Photo Musings

Day 77 - Snow

2012-01-28T22:15:00.000-07:00

It snowed a little yesterday, very little, and we've hardly had any snow this winter. So I was surprised to see even this much snow on the ground as I walked to my car this morning. The only reason it was still around is that the parking lot is on the north side of the building. It's supposed to be in the mid-50s for the next couple of days so this won't last long.

Until tomorrow.

Day 76 - Relaxing After A Long Day

2012-01-27T23:07:00.000-07:00

We've all had them, the work days that seem to last an eternity. When the day is over all we want to do is unwind. Today I was contemplating two choices, a cocktail or a nap. The decision was made when a coworker asked me a few minutes before the end of my shift if I wanted to go to Elliot's.

I dozed in front of the TV once I got home.

Until tomorrow.

Day 75 - Tech Support

2012-01-27T22:58:00.001-07:00

Whenever my friends Nikki and Shaun of Contemporary Photography have technical questions they call me for answers. It's been going on long enough that Nikki has given me the nickname "Tech Support." They are currently offering photography classes at their studio and have asked me to assist.

I'm happy to help out.

Until tomorrow.

Day 74 - The Photo Lab: Part 2

2012-01-25T23:33:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I posted a photo of the photo lab at work and if you look at the left edge of that photo you can see photofinish envelopes hanging by the printer waiting to be done. Today I was able to sit down and work on some of the 21 rolls of film that were hanging there, as well as a few digital orders. As I'm sitting at the printer, if I look just above the monitor I see the sight above. Since I was looking at it for a few hours today I felt it only appropriate that it should be my photo of the day.

Until tomorrow.

Day 73 - The Photo Lab

2012-01-25T23:27:00.000-07:00

One of the best kept secrets about Jax (though I wish it weren't the case) is that we have a photo lab. I've been at the store for nine and a half years and still I hear almost weekly: "I didn't know you had a photo lab." People aren't printing as many photos anymore, whether from film or digital, and that's a shame. As I heard somewhere several years ago: "It's not a photo until it's a print."

Until tomorrow.

Day 72- Car Stuff

2012-01-23T22:45:00.003-07:00

I am not a car guy. While I can appreciate the beauty of a late '50's Thunderbird or an original Mustang Fastback and I love watching Top Gear on BBC America, I really look at a car as something to get me from Point A to Point B with a minimum of bother. So it's always a chore for me to remember to renew my car's registration and this year was no different. In fact it was worse than it has been in recent years because Colorado has reinstituted emissions testing prior to registration and, while you used to be able to go just about anywhere to get your car tested, you now have to go to a "centralized" testing center. I guess I really shouldn't complain, it took maybe 20 minutes and my car passed, and then I was able to get in and out of the county clerks office in less than 10 minutes, it's just one of those obligations that you have to do and there's no use complaining.

Until tomorrow.

Day 71 - Leftovers

2012-01-22T23:59:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, Jill and I tried out a new pizza place that's close to my apartment. We ordered the "Tia 'ohhh' Mia" which is a sauceless cheese pizza topped with spinach, feta and lots of mushrooms. If I was by myself it definitely wouldn't have been my first choice but it sure was tasty. We brought half of it home and Jill meant to take it back to Cheyenne with her for lunches during the week but she forgot, so I had it for dinner tonight. Tomorrow morning I'll be having her leftover breakfast from today that she also forgot to take with her.

Until tomorrow.

Day 70 - It's Nothing, It's Just A Door

2012-01-21T21:18:00.000-07:00

I don't know for sure if the warehouse at Jax Outdoor is government surplus but the stickers on the door make me think it might be so.

Until tomorrow.

Day 69 - My Favorite Sandwich Shop

2012-01-21T21:13:00.000-07:00

If there's one thing there's no lack of in Fort Collins it's places to eat. Restaurants come and go but luckily most of the good ones tend to stick around. One of these is Backcountry Provisions, my favorite sandwich shop for several years now. Not only do they have a great menu with some unique sandwiches (curried chicken salad with rice?), they have some of the best potato salad I have ever had in a restaurant. I am something of a potato salad snob and will splurge on Whole Foods' Picnic Potato Salad on occasion even though it's ridiculously expensive (but it is the best supermarket potato salad I have ever had.) The thing that makes Backcountry's potato salad so good is that they make it themselves every couple of days, none of that stuff that comes prepacked in individual servings or in the industrial sized buckets. On occasion they will have a meatball or sausage sub as their daily special and I have to think long and hard about getting that or something more potato salad friendly, I find that tomato sauce and potato salad don't mix that well.

Until tomorrow.

Day 68 - Playing Around

2012-01-19T20:17:00.000-07:00

Went to the store to pick up some beer after work and decided to play around taking photos of rows of bottles. Nothing serious, nothing really thought out, just having fun. My first stop was the Irish whiskey however.

Until tomorrow.

Day 67 - Free Chair

2012-01-18T22:14:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine put out the call last week for anyone knowing where they could get a used couch or a chair or two. This morning I walked into the hallway of my building and saw this chair with a "FREE" sign on it, so I snapped this picture and sent it along.

Not a great photo but it's the only one I took today.

Until tomorrow.

Day 66 - Hipstamatic

2012-01-17T21:52:00.000-07:00

I was playing around this evening with a photo app for my iPhone called Hipstamatic. It's different from most of the photo apps out there because instead of taking the picture and then adding different filters and effects, you choose your "film", "lens" and "flash" before you take the picture. It even goes so far as to make your phone's screen look like the back of an old compact film camera, complete with a little viewfinder window. My only complaint about it is that what you see through the "viewfinder" isn't always what you get, but that's not too different from real life.

Until tomorrow.

Day 65 - Cody

2012-01-16T23:46:00.000-07:00

Since today was a holiday and Jill had the day off from work and her kids had the day off from school they came down to Ft Collins for the afternoon. We had a nice lunch at Lucky Joe's, the kids went skating at the ice rink in Old Town Square and then we wandered through some of the many cool shops in downtown. We ended up at Walrus Ice Cream for either hot chocolate or root beer floats. I think Cody was having a good day.

Until tomorrow.

Day 64 - Movie Marathon

2012-01-16T23:37:00.000-07:00

I drove up to Cheyenne to spend time with my Jill and her kids. It was decided by Phylicia, her eldest, that we were going to have a "Geek Day" and that was comprised of a Lord of the Rings marathon. Apparently her eyes got wide when Jill passed on the fact that I own the extended editions of all three movies. None of our eyes were wide by the end of Return of the King though, it was almost 1:00 am when it ended. Today's photo is one I grabbed on my phone, Cody at the computer, Phylicia in the middle and Phylicia's friend Lois on the right. Haley, Jill's youngest was watching a movie in the bedroom because she didn't like what the rest of us were watching.

Until tomorrow.

Day 63 - The End Of My Week

2012-01-14T21:41:00.001-07:00

My work week runs Tuesday through Saturday. The sun was setting as I left work today and it was a beaut! Now I get to try to relax for the next two days and then I have to start all over again. I'm ready for a vacation.

Until tomorrow.

Day 62 - Happy Hour

2012-01-13T22:00:00.001-07:00

I decided to hit up Happy Hour after work today. I stopped by Jax Fish House for some $1.00 oysters on the half shell, mussels in pineapple green curry cream sauce and a few Dixie beers. It wasn't a particularly crazy week at work but this was a nice way to end it.

Until tomorrow.

Day 61 - Comfort Food

2012-01-12T23:11:00.001-07:00

When I was growing up I my mom would make something called Macaroni Mix-Up. Looking back on it I realize that it was an inexpensive way to feed five kids. Every once in a while I get nostalgic and make it, today was one of those days.

