A rarity

Today I had a religious experience...

It didn't happen in a church or a temple but instead the bathroom of the St. Petersburg Times Tampa office.

I ate a pear. Not just any pear. One of the finest pears in all the land.

The juice tasted like heaven and I'm pretty sure the only way they can get them so sweet is to have a priest from every religion bless them.

"I'm in a state of post-pear euphoria, unlike anything I've ever experienced," said my close friend Joshua Neiderer as we laughed hardily, drunk of this gastronomic explosion of fruit and bliss. "Truly rare winter Riviera pears are the fruit of the gods."

I would argue that if gods worshiped gods these green bundles of delicious would be just the cuisine for them.

"Their lush juiciness, melting texture and exquisite flavor are truly unique," claims their creator Harry & David.

They are truth speaking prophets and their gospel is fine fruit.

Try these pears they are worth so much more than what they charge for them...

I imagine this might send someone into a pleasure coma.

So it begins...

I'm back in Venice. I came here for two reasons, one being more obvious than the other.

First, I wanted to celebrate Christmas with family.

Second I wanted to scan old photographs. Lots of old photographs, some dating back as far as the late 1800s.

So on the way down I picked up a scanner and today I'm getting to work.

Above is the first of many. I believe it was actually taken by a professional. There is a business label on the back that reads Paul's Photos and gives a short description of the photo. Check it out on my flickr for more info.

Well here I go, wish me luck...

Longways

My best friend Patrick and I were digging through some old photos on my hard drive when, in a stroke of genius, he remembered that we had taken panorama shots on a couple of our vacations together over the years.

These were the days before easy photomerging in CS3. We hadn't seen these assembled yet. It was like opening a present you had gotten for yourself years ago but had since forgotten.

The results were mostly satisfying, with the second panorama from Ireland being a little too much and the above panorama from Denali National Park being my favorite.

Anyway, I'm heading south today to celebrate Christmas in Venice and pick up my new 50mm which will replace the one that took a nose dive on surprise night.

Cheery Christmas pictures up soon, probably a few days after the fact...

Check out the rest of the panoramas on my flickr...

Week ender

Above is a photo from the skid competition that went down after a St. Pete bike race.

We missed the actual race because we got there too late and couldn't find the pack but our afternoon in St. Pete was still pretty wonderful. The weather was perfect and there were actual bike lanes for me and Jon to ride in.

Today will be a nice lazy Sunday. I spent the morning adding stuff to Flickr. Check it out if you get a chance.

The LIFE photo archive...

is online now and you can check it out with Google.

Here's a gem.


That's a picture of a two year old child smoking a cigarette in Paraguay in 1939. It was taken by John Phillips.

Take a look for yourself and see what you can come up with...

Three things that are just sort of wonderful...

A lot of this isn't related to the theme of the blog, but as the title of the posts suggests it is sort of wonderful so here it goes...

1.) Reign of Fire.

You may remember this you may not. Let me jog your memory a bit. Think six years ago and now imagine a scene in which you saw Matthew McConaughey leaping through the air, sporting a body built for war, tribal tattooed and angry with a giant ax. His target: a massive fire breathing dragon. Ok, remember? Yeah? You don't believe me. Ok I understand but I promise it's worthwhile. No, there isn't a lot of plot but do you rally need any when you have Christian Bale and the aforementioned warrior tuned McConaughey teaming up to battle dragons in a post apocalyptic wasteland that cost $90 million to build?

2.) NPR end of the year music lists.

Both All Songs Considered and Second Stage are hosting great end of year lists that you can stream right now. I never really listened to David Byre or Brian Eno before but since listening to the All Songs Considered list I have been addicted to Strange Undertones, that and Fur by Blitzen Trapper. Check it out!

3.) Photographers that do good work (sort of a cop out har har).

Stephen Ferry, whose work is pictured above, shows what Kodachrome can do when put into the hands of a true artist. And Mikhael Subotzky just sort amazes me with how deep he is able to get in with his subjects. I mean he has a picture of a sex worker and a client in the middle of the act. Check out his Beaufort West portfolio.


Thats it.

Something's wrong

I was checking online this morning to see if the 5D mark II was available yet (something I do far too often) and I came across this bizarre anomaly.


The MSRP for this camera is around $2700. Seems like Amazon is price gouging, that or the 24-105mm costs -$1400. I suppose stranger things have happened...

Film again

I finished another roll of film. This one took a lot more time to get through. I had stuff on there from the presidential debates...

