242/366

Whirly Sculpture

It was so beautiful outside today that I forced myself out for a walk in town again.

It's getting pretty tedious since there doesn't seem to be anything different in town, but I walked past this whirly sculpture and decided to try another shot of it from a different angle.

When the wind blows just right, the discs at the top spin around, but there wasn't much wind today.

It's a New Year and I'm Late Already

1/365

My last post was on Dec 30. It's been 5 days.  My goal for the new year is to post twice a week on specific days~~the days for this month being Thursday and Saturday.

Well, here it is Tuesday, so not only has it been a long time, but I'm late and it's the wrong day.  Hmmmm, is any day really the "wrong" day?  I guess not, but if one makes a schedule and then breaks it immediately by stalling and not following the schedule, does that constitute "wrongness".

Volumes could be written about that, so let's just move on.

By my sloppy calculations we've only had between 12-18 hours of total sunlight since before Thanksgiving.  That's about 40 days....  That's a lot of dreary weather.  I'm taking Vit D and have considered upping the dose.  So the other day (Sunday to be exact) I looked out the window and saw even drearier, foggier, cloudier and depressing-er (I know that's not a word, but it fit well with the sentence) conditions than previously.  I sighed and went about the business of getting ready for church. Then the lightbulb went on and I realized I should get some photos of it.

With very little time left, I stepped outside my door and made a few images.  I'm glad I did, I got a few keepers, even if they're just for the record.

Then yesterday, while I was in the midst of about 4 chores I decided to make myself a bagel with cream cheese and then I got the urge to photograph food.  It's ridiculous, I'm really bad not very good at it, mostly because I don't cook anything exotic enough to make a good image, but there's just something in me that wants to pursue food photography.

So I decided to photograph the bagel.  I dropped all the other half-finished chores I was working on, set up the table, ironed the placemat, made a cup of coffee, grabbed the tripod, camera, reflectors, toasted the bagel and attempted to Work-The-Subject.

The bagel and coffee tasted better than the picture turned out.  I once read the book "Art & Fear" that stated many times over that an artist's good work is born out of the artist's bad work.  I often feel like I should be creating some R.E.A.L.L.Y. good work pretty soon considering how much bad work I've done in my photographic career, hahaha

I guess I should cut myself some slack though.  If I had taken this picture 15 years ago it would have been truly pathetic.  Anyway, I will persevere!~!

 Saratoga bw

81/365

Three of us went to Saratoga this past Tuesday for a field trip.  The "assignment" was bw street photography.  We put our cameras on the bw function and shot everything in bw.  Well....., almost everything.

We each had the same 7-point checklist and our goal was to get images that fit each of the 7 points.  The images here are not the ones I'm using for my assignment.  I might post them after we have our meeting.  But in the meantime, these are some of the other images I got that day.

Saratoga wasn't as crowded as we had hoped it would be.  That made it a little more challenging to get the kinds of street images I was hoping for.  But it was still great being out in the beautiful weather with good friends doing what we love to do~~photography.

I saw these plants on an outside window sill and loved the way they looked.

But after getting the image in bw, I decided to switch to color to see how it would look.  I actually like this particular scene better in color.  What do you think?

Storm Aid

71/365

Last year at the end of August, a hurricane ripped through our area.  Very much out of character for the weather here in upstate NY.  It devastated several communities, leaving them in severe shock and overwhelming destruction.

Clean-up efforts began immediately and once that was taken care of, the rebuilding began.

Ten months later, some of the homes and businesses have been put back together, but some are still in various degrees of restoration.  Fundraisers continue.

Today the Altamont Fairgrounds hosted one of those fundraisers, Storm Aid. Various vendors, a bouncy house, bands,  face painters, a caricaturist, horse show & competition and an old car show were just some of the activities on site.  

Sadly, it was not well attended.  But there will be more, and I guess any amount of money donated to the rebuilding of the community is better than none.

It occurred to me as I was walking around taking photos that I could use my images to give a completely different story.  I could make it appear as though there were scads of people, that the action never stopped, and that the funds raised were significant.

Instead I just photographed what appealed to me and what I thought would give

a good representation of the afternoon's event.

Another Abandoned House

I was in Troy today. I came across Sage College Campus by accident. It's really a gorgeous campus and I couldn't resist taking some shots.

Below, two students sunbathing in the beautiful weather.

I also came upon this scene. I guess it was Earth Day, and there was a group of people who had gathered to clean up a little park. There was a DJ and a barbeque grill--it looked like everyone was having a good time. Below, these two were taking a break while enjoying the view of the falls.

Then on my way home after passing through Amsterdam, I found another abandoned house.

The front door was wide open, so of course I went in. The barn in the previous image is on the same property as the house.

Today's Tattoo

Jackie and I were sitting outside Starbuck's this afternoon, enjoying our coffee, the weather and our conversation. While we were talking, I watched about 1/2 dozen guys pass by with awesome tattoos, but since I was "talking story" with Jackie, I didn't chase after them.

Eventually her phone rang and while she was taking care of the call, two young men walked by, and I noticed that one had an awesome tattoo on his arm that I just couldn't resist. So I trotted after them, shamelessly I might add, and asked permission to photograph the artwork. The guy I was talking to indicated that his friend also had a tattoo, so it was a two-for-one opportunity for me. I just happened to have my camera in the car, along with a notebook and pen--so I was able to get some background information to go along with the artwork.

This is the tattoo that first caught my attention--a Celtic cross.

The guys were very nice and very cooperative--I was even able to get a model release from them. They're military, need I say more?

Posted at 7 pm on Monday, March 9, 2009

Byodo-In Temple

I made a quick stop at Laniakea Beach again today. No turtles, but there was a monk seal on the beach. The photos were bad, so you don't get to see her today. However.......today the weather was wonderfully beautiful, even if a little cool. Blue skies, a breeze, and the water was that awesome azure color that just takes your breath away and almost doesn't seem real.

Then I met a friend at the Japanese Temple. The temple is beautiful as are the grounds it sits on. It was built entirely without nails and is an exact replica of the original temple constructed in Japan over 900 years ago. This first image is deliberately out of focus because I zoomed while pressing the shutter button.

The next two images show the grounds.


This Buddha is over 18 feet tall. It was carved, then covered with cloth and painted with 3 applications of gold lacquer Finally, gold leaf was applied over the lacquer finish.

This next image is just a detail of the railing surrounding the buddha.

Some koi swimming in the ponds--dirty water and a slow shutter speed.

One of the main reasons I wanted to go there today was to practice some more with my infrared. It's always random whether the images come out good. I made 8 images and I only really like 2. Here's one of the better ones, although not spectacular.

Posted at 7:30 on Thurs, Feb 26, 2009