The recipe couldn't be simpler. Brown one pound of ground beef. While the meat is cooking, cook one pound of elbow macaroni. Once the meat is ready add one can of condensed tomato soup, a half can of water and some Italian seasoning. Add the elbows when ready and mix well. Top with some grated Parmesan and serve. I'm going to mix it up a bit next time. Instead of half a can of water, I'm going to add a can of diced tomatoes with the liquid.

Until tomorrow.

Day 60 - Nothing Special

2012-01-12T22:54:00.001-07:00

Wow, 60 days straight of taking a photo a day (though not always blogging every day). I didn't expect every day to produce great photos and I was right, though I think I've gad many more good days than bad. Today's photo was taken as I was leaving work, I liked the sunset and the way it lit the ice on the pond. It's a little darker than I would have liked but there's not a whole lot of adjustments available on a camera phone.

Until tomorrow.

Day 59 - Playing Around

2012-01-10T23:08:00.004-07:00

One of the perks of my job is that I get to test out a lot of new camera equipment as it comes into the store. What's been getting my attention for the past month or so are the cameras and lenses that make up the Nikon 1 System. This is Nikon's entry into the mirrorless interchangeable lens camera market. What that means is that the cameras are close in size to a large compact camera but with the versatility of interchangeable lenses like an SLR.

Nikon takes that versatility a step farther with an adapter that lets you mount any Nikon autofocus lens on the 1 Series cameras. This has gotten a lot of attention from wildlife photographers because the sensor of these cameras is much smaller than those found in standard digital SLRs. Because the sensor is so small any lens on the camera effectively has a much narrower angle of view than if it were placed on a 35mm film or digital SLR, by a factor of up to 2.7x. That means if you take a 300mm telephoto lens on a 1 Series camera you would get an image similar in size to an 810mm lens on a 35mm camera.

Sounds great doesn't it?

For me the attractive thing about these new cameras is their small size and even the smallest zoom to 300mm that Nikon makes is almost three times the size of the camera body when using the adapter. I'm not a bird or wildlife photographer so that doesn't really appeal to me. I like the idea of having a small camera around my neck and having one or two small lenses in my pockets as I wander.

What occurred to me today was that, while most people are concentrating on telephoto lenses, you get the same benefits using any Nikon lens. A macro (close-up) lens will appear to give you a higher magnification and a fast prime (fixed focal length) lens might make for a nice portrait lens. I mounted a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens onto a J1 camera using the adapter and took this photo of my coworker Ian. With the 2.7x crop factor the lens gave an image similar to a 135mm lens on a 35mm camera and 135mm is a classic portrait focal length.

Would I buy the lens adapter if I were to buy a 1 Series camera? Probably not, but it's fun to figure out what you can do.

Until tomorrow.

Day 58 - Dinner

2012-01-09T22:06:00.000-07:00

I stopped for dinner at Tokyo Joe's for some udon noodles with chicken and peanut sauce and this seating area off to the side caught my attention, along with the dividing wall. So, of course, I had to take a few photos.

For the record, the noodles were good, the unagi ngiri not so much.

Until tomorrow.

Day 57 - A Surprise

2012-01-09T21:58:00.000-07:00

A friend gave me this little gift on Saturday. It's a motor drive for an old film camera of mine that I still pull out and play with from time to time. I can't say how much use it's going to get but it will be fun to have.

Until tomorrow.

Day 56 - Hangin' with Rafiki

2012-01-09T21:52:00.000-07:00

Rafiki is a special little guy. He's the son of my friends Jill and Patrick and last summer he completed his three years of .chemotherapy treatments for leukemia. He's incredibly bright and polite and always seems to have a smile on his face.

Until tomorrow.

Day 55 - The Lincoln Center

2012-01-09T21:47:00.000-07:00

I have to play catch-up with the blog, I have been without internet at my apartment since last Thursday,

Last fall the Lincoln Center, Fort Collins' performing arts center, reopened after a several month long renovation. I have not been in since it reopened but I drive by it frequently and have wanted to photograph this artwork for a while. While driving by I have always thought that this looked liked the classic drama mask but looking at the photo I'm having trouble seeing it.

Until tomorrow.

Day 54 - Oh Say Can You See...

2012-01-05T21:11:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we had some ferocious winds, trees and power lines were down all over the place and one of the light poles at Colorado State University's Hughes Stadium was blown down, fell on the press box and then into the stands.

I was outside today at work and noticed something in a tree. I asked the manager if we were missing a flag and apparently it had disappeared on Saturday. It was rescued from the tree and was returned to its rightful place on the front of the building.

Until tomorrow.

Day 53 - Mail Call

2012-01-04T20:46:00.000-07:00

Well not really, it's more of a mail drop. This just caught my eye when I was dropping off a Netflix disc.

Until tomorrow.

Day 52 - Still Amazed By The Camera In My Phone

2012-01-03T22:24:00.000-07:00

Took this photo in Old Town Square this evening during my dinner break from work. Everything I had heard about the iPhone camera seems to be true.

Until tomorrow.

Day 51 - I'll Get Around To It

2012-01-03T10:42:00.000-07:00

Procrastination comes in many forms. There are the little instances like not taking the dirty dish to the sink right away, the medium instances like posting to the blog a day late and the large instances like having a bare wall with plans of hanging photos on it that is still empty months later. I am guilty of all three right at this moment, two of which are on display here.

Here's another piece of procrastination, making a New Year's resolution on January 3rd. I resolve to be better about all three things listed above. As soon as I'm done writing this the bowl from my breakfast cereal will be heading into the kitchen, rinsed in the sink and put in the dishwasher (which has needed to be emptied for two days). Tonight, and every night, I will sit down and post my photo of the day on this blog. It will no longer be enough to say that I took the photo and the blog can wait. And I will start putting the photos that I have for the wall into the frames that I also have and get them on the wall. I don't have enough photos yet to fill the wall but I will also be working on that.

Until tomorrow.

Day 50 - Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T10:16:00.001-07:00

I know everyone says this every year but it's hard to believe another year has gone by so quickly. Another month passing so fast is hard enough, but another year? Well 2011 ended as a good year for me and my expectations for 2012 are high. Let's just hope the Mayans ended their calendar when they did because the didn't see the need for one going farther than it did. Or maybe they just expected that someone would make a new one to pick up where theirs left off. Either way, let's make it a great year.

Today's photo is of one of my favorite snacks. For more years than I can remember my mom has included a huge box of goldfish crackers in my Christmas presents. It's a tradition that I hope continues on for many more years.

Until tomorrow.

Day 49 - What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

2012-01-01T13:41:00.001-07:00

For the first time in a very long time I am seeing someone and have a date for New Year's Eve. We're still staying in to avoid the craziness but it will be much less lonely than in years past. Too bad there's not a Marx Brothers movie marathon on TV like there was last year.

Until tomorrow and the start of the new year.

Day 48 - Cocktails For Two

2011-12-30T21:22:00.000-07:00

I went out for dinner and drinks this evening with Jill and I introduced her to Ace Gillett's (which she liked) and the French 75 (which she didn't). But she did like the Aviation martini and we both really enjoyed the goat cheese bruschetta and the chicken curry samosas. Unfortunately the music started late so we didn't get to hear any but if you like live jazz, this place is a must.

More tomorrow.

Day 47 - Two For One

2011-12-29T22:06:00.004-07:00

It was an absolutely beautiful day today, sunny and warm, and so unlike what I think of as late December weather. I went downtown for a rather mediocre lunch, at a place I've come to expect better of, and then walked a bit looking for photos. Downtown Fort Collins has several cool alleys that have been restored and are pedestrian (and photographer) friendly. The city also has a very active Art in Public Places program that includes several painted pianos scattered throughout downtown for people to sit down at and play.

Until tomorrow.

