Phrases I hear

When I hear phrases that make me smile because they sound a little odd to me, I make note of them. Most of these are corporate and some of them are "techy" but to me they're all funny. Enjoy.

• put it on the parking lot
• take it "off-line"
• push the meeting off
• ping me
• low hanging fruit
• put it in the hopper
• put some flavor on this
• chew on that
• let me circle back
• cross that bridge
• that's so ghetto
• he's pretty diesel
• what's your hypo?
• navel gazing

My New Mac

It will come as no surprise to those that know me that I love my new MacBook Pro. Love it! Everything from the experience ordering on-line to the obsessive compulsive following on-line as it traveled with Fedex from Shanghai to Anchorage to Dallas to Memphis to Newark to me.

When opening the package, I experienced first hand the effort that has been made to decrease the waste from product packaging. There was very little I had to throw away/recycle. The setup was super easy and the program to get started is fun, straight-forward, and just works.

This machine replaces my old PowerBook G4 that was purchased in 2002 (I think). More than twice the processing power and memory and about 4 times the storage space.

I only have 1 minor thing with the new machine that concerns me. There are two points in the center of the machine that sharp. Its at a place that if given the correct posture you shouldn't come into contact with however, that point (pun intended) that I'm trying to make is why are they sharp in the first place? Here's a discussion thread on the topic. Other than that - totally love it.

Beauty workshop

Went to a workshop focused around "Beauty photography". Supposed to start at 1:00 and I guess I should know better than to believe that would be true. I attended another workshop this guy put on back in April which started late as well however, in both instances, I came out with some great connections so if I go to another one of these things I have to remember its not about just starting on time.

I arrived about 10 minutes before it was scheduled to start and there were already several guys there ready to shoot but no organizer. We all complained about that for a while but pretty quickly got caught up in other chatter. I found out about some studios around NYC that are a lot cheaper than I was finding in my limited search beforehand. Nice.

The workshop was supposed to start out with a guy talking about what beauty shots were and how they were different than fashion or any other type of photography. This guy was late too (different person from the event organizer) so that part didn't come until the end and honestly, I didn't feel like he was talking about anything very insightful so I didn't stay for his full talk. There were about 8 photographers and 2 models so it was a nice shooting ratio. I've posted a couple images and placed them in a new set on flickr called...wait for it... "Beauty".

Originally I was supposed to have a shoot with Melissa M but the Saturday weather was pretty bad so we're pushed back to 9/26. All in all, I had a good time at the workshop and made some new connections. It's what you make it, right?

Do as I do

Funny thing I saw as I left the train this morning. There's a guy that rides the train (gets on at my stop) and the guy has to be close to 7 feet tall. He sat near where I was and as we were getting off the train as we arrived into Penn station, he ducked as he normally does to clear the top of the doorway to get out.

What made me laugh is the guy that exited immediately after him that was around my hight (not even close to 6 feet) and he ducked too. I think of this like when someone's standing on the street and looks up and it causes others to look up too.

Pull the Key Out!

What may be simple for some - just isn't for others. True for many things and sometimes you just don't see it coming with certain things.

A couple weeks ago, we got a new car - an '09 Audi A4. Beautiful car and has one feature that's different from a lot of older cars. The remote control is the key and the remote. To start the car, you put your foot on the break, remote in the ignition and push the key/remote in, like a button. To turn the car off, you do the same and to remove the key once the ignition is off, you pull the key out. Somehow, on the first day my wife drove the car to work she couldn't figure out how to pull the key out. I said, "What!?", as she called me all frustrated as I'm pulling into Penn station while sitting on the train. "I can't get the key out!" We're now at the gate and I have to exit the train. I have my large ice coffee in my hand and as I'm trying to offer suggestions, I knock into a seat and spill the whole thing. Ugh! Fortunately, everyone was off the train and I didn't spill it on anyone.

