Shuttin' it down, captain.

Well, after a whirlwind of activity, both work related, photography related, and general life related, I'm ready for this upcoming long weekend. As the temperatures increase outside, my focus and attention to detail decreases to the point of having sessions of complete mental block, just staring out at the single ray of sunshine falling on the hallway floor outside my office.

It's time for another break.

I don't know if it's the weather, my lack of interesting projects, or the fact that in the last 6 months 4 really good friends and co-workers have left the company, but I'm just not really feeling motivated here. My motivation has dropped to just coming here, doing my job, and going home. The passion's all but gone in my work...which sucks.

I don't think anyone's really noticed...the quality is still there. Clients are still happy. There's just no emotion behind it...no spirit.

I'm hoping a long weekend in the sunshine will help. Yesterday I was feeling really miserable, but we had a good long meeting outside and I feel so much better today. My head got sunburned (because I'm bald!) but I don't even mind. The sun did me good!

...on heros.

I am a firm believer in the idea that you're never too old to have heros. Deep down, I think everyone has people that they look up to, or that they admire. I think it's healthy - it makes you want to be a better person, even if in reality the person you are modeling yourself around turns out to be the complete opposite in real life.

I have quite a few heros. I've always looked up to my dad. He is, in my mind, one of the best husbands to my mom, and has always been a great father to me. He was really the only male role model I had around all the time growing up. One of my grandfathers passed away when I was very young, and the other I never really got the chance to know until he was very sick, and died soon after we actually started to get to know each other. Since his passing all I really have are the artifacts he left behind. I have two of his guns, a 22 rifle and a 1911MA1 45 cal. semi auto pistol, my favorite gun of all time and also the most accurate handgun I've ever fired. I think I learned more about the man while cleaning up the basement of his house after he died and going through his old things than I knew of him while he was alive.

For as long as I can remember I've always been a fan of an adventurer named Alby Mangles. I think I've written of him before. He's an Australian filmmaker who opened every one of his shows with "Ever had a dream? Just pack up and go? Well, I did it, and here's my story." He had a long running show on the Travel Channel about his adventures around Australia, South America, Africa, and sailing around the globe. Watching this kind of program on television when I was 13 or 14 obviously had an effect on me. Since then I've always wanted to travel, and try to make an adventure out of every opportunity. He is a big reason I took up photography. While not filmmaking, it still documents adventures. I have a shoebox full of trips that me and my friend Jason took years ago. Every now and then I'll pull them all out and dig through them, reliving the fun we had, and the things we encountered on our trips.

Recently, for whatever reason - probably nostalgia, I've started to get interested war correspondents and journalism. We've been working with Todd Gould on the packaging for a documentary he did on Ernie Pyle, and after watching the documentary I was hooked. Pyle's writing is amazing, and after doing more research, he's from Indiana! He told the story of the war from the soldier's perspective. He left out all of the strategy, all of the politics and everything that removes the human element of war. He wrote about the people, how he felt, how they felt, and what the people at home should know about the "boys in the trenches". In reading and listening to his columns, it's amazing to me that he survived as long as he did. He was killed in Japan by a sniper just at the tail end of the war.

There's a museum and his childhood home in Dana, Indiana that I plan on visiting sometime soon, just to see it. It's history, and as I look at being a father soon, I want to have all of the knowledge about my heros ready to pass on. The sad thing is that if I had not been exposed to the documentary about Ernie Pyle, I might never have known what a great writer he was. Many people who were alive during WWII know of him very well, but my generation, just 3 generations later, don't know much about him at all. In a world of Sponge Bob and other annoying cartoons and all of the complete CRAP on tv, in the media, and everywhere you look, the people who actually make a difference, my heros, get overlooked in the shadows.

I see it as my job to pass these things on to my child, so that maybe, just maybe, another generation will know what true heros are.

Product Photos

Today I was asked to take some photos of some packaging we did here for a documentary pitch. So, me and Patrick loaded up the stuff and headed back to the elevator in our building, where there are old metal walls and an even older looking wood floor. Just thought I'd share.

New Febreze...not so Febrezey

So, the last few months I've been pretty abusive to my office floor. It's that weird time of year when it's kind of rainy...a little damp even on the nice sunny days, and the carpet in my office is just kind of nasty. Plus, I eat my lunch in here, and the cleaning crews don't exactly do a great job of vacuuming. So, you can imagine what a few months of this has done to the place. Everyone's office just kind of gets this smell to it...filthy with stench.

Add to this already weird funk the fact that people are working in the offices all hours of the day and night, and you end up with a mysterious odour, that's for sure.

So, in a effort to take some action against this biological invasion, I picked up some Febreze that we've had in our house for some time, but Lauren doesn't like. So I figured what the heck, might as well put it to use somewhere.

Well, I love the way regular Febreze smells. I use it in my truck, at home, anywhere there's a natural mystic floating in the air. It makes it smell like freshly washed cotton...or at least someone's idea of what freshly washed cotton smells like.

This Febreze is different, though. It's some kind of different smell, but it's supposed to reduce 98% of the allergens in the air. Well, with all of that allergen killing, they must have left out the fresh cotton smell, because I don't smell it.