Day 46 - Another Christmas Present

2011-12-28T22:04:00.003-07:00

I got this from my girlfriend's kids for Christmas, along with a glass that reads "May The Force Be With You." When you push the big red button you hear:

and the sound of Darth Vader breathing.

Until tomorrow.

Day 45 - I Needed A Photo

2011-12-27T22:50:00.002-07:00

And this is what I got. I admit I didn't put a whole lot of effort into today's image but I was tired and just wanted to sit on the couch. I'll do better tomorrow.

Until then.

Day 44 - Joy

2011-12-27T22:39:00.003-07:00

It's rare that I get the day after Christmas off, but this was one of those rare occasions. Jill and I went out to breakfast and then wandered through various stores in Old Town Ft Collins. I came upon this little guy at The Perennial Gardener (which unfortunately doesn't have a website) and I loved the unbridled joy and exuberance of this Buddha so I had to take a photo.

Until tomorrow.

Day 43 - Christmas Day

2011-12-27T22:37:00.002-07:00

Santa came! Merry Christmas!

Until tomorrow.

Day 42 - Christmas Eve

2011-12-27T22:27:00.003-07:00

I spent this Christmas Eve with my girlfriend and her family. Jill and her two daughters were all involved in their church Christmas program so I brought along a camera to get some photos. All the kids were so cute, especially this little one. When I asked her "Why can't I stop taking pictures of you? Is it because you're so stinkin' cute?" She replied with a smile,"Yeah."

Until tomorrow.

Day 41 - A New Camera

2011-12-27T22:22:00.002-07:00

I got together with my friend Jill Friday night for a quick drink (her husband was sick) and she surprised me with a few gifts, including this new camera!

Until tomorrow.

Day 40 - Shooting From The Hip

2011-12-22T23:18:00.003-07:00

It snowed last night, six inches or so, so we have nice fresh coat of snow for Christmas. A good day to wander with the camera.

This photo was taken on the way back to my car at the end of my lunch break. Several of the restaurants downtown still had furniture on their patios, some even still had umbrellas up. I was taking photos of the snow covered patios when I passed this spot. Since it was cold and the ground was covered with snow, I just shot from the hip as I walked by.

Until tomorrow.

Days 38 & 39 - Nothing Really To Say

2011-12-22T00:36:00.003-07:00

Day 38 - I didn't get home from work until 10:00 p.m. and hadn't taken a photo earlier in the day so here's a photo of the back of my building.

Day 39 - A coworker asked if I wanted to get a cocktail after work.

Until tomorrow.

Day 37 - Ornament

2011-12-19T21:46:00.003-07:00

This ornament was given to me a few years ago by my sister Mary Ellen and remains a favorite. It has a really rich look and adds a touch of class to my tree. I've had a few ideas for photographing it over the years but this is the first time I've done so. Who knows, maybe it will reappear before too long.

Until tomorrow.

Days 34, 35 & 36 - The Lost Weekend

2011-12-19T11:18:00.004-07:00

Well, not really lost, just very busy and by the time it was all over I was too tired to sit down and blog.

Friday night Jill and I went out for drinks with friends. We met at Lucky Joe's and were surprised to find the place full of Santas! It turns out that Lucky's was the starting point for the Santa Crawl, just your basic pub crawl except for the fact that everyone was supposed to dress as Santa. It was funny that whenever someone in costume walked in there rose a chorus of "Hey look, it's Santa!" Unfortunately Lucky's isn't the best lit of places (what bar is?) and I didn't want to use flash, so I had to shoot at the max ISO of the camera and every photo was really noisy with bad color and a bit blurry because of the slow shutter speed. Converting to black and white and choosing a photo with a mostly stationary subject helped. It also helped that this kid was pretty cute.

Saturday night we decided to cruise around town looking at Christmas lights. After checking the Coloradoan for a list of the best lighting displays, we hit the road. We started at The Gardens at Spring Creek for their annual display and were not disappointed. The photo above is of just one of the amazing displays they have, I'll be going back to try to get better photos of the LED grapevines, complete with bunches of purple grapes. We then drove to the south end of town to see a display created by a concert and theater lighting designer, his entire house and yard are lit and all synched to music. We ended the evening driving through the grounds of Woodward Governor. The display never changes from year to year but that's part of its charm.

Sunday found me up in Cheyenne, WY to hear Jill play violin at her church. Afterwards we went to see the 1,000 Faces of Santa exhibit at the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens. There were Santas of all shapes and sizes, bowling Santas, firefighter Santas, a crab Santa, Santa riding a chicken and a hippie Santa. This guy reminded me of the end of this Capital One commercial of the barbarians visiting San Francisco.

Until tomorrow.

Day 33 - You better watch out...

2011-12-15T23:06:00.004-07:00

You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town
He's making a list
And checking it twice;
Gonna find out Who's naughty and nice
Santa Claus is coming to town
He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!
O! You better watch out!
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming to town

Until tomorrow.

Day 32 - Eggs

2011-12-15T00:08:00.008-07:00

Not really much to say today. Busy day at work. Ended up leaving 1 1/2 hours after I was scheduled to. Been happening too much recently. Got home, planned on cleaning the kitchen so I can bake tomorrow night and ended up falling asleep on the couch. No cleaning done, baking looking doubtful for tomorrow but hopefully this weekend. I think some of the baking I've been planning as Christmas presents may end up being New Year's presents.

Until tomorrow.

Day 31 - Key Ring

2011-12-13T23:05:00.003-07:00

This key ring has been hanging from the rearview mirror of whatever car I've been driving over the last 10 years. My friend Jill Mott had them made in Zimbabwe when she was living there and running a Kids with Cameras program. She sold them, and other Zimbabwean art, in the US to raise money for the program. I've always loved it but it's just too big to fit in my pocket.

Until tomorrow.

Day 30 - My First Christmas Present

2011-12-12T22:36:00.002-07:00

My friend Mary dropped by today and brought me my first Christmas present, a jar of homemade preserved lemons. She also included a Moroccan chicken recipe as well as instructions to make more lemons. I'm looking forward to trying these out and also trying out a few new recipes.

Until tomorrow.

Day 29 - Christmas Party

2011-12-12T22:18:00.002-07:00

We had the Jax Christmas party at C.B. & Potts this year. Dinner was a buffet with one side having Italian food and the other side Mexican. Stacey went through the Mexican side of the line but still wanted Italian so, instead of waiting until she had finished her first plate, she went up and got a second one.

Until tomorrow.

Day 28 - You Know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen...

2011-12-10T23:08:00.004-07:00

OK, so it's not Rudolph, but there were reindeer at the store today. And carolers too. With two weeks to go until Christmas, the shoppers are coming out in force and as busy as we were today, it's nothing compared to what next Saturday will be like. But this isn't new for me, it's my 25th Christmas in retail.

On a happier personal note, my girlfriend Jill came down from Cheyenne this afternoon with her two daughters and a friend of the younger one. They saw the reindeer and had some hot chocolate and then we went into Old Town where the two younger girls went to see Santa while I wandered through a few stores with the older sister and we got to know each other a little better. Then it was off to Lucky Joe's for some Irish nachos and sodas.

Until tomorrow.

Day 27 - My Christmas Star

2011-12-09T22:05:00.003-07:00

Years ago, when I got my first Christmas tree on my own, I made this star for the top. I was inspired by the star my sister Mary Ellen had made for her tree several years earlier. Over the years I have looked for just the right star to replace it but have never found "The One." I have seen a few that came close and even found one online a few years ago that I had decided to order but it had disappeared when I went back to buy it.

Some day I may replace this star, but for now it's still with me.

Until tomorrow.

