On Friday I went over to the Grand Opening of the Apple Store The Domain here in Austin.  I didn't get there until right at 10:00 AM when they opened so I was somewhat worried that I wouldn't be able to score a free t-shirt.   Luckily the line wasn't all too big and I was able to easily get inside for my free t-shirt.

I tried to get some photos of everything - the line, the inside of the store as well as happy people with their new t-shirts.

Read on for a few of my favorite photos or view the entire Grand Opening, Apple Store The Domain album.

My apologies go out to my brother Matt who has waited far too long to see his photos posted online.  These are from our family trip to Lake Powell last summer (August), so it's only been 6 months or so.  Matt was easily the king of the wakeboard on our trip.  I was fortunate to get a few pretty good photos of him performing amazing feats on the wakeboard. 

 

These were all taken with a Nikon D70 and an old 300mm manual focus lens.  As the lens was manual focus it made it fairly difficult to get good shots, not to mention that I had to deal with a bumpy boat ride.  A few of the shots are slightly out of focus but luckily I was able to keep a lot of them in focus.

 

View Mighty Matt's album.

 

During lunch today I drove to the new Domain shopping center in Northwestern Austin, TX where the new Apple Store The Domain will be opening on Saturday Friday.  I'm not sure that I was really allowed to get inside the new shopping center as there was still a large amount of construction going on, but I slipped in anyway.  I snapped up a few quick photos with the Fuji S5 that I've been using from work.  They aren't the best images as the store was in the shade, but they should give you an idea of what to expect.  

 

View the Apple Store The Domain album.

 

It was brought to my attention over the weekend that comments were not working.  So I've gone and installed the latest version of the comment system I was using and everything appears to be working again - and it even looks better too. So quick, who's going to be the first one to post a comment?  I know you can't wait, be quick before someone else beats you to it!

 

Well Pungi and I are really loving Austin so far.  Last week we made a trip to a nice little place called Balcones Park that some of my coworkers had shown me before.  It was almost as if Pungi knew there was a river and other dogs around.  He got all excited before he even got out of the car.  As you should be able to tell from the look on his face, Pungi had a blast.  He was in doggy heaven.  The park is really just a river with a trail along the side.  There were a lot of other people there with their dogs and some that were even wading through the water - in the middle of January!  There were even some daring teenagers that were swinging off of ropes and jumping into the river.  That was a little too daring for me.  I stuck to dry land taking pictures.

Pungi really is a difficult dog to take good pictures of.  He's so black that either he is exposed properly and the background is blown out or the background is exposed properly and Pungi is just a big black blob.  Luckily there were a few shots that turned out well (though many more that didn't).

Austin's been great for me so far.  My apartment has a stream that runs right behind me along with a lot of trees, very good for Pungi.  Also, it's only about a mile and a half from work.  So my commute is a nice 3 minutes.  A slow commute for me is if I don't make it through the one traffic light between here and work nearly doubling my commute to 5 minutes.  It sure does beat going from Manhattan to Long Island and back every day.

OK, this ought to do for now.  Yesterday Pungi and I went to Bull Creek park which seemed like another doggy heaven.  There must have been at least 20 dogs there, all off the leash, running and playing and swimming in the river. Those pictures will have to wait for later.   Until then...

 

Enjoy the Balcones Park album.

Every now and then we are presented with opportunities in life and it's up to us to choose, either to stay on our same course or to take a new direction.  One direction may not necessarily be better than the other, it's mainly up to us to make life what we want of it, though at times life does make it difficult.  Nevertheless, all of us decide whether or not we are going to act or be acted upon.  We can either let the tides of life carry us along wherever it may take us, or we can choose to act for ourselves and make life what we want of it.

 

One such opportunity recently presented itself to me.  For those that don't know over the past year and a half or so I've been separated from my wife, Andreea, and we will soon be divorced.  As difficult as this has been for me it has led to an increase in opportunities that I might not have otherwise considered.  I wouldn't be tied to New York for instance.  So I had been passively looking for anything that might be interesting.

 

Around November of last year I was able to find something that I feel is in my best interest both personally and for my career.  So after three great years at Nikon I have left New York to join Bibble Labs in Austin, Texas.  I was lucky enough to work with some very talented people at Nikon and develop some good friendships.  I also made a lot of good friends in New York, all of whom are already missed.  I'm also very excited to be working at Bibble now and for the new friends that I'll make here in Austin.  I arrived in Austin on Jan. 1st and started at Bibble the next day.  If you were at the Imaging USA Photo Expo in San Antonio, TX last weekend then you already met me as "the New Guy."

 

I think that Pungi and I will have a lot of fun here.  Pungi just arrived last Friday after spending the holidays in Utah and it wasn't until last night that all of my stuff finally arrived which is partly why I haven't updated Cutterpillow in so long.  Not that I couldn't update it from elsewhere, but I guess I just didn't feel comfortable yet without my dog and my stuff.    Anyway, with that I'll leave you with some pictures from Mount Bonnell at sunset - the first of my pictures to be processed with Bibble.

 

View the Mount Bonnell album.