more for me to love about it but I'll wait until I can try it out. I think the great thing about the 64 bit support is it's ONLY available to windows users, yeah that's right MAC peeps.....I said windows ONLY....hehehhehe. Love it. Anyway, it's a cool and cloudy day and I wanna go crawl back in to my warm bed instead of going off to work.

I must add NHL 09 for my xbox is awesome. Love playing it and have not had this much fun playing video game hockey in ages. Go OILERS....love that there is a new 3rd jersey design for them this year. I can't wait to see what it looks like.
-Randy

BDAY WEEKEND

It's Jenn's bday weekend and we're gonna hang with friends and have a great time. Looks like O'Neill will come out and we'll be with the Wolfe-ster as well. Looks like the weather will be sweet too. Good old fall weather hanging in there. I hope I have better fantasy football luck this Sunday too. VERY exciting, Oilers start preseason this coming week vs the KINGS. I could of had tickets from a co-worker but we couldn't make it. Oh well. Go OILERS!!! :)