Day 26 - It's Already Done Its Job

2011-12-08T22:52:00.002-07:00

I knew when I got an iPhone I would want a unique case for it. I was inspired by these long discontinued cases from lbobi.com to design something on my own. I loved the idea of a twin-lens reflex camera on the case so I started searching for pictures of a Rolleiflex and took it from there. I have to thank Jules Bianchi for recommending Uncommon and their wide range of customizable cases. I uploaded my design on Sunday afternoon, received an email on Monday that it had shipped and it was delivered to work this morning. It is very well made with a nice secure fit and the printing of the design is beautiful.

It got its first test this evening when I pulled my phone out of my jacket while in the supermarket and proceeded to drop it and have it slide across the floor. I picked it up and could not find a mark on it where it had hit the floor. I would call that a job well done.

Until tomorrow.

Day 25 - Bentley

2011-12-07T22:25:00.003-07:00

Bentley and his brother Churchill (in the background facing the other way) came to visit the store today.

They are frequent visitors and are always very friendly and grateful for the treats we keep behind the counter.

Until tomorrow.

Day 24 - Saint Nicholas

2011-12-06T21:56:00.002-07:00

For those who don't know (and probably don't care) December 6 is St. Nicholas Day. St. Nicholas was a real person long before Santa Claus came around. If you're interested in learning more about him check out the St. Nicholas Center.

This little guy has been hanging on my tree for several years, along with many Santas and another bishop, St. Patrick. My tree also holds at least four cameras, four Federation spacecraft, Winnie the Pooh, Eyeore, a Viewmaster and many other ornaments I've picked up over the years. Who knows, if I get stumped on a photo over the next few weeks, you may even see some of them.

Until tomorrow.

Day 23 - Baby, It's Cold Outside

2011-12-05T23:39:00.003-07:00

The high today was around 12 degrees and it could get down to -6 tonight.

I found it rather amusing to see the "Keep Out Of Fountain" sign covered in ice this evening.

More tomorrow.

Day 22 - Say Cheese!

2011-12-05T00:08:00.002-07:00

My good friend Jill Mott has recently opened an Etsy shop. Jill is one of the most creative and visually imaginative people I know, not just as a photographer but in many different forms of arts & crafts. Check out her shop and maybe you'll find that perfect Christmas gift.

More tomorrow.

Day 21 - Art

2011-12-03T23:30:00.000-07:00

I saw this on my way to lunch. Loving the camera in the iPhone.

Day 20 - Friday Night

2011-12-02T23:59:00.000-07:00

Fort Collins has a First Friday Gallery Walk every month where the art galleries in Old Town stay open late and have openings or other special events. My girlfriend and I went out for dinner and to wander some galleries but the highlight of the evening came when it started to snow. Fort Collins does a really nice job decorating downtown for Christmas and the snow just made it magical, well that and the fact I was with someone special.

Day 19 - Instagram

2011-12-01T20:19:00.004-07:00

In case you missed yesterday's post, I got a new phone, an iPhone 4S. One of the things I've really been looking forward to with it is a built-in camera that can take a decent photo, the camera in my Blackberry could not. Along with a better camera I've been looking forward to trying out Instagram, an iPhone app that works like Twitter for photos. I've had it on my iPod for a while to view photos but have not been able to post any until today.

What really amazes me is that I've managed to get 22 followers even though I've never posted a photo until this morning.

More tomorrow.

Day 18 - Drinking the Kool-Aid

2011-11-30T23:02:00.002-07:00

I finally did it.

More tomorrow.

Day 17 - 15 Minutes

2011-11-30T22:51:00.003-07:00

OK, I'm late again on posting but I'm at least I am taking the photos every day.

Yesterday I didn't have to be in to work until 12:30, I was expecting a package from FedEx and according to the online tracking it was supposed to be delivered by 3:00, so I thought the odds of my getting the delivery before I left for work were pretty decent, but the time came and I had to leave for work.

Earlier in the morning I said to myself that FedEx would probably show up right after I left for work and sure enough, when I checked tracking later in the afternoon, they were at my door 15 minutes after I left.

What Was I Thinking - Part 2

2011-11-29T08:12:00.006-07:00

After I yesterday's photo I decided to work with it a little in Photoshop to see if I could pull out more of the feeling I had when I took it. Since I wasn't too serious about it, and just to see what would happen, I chose to only use the Totally Rad Action Mix from Totally Rad Actions. For those that don't know, actions in Photoshop are a way to automate a series of functions instead of having to perform each step manually. This saves a lot of time and also makes the results easily repeatable. Here are the original photo along with the changes as I ran each action.

I think it got a little more interesting with each step but the tree still bothered me so I cropped it out to see what it would look like.

Is it what I had in mind when I took the photo in the first place? No.

Is it better than the original photo? I think so.

Is it a good photo? I leave that to the viewer.

UPDATE

Looking at the photo again, I thought how it was the sunlight on the wires, not the clouds that got my attention in the first place, and I looked again at the tree. There was interesting light falling on the tree and I decided to try cropping the photo to emphasize that. I kept getting closer and closer, trying to keep the intersection of the wires in the frame to give the diagonal in the lower right a connecting point but ultimately deciding that it wasn't needed. Again, I leave it to you to decide.

Day 16 - What Was I Thinking?

2011-11-28T23:35:00.002-07:00

I pulled into the parking lot behind my apartment this afternoon after running some errands and was struck by the way the sun was hitting some power/phone lines running overhead so I grabbed my phone (the only camera I had with me at the time) and tried to get a photograph of what I was seeing. The phone's camera also has no exposure controls, so the brightness and contrast of the scene weren't right. And the lens on the phone is a really wide angle one, so I needed to move from my original position to get a less cluttered background so the composition changed. After I took this photo I looked at it and said to myself "Why did you bother?" Thinking back on it now I probably should have gone into the apartment to get a better camera, but would it have led to a better photograph? I don't know.

I have learned in my years as a photographer that you have to take the photo when you see it. If I had gone inside for another camera the sun may have gone behind a cloud and the light that drew me to take this photo would have been gone. Is it a good photo? Not really but at least I know that for sure instead of wondering what it would have looked like if I hadn't taken it.

Days 14 & 15 - Becoming A Bad Habit

2011-11-28T00:26:00.003-07:00

My original intent when starting this current Photo A Day was to take AND post at least one photo per day. This has not been going as planned. Since I'm going to try to keep this going at least through the end of the year I'm going to make a bit more of an effort to get back to the plan.

There is now a seven foot tall hunk of greenery in my living room. It arrived a little earlier than in years past but two years ago trees ran out quickly and I ended up spending twice as much as planned on one. That wasn't going to happen again. So the tree got set in the stand and given time to settle and I started gathering the lights. After many years of having just small white lights on my tree I decided this year to add some larger colored ones, so I went out and found some LED lights that look like the old fashioned ones I grew up with.

A work in progress. I need to replace one strand of white lights, add another strand of colored lights and return the touch sensitive ornament light switch that keeps turning on the lights whenever I turn them off.

Until tomorrow.

Days 12 & 13 - Another Twofer

2011-11-25T22:40:00.002-07:00

And a correction to my numbering, somewhere along the way I mismarked a day but this is now the correct sequence. Just a quick post to get back on track, not too much to say about the following photos.

As with most years I went to my friends Bev and Anson's house for Thanksgiving, it was a smaller than usual group this year, only 30 or so people. I decided to try baking something to bring this year and settled on mini pumpkin cornbread muffins. They were pretty tasty if I do say so myself.

This evening I was running behind and struggling to come up with a photo for the day. I had an SLR with dead batteries, one point & shoot with issues and another MIA. I put a quick charge on a battery and took a couple of quick shots of items on my desk. This one turned out to be the first one I took.

