Never mind photography...

[Roger Hicks]

...what else makes you feel good? Let's exclude the obvious, but how about this: a beautiful, warm spring day, one of the finest motorcycles ever made (1978 BMW R100RS) and a pretty girl on the back?

Earlier today (Thursday) I took my 18-year-old 'adopted daughter' to Thouars to catch the train home to stay with her father for a long weekend and see her boyfriend. The envy of others was palpable: spring day, classic bike, beautiful girl (even if they did guess she was a daughter, or thought, 'dirty old man'). She has seen the envy too, and laughed (with me) at it.

I didn't even bother to take a camera. Yes, I could construct a shot that summarized it, but that would be a question of casting/props/movie still production, not the sort of photography I normally do.

Other offers on things you can't photograph? Again, barring the obvious, which could rapidly descend into pornography. Life is for living: we can't (and maybe shouldn't) shoot too much of it.

Tashi delek,

R.

[popstar]

Yours is a good experience Roger. I think that's the key...it's an experience rather than just a photographic moment.

Another hard-to-photograph moment since you asked for them: the sensation of the first sip of a good beer on a hot summer day. It can be so good.

[Pickett Wilson]

Sitting on the front porch with a good book on a spring day, listening to rain fall on the Azalea bushes that that line the front of the house. Sitting on the back deck watching deer feeding in the pasture. Not a camera in sight.

[back alley]

one thing i enjoy as much as photography is listening to music on a good stereo.

the company of an intelligent woman comes in a close second.

and a fine meal rounds it all off.

joe

[Larky]

Riding a motorbike on a warm day. Standing in the sun pointing your face at the sky. Gin & Tonic. Wine. New T-Shirts, old jeans.

Edit: My new Grado headphones. Toad in the Hole, BBQ's.

[Jason808]

Let's see...

An impromptu daytrip with my wife.

Going out to a nice dinner with my wife (rarely done during an impromptu trip, though)

Hot buffalo wings and cold beer at the my favorite dive downtown with some sport on TV. Sometimes with friends, sometimes by myself.

Hanging out with friends by the BBQ pit with listening to the Nebraska Football on the radio (wheeling out the TV if needed)

A rainy day at the coffee shop with a journal and my Sheaffer Balance fountain pen

The afternoon drive listening to This American Life (I love that show, and like the host believe the best way to listen is while driving)

Beer with friends after the races at the dirt track (I photograph the races, then get together with friends, pit crew, drivers, officials...it's what makes the dirt track great)

Listening to a great DJ Mix on a nighttime drive

[Roger Hicks]

Great stuff. Keep it coming. Either we've been there (and can close our eyes and remember our version of it) or we can consider it for future experiment.

Jason: Impromptu day trips. Yeah. Together 28 years on May 14; married 27 years in June. Though nowadays we tend to go away for anything from a couple of days to a month. Still surprisingly impromptu. But then I do carry a camera:

http://www.semiadventuroustraveler.com/

Next trip: Aditi with us.

Larky: Ever try toad in the hole with (a) lamb chops (b) chorizo?

Steve: Damn. Another beer before I go to bed.

Joe: Intelligent woman tops the lot. I'm down to just one (Frances) until Monday afternoon. Then Aditi comes back. She and I have written 30,000 words of a novel in the last 3 weeks, from the unique perspective of a common birthday, 40 years apart (1950 and 1990). I can recall most of what it's like to be 18; she knows all of it. I have 40 years more writing practice. We take it in turns on the keyboard. It's frightening how often one of us writes what the other is thinking.

Tashi delek,

R.

[gm13]

Setting anchor in a protected cove after a lively sail and sipping a whiskey and oj, listening to osprey brag about the fish just caught while the Only Mate cooks up some magic boat food to be enjoyed watching the sun go down over the Camden hills. One could almost believe all was right with the world.

[John Robertson]

Originally Posted by Jason808

Hot buffalo wings and cold beer

We only get chicken wings in UK
Do they shoot the buffalo down as they fly over??

[Brian Sweeney]

After being a manager for almost 15 years, and now being Technical Again...

Sitting at a Lab Bench in front of an O-Scope and Logic Analyzer debugging an electronics board that I designed, built, and programmed. In FORTRAN and Assembly Language...

Whatever I did to become a manager, I paid my Dues, and promise to never do it again.

[colker]

being in love w/ a woman... but that is asking too much.

a good book, sitting on a restaurant, hungry, knowing you will eat good food.

good wine.

an email from a great friend.

[Roger Hicks]

Originally Posted by colker

an email from a great friend.

Better still, a real letter. On paper. In the mail. As the art establishment says disparagingly, and I say in praise, a Precious Object.

Tashi delek,

R.

[Jason808]

Originally Posted by John Robertson

We only get chicken wings in UK
Do they shoot the buffalo down as they fly over??

yes, but only outside city limits

[Trius]

Paddling my canoe -- there is a Zen quality for me that is unmatched by any other activity other than meditation itself. Then coming back to campsite for a meal from an open fire and some gorgeous cab franc, and/or single malt, and a Cuban. Cigar, that is.

I can do without the last bits, but give me the canoe.

[sanmich]

listening to
Bach
Brassens

Dad's camping with my best friends and their kids (no moms!)

[Keith]

Definitely 'old dogs and children and watermelon wine' for me!

[Don Parsons]

Going flying in an open cockpit biplane, either at sunup or right before sunset on a nice fall day. One where you hear the engine roar when you takeoff a grass runway and when you come back into land, you feel the grass "tickling" the tires seconds before you gently touch down.

[Silva Lining]

Originally Posted by Roger Hicks

...what else makes you feel good?

My three-year-old son's belly laugh, its impossible not to break into a broad grin when you hear it!

[bolohead]

Standing on the reef in low tide whipping my fly rod in hopes of catching a fish. If a fish bites, then the fight. If I actually win the fight, then enjoying a cold beer while cooking said fish. Then of course enjoying the meal.

[J J Kapsberger]

1) The scent of the air, the golden colour of the light, the huge silver dark clouds after a late afternoon sun shower in June;
2) The nose of a good wine, especially cassis, tobacco, oak, etc.;
3) Renaissance and Baroque music;
4) Freshly laundered bedding.

[gdi]

Originally Posted by Brian Sweeney

After being a manager for almost 15 years, and now being Technical Again...

Sitting at a Lab Bench in front of an O-Scope and Logic Analyzer debugging an electronics board that I designed, built, and programmed. In FORTRAN and Assembly Language...

Whatever I did to become a manager, I paid my Dues, and promise to never do it again.

Let me guess... you got that o-scope for $5 at the local flea market!

For me:

- spreading a blanket out on the driveway at dusk and watching for shooting stars with my son and daughter
- summer evenings making s'mores in the yard with the kids (my son calls it camping)
- an (sometimes) annual meetup at a baseball city with my old high school buddies
- a cruise on an old Indian, Harley, or Beemer
- watching the last pile of snow melt and run down the driveway in the spring

[Brian Sweeney]

> Let me guess... you got that o-scope for $5 at the local flea market!

I do have one like that, being thrown out of a school. A Triumph 241 Oscillograph from World War II. I repaired it and brought it into the Lab. But I normally use the Tek 2465B. Last of the Analog O-Scopes.

[feenej]

Long distance running, long distance Nordic skiing. That's what keeps the demons out of my head.

[Pablito]

The Pleasures of the Flesh.
Guess it does not rank high here.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by Pablito

The Pleasures of the Flesh.

That's what I call 'cutting straight to the chase' ... well said!

[edit] ... I thought "toe curling orgasm" had more oomph!