There were a couple gems but film still sort of confuses me. I just can't seem to figure out how to focus on a certain point in a composition. I end up blurring out things that I want to be sharp and sharpening things that I want to be blurred. Ho hum maybe it's accidentally avant-garde.

You can see the results here.

I also put a triptych together. I don't think it's going to fit into the blog very well because it's three pictures wide but give it a click and see.

Things I saw yesterday

The One Light Workshop
I learned a lot. I'll have some neat off camera stuff coming up soon...

This...

which I feel sums up shows and hipster clubs pretty well...

and this

which is just sort of great

Shoot the moon

Having finished all my work for the week I was sitting in my cubicle willing the clock to tick faster and perusing the interwebs for story ideas and such.

And I came across this.

Which led me to search for a way to handle it, and I found this.

And realized that the lens that I had with me was way too short for this kind of action.

So I asked the photo editor if he could lend me something a little longer. He said sure, told me he was busy at the moment but would get me something as soon as he could.

My God.

He walked up to me with a hard shell suitcase.

"I think this might work," he said.

This is what he gave me...

I felt like a little kid. I was playing with firecrackers and he handed me a bomb.

I pulled the big boy out and set it on the table. I had to attach my camera to it rather than attach it to my camera. The thing has to weigh damn near ten pounds.

I hefted the hand cannon to my eye and shakily aimed it at the cold night.

There it was, a veined rocky disc floating golden in space reflecting the sun, traveling through 500mm of glass to the holes in my head triggering processes that sent chemicals through me, chemicals that felt like love and Christmas.

Before the camera came out myself and the some staff of the St. Petersburg Times were watching from our office windows as the moon pulled up past the horizon line, nothing more than a pink crescent, a half eye watching eager weekenders scurry home.

One of the writers, taken by the beauty said in sincerity, "It kind of makes you think that everything might be all right, it really does."

I think so too.

What do you think?

Knocking the dust off...

Inertia set in. I felt it's creeping slimy grasp weeks ago. The alluring lull of non-action sweet and sickening.

Well now I'm back on the horse. And ready to go. There's a ton of new stuff on my flickr.

Including this latest edition to my 100 strangers project...


I'm hoping to have a multimedia project done in the next few weeks. I'm collaborating with my friend Denver on a project that focuses on a man who used to be homeless but is now off the street and helping those less fortunate than himself.

My best friend jumped into the blogosphere today. Check his page out. I'm looking forward to seeing more from him, he's already off to a great start.

I also stumbled upon this relatively new site for young photographers. It's full of great content and interviews.

I shared some e-mail with the site's creator, Jake Stangel, and he gave me some good constructive feedback on my work.

I'll be following his blog from now on.

That's about it.

More to come...

Giants, prostitutes, transvestites and dwarves...

are just some of the things that Diane Arbus was famous for photographing.

Here's an example:

She lived hard, explored the fringes of society and then killed herself in 1971. She was 48.

This image is a bit more famous:

Arbus' Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, New York City (1962)

I had seen her work before but rediscovered it yesterday along with this super neat website.

Click through the other books, it's a pretty interesting concept...

Diptych

Taken in an abandoned parking lot just after sunset.

That's all...

Saturday

I woke up late, fully clothed from the night before. It went late...

Today was slow, and lazy. Omelets at Nicko's, a diner made famous for its claim to being "Tampa's last real steel diner.

Not very interesting but, I did see this...

Yes, that is 100 pounds of pure orange fury.


It is scheduled to be demolished soon...

Mixed media

Kim and Yoshi, 2007 Richard Renaldi

It's the tail end of my Friday shift at the St. Petersburg times. The desert of empty space before the weekend. I'm done with all of my work and I've resorted to perusing the dregs of the Internet and filling my ears with This American Life.

Aside: The new episode is excellent, listen to it.

Ira is doing his sign off, the show is over and I think that's it... and then this weird sad music comes on. I quickly cruise over to the website to figure out who is making this bizarre sound.

It's Antony and the Johnsons. I'm moving at Internet speed so I've clicked, looked and I'm already on to something else but I let his eerie voice keep piping through my headphones.

And then I come across this photo project. It's like 100Strangers on steroids.

Read the interview if you want but wait to click to his actual project.

When I scrolled through Richard Renaldi's work that Antony and Johnsons was still playing in the background.

The combination of the sound and the visual did something. It was sort of over the top but powerful none the less.

Give it a shot. Here it is in seven steps.