More tomorrow (Christmas related I'm sure. The tree's going up tomorrow)

Day 10 - Getting Ready

2011-11-23T22:30:00.003-07:00

This is my favorite time of the year, I love the weather and, even though this will be my 25th Christmas working retail, I love the holidays. When I was growing up every Thanksgiving started off with Mom's homemade pumpkin bread and cranberry nut bread and this year it will do so again, only I'm the one doing the baking. I baked the pumpkin bread yesterday and while it didn't turn out to be one of my better efforts, I'm sure it will taste just fine. The cranberry nut bread is ready to come out of the oven as I type this and I am so looking forward to breakfast tomorrow.

Until then.

Day Nine - Camera Testing

2011-11-22T23:07:00.004-07:00

We got a new camera in the store today, the Canon PowerShot S100. It's a really nice pocket camera that is full of some very advanced features for those who want to more than just point and shoot. Looking at some of the functions I found a new one called "Handheld Night Scene" and I was interested in checking it out. As far as I can tell it works by taking four exposures and stacking them together in the camera to create the finished photo, similar to what astrophotographers have been doing for years to get cleaner images of deep space.

Is it perfect? No. Was I impressed? Yes.

Until tomorrow.

Day Eight - All I Want For Christmas...

2011-11-21T20:25:00.004-07:00

is an Illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator.

Since I'll be putting up a tree at the end of this week I decided to photograph my newest Christmas ornament for my photo of the day.

Until tomorrow.

Day Eight - Breaking Bread

2011-11-20T23:12:00.002-07:00

This evening I drove up to Cheyenne, Wyoming to join my girlfriend and her family for their church's annual Thanksgiving dinner. Before dinner was served small loaves of bread were passed out and we were to choose someone to split the loaf with and, before tearing it in two, tell them what we were grateful for. We were instructed that we couldn't do the easy thing and say to them that they are what we were grateful for, so I said I was grateful that my car made the trip. And that's no lie.

More tomorrow.

2-4-1 or A Day Late And A Dollar Short

2011-11-19T21:17:00.002-07:00

I missed posting a photo last night. I went out with some friends and by the time I got home starting up the computer was just about the last thing on my mind. Yesterday's photo is of my friends Shaun and the incredibly camera-shy Nikki (who's the doing this Photo A Day thing with me). You'll see why she agreed to let me use this photo.

Today's photo was taken on my way to work this morning. It had snowed overnight, which was a total surprise because the weather guessers hadn't been calling for another ice age and there were no runs on the grocery stores. It's nothing fancy but I like it.

Until tomorrow

Day Five - Guessing Game

2011-11-17T21:40:00.003-07:00

I can't really think of anything to write tonight so I'm going to turn this into a game: Guess what this is a photo of and leave a comment below.

Day Four - Nothing Special

2011-11-16T22:50:00.002-07:00

I carried a pocket point & shoot camera with me today instead of an SLR, figuring that I would see things differently with a different camera. I had seen this chain on the ground at work for a while and decided today to take a photo. I actually took half a dozen and this was the last of those.

More tomorrow, maybe the Christmas lights in Old Town Fort Collins.

Day Three

2011-11-15T23:40:00.002-07:00

I spent my lunch break today wandering around Old Town Square in downtown Ft Collins looking for my photo of the day. I took a few photos this morning before I went in to work that I figured could be a fall back in case I didn't get anything better during the day but they were nothing exciting. I love wandering the streets and alleys of any city looking for windows, doorways and other interesting bits of architecture. You also never know what activity you will come across, today was the day that the Ft Collins branch of the Occupy movement switched locations from private to public property and did so with a march down College Ave. It was one of those photos that I was convinced was going to be my photo of the day but when I downloaded the memory card after work this evening this was the photo that stood out to me.

Until tomorrow.

Day Two - An Obsession

2011-11-14T17:27:00.008-07:00

Many of my friends know that I have a problem. It's not something that I perceive as a problem but others do. Here it is: I love Christmas music.

Christmas is my favorite holiday of all and it's not just the day, it's the whole season, the lights, the decorations and, yes, the music. I seem to buy at least one Christmas album a year and I have extremely varied tastes. At this moment my Christmas playlist in iTunes consists of just under 1500 songs. Yes, you read that correctly, 1500 songs. I received my newest addition in the mail today and the first thing I did was to pop it in the CD player in the car and listened to it as I ran errands. So that became my inspiration and subject of Day Two of my Photo A Day project.

Remember, as Buddy said in Elf, "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is signing loud for all to hear.

More tomorrow.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that the woman singing in the video clips from Elf is Zooey Deschanel, the "She" in She & Him.

New Project

2011-11-13T16:58:00.004-07:00

I've been really bad about blogging (my last update was at the end of June), taking photographs (can you call yourself a photographer if you don't actually take photos?), and editing and posting what photos I actually take. And I'm tired of it!

So, starting today (and running at least through the end of the year), my friend Nicole Joelle and I have given ourselves a challenge. We will each be taking and posting online at least one photo each day. I'm viewing it as a way to break myself out of this rut I've been in for a while and since I'm doing it with someone else we have each other to push us if we falter.

In addition to the Photo A Day project I hope to use this as an opportunity to catch up and do something with the photos I have taken this year and not shared with anyone. So, without further ado, I present to you my first submission to this challenge.

This little guy is on of several wind-up toys that I purchased quite a while ago with the intention of photographing them. Well, I've finally started and you will see more of him and his friends in the coming weeks but I promise to photograph other subjects as well. After all, I still have to come up with a Christmas card photo.

Until tomorrow...

It was 20 years ago today...

2011-06-23T08:16:00.000-06:00

Sometime in mid-afternoon of June 23, 1991 I parked my car in front of my friend Tim's apartment in Fort Collins, Colorado. I had just finished the drive from my hometown in Connecticut with Tim's brother Jeff and I remember that we went in the apartment to have a beer, opened the fridge and found only Rolling Rock, which prompted Jeff to say "We just drove 2,000 miles for beer brewed in Pennsylvania?"

I had come out to Colorado the previous September to visit Tim and his new wife and a few months later was feeling restless and ready for change and, somehow, decided to leave everything I had known my entire life and start over again in Fort Collins.

So here it is, 20 years to the day and this is most definitely home. In those 20 years I have had two jobs; two cars; lived in eight different places (one for only two weeks); made the switch from Canon manual focus cameras to Nikon auto focus ones and then the switch from film to digital; when I arrived all my belongings were in the back of a Ford Escort, now I couldn't fit the contents of any room in my apartment in the same car; I've made lots of acquaintances, many friends and a few very close friends; I've fallen in love several times and was lucky enough to have that love reciprocated on one occasion (though it didn't last); I've become a much better photographer (one would hope after all that time) and have always pursued the dream of having my own photography business (sometimes with more vigor than others); since Fort Collins is home to several great microbreweries (New Belgium and Odell's among others) I've had many beers better than the Rolling Rock offered that first day; I'm older, hopefully wiser and generally happy. I can't imagine what my life would have been like if I had stayed in Connecticut and I can't imagine what my life would be without those people who have been such a big part of it these past 20 years.

This is a bit of a rambling post, it's hard to sum up 20 years in a few paragraphs so I just wrote the first things that came to mind. I had lived my first 26 years in Connecticut, and that day the first lines of John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" came true for me: He was born in the summer of his 27th year, coming home to a place he'd never been before.

I was going to post some of my photos of Colorado from the early days but I don't have many in digital form, and couldn't find them as I wrote this, so here are a few Polaroid image transfers of some Fort Collins landmarks I did about 10 years ago.

The Flash Bus

2011-03-27T20:14:00.006-06:00

David Hobby on stage during The Flash Bus Tour's stop in Denver, Colorado on March 22, 2001.

Last week I traveled down to Denver to attend The Flash Bus Tour lighting seminar featuring David "The Strobist" Hobby and Joe "Numnuts" McNally. I've been following David Hobby's blog for several years and have been a fan of Joe McNally since the fall of 1994 because of a photo he did to show the remote flash capabilities of the new, at that time, Nikon SB-26 flash.