This is on a Monday morning, by the way. Long story short is that she wasn't pushing the key in far enough to allow the car to release the key. Lovely start to the week.

Same class of service

If someone said to you, "Sure, you can change your flight as long as the same class of service is available", what would that mean to you? To me, that sounds like, if I'm flying coach class and there are coach class seats available, I can change my flight. Well, according to Continental airlines, its more complicated than that.

We recently took a flight to Dallas to visit family. We were booked on a Friday morning (9:10am) flight and we decided that we wanted to try and leave the night before. There are two types of change fees involved, well, maybe there are more but two that I know of. One, you can change for $150/ticket and there aren't any time restrictions on when you can make this change. The other, you can change for $50/ticket (which used to be free and is also know as "standby") and you have to do that within 24 hours of your flight. Ugh! But wait, it gets worse.

So this is what we knew for the week of the flight. We're actively watching the seat planner on the web looking for available seats. There were ~15 seats available and 2 of which were non-middle seats. Psyched! Thursday @ 9:10 am comes (24 hours before our scheduled flight), we call the airline to find out that there are no seats available for our class of service. WHAT!? "So, why do I see 15 seats available on the seat planner? [I said] Oh, that just shows you the seats that haven't been booked but that still wouldn't tell you the class of service." Finally I asked, "Isn't coach the class of service we're referring to? No, the class of service is assigned when you purchase the ticket and has to do with the revenue. Your seats are a 'V' class." Huh?

Without getting into the whole exchange we had with the airline, the moral of the story is that depending on the airline (not sure if this just Continental), looking at the seat planner to get an idea of how many seats are available on a given flight is not the whole story. You have to call to get the most accurate information. We ended up taking a flight earlier than ours (6:45AM) and had to pay $50/ticket to modify the ticket - which kills me because it wasn't that long ago that you could do standby for free.

Strenghs Finder Test

After a recent trip to Myrtle Beach to visit family, I had a discussion with my cousin about communication and character strengths. Meaning, things that we naturally excel at. She told me about a book she read called Strengths Finder and how the premise is to determine what your strengths are and work on those instead of spending that time working on your "areas of improvement". Interesting idea.

We chatted about this for a good 15 minutes and I was intrigued enough to buy the book when I returned home. The next week, I made a trip to the local book store and purchased Strengths Finder 2.0 (they have a new version since the one my cousin read) . Here's an excerpt from the very beginning of the book, "At its fundamentally flawed core, the aim of almost any learning program is to help us become who we are not. ... From the cradle to the cubical, we devote more time to our shortcomings than to our strengths."

I found this to be a logical, and insightful way of looking at things. So, I read the ~30 pages that gives you the background, took the test (~30 minutes) and have a set of results. The results are meant to summarize your strengths, specifically your top 5 strengths. Then, give you a more detailed look into those strengths and some suggestions on how to build upon them. Backing up a bit; a strength is determined by taking your talent multiplied by your investment (time practicing, developing, etc.) = the strength.

So, my top 5 are:

• Intellection
  People who are especially talented in the Intellection theme are characterized by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions.

• Discipline
  People who are especially talented in the Discipline theme enjoy routine and structure. Their world is best described by the order they create.

• Deliberative
  People who are especially talented in the Deliberative theme are best described by the serious care they take in making decisions or choices. They anticipate the obstacles.

• Futuristic
  People who are especially talented in the Futuristic theme are inspired by the future and what could be. They inspire others with their visions of the future.

• Empathy
  People who are especially talented in the Empathy theme can sense the feelings of other people by imagining themselves in others’ lives or others’ situations.

I love shooting...uh, and catching up w/friends

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was going to Phoenix for my 20 year HS reunion. This was a quick trip out last Friday and returning on Sunday - just me. Knowing that its rare these days that I have a block of time to myself, I wanted to take advantage of this time and setup a photo shoot with a model, Monica, on Saturday. This was the first time I was shooting the whole thing, from concept to lighting to post on my own. I was nervous and excited at the same time.

