Purveyors of great grease

Tom's definitely makes the list on my top ten comfort food restaurants of Rochester, along with Don's Original, Fujiya, Monte Alban (Irondequoit location), Mr. Dominic's, and Amico Pizza... My definition of comfort food does not limit it to one ethnic style. I think of it simply as food that I would crave if I was living somewhere else for an extended period of time. When I was in Spain for six weeks I was surrounded by "great" food, but I wanted to be at Don's for a burger, Mr. Dominic's for a steak, and Amico's picking up a pie. I guess I think of "comfort food" as regional specialties that are constantly/consistently prepared, and readily available within that specific region.

another take on it:
http://www.accidentalhedonist.com/index.php?title=what_is_comfort_food&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

popping

My favorite tree in the yard is at it's peak of producing gorgeous flowers. I don't know what it's called and I really don't care enough to research it, I just look forward to seeing it bloom every year.

cold wind and rain

Today is too Rochesterish for me. We had family up from Maryland and at least it was the Rochester they always remember, not the warm sunny place the three weekends prior. Maybe people who are visiting need a dose of home, and would be let down if there wasn't a "Garbage Plate" readily available, a bad mall to visit, or the crappy weather. I do like living here, I just like the post "Global Warming" early summer we were being spoiled with, 80 in March is cool with me.

Drive to work

cell phone art

We went out to shoot some pics on our cell phones today, I wanted to illustrate the point that art can be made even with low quality camera's. Later we plan to shoot the same subjects with the Hi Res SLR's and compare the quality differences between the two printed images. The students will see that the image quality is always better from a real camera, but hopefully the low resolution cell generated pictures will have some redeeming qualities like: interesting composition, good subject matter, and creative light. The above picture "skull of doom" was shot with my Samsung Rogue (3.0 Megapixel), more pixel generating capacity than my first Kodak digital camera ($800.00 1995).

490

sessions

Hung out for a minute and watched a secret session, some flip tricks on the transition, and some good old school style.

so eighties

I had to break out the cell phone for this shadow box clock,  some weird "Flashdance" thing going on.

no direction

Just shooting, totally uninspired, but a real shoot is on the horizon.

Monday

Monday, some shots snapped, not much in the tank though.

crack of dawn

More early morning light just creeping over the valley where I walk my dog. I used to sleep in, now I can't even if I try, but I seem to find photo subjects that appeal to me more easily.

Went down to Durand Eastman Park this morning with my old photo buddy Johnny (dog).

Skies were wild

Skies were wild this morning, I love the changes in weather lately, good photo ops.

misty morning

The only time I've had to shoot lately has been between 6:30-7:00am, just really busy, but the morning light has been interesting none the less.

morning moon

When I walked out he door this morning I felt a warm breeze and saw a hazy moon still shining pretty bright. Made me wish I could just hang out for awhile.

dual natural light sources

A fleeting moment as the sun was setting. The long light from the side window was pouring in while the dim light from the open garage was illuminating the front of Leif. I had to shoot a high ISO creating a fair bit of noise, so in Photoshop I used a noise reduction filter on one layer and dropped the opacity on the adjusted top layer to 75%. A little soft, but not bad.

ISO exercise

Today the students and I went outside to shoot four pictures of the same thing, but for each shot we adjusted our ISO settings. The point was to show the students the trade-offs between between sensitivity levels, so we shot at ISO 100,400,800, and 1600. Most kids have never bought a ton of film, especially different speed films, they only use 400 in my photo one class. I then had them zoom way in and see the "Noise", or the digital equivalent to film "grain". The higher the ISO the faster the sensor responds to light, but the file accumulates more noise. The hope is that they will then learn to pick the appropriate ISO's as they shoot stills to action shots, and bright light to low light. I shot the flower at ISO 50 since it was so sunny out and I wanted low pixel noise. I shot the moss at 1600 to illustrate the noise especially in the rock portion to the right.

Easter Morning

Nice morning light, and a relaxed pace.

Town Egg Hunt

What town Easter Egg Hunt would be complete without a creepy Easter Bunny? Seriously, the kids enjoyed every minute of it, thanks town of Irondequoit! I saw several old friends that have moved back to the town we grew up in, it's funny how many people move back to Rochester after trying to buy a house somewhere trendy. 600k for a small bungalow is ridiculous at any time, but even crazier these days when the price of everything else is through the roof. Malibu is cool, but I'll settle for upstate.

Morning Walk

Took a walk along the new Genesee River Boardwalk this morning, and brought along a 70-200mm f2.8 Tamron lens. It was my first time using it, and it seems like a really nice focal length for many applications, can't wait to shoot certain parts of a wedding with it this Spring.

Some Older Paintings

Started photographing some of my old work yesterday, funny to look at now, but oddly I still like it. Notice my pre Katrina New Orleans painting. I took a photo of that scene during Mardi Gras back in 2004. Love that City.