February 1, 2015: “Patriot Day”

In honor of the super bowl today between Seattle and New England I want to capture a football image.  My baseball team is Boston and my second favorite QB of all time behind Dan Marino is Tom Brady.  I own his jersey so I put that together with my Boston hat. 

I had an idea to shoot light directly down on me and capture an image from above almost directly down. In setting the shot up I use my Samsung phone to focus on myself as I can tether my camera wirelessly to my phone.  It is an extremely useful technology, the only downfall is the camera will not shoot flash when tethered.  I at that point switch the lens to manual focus and leave it at its proper depth, position myself and shoot a few shots to get the right composition.  It is extremely hard to get the shot I want, even when I have everything placed properly and hop in at the right position I cannot view the composition.  I ended up shooting 3 photos, I believe it was a 15 second exposure with a single flash at the opening of the shutter.  I slid out of the picture to create the ghostly effect towards the back of the photo.

Everyday is a learning experience, I love stretching myself and working on different styles.  I am just glad the Patriots won 28-24 over Seattle.  Everyday find inspiration and wok on developing a skill.

              

January 26, 2015: “Snowstress”

As I get older I despise one thing the stress caused by driving in the snow.  I drive 10 miles to work and 10 miles home up a few hills around a few curves.  When it is not plowed it is treacherous, I drive a little too cautious but I am going to be safe and stat out of accidents.  I hate my car it handles ok but sucks going up the hills.  I worry on my journey through the snow and the ice. 

The beauty fades fast as winter wears on.  Stress increases, I worry about life.  I think we should just shutdown, there is no need to live dangerously to do a job.  It can wait for another day.  We had 8 feet of snow a few months ago, yet so many could not stay away, fought to get to work.  Instead of distressing, relaxing we worried.  This image captures the beauty, the uncertainty, the power of nature.

Capturing snow is an art I have yet to master.  This captures somewhat of what I see, all I know is that snow was flying crazily towards me.  I hope it will stop in a few hours and when I get up at 5 am it will be gone so I have that safe ride to work.