We met up around 11:00 at the Hyatt Scottsdale (wow!) and walked around to pick out a couple locations. We had been exchanging email for a couple weeks which really helped flush out some ideas. We shot in 7 or 8 settings with different outfits each time. She was so fast at ducking in and out of the bathroom to change. A pleasant surprise.

We ended around 3:30 and had lunch in there somewhere too. Monica is 19, in college, and hoping to go to med school soon. She has a younger sister and does modeling as a hobby. She's Egyptian and speaks Arabic which was pretty cool. I'm really happy with how the shoot turned out and I've posted a few images on my flickr page. I've also included a sample here.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. My reunion. :-) I attended that in the evening on Saturday. It was fun to catch up with people I haven't seen in many years and Facebook has certainly helped to keep those conversations going. Until next time.

Feeling inspired

I took last week off to do some work in the house. Oh, this was hard to take 5 days off only to spend that time in the house doing manual labor. Had to be done, so I did it. Fortunately, I had help. My father flew out from Dallas and helped me with tearing down walls in the basement (photos to come later), hanging doors, and several other miscellaneous projects. At the end of the week, it did feel good to check a few things off "the list". If only I could prevent more from being added.

On Friday I'm off to Phoenix to my 20 year HS reunion. Hard for me to believe I've been out of high school for that long. It'll be interesting to converse with people I haven't seen and barely spoken to in many years. Through the magic of Facebook, I have been in contact with several that I hope to see over the weekend. I've also planned to get a quick photo shoot in while I'm out there as well. All fun stuff. More tk...

Something different

Spring is finally here and I've been meaning to snap a couple shots of the green around the outside of the house.  We get these really nice flowers right in front...

and this one is of a Japanese Maple tree we planted last year.  We hope it will grow to be big and strong someday.  Really nice colors coming in so far...

 

I didn't know that was there

You know how sometimes you walk by something a hundred times and not really notice it?  Well, I did that a few minutes ago and felt compelled to write about it.

I was having a conversation with a coworker, she stopped into the copy room on our floor to get some head ache medicine.  "Some what!?".  She opened a cabinet door on the wall labeled "First Aid" and BAM!  This is what we saw...

Just passing it on for others that work on my floor and didn't know about this.  You're welcome.

Practice, Practice

Last weekend I participated in a gathering of photographers, models, and make up artists (MUA's) all in the name of learning, networking, and building each others' portfolio.  Such a great concept and this was my first one.  I had a slight advantage because I knew another photographer, Lou, that has done several of these and has much more experience than I.  We've shot together a few times and I can't tell you how important it is to have someone take you under their wing.

The meetup location was near the meat packing district which is pretty trendy, despite its name.  It was supposed to start at 11 but I quickly found out that these things never start on time.  Oh well, we had really nice weather so we explored the area a bit and waited for things to get started.

Overall, I had a great time, learned a lot, and made some new connections.  Here are a few from the shoot (look for those shot on 26-APR).  More to come...

Is it habit?

I've been saying to myself all week, "gotta post", "it's time to post", "what am I waiting for?", etc.  I guess its a good thing that I feel compelled to share more often.  I hope to keep it up - for the 2 or 3 readers I have :-)

Emersyn's (my daughter) 2nd birthday party was last weekend.  We had been hoping all week leading up to the event that we'd have nice weather and fortunately we did.  75 degrees, mostly sunny, winds out of the west, northwest at 5 mph (okay, I'm not sure of the winds or dew point).  It was nice out.

We kept it small scale again this year; just grandparents and one set of friends.  The night before, Hope made the Elmo themed cake and set some decorations on top, covered it up and when we went into the kitchen the next day, we discovered it has collapsed.  Uh oh.  Being the planners that we are, we had backup materials enough to whip up another cake after considering a trip to the bakery (my vote) to get another one.  Within 30 minutes, the "v2" of the cake was in the oven.  It all turned out fine and tasted great.

