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...