My head hurts.

Today, while waiting on some materials to arrive for a project, I started looking around at links for flash photography - my next assignment to tackle both for my photography course, and on my personal agenda.

See, I can take pictures all day long in most lighting conditions, but as I get harder and harder on myself, I see that sometimes, even though my camera is doing it's best to regulate it, the flash is noticeable. It looks a little un-natural. This is something that has always bothered me, and something I intend to master in the next couple of months.

Months? - you might say? Why would it take you months? Well, I'll tell you why. Because I'm a freak about it and I want it to be right! I've been letting the camera think for me. My high end camera will do a great job 80 or 90% of the time, but what about the other 10%? Chances are likely that in that 10% something great is going to happen. A moment that will never ever happen that way again, and if I mess it up because of my flash - I failed at capturing the memory.

So, I've been reading about exposure compensation, metering modes, TTL, and how to know when your camera will light the subject and make the background dark or light both evenly, and still create a tack-sharp image. It's tricky stuff, and most of it depends on the situation. So, my assignment to myself is to shoot at least 3 rolls of film this weekend in all kinds of lighting situations, with different lenses and combinations of things and find out what works and what doesn't.

I shadow a professional wedding photographer on October 22, and I want to bring my "A" game. I want her to be able to use my photos and maybe even offer them to the bride and groom. The photographer has offered to let me shadow her at 3 weddings this year, and maybe more next year. I know I'll learn a lot from her, because not only is she letting me attend and shoot with her at the weddings and receptions, she offered to go over the proofs once they come back from developing and show me what works and what doesn't. What brides and grooms want and what brides and grooms generally don't. So it's real, hands on training. I've burnt up my dial up connection at home reading forums and articles about photography, and read magazines and books about it, but none of that can prepare me for the real thing like DOING the real thing.

To me, that kind of instruction is priceless.

I done gone and done it.

Yep, I finally did it. After months of agonizing about it, reading forum after forum. Searching classifieds, reviews, websites, newspaper articles, magazines, and even all 4 billiondy corners of the World Wide Web, I did it.

I bought a new zoom lens for my kit. Not just any zoom. Oh no. THE zoom lens. Canon's 70-200mm f2.8 L lens. Yep, the "L", which stands for "good LORD that thing is heavy!"

This is the lens you see the guys at race tracks toting around. The one you see the guys shooting for the Associate Press using. It's the benchmark, and by golly it's mine.

It won't even fit in my bag, which is an issue I need to address soon. I think I just need to re-configure some things and it will work, but camera bags are like jigsaw puzzles. Mine was perfect, and now I've got a whole new section to try to fit in...somewhere....

But, that's no concern to me now. My first concern is to get out there and shoot a whole bunch of photos with it, get used to it, and incorporate it into my bag of tricks, along with my other L lens- an ultra wide 17-40mm. Now, with a 17-40, a 50 prime, and a 70-200, I'm covered!

Look for test shots coming soon!

14.7 miles on the Appalachian Trail

470 miles to Asheville from Brownsburg. 25 miles from Joe's house to Hot Springs. 20 mile shuttle ride up to the Allen Gap trailhead, 14.7 miles of AT back to Hot Springs, and 470 miles back from Asheville to Brownsburg.

We survived! Joe's prophecy of being eaten by bears did not come true, and I am back in Indiana today, trying to get my head back into work.

I have plenty of stories, but those are still being sorted out in my head, so until I have time to write them out, these pictures will have to suffice. I'll add them to this blog eventually, today flickr is down, and blogger won't let me add them for some reason...so photoshop's web gallery will have to do. They're all out of order, but you'll figure it out. More will come once I develop the film I took out there. There are just from my little digital camera I had on the side of my backpack the whole time.

Click here to launch the photo gallery!

Enjoy!

Indiana Sunset

This is what I think an Indiana sunset should always look like.

More new images

Check out "FlashBulb" for some new images added this week.

They are from a shoot I did last fall for a calendar. The one of the bricks and the one of the gate were chosen, and the calendar is still for sale at "Silver in the City/At Home in the City" over on Mass Ave. It's theme is "Urban Indianapolis".