Later in the day after people arrived, we started up the grill and quickly realized that we had no propane. This is the 3rd time this has happened to me that we have several people over and we're ready to start dinner and can't do it.  I've tried to install a meter but there's no room on my grill to do it.  Frustrating but you gotta deal!  I made an emergency trip to Home Depot and we're back in business.  Its always nice having my father there because I can give the grilling duties over to him and he's a master griller so things always turn out great.  Besides, I want to spend some time with the birthday girl and get some pictures (of course).

Emersyn and all the guests seemed to have a great time.  We had great food, weather, and company.  All in all a really nice day.  I managed to get a few images captured that I was happy with that I've included below.  As was true with any party, there's a fair amount that goes into it.  Lots of consideration was taken to plan for the dress she'd wear, food we'd eat, and I also put together a 2nd birthday photo book to give to everyone at the party as a keepsake.

NY Auto Show

Every year I try to make it out to the NY Auto show. I realize, of course, that I'm spending time taking photos of cars I will likely never own but its fun to dream. This year there was a continued theme of hybrid and energy efficiency. Don't get me wrong however, there was plenty of excess on display as well. Here are a few of the photos I captured.

For a more complete look at some of the cars, check out this "Best of Show" article.

I didn't personally see this but there was also an interesting article in the NY Times about people coming out to heckle the presenters. Sounds kind of pointless since most of the presenters are part-time employees for marketing firms, not employees of the car companies. Oh well, people have to vent I guess.

Listening to the street

Have you ever listened to the little bits of conversation you get as you pass people on the street? I took a walk to pick up some glasses. This is what I heard (each comma represents a new person).

"Mike Mike, did you see that guy?, doesn't make any sense, I told him to rush, right back to the gym, how about getting to 5100?, there's number 400, frequent, Molly I told you, its a power supply issue, what's in the box?, its expensive, I didn't worry when he, I'm gonna get that bitch, el segundo aqui, $30 was no problem, I was like - I just got, doing really well, see you tomorrow same place"

I hear you just fine

I've known for quite some time that I have what some have called "dog hearing". I know, people make these crazy claims about themselves all the time. Let me give an example.

About 10 years ago, I was in my house talking to someone and stopped them mid conversation because there was this odd pinging noise that I heard. Once it was quiet, I could hear it more clearly. I started following the sound. I stopped in the bathroom near (one room away) the tub. The tub was against an outside wall. I stood there for a few minutes and what it sounded like were bees hitting against the pipe inside the tub. Odd. But that's what it sounded like. We went outside to see what we could see. We saw bees. Lots of them. They were swarming around the back of the house and must have broken in near the foundation. We called to have them removed.

This is one of many examples I could give. I had a hearing test yesterday that confirmed that my hearing is still pretty sharp. Good thing. I don't want to miss that phone call when my phone is vibrating on the other side of the house :-)

One day I'll end up in Queens

I take a train to work each day. Actually two trains but the first one is a regular commuter train from NJ into NYC. Lately, I've been so tired that I regularly spend the majority of my trip (~45 minutes) sleeping on the train.

Once the train arrives at Penn Station, it then sometimes goes to Queens to sit during off-peak hours. Today, someone had to wake me up once we were at Penn because I was dead to the world. Without that tap on the shoulder, I could have ended up in Queens.

My favorite part of the day

We're creatures of habit. Each night, once we're finished with dinner, my daughter gets down from her chair and runs over to me (literally), jumps in my arms, and we sit down and take her shoes off so she can get ready for a bath and I can start to do one of my least favorite things (dishes).

Its such a simple thing but I really look forward to this each night.

What's that hat called?

Since I've lived in NY, I've been opened up to a whole lot more diversity than I even experienced in Phoenix. My wife is Jewish and was raised in Brooklyn so that in itself has provided for a lot of learning opportunities over the past few years.

