Chinese Acrobats

Once again I was surprised by an event, and photographically unprepared, but I did have one of my cameras on me with a 50mm f1.4 lens, which helped since flash would be inappropriate. The skill that these performers displayed was incredible.

Restoration for Mom and Dad

This is a digital restoration of my Mom and Dad's 1970 wedding picture taken at the Crescent Beach Hotel.

Lots of discoloration, scratches, and a tear were repaired. I printed it on Archival Matte paper and re-framed it, it looks like it just left the lab in 1970.

snow geese

Stuck all day with a 17-35mm wide angle lens, so one can only zoom in so far, but try to find the Snow Geese anyway.

glimpses from the market

I always find snapshots I think are cool at the public market, maybe not my best work, but interesting to me none the less. A lot of times the shots are nostalgic in some sense, and trigger memories from my childhood.

A LOT OF UNEXPECTED FUN

Shot a bunch of pics at a BMX demo today at Park Ave Bike. I was working and didn't even know it was going down, so I had only my camera, a really wide lens, and no flash. I did the best I could while still helping customers.

Lucky Kids

We have cleaned, labeled, and maintained our little fleet of SLR's. The students don't realize how lucky they are to have access to these new Canon SLR's. Back in high school I had to borrow my mom's AE1, which was a sweet camera in the 80's, but these 10 megapixel XT's are really sweet. There is even a token Nikon in the mix.

Long Light

I find myself at the playground a lot lately, and these excursions are often the only free time I have to take photos.This is cool with me, besides my son lives for the action. I still love the late day light most, long shadows add drama and visual interest. Lens flare isn't the same on a digital sensor as Ectachrome or Velvia, but it works a little.

Student Restoration Projects

Students are restoring old family photographs using Adobe Photoshop, some pictures were in really bad shape, and others just needed color and level tweaking.

Great attitude about daily photography

Even though this guy's selling an Iphone App, his attitude in regards to daily photography is awesome. I want my students to remember that it isn't always about how great your gear is, it's about taking pictures with what ever you have available.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lotlwm38OM&feature=player_embedded#

cool blog

http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2010/03/exploring-risk-conversation-yields.html

Some things still make sense

If you're feeling beat up at the end of the week and sick of negative news surrounding us all the time, take a "news diet" and enjoy the simple things. Just watching these two play after some good Indian food with good friends last night was a good thing for me. No lousy sound bytes or garbage journalism this weekend for us, I just plan to shoot a lot of photos and focus on some family time.

indy grab

Mark "indy grab" Pineway

Another skate shot

enjoying the longer days

My favorite light is long evening light, not just for photos, but for mood.

Going Big

More skate photos, Tyler was going big all day.

Skate Sequence

Had fun snapping some shots over at the skate park last night. This sequence will be hard to see compared to the large 13"x19" print, but gives you the idea. It's really wide angle, so I'll make a cropped in version so the trick is visible on a web page, or smaller screen.

Americana

6:30am Dunkin Donuts, had to snap a shot off of this insane truck!

Pinhole Display (going green)

photo shot on Olivia's cellular device

Students have finally finished mounting their pinhole photographs on black Bristol board. Some kids even made some slick digital signature stamps in Illustrator. We decided to include some actual cameras in the base of the display case this time to thwart confusion as to how they were generated. I actually had someone think that we were just making low resolution pictures, so I had to explain that the cameras were built from household junk, or scrap materials. "Going green", now i'm truly PC.

Great Spaces, Great People

I attended a great workshop, but I also met some really great people like Doug Hansgate, Gregg Horst, and a Hockey photographer who was kind enough to dial in my custom functions better on my 1D. We really helped each other with what each of us knew as well as consulting Doug the main instructor for more advanced questions. This is another reason why I choose to buy my gear from a local shop, not only are their prices great, but they bend over backwards to help you, network for you, and they offer opportunities like these.

Alyssa

Another model Alyssa from today doing a great job.

Ashley

Great fashion shoot today at Hahn Photographic. I took 5GB worth of raw files today, and just started to look at them let alone adjust them. This is a nice shot of Ashley with minimal adjustments.

a thawing park

Last night I took a hike with my family. Durand Eastman park was beautiful near sunset.

cool dog

I Met this little guy at the park last night.

Reflections

Just came back across this wedding shot from the summer, and decided I really like the reflections.

too fun

Stupid "Photo Booth" self portrait. Apple was genius installing this software on the Imacs and Macbooks. I've heard kids say they bought a Macbook because they thought this proprietary photo software was hilarious. I've had this since it's release on my old G5 Imac and it's still funny.

Best Quality Homemade Pinhole Camera

I ran a contest with my students for our Pinhole camera unit, the categories were:
1. Most original functioning camera (see cantaloupe below #1).
2. Best quality construction, durability and functionality  (Camouflage and weather resistant body, shown above with side loader feature).
3. Camera that generates the sharpest quality images (still awaiting results).

Craziest Student Camera

One of my students built a functioning Pinhole camera using a cantaloupe. This picture shows it in a state of rapid decay, but some decent shots were generated from it in it's youth (2 weeks ago).

More of the Same

1. Level Everything
2. Erect Lame Structure

Totally Lame

Went out for a nice shoot at Durand Eastman Park this morning with my Canon 1D. Took a lot of nice shots went to review the histogram and saw "No card" pop up, so I took this shot with my phone on the way out. Lame.

Some Things Should Never Change

All things change, I understand that, but some toys have lasted as long as the creations they are modeled after. My son is surrounded by an endless supply of gadgetry and electronic toys that people have bought him, but the standby toy is still the Train set. Maybe the train set fulfills the basic desire to create and build something that functions, or maybe trains are just cool machines that boys continue to love? It's fun to watch as I drink coffee, and sometimes I still have to get down there and help think up some new tracks. Now we just need to find some Lincoln Logs and we're set.

IRONY

Today as I drove past Kodak, I realized that the old saying, "be careful what you wish for" couldn't be more true. When I was a young hippie I always complained about the polluting monstrosity, not stopping to think that Kodak was paying for all the cushy suburban amenities I unconsciously enjoyed. My dad worked there for 37 years and made a good living, always providing for my family.
Here's the kicker, now I teach photography and swear my allegiance to what's left of the company, but I have to buy German photo paper. Polycontrast is no longer available, and sadly neither are many of my friends and family's jobs. :(

Joe Ziolkowski made me do it

Today Joe Ziolkowski made me do this, or inspired me to start posting my daily pics. Joe came in to my high school photo class that I teach, and blew us all away with his presentation. He talked about everything from his days as a high paid fashion photographer to the photos he took with his father as he cared for him in the late stages of Parkinson's disease. Joe does extensive pinhole photography and has been to Okinawa five times to photograph the exotic coastline. Point is, we were moved and recharged artistically. Joe is in the above picture showing students his 30 foot accordian fold book chronicling the last years he spent with his ailing father. It was hard not to get choked up, and we all felt something, and that's a hard thing to do now a days.