1. Find headphones and put them on.

2. Click this and listen to The Lake

3. Wait a second... maybe a few seconds... is he singing?

4. It's a little cheesy and weird I know but bear with me. Keep the music playing.

5. Open up a new tab or a new window or whatever. Now click this.

6. Scroll through...

7. Let me know what you think.

Surfing the Archive...

© Paul Gauguin

© Alessandra Sanguinetti

Magnum ran a contest where they asked readers to compare the past work of Magnum photographers to the work of other famous artists. Above is one of my favorites but all of the entries are pretty incredible. Check them out here.

Entry number 13 was selected as the winner.

Which one is your favorite?

Two more strangers.

This is Cliff. I was talking to his friend Sal when he walked up. He was a really nice guy. At first he seemed sort of confused as to why I would want to take his picture but after he heard that I had already photographed Sal he opened up.


This is Sal. He was a real sweet guy. He looked sort of tough so I was kind of worried about asking to take his picture.

He agreed immediately saying, "Go ahead I don't give a shit."

He started talking about Al Pacino and how he had just gotten a free 12-pack of diet Coke from some lady who bought it by accident.

He gave me a diet coke and made this tough face for me...

www.100strangers.com

More from Magnum

Odds are you've seen the above image before. It was taken by Thomas Hoepker on September 11, 2001. To me it's a gripping contrast to many of the other images that were taken that day.

Here is his advice to a young photographer:

"Avoid all photo schools and courses. Most will give you lofty ideas and twist your mind in one direction. Find your own way to photography, nobody will ask you later if you have a diploma. Visit as many museums as you possibly can. The images you see (painted, drawn, etched or photographed) will stay with you for the rest of your life. They will help you to discover good pictures in real life. Suppress any silly ambitions of becoming a great artist. Being a good photographer is difficult enough."

I like his style, it goes with my thoughts on the subject and the thoughts that I have heard voiced by peers.

Check his Magnum portfolio here.

A little inspiration in the morning...

CARL DE KEYZER ©
Men waiting in front of film theatre. HYDERABAD, India, 1985

Applicable to more than just photography I think.

"Give it all you got for at least 5 years and then decide if you got what it takes. Too many great talents give up at the very beginning; the great black hole looming after the comfortable academy or university years is the number one killer of future talent."

- Carl De Keyzer
Magnum Photographer

Take a look at his Magnum portfolio here.
And his website here.

I learned about him from this post on the Magnum blog. It's worth checking out.

The old camera dilemma...

I've always liked the idea of vintage things. Growing up my mom owned a vintage clothing store called Strange Cargo so it's sort of ingrained in me. I don't know what it is exactly but there's just something about things from the past the strike a chord with me.

This passion extends to cameras as well but there always seems to be the same dilemma. I find these little gems at the thrift store. Small plastic beauties like this..

or this...

They call out, beckoning to be used. I take them home thinking of all the fun I might have with them and then discover the inevitable. They ultimately use some bizarre size of film that has either been discontinued or is only available by mail order from New York or some other far off place.

Short of learning how to process in a darkroom does anyone know of any sources for old film in the Tampa Bay Area. Namely 110 film and wait... while googling for a link I found this. I may have just answered my own question.

Arghh shouldn't post rambling posts after a night of Old Smuggler I suppose.

Keith

Photo # 2 of my series for the 100 Strangers project.

This is Keith. He was outside of the laundromat asking for change when I was leaving.

He said he was just trying to get on the bus and that if it was any other day he would be trying to get a beer.

I gave him what I had. He seemed fine with it. He asked me what I wanted to take his picture for. When I told him he seemed impressed.

Nice guy.

Something worth watching

This has been on TED for a while but for some reason I've never watched it.

Today, pajama clad with fresh Yuban running through my veins I decided to give it a click.

What followed was a wonderful journey through the origins of life. Frans Lanting has a funny accent which does not necessarily lend itself to dramatic narration but his pictures and words are inspiring.

Watch his work, it's a good way to spend a couple of minutes.

100 Strangers

For the past couple weeks the concept of familiar strangers has come up in conversation. The link defines it as "an aspect of urban anonymity."

There are so many of these characters in my life. Faces in crowds, repeated often and never addressed.

These people are often some of the ones I would like to photographic but self consciousness and fear of breaking social norms prevents me.

When I saw the 100 strangers project in a photo magazine at Barnes and Noble I was interested and thought I might try it out.

I was sort of nervous asking to take her picture but had a little extra liquid courage in my system. I asked her and she was completely fine with it. I was sort of surprised and happy because it was getting late and I was worried that I wouldn't get another chance that day.