Recently, we found ourselves in Brooklyn at Maimonides hospital to visit Phil (mother-in-law's boyfriend of many years). He's doing fine but that's not the point of this story. Just before we got the hospital, we saw some interesting (to me, anyway) attire. There were these great hats and other clothing that I hadn't seen before. Had to take a picture.

After some research, I found out the hats are called, "Kolpik". Learn something new everyday!

P.S. Doesn't it look like the guy on the left is thinking something like, "I really like that hat on you."?

Backup, Backup, Backup

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've been trying to figure out what the deal is with a problem I'm having capturing video. It gets to about 5 minutes then hangs. Part of troubleshooting this process has been to do a complete reinstall of Final Cut Express (didn't work), then to do a complete reinstall of the OS (didn't work). When I did the erase and reinstall of OSX, I backed up my data in a couple places, just in case.

Over the past week or so, I've been reinstalling software and also working to recover all the data. A couple nights ago, I went looking to recover my photos and wasn't able to find it in my latest backup. It was late, I was depressed so I walked away from it and figured I would look at it the next day. As it turns out, the latest backup I had cancelled midway through for reasons I can't recall and all my data was there in a previous day's backup set. Whew! Scary. Here's a great motivator to make sure I have a thorough backup plan in place that I follow regularly.

Why do I Twitter?

I've been wondering this since I started a couple months back. Someone suggested it, I've tried it out and I'm still trying to figure out why I continue to post things and why I keep going back to the log to find out what others are talking about. I suppose I don't have to have a great reason. I do it because I can, I guess. I'm curious what others are up to and its another way to feel somewhat connected with people you don't normally speak to on a regular basis.

I came across this video (posted via a "tweet") which I think is a great explanation of how ridiculous the whole thing is. Here's a link to my account. Be careful, you might get hooked.

Too good to be true?

Last night I posted my Airport Extreme on Craigslist to see if I could get rid of the router that I no longer use. Within minutes of me posting this, I get an email from a guy that asks if I'm interested in an exchange vs. paying for the item. Usually, I'd say, no thanks, cash will be fine thank you. However, when I looked that the list of things he was offering, I became very interested.

He was willing to exchange a full CS4 Master Collection (value of ~$2K) for my router valued at ~$100. Something seem off to you? Me too but if I can make the exchange, I'm going to. Supposed to meet this guy tonight. Update later...

Nikon Class

I attended a Nikon class on Color, Light, and Technology over the weekend. I enjoyed the class. Here are a couple of observations. First, I thought it was funny (and I kept forgetting to mention it to the instructors) that they weren't very well lit on stage. There was a ton of information packed into the 8 hour session; almost too much information. They would run through things pretty quickly and it was definitely not for beginners as they didn't have a format for asking questions along the way so you had to save your questions for designated times. I guess this worked okay, just makes it a little harder to remember what your question is when you get to the time when you can ask.

Something that I'm struggling a bit with now, which will come with experience, is what settings to start with when you get to a particular scene. They spoke a little about this in the class and also gave some recommendations on some settings to use in the camera, things to consider when calibrating your monitor, and understanding calibration (and profiling) for certain printer/paper combination's.

The location was a hotel near Penn station. As you came off the elevators to the right, there was a room that had a station setup to display other Nikon products (of course) and and an area for eating to the right. The conference room was an open space with about 30 rows of seats. Maybe 75-100 people were there for the presentation. They did drawings at certain points in the day and toward the end of the day, they called out a name that sounded familiar. Turns out it was someone I used to work with. What are the odds. Big city. Small world.

Checking things off the list

I've been trying to check some things off the list this week and I've got a way to go but have made some progress.