The day was split into two parts, with David Hobby in the morning and Joe McNally in the afternoon. Hobby's presentation was through a series of slides with him describing how he built up the light in a photo, starting with the ambient, adding the fill, then the key and finishing with accent light. That lesson alone might have made the day worth it for me, I've always done ambient, key, then fill and have struggled most of the time. He continued showing slides and telling stories throughout the morning and I was learning more and more. I learned so much from listening to him, got some ideas to use on my next portraits and have a few more lighting accessories to pick up when I can.

After lunch Joe McNally took the stage with a different approach, a live shoot with three different models, several remote flashes and a whole lot of lighting toys. He talked through everything he did and when things didn't work quite right he just worked through it. I attended a different lighting seminar from him last year and one of the things he said that really stuck with me was "We made a mistake. Let's make it again."

Here are several more quotes of his that I particularly liked from the day.

"A studio is an empty box you fill with your imagination."

"I thank God there are engineers in the world and they tend not to get out much."

"Good pictures are hard to find."

“They hand you a camera and say, ‘Here are more pixels, and now your photos will be amazing.’ Bull, all you'll have is more detailed garbage!”

"Lighting is not math. Lighting is feel. Lighting is gut."

The day ended with a question and answer session with both Hobby and McNally. What really made it interesting were the questions that had less to do with lighting and more to do with life as a photographer and how to balance work and family. Both men have had long careers as photojournalists for both newspapers and magazines and both spoke of the price that they have paid for their work, maybe more for McNally, as he has traveled the world for years on assignment for Time, National Geographic and many others, while Hobby has been mostly a local newspaper shooter.

David Hobby answers questions during the morning break of The Flash Bus Tour's stop in Denver, Colorado on March 22, 2001.

David Hobby on stage during The Flash Bus Tour's stop in Denver, Colorado on March 22, 2001.

Joe McNally demonstrates flash techniques with a live shoot during The Flash Bus Tour's stop in Denver, Colorado on March 22, 2001.

Joe McNally and David Hobby answer questions from the audience at the end of The Flash Bus Tour's stop in Denver, Colorado on March 22, 2001.

Oscar

2011-03-06T21:49:00.003-07:00

When I was visiting the family over the holidays I took a drive up to Massachusetts to meet up with Brenda, a friend who I hadn't seen since college. It was great to catch up, meet her family and her dog Oscar. Oscar is the biggest pug I have ever seen, he's got to be twice as long as any other pug I had ever met. I hope to get a chance to see Oscar, and Brenda, on a future trip back East.

Oscar

Oscar loves his Cheetos

The 7 Train

2011-02-23T00:03:00.001-07:00

Whether it's the London Underground or the New York City Subway, there's something about these trains that I just love. They're like the circulatory systems of these great cities but they're also a world unto themselves.

Every once in a while you hear stories or see photos of long abandoned stations or stretches of track and they're like time capsules revealing glimpses of lives lived long ago.

Whenever I get back to New York I look forward to riding the Subway and trying to get photos of life underground.

Light and Movement

2011-02-15T18:04:00.005-07:00

Walk off 5th Avenue, past the statue of Atlas, enter the lobby of Rockefeller Center and you are greeted with this sight, a series of 35 foot tall sculptures entitled Light and Movement by Michio Ihara.

Just another photo from my New York City visit back in December.

Grand Central Station

2011-02-01T19:47:00.004-07:00

"I wanna stand beneath the clock just one more time.
Wanna wait on the platform for the Hudson line.
I guess you're never really all alone, or too far from the pull of home,
An' the stars upon that painted dome still shine."

Grand Central Station by Mary Chapin Carpenter

I've always loved long exposures in public places, the mixture of the people blurred by motion and those who were still long enough to be recorded sharply by the camera. When I was in Grand Central Station last December I wanted to try to capture one of these images of this iconic space. Unfortunately I didn't have a tripod, as I was spending the day walking the city, so I did the best I could using the railing of a staircase. I would have loved to use a much longer shutter speed for more blur but I just couldn't hold the camera still for that long.

When searching for a quote about the station I came across the above lyrics and decided to use them before I had read the rest of the song or the story behind it. Here's part of an NPR story about Mary Chapin Carpenter and the song: Carpenter was inspired to write the song "Grand Central Station" after hearing an interview with an iron worker on the first anniversary of the attacks. The man, one of the first at the scene after the towers fell, worked at Ground Zero for days afterward. The iron worker said that at the end of each shift, he felt impelled to go to the train station so the souls of the victims could follow him. "He'd find himself just going to Grand Central Station and standing on the platform and thinking whoever wanted to go home could catch the train home," says Carpenter."

So now, when I see the blurred figures I think of the souls trying to get home.

#1 - Wear Comfortable Shoes

2011-01-25T19:40:00.002-07:00

WPPI 2011 is going to be starting in just a few weeks and I, unfortunately, will not be attending this year. Recently I've been speaking with Corinne Noel who will be going for the first time, trying to offer what advice I have from the perspective of a first timer. There's a lot of good advice out there on attending conventions, both Skip Cohen and Sarah Petty have recently posted columns on their blogs and I suggest you read them. So why am I writing this post? Because I believe I have some good suggestions and they come from a different viewpoint from those who are convention veterans. So in no particular order here are my WPPI survival tips.

The title of this post says it all, my #1 tip for attending WPPI, or any convention for that matter, is to wear comfortable shoes. You will be walking, a lot. Even if you're staying at the MGM Grand there's no such thing as a short walk, the MGM was the largest hotel in the world when it first opened. Last year I stayed across the street at Hooters (don't judge, I got a great deal, six nights cost me less than two nights at the MGM) and it was a shorter walk for me to get to the MGM Convention Center than some people who were staying at the MGM.

#2 - Don't drink the water, the tap water that is. Las Vegas does not have particularly good tap water but you need to be sure to drink water while you're there, you are in the desert after all. Before heading to Vegas I received a great piece of advice from my friend Nicole Joelle: there's a Walgreens up the Las Vegas Strip from the MGM where you can buy a case of bottled water or a gallon jug (which is a better deal). I even went as far as ordering a water bottle printed with my business logo from CafePress which I hooked to my messenger bag.

Which brings me to #3 - Bring a good shoulder bag to carry a notebook as well as all the brochures that you'll pick up at the trade show, they multiply dramatically and a shoulder bag is much more convenient to carry than the tote bag you get at registration.

#4 - Unless you have signed up for one of the many photo shoots happening during WPPI, I would say leave the SLR outfit at home. Remember all the walking you're going to do? Do you really want to be carrying it around all day? I'm not saying that you shouldn't bring a camera, you have to, but just be reasonable. Bring a good quality compact camera, last year I used a Leica D-Lux 4 which while very small still has the equivalent of a 24mm f/2.0 lens, manual exposure and the ability to shoot in RAW. If you must bring an SLR, I would suggest picking your widest range lens and bringing just that. Keep it simple.

#5 - WPPI started something new this year, they're calling it PreBoarding and I'm glad they did. Last year, and the years before, if you wanted to see a particular speaker's Platform Session, entry into the room was first-come, first-seated and you had to wait in line out in the hallway. For most speakers it wasn't a problem but there were some that the lines were insane, there were 1500-1600 people in line to get into a 900 seat room to see Jasmine Star. They ended up having an encore session the next day and she wasn't the only one who ended up doing another session. So my tip is, if you haven't already, go right now and PreBoard.

#6 - If you really enjoy a particular session, stick around after the end and let the speaker know it. The people speaking at WPPI, or any other convention for that matter, are just people and like to hear that they're doing a good job.

