About

Born and raised in Minnesota, I left the midwest to attend college in Washington, DC and even found myself in China for a semester. After graduating with a degree in International Affairs, I returned home to the midwest (a decision I question every winter). I'm an avid geek and lifelong learner, who is most often in front of a computer or behind a camera.

When not working on my plan for world domination, I can be found perusing the shelves of a library or used book store; baking chocolaty treats; exploring the outdoors; or bantering with my family. I also enjoy tinkering, repurposing, and de(con)structing.

View my CV for information about my education and work experience.

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EdTech

While I always loved being in school, it was not my intention to work at one after graduating from college; it was serendipity that landed me in my current position as the technology integration specialist at Orono Public Schools. However, as a geek, life-long learner, and wannabe teacher, it is the most fitting job I could have...despite having to forsake my lychnobite nature.

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Photography & Design

Photography & Design

Though my love for art in general began at an early age, I did not develop an interest in photography and design until high school, the former during a black & white film class and the latter during a drawing class that end with a single day of playing in Photoshop. Since then, digital imaging has been a constant in my life.

The Business

Shortly after the purchase of my first digital SLR, I began utilizing photography as way to feed my expensive coffee habit. I started by selling stock photography, but soon transitioned into portraiture. This led to the creation of my digital imaging business, Peregrine Imaging. I specialize in on-location portraiture, as well as photo retouching. My favorite subjects are children, particularly those who have not been taught to "say cheese".

Having trained and competed in graphic design during high school, it was only natural that my business include design services in addition to photography. Though my formal design training was completely print-based, I have since only ever done web-based projects. I prefer the web side of design due to the added challenge of functionality and interactivity - a web design can't just look pretty, it has to work too. To this end, I have managed to teach myself (x)html, css, xml, javacript, PHP, and bits (and bytes) of various other languages when necessary.

Personal Work

When I'm not photographing squirmy, unpredictable children, I can often be found photographing squirmy, unpredicatable insects, and the beautiful flowers among which they hide. It often surprises those who know of my fast-paced, divagative nature that I can sit still as long as I do when photographing bugs, but nature is so intriguing when viewed at a 1:1 macro level, it's hard not to stop and stare.

I post a lot of my personal work, gardens and otherwise, in my print galleries. My most recent work is also highlighted on my business blog, and even more pictures can be found at my daily photoblog or in my TwitPic feed.

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Blogs

Not Enough Coffee

Whenever I feel like sharing something longer than 140 characters, I post it to my blog: Not Enough Coffee. As the tagline (Musings from a Library-addicted Computer Geek) suggests, I post on everything from the analog (book stuff) to the digital (tech stuff), with a big emphasis on the geeky. Although not explicit on my blog, many of my post have a K12 education flavor...Yes, flavor; my posts are so juicy, you can taste them.

Twitter

I used to scorn Twitter as just another lifecaster, but was shown the light during my participation in More Things on a Stick web 2.0 program. If you tweet, I'd be happy to have you as part of my conversation. I generally follow most twits back, with the exception of spammers, bots, internet gurus, marketing experts, SEO specialists, and those with otherwise useless tweets. If you're not one of these, follow me: @CCahillMN.

Et al.

I also have a blog that chronicles my recent photography and design work, as well as a daily photo blog. Previews and RSS feeds for all of of these blogs are available on my RSS page.

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iTeach

As an instructor for Orono Community Education (in Minnesota that is, not Maine), I teach several adult classes every semester, as well as summer camps for elementary and middle school students. Topics are generally photography and/or computer related. A list of this semester's courses and links to their respective regristration pages are listed below. I am also available for tutoring and group trainings.

Classes

Winter/Spring 2010:

Previous Classes

  • Basic Web Design
  • Special Techniques in Digital Photography
  • Web Design for Students (Middle School)
  • Digital Photography (Elementary & Middle School)

Speeches & Presentations

In addition to teaching, I also enjoying speaking at conferences. Here is a listing of my previous presentations and accompanying material. All my presentations are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License, i.e. feel free to use and even modify as necessary for non-commericial purposes, but remember to credit me.

  • "Twitter for Professionals," TIES Education Technology Conference, December 2009
  • "Teaching & Collaborating with Wikis," TIES Education Technology Conference, December 2009.
  • SkillsUSA Minnesota Officer Training, December 2009.
  • "Who Have You Helped Today," SkillsUSA Minnesota Delegate Conference, November 2008.
  • "If at First You Don't Succeed, Redefine Success," SkillsUSA Minnesota Leadership Conference, October 2007.

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Contact

Send me a message - I'd love to hear from you...unless your intentions are not nice, in which case I will send my flying monkeys after you. Have a nice day!