I plan on attending my 20 year HS reunion (not sure where the last 20 years went) in Phoenix this summer (nice time to visit the valley of the sun). So, I went to book my flight which is a re-booking from a trip we weren't able to make to Phoenix this past Christmas. As I'm on the phone with the Continental representative, they tell me that the tickets have no value as we didn't call to cancel. WHAT!? Uh, that would be incorrect. I spoke to another person to get that corrected. In addition to correcting the value on the ticket, he also waved the change fee. Sweet.

Emersyn's 2nd birthday is coming up soon so my part of the planning process is to put the photo book together. Love doing that. We decided to go with the small book again.

Another thing that's been on my list for a really, really long time is to share the video I shot and edited from Grandma Estep's funeral. I've been hung up on this because I felt compelled to get all the material on 1 DVD. Why? Not sure. So, I decided to go a different way and share them on YouTube with restricted access. I haven't done this before so I'll be experimenting with this over the next couple days. At least I can get the material out there.

As another step toward preparing for the photo shoot next weekend, I wanted to look into business cards. I stopped by Kinko's and I think I'm going to wait for a bit. Its $20 for 100 cards. I guess I'll handle contact information as a one-off.

Okay, last thing. Another item that's been on the list and so far has gone unresolved. I use Final Cut Express to edit video. Out of the blue, when I'm importing video, it hangs after ~ 5 minutes of imported material. Can't figure it out. Going to try a Mac repair place in the city shortly. Just have to decide when I can give up my machine for a few days. Ugh. Love/hate with technology sometimes!

Where's the light?

I spent a part of Sunday learning a bit about the lighting equipment I purchased. I setup a test in the dining room to look at how to create different moods and effects by changing the lighting. I didn't have much time which in itself is a good test because when you're working with people, you don't want to spend 30 minutes setting up - people just won't have patience for that.

Here are two resulting shots, both have an sb900 on camera to trigger the off-camera sb600 through a shoot through umbrella. I tend to like the one on the left as it gives more of a warm feeling vs. the more direct lighting from the image on the right.
Next thing I need to do to prepare for the shoot at the end of the month is think about the types of shots I'd like to end up with at the end of the day. I want to keep low expectations but I also need to think optimistically that I'll get more than I was hoping for.

New Stuff

I made a quick trip to B&H today to update my equipment so I can do off-camera lighting. I became motivated to make this purchase when I found out about a Shootoff gathering coming up in Queens at the end of the month.

The way it works is that the organizer secures a location and then you have photographers, models, and make-up artists (MUA's) sign up. The photographers setup their equipment in a location on the premesis then the photographers and models work it out during the gathering to ask each other to work together for a series of shots then rotate. As this was described to me, its implied that you need to know a little about what you're doing and you need to be able to get setup quickly, secure a location and a model, shoot and repeat.

I'm excited and nervous at the same time. The guy that I've done a few other shoots with isn't sure if can make this event until the last minute so if he can't go, I'm on my own which is pretty intimidating with my skill level. I'm going to have a good time, learn and network. Hopefully, I'll have a little time between now and then to setup and experiment with my new stuff so I can work the room on the day of the event. Wish me luck!

Shooting Diversity

So, I'm always looking for an opportunity to shoot. This weekend, we had friends (another family, actually) over to visit for the afternoon. We all went out to our local Friendly's diner and ate as healthy as you can find on a Friendly's menu. We saved the ice cream that came with the meal for later in the day. This turned out to be a nice treat.

Once we returned from lunch, Mark (husband from the other family) and I went out to shoot around the area. I knew of a local river (the Passaic) that had a nice bridge and a back road that could lead to other things. We set out and because of the recent rain, it was pretty muddy in the area but we managed to get a few shots of some geese and of the water and bridge around. I also got a chance to use my new tripod which I got for my birthday and haven't had the opportunity to use yet. Loved it.

After shooting around the river, we wondered further down the road and went up to find the railroad tracks. One of those things that you don't plan for but had some interesting angles.