#7 - If you can't get to see a favorite photographer's Platform Session, or if they're not doing one, look for them on the trade show floor, many of them will be speaking in vendor's booths. Many people will post their trade show appearances on their blogs and the vendors will often have schedules of who will be in their booths on their websites. If you have trouble finding this information try contacting the person directly though Facebook or Twitter.

#8 - If you see a photographer who you really admire in the halls or trade show don't be afraid to go up to them and say hello. But remember to be polite and respect their privacy, walking up to someone while they're in line at Starbucks is one thing but if they're sitting down to dinner you might want to think twice.

#9 - On the long walk to the MGM Convention Center you will pass 'wichcraft. They don't open until 10:00 am and you'll be a couple hours into your day but if you haven't had breakfast you must get the steak, egg & mushroom sandwich. I didn't try one until Wednesday morning and that's probably a good thing, I would have eaten one every day.

#10 - Budget wisely. Last year I planned $100 per day for breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks. Did I spend that much? No and I didn't really expect to but I didn't want to be in a situation where I was with a group of people who wanted to go somewhere for dinner and I had to decline because I couldn't afford it. Even going out for a couple of drinks is really expensive in Vegas, a beer can run $7.00-$8.00 and a mixed drink can set you back $11.00. One thing that really helped last year was that there was food at many of the evening receptions and everyone got a drink ticket as well, so I didn't even have to buy dinner two or three nights. I also was fortunate to attend an open house at John Michael and Dalisa Cooper's studio which is several miles off the Strip, the downside of which was the $25 one way cab fare. Luckily several of us who were there crammed into one person's rental car for the ride back to the MGM. That evening could have been bad if I hadn't planned for unexpected expenses.

#11 - Don't buy M&M's at M&M's World, unless you have a lot of money or are good at estimating weight. I've blocked out how much I spent on M&M's last year but it was a lot more than I meant to. The only scales are at the cash registers so it's really easy to put much more than you want into one of those cellophane bags, I think they may hold up to three pounds.

#12 - Have fun but pace yourself, those 8:00 am sessions come awfully early.

#13 - Try not to eat alone. There are thousands of other photographers there just like you and they're alone too. Talk to them, spend time with them and you may leave Las Vegas with some new friends. It's also amazing that at a convention with 14,000 attendees you keep running into the same people.

#14 - Take the bridge over the strip from the MGM to New York New York and make your way inside to Nine Fine Irishmen for live Irish music, a pint of Guinness and what may be the best Shepherd's Pie I have ever had.

#15 - Above all else, enjoy yourself.

I will add to this list if I think of anything else and if anyone reading has any other tips for WPPI please leave them in the comments.

UPDATE: February 7, 2011

I thought of a few more things, though it is probably a little late for this year.

#16 - Be sure to bring plenty of business cards. As you meet people, and make new friends, it's the quick and easy way to share your contact information. And it's a good excuse to update your cards.

#17 - Create a new e-mail account just for the convention and all the vendors that you will want to get information from, as well as those you will get info from anyway. Maybe something like WPPI@yourdomain.com or vendors@yourdomain.com. If you don't have your own domain (and if you're doing this as a business - WHY NOT?), there's always GMail or Hotmail. I didn't do this last year and my in-box fills up frequently.

#18 - Pick up a supply of Airborne, Emergen-C or echinacea (if you're more holistically minded). You will be around thousands of people in fairly close quarters and someone will be sick, I can guarantee it, and if you're not careful you will return from Las Vegas with an unwanted souvenir. It happened to me last year, a day or two after I got back home, I was sick. And I'm not the only one.

Another Building In NYC

2011-01-13T23:33:00.003-07:00

Just across the Avenue of the Americas (6th Ave) from where I took the photo of the Chrysler Building that I posted last week, I saw another building that some people may have heard of.

Yes, for those of you who might be unsure, it's the Empire State Building, the world's tallest building for over 40 years and the site of King Kong's downfall.

I still feel the Chrysler Building is the prettier one.

My Favorite Building In New York City

2011-01-06T23:20:00.003-07:00

I was fortunate to be able to spend Christmas with my family in CT for the first time in 15 years. While there I hopped a train down to Grand Central Station and spent the day roaming the city.

More soon.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

I've been a bad blogger these past two months and while I'm not really into New Year's resolutions I am planning some changes in my life for 2011.

Enjoy the holidays and I'll see you soon.

Pat

Día de los Muertos

2010-11-01T18:00:00.004-06:00

My good friend Jill made this and gave it to me several years ago and it sits in a prominent place in my living room. It seemed an appropriate subject for a November 1st photo. Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is "a religious holiday celebrated by many in Mexico and by some Mexican Americans living in the United States and Canada. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died." - from Wikipedia. Some day I'm going to get down to New Mexico to photograph the festivities.

The early bird gets the worm...

2010-10-28T22:00:00.002-06:00

... but the second mouse gets the cheese.

The first in a planned series of macro photos of wind-up toys.

Photographed with a Nikon D700, Nikon 105mm F/2.8G VR Micro lens and a remote SB-900 Speedlight.

Just A Random Photo

2010-10-23T21:31:00.003-06:00

I'm not sure why but this has been a favorite of mine for a while now. It was taken several years ago at Austin's restaurant in downtown Ft Collins using a Pentax 645AF and Agfa Scala B&W transparency film. Scala was one of the most beautiful films I had ever used, it had gorgeous, smooth tones and a great dynamic range.

Holiday Portraits And Greeting Cards

2010-10-15T19:17:00.002-06:00

Now is the time to plan a portrait session for your holiday cards. Scheduling your family session before Thanksgiving will get your cards delivered by December 10, plenty of time to mail the cards before Christmas.

Call Pat at 970-420-1714 or e-mail info@farringtonphoto.com for details.

Blasts From The Past

2010-10-12T23:40:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago I came across a Kodak Photo CD (remember those?) that I had made in late November, 1993. I was disappointed to find that Photoshop no longer recognizes the PCD format, so much for it being an archival format. Luckily the Noritsu minilab at work still reads them and I was able to convert the PCD files into TIFs. These are some of the 100 photos on the CD, representing what I thought were some of my better photographs from my first two years in Colorado, between July 1991 and November 1993.

Longs Peak & Aspen Trees

Waiting for the fog to lift on Sunday morning at the Fort Collins Ballon Festival at the old Ft Collins Airport. The sky never cleared and the balloons never took off.

Native American dancers perform in Old Town Square, Fort Collins to promote Cheyenne Frontier Days.

A Stellar's Jay in Rocky Mountain National Park.

The full moon sets behind Horsetooth Rock, west of Fort Collins.

Pumpkins

2010-10-08T12:00:00.002-06:00

I love Fall, the days are getting shorter and cooler, the nights colder and better for sleeping, the leaves are changing and there's often the smell of wood smoke in the air and before long we'll have our first snowfall.

One of my favorite things about fall however are pumpkins. I love seeing pumpkins piled up for sale in front of the supermarkets, sitting on front porches along with cornstalks and carved into Jack O'Lanterns around Halloween. My favorite thing about pumpkins however are all the tasty things that get made out of them like muffins, breads and pies :-)

I stopped by Whole Foods Market on my way home from work this past Saturday, October 2, to make a few photos of their pumpkin display.

Autumn Leaves

2010-10-05T17:40:00.003-06:00

The last Sunday of September I took a ride with a friend up the Poudre Canyon west of Ft Collins to check out the changing leaves. Unfortunately we were at least a week early for the best color and had to get to a pretty good altitude to see much other than green. What was really sad is the amount of brown we saw. For the past several years the Mountain Pine Beetle has been running rampant in Colorado and many of the mountainsides we saw were covered in brown, dead trees. We did see some good stands of yellow aspen and stopped for a bit at the Moose Visitor Center in Gould before we turned around and headed home.