The shoot was fun, as it got me out in my own neighborhood (the Old Northside and Chatham Arch) and over around Lockerbie Square to explore. They were black and white originally, but I tinted them for my own purposes. Enjoy!

Rainy Mondays

"Never accept a job that requires new shoes." - Unknown

I found this on a photography forum over the weekend. It's a great quote, and so very true.

That's where I am today...just cynical. I spent all day yesterday trying to work up the motivation to go outside and do something, but Lauren and I couldn't. We just laid around the house with the cats and watched TV. Plenty of people were getting stuff done on TV, so that made us feel like we were doing something too.

Emril was cooking some really delicious looking things on his show...I don't know what they are called because they were some exotic gourmet things...mushrooms I think. But Lauren and I helped him with that for an hour or so.

Then, we helped 2 people redecorate a room on Find and Design, a show about finding stuff at flea markets to redo a room.

After that, Lauren and I helped a couple of companies flip a house, and walk away with huge chunks of money in our wallets in profit. Little did we know, though, we would have to pay capital gains tax. Bummer.

So we ate ice cream in remorse for the silly mistake, and laid on the couch some more.

We were even too lazy to cook, so we ordered a pizza. So terrible, but oh so good. I tell you, I think Domino's is making the best pizza out there right now. Not greasy, nice crust that's not overwhelming, and fairly cheap. And the best part, they are always on time or early!

I'm so pumped about this weekend. I'm going to wake up at the butt crack of dawn on Friday and head to North Carolina to hike and camp on the Appalachian Trail. My buddy Joe and I are meeting in Asheville, where he lives, and staying at his place on Friday night. Then, on Saturday morning we're waking up and heading to Hot Springs, about 30 minutes away, where you can take the AT for a loop and camp. I can't wait! I'm going to go down through Gatlinburg and the Smoky Mountain National Park on the way there. I love that area, especially in early fall!

And Fall is here...hope it lasts longer than a second. The days are getting shorter and shorter. It's getting harder and harder to get out of bed in the morning! I love fall, it's just too short most years. I remember falls of my youth being forever long. Piles and piles of leaves to play in with the dogs and my sister and cousin. I can still smell it, a fresh pile of leaves, as I run and jump head-first into it! Those were the days.

New images added

I've added 6 new images to the end of my photography site. They are of my buddy Arnie (see previous post). Hope you enjoy them. They're gritty!

Check out the link here.

It's a Jack Johnson day - oh

This morning I woke up early...or actually on time (no snoozing for 20 minutes), didn't read a magazine while eating breakfast, didn't surf the internet while waiting for Lauren to finish in the bathroom, and didn't take forever to get out of the house. Nope, I got up and got out quickly, like I used to, and got to work at 8:00, a full half our early.

See, I jetted from work a half hour early yesterday because I got restless and needed to go mountain biking. So, to make up for the half hour, I came in early. I was at a stopping point last night, and I was expecting to get some materials to finish a job this morning, and so the 30 minutes would have been the finishing of the job, and all would be fine.

Well, I got an email this morning, saying the materials would be arriving on FRIDAY, not today, and that we would be extending our delivery for the project. Well....good, I guess. But I worked so hard to get here early today!

Oh well. I used to time to get a head start on another project instead. It'll all work out in the end.

Be looking for some new photos coming to the new photo site. I shot some promo images for a friend, Arnie, who is getting out and playing gigs. He's putting together a band, and he is a talented guitarist. Once I do some editing with them...I'll put them up and let you all know!

New photography site

I've gone another step towards someday doing photography professionally, even if only freelance. I've put together a portfolio site where my favorite work can be seen. It's nothing fancy, but it doesn't need to be.

Here's the link to "FlashBulb".

I wanted a place to showcase my photos, and maybe the right person will see the site and hire me for freelance on something, anything! I think at this point I'm ready to shadow some photographers and maybe get some experience with lighting and studio work. That would be great! But, I don't currently know any photographers well enough to ask...so if you know of one, won't you pass my name along? I'd gladly work weekends on shoots or evenings after work...just for experience.

Ok...enough embarrassing begging for promo here. Please do check out the site, though, and let me know what you think...

I wonder what our forefathers would say....

"I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be."

~Thomas Jefferson