Here's the beginning, it won't be the last.

Found Art

Found in walking in SoHo (South Howard). Beautiful, majestic, disgusting...

Panographs or how to turn your camera into a puzzle machine

Sometimes when I'm looking through Flickr I'll find these wonderfully fragmented, jagged edged images and I always wondered what they were. Here are some of my favorites.

I did a couple of quick google searches and came up with this great tutorial.

Inspired by what I saw I headed out into the world (by bicycle of course) in search of a worthy subject. With the sun low in the sky casting long golden shadows over everything I was hard pressed to find just what I was looking for.

I'm still not sure about what I've made but I think after I do a few more of these things I could really be on to something.

More than anything they are really fun to put together. If you're bored and have a camera that you can control manually I highly recommend it.

Let me know what you think...

This just in...

Vincent Laforet is a rock star of a photographer based out of New York City. He won the Pulitzer prize before he turned 30 and changed the business model of the New York Times in regards to how it contracts shooters.

He's also kind of a big deal in the lecture circuit and in the photographic community in general. PhotoShelter just released a widget to help photographers promote themselves. It basically embeds a gallery into whatever you want with the option to buy the prints you see. Really neat stuff if you're trying to make some money off of your work.

In an effort to promote this neat idea and help up and coming photographers Laforet has created a gallery of his work and the work of some other great photographers. In the next 30 days all of the money that the sales of these prints generate will go towards a scholarship fund. You can read the extensive specifics on Laforet's blog.

Anyway the first shot is an incredible deal, $75 for a signed 16x20 print. Something like this might normally go for $1,625. So if your looking for something fancy for your wall or business or whatever this could be it.

Look click buy or not either way these pictures sure are pretty...

Amateurs on the heels of lions

I keep seeing more and more evidence that the world of photojournalism is in for a big change with the release of the D90 and the 5D Mark II. Being a Canon guy myself seeing videos like the one below kind of gets me going. It'll be interesting to see what lies ahead.

Tokyo Reality (Canon 5D Mark II) Final
by lejapon

P.S.

I know I've been super lazy with my posts lately. I'll fix that in the next couple of days.

Keep an eye out.

Perspective

The above picture was taken by my friend J. Adam Huggins.

Adam is a photojournalist who often shoots for the New York Times. He's a great guy and an inspiration to me. This photo in particular got my attention because of the caption.

The man pictured above is the same age as myself and he's standing in front of his home which has just been consumed by a raging monsoon flood.

After looking at the photo for awhile the differences between my life and his began forming in my mind.

We've both been on this planet for the same amount of time but our experience must be so vastly different. Now I don't pretend that this is some sort of epiphany and yeah his life could be summed up in one word, "tough," but it's still interesting to think about for a bit.

I don't want to end with some sort of saccharine diatribe about being grateful and appreciating the small things but I can say that this photo did make me happy for roofs and air conditioning and being above the high water mark.

Fashion/Modeling?

I've sort of been jumping around as far as what kind of photography I want to get into. I love the idea of changing the world with poignant shots of the unfortunate victims of third world circumstance but... there's always that side that says hey why not just point the camera at some pretty faces and make some money.

Being in Tampa right now with the aforementioned world changing shots thousands of miles away I have decided to turn my lens towards the fashion side of the business. I started a model mayehm account and am waiting for approval. Until them I'll be semi-creepy and pull models from CraigsList.

So goes the life of a freelancer just getting his start...

P.S.

I got a job at the St. Petersburg Times so now I'm not a total derelict yay!

Big Time

Sharper, faster, more megapixels, bigger sensor, more saturation, more depth. Digital photography is a beautiful thing but lately I have been turning more towards film. There's just something about the softness and unique imperfections of a film image that draw me to it. John Chiara has taken his romance with film to the edge of reason, building a massive pinhole camera. Watch the whole video and check out his website. It's one of the more interesting things I've seen lately in the world of photography.

Sagan got it right...

With all the gloom and doom that the media is spewing out these days (mostly with good reason) sometimes it's nice to look at something that puts things in perspective.
This does that for me. And although it makes me feel a little lonely it also makes me feel a lot better...



"We succeeded in taking that picture from [deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.
The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity--in all this vastness-- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us... To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known." -Carl Sagan

Film

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
The pictures, aren't particularly interesting but there's just something about the soft desaturated look of film that I love. I wish I knew how to develop my own and had access to a darkroom... but I don't so I have to rely on the dorky, excitable CVS clerk near my house.

