Back again

I feel like I've kinda gone from one extreme to the other over the past week or so, from sitting on a dock in northern Wisconsin and reading to jumping right back into stuff like shooting photos at the county fair. But that's just how this job goes. I had a good time with family on the aforementioned trip to "the lake," and even survived a couple of scenic detours on the way back to Marshall (see, I confused 95 South with 95 North, and before I knew it was a half-hour farther away from St. Cloud than when I started driving. Such are road trips).

It's good to be back though. I started out by getting to meet special effects and animatronics man Patrick Gerrety, and several members of his family. They were all great to talk to, and it was pretty cool to hear Patrick's stories of how some of the different effects in Hollywood movies are done. Gerrety said computers are being used more and more for special effects these days, but I think it's good to know that there are still a lot of people out there who are building actual, physical robots, puppets and fuzzy suits for film. It leaves some of the movie magic intact.