Josh & Natasha at Rock Hill Plantation, Stafford, VA

Here are a few images from Josh and Natasha's October 17 wedding at Rock Hill Plantation. Click to enlarge.

Brian & Ali at Merriweather Manor, Leesburg

A handful of images from Brian and Ali's October 9 wedding at St. Johns, followed by their reception at Merriweather Manor in Leesburg. Click on image to enlarge.

Mark & Linsey at Belmont Country Club

A few images from Mark and Linsey's October 2 wedding at St. James in Leesburg, followed by their reception at the Belmont Country Club. Click on image to enlarge. For more sample images, go here.

Obama: 20 Months in 2 Minutes

Tim & Laura at Whitehall Manor, Bluemont, Virginia

Tim and Laura enjoyed a beautiful day on their September 17 wedding. Great crowd . . great food . . and a great couple to photograph. Click on images to enlarge. To see more, go here.

Bill & Kristy - Whitehall Manor, Bluemont, Virginia

A few images from Bill & Kristy's wedding at Whitehall on September 11, 2010. Click on image to enlarge. More images can be seen on my website Sample Galleries.

Dropbox - Use It

I've been using Dropbox for about a year and a half now. It is one of those computer add ons that just works, and what it does is great. If you are not familiar with Dropbox, it is basically an online backup tool, but it is much more than that. On the free side, you start out with 2 gb of online storage space. With referrals you can increase that up to 8 gb. If you need more space, they offer more storage for a fee.

So how does Dropbox work? When you open an account with Dropbox and download the application, a Dropbox folder is placed on your hard drive. Any folders or files that you place in that folder will automatically upload to your Dropbox storage space, assuming you are online (if not online, it will automatically upload when you do go online). So now you have that file in two places, on your hard drive and also off site in your Dropbox online space. If something happens to your hard drive, no worry, those Dropbox files are safely stored off site. It is all seamless. You do not need to do a thing. If you are away from your computer, but have access to another, you can access those files by logging on to your Dropbox account.

Now the good part. Let's say you have a second computer. On that computer you would log in to Dropbox and download Dropbox, which creates a Dropbox folder on that hard drive. Now whatever files/folders that were in your online storage will automatically download to that Dropbox folder on that second computer. In other words, whatever you do on one computer will automatically sync with the other computer (again, assuming they are all online). Every time you open a file to do some work, and then save that file, that updated file will upload to your online account. If your second computer is on and open (or the next time it is on and opened), that file will automatically download and replace the older one on the second computer. If this sounds confusing or too cool to be possible, just try it.

Now some more good stuff. Dropbox gives you the option to put files in your private space, or in a public space. With public spaces, your file is given a url address. If you have a large file, let's say a 50 mb movie file, that you want to share with someone, or have them download; put it in your public space, get the url address, and send that link to someone via email. In other words, Dropbox works great for sharing files too large to email. Or if you have a folder of images, you can put that in your private space and then invite someone to share that folder. Dropbox becomes an easy way for sharing files and folders.

There are other ways that I use Dropbox, but the basics cover a lot of ground and make Dropbox well worth using. I have not found one thing to dislike about the program. So give it a try. If you do sign up, please use my email (bobupdegrove@verizon.net) as a referral so I can get some extra space.

Please Read This Interview

I am highly recommending that you take a few moments are read through this interview with David Brog, author of "In Defense of Faith; The Judeo-Christian Idea and the Struggle for Humanity". Brog, a Jew, does a fantastic job in laying out the moral and ethical foundation for not only our country, but for all people. It is a bit long, but a very good read.

Restoring Honor - A Few Thoughts

I made it down to DC for the Restoring Honor rally Saturday. I spent my time down there mostly walking around, never did commit myself to sitting down anywhere. Any reports of "tens of thousands" of people would be akin to saying Bill Gates has "tens of thousands" of dollars. Technically true, but "hundreds of thousands" would be a better way of stating the obvious. I think the 500,000 figure is much more accurate than "tens of thousands". At any rate, there were a lot of people there. And it was mostly a white crowd, which is disappointing, but in the end, so what? I suspect that Al Sharpton's rally was mostly black, but you probably won't hear that as the media describes the Restoring Honor rally as mostly white. As I walked the crowd though, I kept wondering if these were the same people the Dems believe are extremists, haters, bigots, and astroturf. Can Obama and the Dems actually look into these people's eyes and say they are not representative of a large section of America, or that their beliefs are no longer welcome in America?

As for the tone and message of the event, I am a bit conflicted. I give Glenn Beck a great deal of credit for putting on this event. He laid a lot on the line both financially and personally. My question going into Saturday though was how much of this event was going to be about Beck. If I had my way, Beck would have gotten up and spoken for about 5-6 minutes at the beginning, laying the framework for the reason for the event. For the next 2 hours, 45 minutes, the people he selected would speak and perform, all building the case for restoring honor. Beck would then get up at the end and speak for 10 minutes, challenging the crowd to respond. With this kind of format, in the end Beck could effectively say that this event was not about him, but instead about restoring honor in America. It would have spoken volumes to the crowd and to the critics.

I don't think the event became a full blown "we love you Glenn" event. Thematically everything seemed to stay on course. But there were multiple times when speakers heaped praised on Beck for his efforts, and in the end Beck's voice was heard during more than one third of the program. With 20 hours of on air time during the week, do we really need to hear more from him?

Time will tell whether this event will have any lasting affect. In the immediate aftermath, it seems much of the analysis revolves around the personality and celebrity of Glenn Beck rather than about the message. Where the message is discussed, specifically the importance of God in our culture, it inevitably ends back with whether Beck is the right person delivering that message. All of this makes it difficult for Beck to ever effectively claim that it is not about him. When Obama says it is not about him, how many of us actually believe him? I want to believe that Beck is sincere and really is a humble man. I just think a more humble man would not have taken such a large role on stage. As he stood there among the giants, Beck could have stepped aside and let the people speak.