Jim Pearson – Page 7 – Jim and April's Roadtrips

Catching up…

January 30, 2015 Jim Pearson Comments 0 Comment

April and Jim at the Combat Camera Reunion Banquet. - Photo by Ken Hackman — April and Jim at the Combat Camera Reunion Banquet. – Photo by Ken Hackman

We’re not doing a very good job of keeping our roadtrip blog updated and I for one will attempt to do a better job this year.

Our major trip last year was a 30 day cross country trip to my Combat Camera reunion in Ontario, California in September. This is the fourth year in a row we’ve made the reunion into a road trip and as usual we had a great time. The trip was long and when we got back home we both were tired and glad to be back. I think we went beyond our budget, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.

Jim, Kimmy, Emily, Brad, Brad, April and Lexie at Canyonlands National Park. - Photo by Jim Pearson — Jim, Kimmy, Emily, Brad, Brad, April and Lexie at Canyonlands National Park. – Photo by Jim Pearson

I think the major highlights of our trip to me were spending time with my nephew Brad and his family. We rented a condo at Moab, Utah. We’ve both been here before and wanted to make another stop as there’s so much to see. It was great to see Brad, Kimmy, Lexie and Emily as it had been way too long. Brad is stationed in the Air Force in Colorado and we joined up with them after visiting a couple days there.

Canyonlands National Park, Utah. - Photo by Jim Pearson — Canyonlands National Park, Utah. – Photo by Jim Pearson

One of my favorite new places there was Canyonlands National Park. What a impressive place to visit! We went separate from the kids as they didn’t want to get up and out quite as early as we did. We did meet up for a picture there and it’s one of my favorites from the trip.

Dinner in the French Quarter. - Photo by our Waiter! — Dinner in the French Quarter. – Photo by our Waiter!

We stopped a lot of other sights along the way of course ranging from seeing the Space Shuttle in LA, the stars at night in Joshua Tree National Park, The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas and the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana, just to name a few of the major highlights. When traveling we try to keep our drives to about 350-450 miles a day to give us plenty of time to take pictures and see the sights along the way.

This year my Combat Camera reunion is in San Antonio, Texas in October and I’m looking forward to spending a little bit more than two days, as we did this year, and seeing more of the sites. Plus my new knee will make life much easier for getting around. It was a bit of a pain this year.

However, before that we’ll be heading off in June for my nephew Kenneth’s high school graduation. Looking forward to getting back on the road, other than short local trips around Kentucky.

Family Reunion trip…

September 18, 2013 Jim Pearson Comments 0 Comment

Well, this post is a bit later than I had planned, but here it is! We all had a great time attending the 2013 Pearson Family Reunion in Springfield, Ohio. As you can see from this group photo we had a pretty good turn out this year and hope for an even better one next year.

We decided that it will be in Springfield, Ohio again next year, but at a new location which is yet to be decided. The date has also been set so those that want to mark their calendars the next reunion will be on June 22, 2014 beginning at 1pm.

It was great to visit with cousins and Aunt Jean to catch up on a lot of what everyone has been up to since we last got together! Everyone got to meet their newest cousins from Kentucky, Xavier, Elaina and Damion! Hope more of the family can make it next year as we all had a great time and plan for an even better time next year.

Off to the Pearson Family Reunion…

August 31, 2013 Jim Pearson Comments 0 Comment

Moses and Marie Pearson at the farm on Satler Rd.

Well this morning April, myself, David, our brother, Chrystal, Aprils daughter, and three of my great-great kids, Elaina, Damion and Xaiver are off on a long weekend roadtrip to our annual family reunion. This year it’s at Springfield, Ohio which is centrally located for most of the family that lives in Ohio.

Family reunions are always a great way to catchup with what’s going on in everyone’s life and I always look forward to them. Hopefully this year we’ll have a good turnout from my grandfather Moses and grandmother Marie Pearson’s descendents. They had 15 kids, our dad, John Alexander Pearson being one of them.

Of course we’re also looking forward to visiting two different Renaissance Festivals that will be happening this weekend close to Springfield. One at George Rogers Clark park that is during the Colonial Times and the other being at Harveysburg, Ohio. Should be a fun weekend and we’ll post some pictures and updates as the weekend progresses!

2013 Pennington Folk Festival

June 2, 2013 Jim Pearson Comments 0 Comment

Anyone that knows Kentucky music or thumbpicking has heard of Eddie Pennington. This past weekend they had their annual festival in Princeton, Ky where Eddie lives and I took a short road trip, about 30 miles, on Saturday to hear Eddie and his family play. Of course I wasn’t disappointed as I’ve been a fan of him and his music ever since I attended my first concert in the woods at his farm. We at the paper have done several stories on him and so we’ve know each other probably almost as long as the 17 years I’ve been working for The Messenger Newspaper in Madisonville, Ky.

Anyway, I made my way there yesterday afternoon and shot several video clips with my Nikon D800 that I’ve strung together into a 30 min video that I’ve posted below that I thought our viewers would enjoy.

On the road with a new iPhone 4 App

September 25, 2012 Jim Pearson Comments 0 Comment

Well, sis and I are on the road again for a two week trip to the east coast and back to attend my Combat Camera Reunion in Charleston, SC starting on the 27th. As usual we’re taking a couple weeks and making a road trip to visit people and places along the way.

The first stop of our trip this time, after visiting my niece Tracy in Richmond, Ky, was the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We’ve been here before, but there’s always something new to see or photograph, even when you’ve been there before.

I bought the iPhone App called Slow Shutter Cam for this trip as I wanted to capture some slow shutter speed images of waterfalls and streams that I could post on this blog and Facebook without having to worry about spending time editing and formating the images I’m shooting with my Nikon D700 while I’m on the road.

While the app is by no means as good at capturing the smoky water effect I wanted to get as I could with my D700, it really did a pretty decent job for me. Slow Shutter Cam brings new life into your iPhone’s photo toolbox by letting you capture a variety of amazing slow shutter speed effects that you only thought you could get with a DSLR.

The settings screen allows you to tweak everything from the shutter speed to the f/stop that you want the camera to use or you can of course use the camera in automatic mode.

There’s also a setting called Light trail which I understand is for shooting night cityscapes that include moving cars and such. This is one feature I haven’t tried as of yet.

For the most part the two images I’ve included that I shot here in the Smokies, (I shot more of course) were taken with the camera on Automatic mode.

It’s pretty obvious that if you’re going to use this app then you need to do so on a tripod of some sort for the shooting or brace it against something and hold your breath. I used a small Gorillapod for my tripod of choice and a iPhone tripod adapter to attach it. There’s a wealth of different kinds out there, just do a google search and find something that you like.