Clover Nook Farms

2010-10-01T10:00:00.001-06:00

Just down the road from my parents' house in the small town of Bethany, Connecticut is Clover Nook Farms, the oldest continuously operated farm in the state. When I was growing up the farm was run by Sherman P. Woodward, although everybody in town just new him as "Monk." Today the farm is operated by his daughter Debbie, her husband Rex and their two boys. They've expanded the farm stand since I moved out to Colorado and have even put in a pumpkin patch.

And now there's the Fujifilm FinePix X100

2010-09-28T12:00:00.000-06:00

Since I wrote my last two posts, about the Leica X1 and Olympus E-PL1, a new, similar camera was announced that looks like it may address the biggest shortcoming of those other two cameras, it has a viewfinder! I would have been happy with either an optical or an electronic viewfinder, the FinePix X100 has both. The optical viewfinder has an electronic overlay that displays all the usual shooting information as well as a frame showing the actual image area and it will even account for parallax (the difference between what the lens and viewfinder see). At the flip of a switch the optical viewfinder closes and a high-resolution electronic viewfinder takes over.

The camera, like the Leica and Olympus, has an extremely retro look to it, something that I feel appeals to many a photo geek. My biggest surprise in looking over the features of the camera, other than the viewfinder, is that instead of many buttons and menus to change settings it has more conventional controls like a shutter speed dial, manual focus ring and an honest-to-goodness aperture ring!

The one thing that I would have to say I'm not particularly thrilled with is that the lens is the equivalent of a 35mm lens on a 35mm camera. As I've mentioned before, I would much rather have something a 50mm equivalent or something wider like 28mm or, even better, 24mm.

It will be interesting to see how this camera really performs when it is released early next year. My fingers are crossed.

And now the Olympus E-PL1

2010-09-24T12:00:00.004-06:00

Following up on Tuesday's post about the Leica X1 here are my impressions of the Olympus E-PL1, a camera that by looks alone seems to be rather similar but is really very different.

Both cameras share somewhat retro styling, the X1 has a classic Leica look and the E-PL1 was inspired by the the Olympus Pen series of cameras of the 1960s. They're both 12 million pixel cameras with full manual exposure capabilities and they'll both save files in RAW as well as JPEG. But that's where most of the similarities end. The Olympus has a plastic body where the Leica's is metal. The Leica's lens is of a higher quality but it is fixed, while the Olympus is part of the Micro 4/3 system and accepts a variety of lenses from Olympus as well as from other manufacturers. They both accept accessory viewfinders, the Leica's is optical which is fine with the fixed lens though framing will not be completely accurate, but the Olympus viewfinder is an electronic one which shows exactly the same image and information as the LCD screen on the back of the camera.

I was surprised to find that I enjoyed using the Olympus E-PL1 more than the Leica X1. My biggest issue was, as it was with the Leica, the lack of a viewfinder and difficulty seeing the LCD screen in bright sunlight. I could see owning one of these cameras, though I think I might like the metal bodied E-P2 a little more.

Both of the above photos are of the Frederic C. Hamilton Building of the Denver Art Museum

A rather disturbing sign on a building across from the Denver Art Museum

On the pation of the Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant here in Fort Collins

The alley next to Jay's Bistro in Fort Collins.

Trying out the Leica X1

2010-09-21T12:00:00.007-06:00

One of the benefits of my long career in photo retail is that I am occasionally able to borrow camera equipment from manufacturers' sales representatives. I certainly have plenty of time to handle the cameras in the store but it doesn't teach me as much as actually using a camera in the field.

I recently was able to get my hands on a Leica X1 to try out. The fit and finish of the camera is everything you would expect of a Leica as is the image quality. Unfortunately I did have a few qualms about the camera. The lens, an Elmarit 24 mm f/2.8, is as sharp as you would expect of Leica glass but with the crop from the APS-C sized sensor it has an angle of view equivalent to a 35mm lens on a 35mm camera and I've never been a big fan of 35mm lenses. I found the focus to be a bit on the slow side and I also had some difficulty in getting used to the lack of a viewfinder, the camera's a little on the large size to be holding out at arm's length and tricky to see in bright sunlight. Leica does make an accessory viewfinder that I believe would help the handling immensely. I wish the lens was the equivalent of a 50mm (classic Leica focal length, think Cartier-Bresson) or a 28mm (though 24mm would be even better).

Here are a few X1 images taken around downtown Ft Collins.

The X1 is a nice camera but I think I'll wait for the X2 or, even better, an M9.

Friday I'll post some images from my time with the Olympus E-PL1.

The Nikon D7000, Chase Jarvis and Benevolent Mischief

2010-09-17T13:17:00.003-06:00

Two years ago when Nikon introduced the D90 camera they gave one to Seattle photographer Chase Jarvis to put the camera through its paces. This year Nikon did it again before the introduction of the just announced D7000. Chase spent several weeks testing out both the still and video capabilities of the new camera and came out with a nice set of photos, a cool behind-the-scenes video and this short film.

Keep me, protect me, share me – and I will live forever.

2010-08-13T22:56:00.002-06:00

This past Monday Scott Bourne posted comments about Dane Sanders' presentation at Skip's Summer School in Las Vegas. I've seen Dane speak on two occasions and both times he has been very inspirational and thought-provoking.

Dane showed this video, a Kodak commercial from 2005, to conclude his program. It illustrates the importance of photography in our lives and as Scott said "Dane challenged us to take very, very seriously the work we do as photographers. Watch the spots and ask yourself, are you taking the sacred work you do as a photographer seriously? Your clients do."

So keep taking photos, back up those digital files, make prints and put them in albums and frames. Don't just leave the files in your camera or computer. It's not a picture until it's a print.

What's better, huddling around the camera or sharing a photo album?

Another from the 2010 Fort Collins Jazz Experience

2010-08-11T00:00:00.002-06:00

Two members of the Jumpin' Jive Cats dance in Oak Street Plaza on July 10, 2010 during the 3rd annual Fort Collins Jazz Experience.

Following my pledge to post more often to this blog. Another of the photos I've made this summer that I've, as of yet, done nothing with.

More to come.

2010 Fort Collins Jazz Experience

2010-08-09T16:01:00.002-06:00

James Calvin Thompson plays bass with the Greg Harris Vibe Quintet on the Old Town Square stage on Saturday, July 10, 2010 during the 3rd annual Fort Collins Jazz Experience.

Last month I photographed the 3rd annual 2010 Fort Collins Jazz Experience in downtown Fort Collins. I took hundreds of photographs and have finally gotten around to going through them. I don't know why but I love photographing bass players, it's probably because they are so expressive while they play. I am not entirely sure that this is indeed James Calvin Thompson but that is the name I got from the Greg Harris Vibe Quintet blog, so I hope it's correct.

More to come.

Friday Night Blues

2010-08-03T14:42:00.004-06:00

Wandering around downtown Ft Collins one Friday night in July. Looking through the window at Moe's BBQ.

Once again I've been bad about blogging and, once again, I'm going to try to post more often. Even if it means just posting random photos.

This Is Just Too Cool

2010-05-21T20:48:00.006-06:00

I saw this today and just had to share it, it's amazing to me what is possible with the cameras we have at our disposal today. I can't even imagine how much work it must have been to put together. If you're interested you can read more about it here.

Downtown Ft Collins Photo Shoot Video

2010-05-19T07:23:00.003-06:00

Here's a cool behind the scenes video of a portrait shoot by Ft Collins photographer Tom Bol

urban photo shoot from Tom Bol on Vimeo.

Tom is a very talented photographer (there are a lot of them in town) who is willing to share what he knows with others. He teaches a number of workshops throughout the year, has recently filmed a couple of videos for Kelbytraining.com and I'm hoping to get him to do a program or two at my full-time job (I know I could learn a lot).