We had to be cautious since this is an active track (one train did pass while we were shooting). Nice time. Once satisfied (see what I posted on flickr), we're back to the house to dig in on the ice cream we left from earlier in the day.

On Sunday, we visited with a family that has a new baby, he's 3 months old. You forget how little the new ones are. We had a really nice time catching up as we haven't seen them in quite some time. I really didn't get anything worth publishing of the baby (I know, shame on me) but I did get this really interesting shot of this little toy that Emersyn was playing with. Kind of odd and random but I like the way it came out. You just never know where you'll find inspiration for the next photograph.

So frustrating...

Home today because of the snow. So that means that Emersyn is home as well because her daycare is closed which means that Hope is home too which means that nobody is getting much done today. We try all kinds of distractions but there isn't much you can do to have a 22 mo. old entertain herself when mommy & daddy are sitting with a laptop in front of them. We even tried to have her sit with her laptop at the table with us...but that didn't last long.

Oh well. We'll chalk this day up to the work we can get done during nap time and later tonight. To make it just that much more annoying for the day, I have to clear the snow from the driveway at some point too! Lovely.

Back from the Sun

Just returned yesterday from PHX to visit family. Hope, Emersyn and I all made the trek out to the valley of the sun for a few days. This was a make-up trip, of sorts, from Christmas when we weren't able to make the flight because of ice on the roads (which I'm still trying to get reimbursed).

We arrived on Friday night, late. We took the evening flight hoping that Emersyn would sleep since the flight started close to her normal bedtime. No such luck. She fought how tired she was the whole way. She was pretty fidgety after a couple hours - but she's 22 mo. old so considering, she did pretty well. Not only did she sleep about 20 minutes before the flight landed on the way out, she managed to do the same thing on the way back. Ugh!

We were able to spend time with family. Emersyn was able to meet my aunt & uncle for the first time, along with cousins (Jamie & Ryan & Nyah). I was also able to connect with a long-time friend that has gone through a lot over the recent years. It was good to catch up. I was able to get some nice pictures from the weekend which will be posted shortly.

See the rest of the images

Its always interesting to go back to where you grew up. For those of you that have never left your hometown, its hard to convey the feeling exactly. Its like going back to that place that's so familiar, a place you could never get lost, a place where you know what to expect, where time kind of stands still in some ways. Its nice to visit but I left there almost 9 years ago and could never imagine living there again. I've felt for a long time now that once you get to comfortable, its time to put yourself in a different place; on purpose.

On my way in today, I was quickly reminded that I was home. The hustle and bustle and the colder weather. Its definitely different but its good to be home.

Never enough time

Why does it seem that no matter how efficient you may be on a given day, there's never enough time to "get it all done"? I guess that's just the way it goes but its quite frustrating sometimes.

I'm starting to wonder if this new flood of material in my world (especially around the subject of photography) is overloading my brain. I'm feeling a little too connected sometimes. Between blogging (I write and there are several I follow), email (personal and work), instant messaging, flickr, facebook, twitter, texting, calling...AAAHHHH! Make it stop...but wait, if I stop, did I miss something? And then if you let any of this go for too long, its sooo hard to catch up again.

First Experience: Fashion Show

Last Sunday I was asked to participate in shooting a fashion show that was an extension of Fashion Week in NYC. Hmm. Let me think? Uh, okay - please sign me up! Now lets figure out how to get there - and what fun would it be without a little struggle to make this happen, right?

I found out about this on Friday evening and the event was on a Sunday night (of which Monday was a holiday). I also knew that Hope (my wife) would be in the city with a friend for the day and I was scheduled to watch the baby for the day. Problem was that there was an overlap of a couple hours between the time when Hope was headed back and I was scheduled to be in the city. Being the creative problem solver that she is (after exhausting all normal babysitting options at the last minute), she suggested that I get the baby fed and ready for bed, then put her in the car and 'make the exchange'. So we did.

