October 24, 2006

My Grandfather: March 20, 1911 - October 24, 2006

Dr. Henry R. Mahler, Jr., died peacefully today in the loving company of his wife, two sons, one daughter, two daughters-in-law, one granddaughter-in-law, three fellow ministers and his grandson... me.

This was the day of ultimate peace for him on a calendar that spanned ninety-five extraordinary years, and for that I am both happy and proud. At the moment, though... and especially as I select photographs and write this entry... it's truly the saddest day of my life.

Happy grandparents with a happy grandson on my first Christmas

My thoughts are still scattered, I'm exhausted and, quite honestly, I keep stopping to cry as I edit photos and write this entry. I don't have the clarity or energy right now to write anything extensive or especially eloquent. It will take time for all the memories that are percolating in my mind to sort themselves and come out in any meaningful way.

In the meantime, what I have are some photos I've selected.

Five years ago on his 90th birthday. The oldest of four brothers, he outlived them all.

These are extraordinary photographs.

Not because of their composition.

At a family birthday party in 2003

Not due to some great artistic insight.

My father and grandfather on Christmas Day in 2004

Not from megapixels or their passage through Photoshop.

In his chair in my grandparents' apartment in 2003

They are extraordinary because of the man in them. My grandfather.

Laughing with my grandmother in 2003

They are also extraordinary because of the context in which they were taken. Every single one of these photos was taken of a man surrounded by the family he loved and that loved him so dearly.

At another family birthday celebration in 2005

The same family - to a person - that was gathered around him today when he died.

My grandfather was an author and a poet and, had he grown up in a digital world, he would have taken to blogging like a fish in water. He vaguely understood the concept from conversations we had and never ceased to amuse me by calling it "the blodge". I always knew what he meant. :) He did, however, pitch his typewriter and buy his first word processor in his 80's. He was the most prolific reader I've ever known and, when his eyesight became too poor for the constant reading that kept his mind so active, he became a voracious audiobook listener. He listened to them on an iPod Nano... at the age of 95.

The most prolific reader I've ever known. Anytime. Any place.

I could never list all of the wonderful things he brought to my life or the countless ways he has influenced who I have become as I've grown up.

There is one thing in particular, though, for which I will be eternally grateful and that I know gave him tremendous joy. It's in this photograph:

As the minister who married us on our front porch, in the company of family and friends, at the age of 92

I love him and I will miss him dearly.

October 22, 2006

New VR Panos and Related News

Brian Greenstone of Pangea Software dropped me a note just a bit ago saying that he'd just finished making the first Universal Binary of his PangeaVR plug-in. I've been eagerly awaiting this since I've not been able to use it effectively on my Intel-based MacBook Pro.

PangeaVR is a panoramic VR viewer for QTVR files, but it utilizes OpenGL and the GPU in your graphics hardware to make the movement liquid-smooth compared to the native performance of QuickTime Player. Like I said, it's free and it's a quick and painless install for both PowerPC or Intel-based Macs, so go download it here.

The timing is also good because I've just completed two new VRs recently:

View with QuickTime or Fullscreen PangeaVR

I took this in our yard yesterday to capture the fall colors. Be sure to look straight up through the canopy in front of my favorite, five-trunked tree.

View with QuickTime or Fullscreen PangeaVR

This was the tent for Sweet Briar's huge celebration gala during this year's Homecoming weekend. A gallery of photos I took during the weekend festivities can be found here.

More VR's to come...

October 13, 2006

Two Photos in Shutterbug Magazine

I've had a number of my photos used in some regional magazines of late (Virginia Sportsman) as well as a few in various SBC publications. I was quite pleased and amused, though, to see that Shutterbug Magazine published two of mine in their November issue. I had submitted both several months ago for their upcoming topic of "lens effects", thinking it unlikely that either would be used. As it turns out, they used both along with my original caption.

I wasn't sure if they were selected until I saw it while flipping through this month's issue in our living room the other day. As an amusing sidenote, the first time either of us saw an article that Scientific American Magazine published on my first MAME arcade was while standing in a bookshop in Paris on our honeymoon in September 2003. :) I've since found a copy of it floating around on the web translated into Chinese.