International Relations

So I get an email from my sister Paula about her boys Matt and Chris playing in an international baseball tournament up in Freeport, PA. Apparently they did pretty well. Matt got the chance to pitch against the Israeli team and was fortunate enough and, frankly, pitched well enough to win 4-2. Even going so far as to strike out their best hitter. Yeah! Way to go Matty!

Afterwards the Israeli player, Moshe Hyde, came up to Matt to jokingly tell him his pitches should be "illegal." They shook hands and laughed and Paula even snapped a pic of the two of them. An interesting aspect of all this is that the kid got a special delay in his military service because, as Paula told me, he is considered an athlete with advanced skills. He will be returning to Israel to immediately start serving in an elite combat unit that serves as a front line against terrorists trying to infiltrate the country. The boy is just 18. Slightly different life for those kids, eh?

Anyway, big congrats to you Matt for an impressive performance; striking out the best. Hope your coach at Dematha learns about this soon! And mazel tov Moshe for your performance and for the recognition of being an "athlete of advanced skills." Also, and more importantly, good luck and be safe.

Cheers.

Deer Skull

A little experimentation with lights, light modifiers and gels.

I got this skull from brother Bill.  He has a garage full!  Today it resides on our shed door in the backyard.  You may remember it being featured in an earlier post about morning light. (see here) You may also remember our last Xmas card?

It wasn't in my possession for long before I knew I'd try to find some weird and interesting way to shoot it.  I was doing a lot of experimenting at the time with off camera lighting thanks to David Hobby at Strobist.  I had also recently acquired a second SB800 flash unit and really couldn't wait to get at it.  There are many versions of this photo that didn't quite work.  But much "chimping" and adjusting and readjusting eventually got me to this.

 

There are just two flashes:  One to camera right, up high, snooted to limit spillover and CTO gelled.  The other light was camera left with a CTB gel and I believe was also snooted (hard to remember now, but it does look like it!)

I think this makes about three posts regarding deer and not one has been of a healthy live creature.  I intend to change this trend soon!

Promise.

Light Show.

Had a little storm the other night. Tried to catch some lightning. First shot is simply the night sky. The next shot is moments later. No lightning to be seen but pretty much turned night into day.

And below is the only shot from the entire bunch that actually shows a little bolt of lightning. Look carefully! Upper right corner.

Cheers.

The Q-bug Returneth.

That's just one big, happy playpen full of cute, isn't it?

Daniel and Jessie.

After a two week east coast journey that took them from DC to Boston and back again; that found them crashing at various friends and relatives homes, on floors, couches, futons and even the occasional bed; that had them attending games at National's Park, Camden Yards, Citizen's Bank Park (what an absolutely horrible name for a baseball stadium!), Shea Stadium, Yankees Stadium, and Fenway Park; that saw them partying til all hours in various joints in various places... the couple is now on their way back to the great Northwest.

Can't speak for everybody, but Rachel and Jessica and I loved the time we had with them and can't wait to have them back. Safe trip guys!

Peace.

Film.

Just going through some old images this weekend. Reminded me of the days when I didn't look at the back of my camera immediately after each shot! Heh-heh.

For those interested: Velvia 100F slide film. Nikon F100 or F3. 70-300mm, 60mm micro, and 105mm. (I think!)

Cheers.

Post Processing

Today we're just having a little fun with post processing. In reality, I'm not a big fan of it. I like to get it right in-camera. But every now and again it's fun to just mess around with an image you don't have any real emotional attachment to and just see what you can do.

Here we have one of the many shots I took at Mont Saint Michel in Normandie. The first is how it came out of camera. Frankly it's a little dull, a tad underexposed. So I brought up the exposure and gave it a more dynamic custom curve (which is to say I gave it more contrast), and even bumped up the saturation a little. Makes it kind of postcardish, eh?

I then decided to go all sepia on it. Again, I had to increase the exposure about two thirds of a stop, then more contrast, then your basic sepia toggle. Now if I had real, mad photoshop skills I could really give it that old timey, crinkled, scratched look...but alas, I don't. This is about the best I can do.

Anyway, here are the pics...or, here is the pic with three different "treatments."

Peace.

Self Portrait.

Every now and again I try my hand at self-portraiture. Making an image that is somewhat interesting...or at least different...is never easy. Although it can be fun trying.

This, for good or for ill, is what I came up with most recently.

Cheers.

The Hands of a Carver

This past Spring I went up to Havre de Grace and Aberdeen to shoot a story on duck carvers and the Decoy Museum for Maryland Life magazine. There, I met and photographed Capt Harry Jobes... a master carver and a true original. I found the good Capt in his shop telling stories and cracking jokes with his old friend Charlie. In his hands was a roughhewn piece of wood slowing morphing into the head of some species of waterfowl. On the shelves were mallards, "old squaws" and mergansers in various states of completion.

Called "gunning birds," these decoys are today highly prized American folk art collectibles. Harry has been practicing the art of wooden decoy carving for over 60 years. At an early age he tutored with the "Dean of the Upper Chesapeake Bay decoy makers," R. Madison Mitchell. You can see each man's work in their very own exhibit at the Decoy Museum in Havre de Grace.

I made these images of the man in his Aberdeen workshop. Oh, and that small head he was carving when I first came in? It is now proudly displayed on my desk at home!

A true gentleman that Capt Harry.

Yowza!

Was out shooting my assignment of wounded veterans and kayaking the other evening and while I waited for my guys to show up to this play spot (called Maryland Chute) I thought I'd get a few images for my collection. This guy was just tearing it up! Cartwheels, spins, and yes, this is him doing a flip! A FLIP! Too cool. Never got his name but if I see him again he's getting this as a gift.

By the way, it looks as if the Wounded Warriors story will be in the Winter issue of National Parks magazine, not Fall as I originally thought. OK then... peace, til next time.