Once in the city, I headed uptown to the restaurant and met up with Lou (my Flickr friend). He knew the designer (Dolita) which is what made this all possible. We met with her shortly after being there and proceeded to do some test shots to get our settings right for the shoot. The models were going to basically make their way around the restaurant coming up a set of stairs from the basement then back down - and repeat. Lou and I positioned ourselves and started shooting.

For me, this was a lot of fun and challenging as well. Not only am I a pretty novice photographer but I now have moving objects to capture. So many things to remember in the moment. The shot lasted for about 20 minutes. Overall, there are a handful of images that I thought were pretty good (me being critical of myself). Shortly after the show, Lou and I packed it up and I made my way back home on the train. The whole way back, I'm thinking about all the things I could have or should have done differently (typical of me). Next time will be that much better!

Red Doors and 9/11 Remembered

I took a walk around the city, the village mostly on my birthday a few days back.  I was actually seeking out this neighborhood that is all cobblestone and looks like it could be something in Paris right in the middle of NYC.  I've been through there before but couldn't find it - even doing research ahead of time and even asking cops on the street.  Oh well, I'll find it.

So as I walked, I kept coming across these red doors that were really cool.  So I started snapping.  After a while I had several pictures but here are a few of them.

I also came across a chain link fence that had painted tiles with memories of that faitful day 7 1/2 years ago.

 

Recycle your stuff: One person's trash...

It seems that I found out about some new resource of material just about everyday. A couple days ago, I saw a piece on the news that talked about a site where people can post your stuff you don't want for people to pick up for free. Kind of a neat concept. Check it out here -> http://www.freecycle.org/

I've been feeling a little under the weather the past couple days. I hope to post some photos from my birthday walk around the city back on Tuesday. For some unknown reason, I ended up with several photos of red doors. Not sure why. Stay tuned for the images.

First "real" photo shoot

A few weeks back, I sent a note to a flickr member asking if he could include me the next time he has a shoot.  He responded nicely and said something to the effect of, "okay, I'll let you know".  I figured this meant nothing would come of it but it was nice that he even responded. 

Several days ago, I sent another note over and asked again if there was something on the agenda and it turns out there was.  So, I met up with him and the couple to have their photos taken in Rutherford, NJ.  It was still pretty cold out even though it was supposed to warm up later in the day.  Nissa & Matt (models) were great sports considering the temperatures.

The couple had an old building near some train tracks for their location picked out.  It turned out to be a really nice setting.  Still snow on the ground.  Lou (flickr guy) was nice enough to stop and talk to me about setup and give some pointers on how to make proper adjustments on the camera and even let me borrow some equipment for me to capture some images on my camera as well.  Check out my favorites of the day from my camera...and here are some that Lou has posted to his account.

Hopefully we can work together again.  I had a lot of fun (if you couldn't already tell from this entry).

Its been a while

I can't believe it was November of 2007 the last time I posted something here.  Time goes so fast!

It was a little over a year ago that I got a DSLR and I've become crazy about getting involved in photography.  I try to shoot as often as I can and I've started getting involved in as many on-line communities as I can to help establish a network of people and explore the world of photography.

More specifically, I've shot two weddings as a guest but have the taste for trying it as more of a hired person.  I'm hoping to connect with someone that is looking for an assistant.  Really want to learn about the trade and take some of those "wow" shots that you see in magazines and on-line sometimes.  There are a couple people that are really doing some interesting stuff.  Watched a video chat with Jasmine Star.  She's doing some great visual work and was kind enough to share some time with many of us on the PhotographyMentor site.  Until you look, how would you ever know that such a community exists.  Good news is that there seems to be a lot of on-line resources for photographers.

On a related note, I've taken a little time over the past few days to update my flickr account.  I've posted several photos that I've taken that I like for one reason or another.  I even received a request to use a photo of mine from an on-line publication.  Still trying to find out the logistics.  More to come on that.