These were taken with an old Canon AE-1 that was gifted to me by a friend. I destroyed my first couple of rolls by being a little naive so this is my first complete set.

These were shot with Fuji Superia X-tra which I am told will bring out blues and greens. I don't know enough about film yet to distinguish between different types but I am going to start experimenting...

Look for more in the future...

Getting back into it...

I've been getting complacent with the frequency of my posts. I'll take the time this week to get back on top of things. Here is a quick link to a project that James Nachtwey is working on. The footage is graphic and intense so fair warning.

Slow ride, take it easy or Tampa Critical Mass

The weather was perfect on Friday night so I decided force my self off of the couch and into the Tampa Critical Mass ride.

I caught the pack on Tampa Street. About 50 bike enthusiasts riding all manner of two wheeled contraption were meandering through downtown with bells ringing and voices yelling out to declare the greatness of the bicycle.

The pace was slow and easy. The air was cool almost crisp.

I didn't finish the ride but I stayed with it through Ybor, there's just something special about the feeling you get riding down seventh in the middle of a bike pack...

After ditching the ride I soon discovered how hard it is to find beer in the wide open urban nowhere that makes up the space between Ybor and downtown.

Cruising aimlessly on my search I stopped to ask a rough looking vagrant if he new where I could get some cold brews. "The store," he said and vaguely pointed down a dark and scary street.

He was right and cold 12-pack of Keystone's finest light lager was mine. I packed it into my bag, handed two beers to the homeless guys in front of the store and rode back to reward the vagrant for his tip.

With nine beers weighing heavy on my back I pedaled off to Cafe Hey to quench my thirst and watch the first presidential debate.

Fun times...

Tired now.

Maybe Orpheum tonight. Who knows?

Double Dose

Here are two videos that really inspire me. The first is sort of uplifting the second is sort of depressing. Watch them in whatever order you want... I highly recommend Ted. If you are ever bored watch this, I promise it's better than any antics you might see on YouTube.

Catching up (guts full of Cuban delicious. Sort of bullets)

As I mentioned I might in the previous post, I did indeed go to 1905 Day at the Columbia and it was magical...



The lines were long, stretching around the the side of the restaurant in double file and were populated mostly by gray haired Cuban food enthusiasts and every brand of yokel (I mean this in the most sensitive way) you could possibly imagine.

Forty minutes of gawking at the distant doorway and muttering expletives was rewarded with a small ticket that allowed us to come back three hours later and enjoy turn of the century pricing.

The food was incredible and the sangria flowed like water. After about two hours of forcing massive piles of black beans and rice, hot fresh Cuban bread, and special 1905 salads down our throats we were ready to roll away dazed and content.

Outside the air was warm and the edges of the day seemed to have softened. A Zen like calm had descended over the world, the silence was a beautiful poem. The Columbia is an incredible place, transcendent in a way. I know I'll be back there... for 1905 Day next year (what can I say, I'm cheap).

But...

That was Sunday and now Tuesday is almost over and I'm running the risk of becoming complacent with my posts. So here are some bullet points in homemade shorthand:

Monday - Interview with the St. Petersburg Times for a job as an editorial assistant. I might use my degree for something after all. Aimless Walking through downtown at lunch hour, coffee sipping and lazy glances at the world of downtown Tampa professionalism. Naps and casual reads. Sleepover.

Today - French pressed coffee and backseat Jaguar rides. Procrastination in the form of apartment cleaning and organizing. Bike rides in the sweet heat of fading summer/early fall. Errands. Meetings with German couchsurfers who are calling my floor home for tonight. Graduation from hospice class (soon I will be meeting with the near dead). And off to liter night to guzzle some sort of delicious brew.

See you in between sips?

Back in Tampa

The two day hiatus was rough for all of us I know, but now I'm officially back in town and ready to... go nuts? Party? Errr who knows what this crazy city will throw at me.

Instead of posting a blog last night I sat on a beat up plastic chair in the parking lot outside of my place with my best friend and a 4-pack of 16 oz. bottles of Bud heavy.

It was a wonderful evening, possibly the perfect way to herald my return from the world of corporate award snapshots. We talked and laughed and reminisced over the events of the past three days. It was eventful indeed, a lot happens when you try to push the limits of your liver and social acceptability every night (har har har).

But really there's a lot to be said for skipping a night on the town and instead tipping back a couple of cold ones with a close friend. Think about it next time your about to head out to the club. Instead of dropping $20 on an evening of smokey bars and loose women (or men) drop $5 on cheap beer and talk about the stuff that really matters or doesn't... you might like it.