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Glimpsed

Diigo

Warm Woolen Mittens

Not Enough Coffee

  • Traits of a Techie: How You Too Could Become Awesome*


    Techie /t'eki/ Term for a person who possesses greater than average interest in technology, especially the latest and greatest high-tech gadget; not to be confused with their spandex-wearing, oft...

  • Changes in Education: Strengthen VoTech Programs


    This post is part of my Critical Changes series, a collection of observations from an un-jaded newbie in education. Change 2: Strengthen Vocational and Technical Programs Call them what you will -...

  • A Different Kind of Change


    My days of wanting to believe like Fox Mulder are long gone; I'm definitely a skeptical Scully these days. When people are spooked by a ghost, I figure their imaginations have gotten the best of...

  • Changes in Education: Hire People, Not Services


    In this rapidly changing world it is critical for schools to adapt, to change in ways that will better prepare students for their future. So, the question is not whether schools should change, but...

  • Google Calender: Display Only Public Events -- EASIER WAY


    The inner-workings of my mind are quite the imbroglio, which often causes it to make things more difficult than they have to be. Take my previous post, which showed how to make a feed of public...

  • Google Calendar: Display Only Public Events


    UPDATE: See a much easier solution in my next post, Google Calender: Display Only Public Events -- EASIER WAY. I share my work calendar - showing only the free/busy details - with everyone in my...

  • iPhone: Saving Extensions


    Have an iPhone? Need to save a phone number with an extension? There's an app for that...or actually, just a button. Saving an extension on the iPhone When saving/adding a contact, there...

  • iPod Touches in Education on Google Wave


    I've started a Google Wave about using iPod Touches in education; my district is looking to buy a lab (or few, I hope) and would like some advice. If you are using iPod Touches in your school, please...

  • Lingoes: Portable Dictionary & Translation


    Lingoes is a free dictionary, text-to-speech, and translation tool that works with any selectable text found in any program, including web browsers and word-processing applications. While Lingoes is...

  • 5 Ways to Use Drop.io in the Classroom


    Drop.io is a quick and easy way to share files, including pictures, video, audio, and documents, in real time. The ability to the restrict viewing of a drop, the uploading and/or deleting of files,...

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Peregrine Imaging

  • Small Town MN

    A recent roadtrip took me through some small towns in Minnesota. Here are some of the shots from that journey:

  • Kobe

    I finally had the pleasure of taking care of my first foster dog, a four-month-old German Shepherd mix named Kobe. He was adopted after just two weeks! This little dude broke my heart, but I’m happy he found his forever home. For more information about fostering or adopting rescue dogs, visit the Midwest Animal Rescue website.

  • Sisters, Take 3

    Continuing the theme of familiar faces, here are a few new ones of these cuties…

  • Brothers, Take 3

    I recently had the pleasure of photographing one of my favorite repeat customers (Who am I kidding, I love all of my repeats!).  We had about 5 good minutes before the boys decided they’d rather be playing, but no one could blame them given the beautiful day we had. Can’t wait for the next time I see these guys.

  • Yester Spring

    I’m attempting to finish last spring/summer’s collection of pictures, before the gardens are in full force again. Lofty goal. Here are a few of the gems.

  • Memories of Warmer Weather

    As a method for coping with the current sub-zero temperature and piles of snow, I decided to work on pictures I had taken during the summer, in order to remind myself that this frozen hell does not last forever.  I continued my experiments with texturized landscapes, as well as a requisite flower.  I am particularly fond of the coloring on the first lake image, a product of serendipity.

  • Sisters

    This is such a fun – and photogenic! – family to photograph (this was my second session with them). The oldest daughter is so lively and loves to have her picture taken; the youngest would rather be crawling than sitting, but is nevertheless the cutest thing ever – how could one not want to photograph those big blue eyes!

  • Girls Volleyball

    This volleyball team needed a poster with their schedule that included the theme “No limit but the sky”. I took small group photos of them jumping and then edited them together – choosing each girl’s best shot – and added a landscape background, so that they appear to be jumping high into the sky. I also took a variety of team poses.

  • Banjo

    Meet my new canine friend, Banjo.  He is a rambuncious chocolate lab who is always ready to play; don’t let the white snout fool you, he’s just a big puppy. During a breather from our game of Tug-o-War, I grab my camera and quickly got some shots, before playtime soon resumed.


     
    I must have worn him out…
     
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  • Textured

    Lately I’ve been playing around with adding textures to my pictures.  While I like the depth and color the textures add, I wonder if this is another one of my artistic phases that I will look back on and wonder why I thought it looked good.  At least I can always go back to my original RAW file and redo it if I want; yay for Photoshop. Here are a few of my latest works.  The self-portrait was taken at the Sherburne National Wildlife refuge (my adventure there is a story for another post) and the other two were taken of a farm in St. Bonaficious.

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