Death Valley
Flew to Las Vegas to pick this Shelby Cobra up with my friend Marv last Friday. What can I say I picked all the straight no traffic (few cops) roads to get back to Washington. 720hp with a race trans and suspension ohhh yeah it was fun. Had dinner in Vegas and wanted to stay for Photoshop world but had to head back. That city was an eye opener, I hadn’t been down town before and couldn’t believe the excess in everything from architecture to shows. Stopped at the MGM for lunch and wow it was worth every penny.
Shot a few with the G9 and a few with the D300, wished I had more time and some lights with me for the desert to showcase the car but time was short. I did get a chance to do a little night shoot on the Cobra when we got back and try out the new D700. The shot below is with a street light for main, sb28 @ 1/4 w/shoot thru umbrellla in front to light the grill and a Vivitar 285 wide @1/2 at the back corner to rim the back of the car. I haven’t had time to go thru all of the shots yet but this one was one of the first that caught my eye.
I am really starting to like the G9 for traveling as it is quick quiet and handy. Planning of attending the Keatly show in Seattle tomorrow and am off to a social media marketing seminar tonight. More to come on all of this…….
San Juan Friends
Spent last week without any internet, phone or TV and it was a good break. Gave me time to plan the next phase of photography and where I want to take the creative ideas. It was nice to shut out the outer influences that bombard us daily and just hang out with a couple of friends and the deer on the island. If you can call re roofing a house and garage just hanging out that is. I also found out that roofing is a young mans game, or at least not something that working at photography or a computer puts you in shape for. I survived and held my own so I figure there is some life left in the old body. Although I think I would now rather help friends move than do their roof.
Below are a few shots I managed to get with the G9 while there.
Morning fog
San Juan Lawnmower
Mailboxes at sunrise
I am off to Las Vegas this weekend to shoot a slideshow for a friend at the Shelby plant and then drive a Shelby Cobra (720 hp makes a quick trip) back to Washington. I’ll make a real commitment to updatet this blog more consistantly when I return as well as share some other news. Gotta go pack now.
It is this kind of attention to detail we should all strive for in everything we do. The PT Wooden Boat Festival was this weekend and there were thousands of boats of all sizes here. Harbors full and barely anchor room in the bay. Some of the finest boat building art in the world from small to large. Detail work on each and everyone that was incredible.
I would go on about how this relates to photography but I believe you all get the point. I will be a little off grid this week and have some changes to talk about next week, just details.
There is something about wandering around a small town after they roll up the streets that I really like. Quiet and peaceful, the occasional car wandering home from work or the tavern, all the stores closed, nothing parked along the street, the only light being from the scattered street lights or the odd closed sign in shop windows.
As always things change, my little town has grown and has all night grocery stores and large parking lots with lights, places we could see the stars from town now are overpowered with shop light and traffic lights and cars moving through. Still a lot more quiet than any city I have ever been in but much more busy than it was. It almost creates a wish that I had wandered in the dark streets more when I was younger and it was a lot simpler place to live. Some times that appreciation only comes in hindsight. Adapt or die, but I still have the memories.
I like shooting images at night or just before dark when things slow down, the hectic pace and the crowds of people are gone. I don’t get into Sequim after dark that often and last night was an enjoyable walk about. The dark and quiet seem to allow a little more insight into what I see without the distractions. I also like the moody saturated color that night brings, especially after a rain. Photography is about mood and feeling, information and emotion night does that to me.
Of Note:
Speaking of Rain, pray they get a little in central Texas for my friend Jeff Lynch he still has a few openings for his Landscape Safari here If you get to go with Jeff, let me know and I will be very envious.
If you have ever played baseball in the summer or watched and really want to know what the end of summer feels like check out JerseyStyle’s slide show of a ball field after the season is over. Some of the most moving photos I’ve seen in a while, I felt the loss of my youth and the end of summer all at once. JerseyStyle slide show website
Chris at Pike Place Market
I had the pleasure of being a tour guide and hanging out with Chris Klug from Patterns of Light n’ Dark last Thursday. Chris hails from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and is a film shooter, so I brought along a Lieca M3 for him to tryout plus he rented a Contax from Glazers and then we headed for Pike Place Market. It had been a few years since I visited the Market and not a lot has changed. Busy and lots of people from all over the world as well as the locals. We spent several hours wandering the Market and then the Seattle center which was in the midst of getting ready for Bumbershoot festival.
As the day got later I had planned to find Kerry Park so that Chris could get a shot of the Seattle Skyline and Mt Rainier, I knew it was a small park up on Queen Anne hill somewhere and figured that during the week it would be pretty deserted. Oh boy was I wrong. We found it with minimal ally detours and there was a couple of hrs till sunset and already there were a bunch of folks shooting each other and the skyline. I set Chris up with my tripod and we shot a few of the sun reflecting off the city. I wandered around holding strangers cameras and taking picture of them with Seattle in the background as well as listening to a lecture on how cool the new D5000 was and “look at this, the screen swivels” Nice people all around. As the sun got lower in the horizon the tripod forest began to grow and grow. Till I turned and the longest Hummer I ever saw pulled up, I said to Chris “watch some big shot photog will climb out of that” we laughed till we saw:
Ok now I’ve seen it all. I had to ask though,…… they had been on an Alaskan tour boat and were headed back to KY and OK, stated “You only live once and it was overcast in Alaska”.
Makes me wonder what they drive to a shoot in Texas if this was a guy from Oklahoma
Anyway this was a shot before the sun went down
I can’t wait to see what Chris got as I got junk for most of the day and still had a great time visiting with him and Seattle. It was a good day of shooting and conversation about photography, art and work. I really hope to do this again sometime, the conversation was great and I am considering a Mamiya 645 which should make Paul Lester laugh a lot. All in all a great time was had and I learned a lot about street shooting that was different from the normal at home. Things happen a lot faster in the city than they do in a smaller town like PT. Light and focus changes a lot faster and the lens I took along wasn’t up to it like I wished.
Hey JerseyStyle it is your turn and we should give that new 50D a tryout in the rain, we can bill it as East Coast Canon / West Coast Nikon. More photos from that day will surface and check out Chris for some.
Sometimes it is all about what the client wants and being fast about it. I love working for boating folks and being around the harbor. The repair and boat building industry is full of real down to earth folks who live for the water.
As much as we all would like to be the great ‘magazine photog’ or the ‘photojournalist sometimes it is all about making a living with your camera. For those working in a small town or somewhere outside of a large metro area this means doing a lot of things and normally it is about information. I am lucky enough to be able to work with a great designer and some really great folks who need photos to promote or sell ideas and products. Information, nothing will get the idea across quicker than an image. Sometimes it means working fast and without all the trappings you read about online from the big time guys and sometimes it means that the client or designer is going to crop the heck out of what you do. That isn’t a bad thing, it is about the information, Commercial work, personal work. Time and place for both what I like to do and what the client wants. Kirk Tuck talks about this a lot and what is needed in todays market as well.
I’m sure there is more for me to say about all this but I am heading out this morning for a shoot with a friend in Seattle that should be billed as East coast Film meets West coast Digital. I’ll try to add to this when I get back this evening. Below is a couple of the things that makes the world go round for those of us in the out lying areas.
links for above
Goldstar Marine
New site launch soon with photos
Homeward Bound
rlketcham.com