Anyway tonight you might find me at Orpheum trying my best to drown in cheap booze (gin and pineapple is delicious I promise). Tomorrow I'm going to brave the long lines for 1905 day at the Columbia. They're lowering their prices to the levels they were at when they first opened. Count me in for $.95 glasses of Sangria and $1.95 fancy salads...

And here's the picture...



It's my first ever invoice (I feel like a real professional now) covered in gold coins, cash and rupees. I hear rituals like this are the only real way to succeed in this tough business. I hope so, I need all the help I can get.

Resurrection

Sweat. Grease. Rust. Three things that I was covered in this afternoon when I decided it would be a good idea to try and bring some ancient beach cruisers back into the world of the living.

After a couple hours of of struggling with what I think were the first pair of pliers ever invented (the only tool I could find) I managed to get one of the three bikes to sort of work. Yay for slow going early nineties beach bikes!

Today was also day two of the previously mentioned photo assignment. This was the big night. The put up or shut up. The show. The end all be all. Really, it was just dinner at a local hotel with some pseudo important delegates giving speeches about the impact of Main Street associations in Florida and handing out various awards.

Not quite an island side fashion shoot for Elle or a mountain trek expedition for REI but I may be on my way...

The light was friendly to me today. I managed to bounce it just right so that the wrinkles in my geriatric subjects were smoothed to a creamy veneer. Smiles popped and teeth glistened as the shutter clicked and clicked. It was magical in a way. Well I guess it really wasn't but much less stressful then yesterday.

Tomorrow it's a few hours in front of the laptop, picking up a paycheck and then boarding the good old Greyhound back to Tampa just in time for Pulp.

Maybe I'll see you out there, time for me to go to bed...

Limits?

Today was the first day of my second ever paying gig as a photographer. It's a simple assignment. Nothing too crazy (unlike what my photo idol has been up to) just candid shots of people milling about at a Florida Main Street Association function.

I thought it would be easy enough but in fact it was a bit more difficult than I expected. Armed with my good old XTi and my clunker 285HV I strolled boldly into the breach of silver haired cocktail holding event goers and started popping off frames.

The lighting was overhead tungsten, a bit low but it didn't seem too challenging but when I looked down at my LCD the results were less than fantastic. I just couldn't seem to find the exposure balance that I needed. When I finally did start getting something to work the crowd was already moving on to watch awards being handed out.

I have yet to check the results on a bigger screen but I'm a little worried. I need to be faster and more accurate with my settings. The 285HV is challenging because it doesn't synch automatically with my camera so getting the light right is all up to me... Ho hum. Whine whine.

Tomorrow is another day and I'll have another opportunity to make this better. I'm hoping some well spent time in front of Lightroom will help me salvage what I did today.

Oh well, we live and we learn.

On an unrelated note I took some fun portraits yesterday. Cross lighting, snoots, masks and American flags blend together to for some creepy results... Below is an example of what I like to do with my free time.



It makes me laugh every time I look at it. Great. Anyway I'm exhausted. Good night for now.

Starting on a low note...

So it happened, that horrifying what if that haunts everyone who hops on a bike. My friend got hit by a car, an SUV to be exact.

He's ok... sort of. I mean he was knocked out and woke up in an ambulance, has some road rash on his head, a broken arm and a fractured elbow and to top it off his super fancy 100 percent wool pants now have little holes in them (he was on his way to work when he got hit, it's not some new bike trend you don't know about...).

I spent three or four hours waiting around Tampa General yesterday while they pumped him full of morphine and checked to make sure he wasn't pissing blood. We laughed and winced and wondered what the future would hold and who would be next.

I ride a lot, it's my only way of getting around. Often I catch unnecessary honks from drivers who just can't conceive of why I am on the road. I have gotten in yelling matches, had to swerve to avoid being crushed, and talked shit to plenty of people I probably shouldn't have.

It's like a transformation occurs when someone gets behind the wheel. They are in their little steel shell and they don't seem to realize that when I'm pumping away on my Schwinn Le Tour the only thing between me and the pavement is me.

Anyway, I don't want to preach. I'm glad my friend is alive and the damage is minimal. Please please just be careful if you see me or any other cyclists out on the road...

I texted Denver last night to see how the pain was, he texted me back with this

"To quote Patrick Swayze, 'pain don't hurt much.'"

I think he'll be just fine...