A week and a bit ago Beverly and I went up to Flagstaff for the weekend. Beverly likes the cool weather and the changing colors of the trees, and I wanted a certain picture. We went up a year ago, and I took a picture with my 4x5 camera. Well, when I got it developed it was not that great. So, I had decided that I wanted to take that picture again.

It was an okay weekend. It was rainy and cloudy, but it was nice to get away. I did get the picture I wanted, and God allowed the sky to open up a little so that I would have some clouds in the picture, but not an overcast sky. God truly is amazing.

On Saturday as Beverly and I were hiking up the side of a mountain my cell phone started ringing. It was my grandfather, just wanting to know how everything was going. It was just a little funny thing that happened. Another thing was that one time when we stopped to hike Beverly noticed a person using a large format camera. So, we wandered over to see what he was using and to say hello. He was not using a Canham camera, but he does own a Canham 7x17, and knows my father and quite a few other people I know from the large format community. We spent a few minutes talking, and then it was time to hike.

The picture above is one Beverly took with the digital camera on our first day of hiking I believe.

Serenity - A Firefly Movie - A Review (to a point)

I got to see Serenity yesterday. My wife and I went with a couple friends, Nate and Kirticia, to the Cine Capri and saw it there. It was a great time with friends seeing a movie we all were very excited to see.

The movie was GREAT! The movie started with enough background to allow "outsiders" to understand the movie. But not too much to bore those that have watched and loved Firefly. Joss was able to utilize the added financing of a movie to add more special effects that are not feasible on television. The nice thing was that the special effects did not take over the movie. They were just another part of it. Another great thing was that, like Firefly, the special effects were created like they were filmed with a camera. This means that the camera would shake when needed, if it was raining or water was splashed then the "camera" would get water on it.

The writing was great as well. Joss did a wonderful job developing some of the characters. He was unable to fully develop all the characters, but the ones he did develop were done with typical Joss Weedon expertise. As with most Joss Weedon work, the characters are real people with real problems that we can relate to. Nathan Fillion (Mal) did a wonderful job portraying his hard captain character (with a bit of a soft side). Summer Glau plays River. She is the central character of the film, and she continues to play her role unbelievably. She is supposed to be a woman whom the government has manipulated. They fiddled with her brain and now she is a little "crazy." So she does a few things during the movie that show her craziness, but then she flows into the lethal woman that she is, and the action scenes are great. The choreography and filming of those scenes show the time and energy the actors and actresses put into their work.

There are some surprises, which I will not mention. I really hope it does well in the theater, and then in DVD sales so that Joss can do a second, third, etc. So, please go see it. I have talked to a few people that did not see Firefly, but went to Serenity this weekend and really enjoyed the movie. So, go see it. It is more than worth your time and money.