Keep on Chooglin'!

Well, well... a first for me. The little hunk-o-junk that gets me too and fro just broke 200,000! Yes, it's dented and it's dirty and it sometimes smells, but man does it run. Cold weather mornings, hot humid afternoons... doesn't matter. It cranks over each and every time. I still get at least 430 miles on each tank of gas. Often 450 or more and even have hit 500 miles a few times! The car simply rocks.

It has been giving me signs lately, though. Dropping hints that it can see the finish line. There are occasional noises I'm unable to identify. They come and go and return a few days (hours!) later. There is the occasional hesitation or sort of deep breath it takes when idling at a stop light. But it always seems able to shake it off and push on like the groovy little workhorse it is.

I'll continue to drive it for now. Haven't really looked into anything new. Not even sure what's out there. (it's been over 10 years!) Maybe I'll aim for 225,000.... then 250,000! Then... !

Who knows? For now all is well and good.

Road trip!

Balancing Act.

Every morning and every evening, no matter the weather, no matter the season, there will be a short period of time when the light outside balances nicely with the light inside. This small window of opportunity opens about one hour before sunrise and about one hour after sunset.

If you get out there and set up 30 minutes or so after sunset and begin shooting shortly thereafter--a shot every couple of minutes--you will most certainly nail the shot. One of those images will have a complimentary balance of incandescent and evening, dusky light. Try it tonight. Check the paper (or the web) and find out the time for sunset. Turn on the lights in a  particular room with a view, set up your tripod and compose the shot. Be sure to include a good portion of the exterior of the building... and shoot away. Check your times and see which worked best for you.

Do it tonight! (Or tomorrow, or whenever... no hard and fast rules here!)

Cheers!

A Matter of Inches.

Patience is a virtue that many of us do not often possess. We see something and we want it. The line is long so we turn and leave.(OK, so this just might be me!) Anyway... this same lack-of-patience can show itself in our photography, too. Sometimes we see a scene, point the camera and shoot. Done. No problem. Well, not no problem. Actually there can be many problems in the way of unwanted elements in the frame. Elements that, had we taken 5 seconds, could have been easily avoided. A matter of inches in most cases, really.

Here's a backyard. Nice green grass, decent light, cool shed, canoe, etc. Fine. But it is kinda messy, isn't it? All that crap on the left. Do we need that? 

I don't think so. Shift to the right a little bit.

Better. But even those bits of blown highlights on the far left distract, don't they? So just a couple more inches and...

Gone! A much cleaner image with an actual point of interest now.

Taking those few extra seconds to really scan around the viewfinder and eliminate the unwanted bits before tripping the shutter will, more often than not, result in more pleasing images.

Have fun.  

Happy Mother's Day!

A little late, perhaps... but heartfelt.

Law and Disorder--the Trailer.

A while back I posted some images from the set of the movie "Law and Disorder."   Produced, directed and written by Ken Beaver--my brother in-law! Pretty damn cool. Check out the promotional trailer below. I'm told the finished product should be ready to go sometime around August. So keep an eye out.

And congrats Ken!

 

I'm Totally Doing This When I Die!

This is Grover Krantz and his dog Clyde. According to most accounts I've read, Grover was a brilliant, though fairly eccentric, anthropologist. (One of his hobbies was hunting Sasquatch. Seriously.) Anyway, in 2002, after learning he had cancer he decided that he'd like to donate his bones to the Smithsonian Institution. The one condition, however, was that they take his dog as well. They did. And you can see them there today in a very cool display.

OK, so I probably won't end up in a display case at the Museum of Natural History, but the possibility of helping science even a little bit beats lying in a pine box in the ground for eternity. Doesn't it?