I will say, however, that it beats the smell of month old ground in PB&J sandwich crumbs.

...on stupid obsessions.

I have the attention span of a chuahua on a double shot of expresso sometimes. Mix a sleep deprived me with a few cups of coffee and some speed metal music and you've got yourself a deadly combo. A fast talking, even faster walking, shaky pale white guy. Then, try to make me sit in my little fishbowl office and be quiet. Good luck. That's where I am this morning, so please forgive the rambling.

So I've been here since 5:00 AM this morning (which, if you do the math, means I got up at 3:55 AM to get here on time), and I can't wait for my co-workers to arrive. I got all of the work I needed to come in early for, so I went to Star**CKS, my favorite communist coffee store, and got myself a grande caramel machiatto. It's gross, but it's keeping me alive at the moment.

Anyway, I can't wait for my co-workers to get here, because I need someone to talk to. I'm friggin bored here!

The title of this post is about stupid obsessions. My wife calls them "wild goose chases" when we are out shopping. Let me explain. See, I keep a running list of crap in my head of things that I'd like to pick up the next time we go out. Usually these things are very specific, like a certain pair of socks, a certain type of hat or pencil, or - just last weekend - a certain type of memo pad. I wanted a certain size spiral bound notepad, but couldn't find it. We looked in several stores, to no avail. Lauren began to get frustrated with me, as she usually does, and gave me the "why do you always do this...you are always leading me on these silly wild goose chases!" speech. I knew it was coming. So I settled on some standard sized memo pads, but only until I happen to run across this certain size that I want. The sad thing...it's a $1.50 item...but I'd drive 20 miles to get one if I could find it. That's a silly obsession if you ask me.

This always tends to happen on road trips with Lauren, as well. The last time I needed batteries...so about half way to Ohio I started obsessing about getting some batteries. We stopped at Target to get the batteries, and I started obessing about ear-bud headphones. I for some reason needed a pair. Luckily Lauren was there to save me, talk me off the ledge, and we left the store without the ear-buds, and I was convinced that I didn't need them anymore. I haven't wanted them since.

It all stems from a vision I have of myself. I'll think "wow, how cool would it be to have ____blank___." and I'll begin my search for that certain thing. It used to be camera stuff. Now it tends to be much cheaper things, like a flashlight or the ominous notebook. I'll read a review about something, or see someone I look up to using something and I've gotta have one. I often wonder why that is. Do I not have my own identity? I like to think I do...but if I did I would just rather find my own way, right?

If you think about it, we are all like this. The latest "fashion" is always this way. Designers go to shows in Paris and New York and see the newest, funkiest clothes. Then they make their version, and mass market it. The coolest kids on the block pick up the latest clothes and sooner than later everyone is wearing something similar, if not the exact thing.

I went to the mall once and saw the same Abercrombie outfit on at least 10 people, right down to the shoes. It was eerie.

At least I'm not THAT much of a follower. I'm not saying Abercrombie is the devil...just that some people go into the store and buy everything in the window.

So, my hunt for the perfect memo pad continues. If you happen to know where I can get a 3" X 6.5" or a 4" X 8" top bound spiral notebook, please let me know....

Hello World.

Hi there! It's been a long time since my last post, it seems. I've been super busy with work, photography, and life in general.

First, as many of you know, and other's might have figured out, Lauren and I are pregnant and expecting our first born on or around November 17, 2006. We're very excited about it. On Friday of last week we went to the baby doctor and we listened to the heartbeat for the first time. It was just this little, steady and strong swishing sound. It wasn't much, but it was our baby's heartbeat...which made it all so very real! The next few months will be very exciting, as the baby starts growing very rapidly, and eventually makes first contact with us by kicking and moving. November will be here before we know it...and life as we know it will forever be different.

Also, this month has been and will continue to be very busy with photography work. I've been working on a side project shooting portraits for the last couple of weeks, and the client told me a few days ago that they'd like to shoot the rest of the company employee's as well. That is awesome news, because they are all really great people and it's been a pleasure getting to know just a little bit of them while photographing them. While the project isn't as in depth as a serious study of a person, where I would follow them in their routine for several days or weeks and photograph them until I captured one image that speaks volumes about who they are...it has been fun and I feel I've created some images of these people that work well as a portrait, but also tell a little bit about who they are.

I also was a second shooter at another wedding last weekend, and I have another couple coming up soon. It was very fun shooting this wedding, because it was the first I've done all digital. It's amazing the quality of these new digital cameras and flashes over film. I'm a hardcore fan of film, and I am blown away. The ability to zoom in a photo and see the pores of someone's skin in a photo is new to me...unless I'm shooting medium format. The quality's all there with digital, and I feel more free to experiment, because I can just look down and see if it works or not on the screen on the camera! Cool Stuff.

I've decided that I want to start writing more stories to go along with my photos. So, this summer, to help me finish my photography self study courses and also to work on this goal of more story writing, I'm going to start reporting about things that I see that interest me. Just sort of the type of stories you'd find in special interest columns in newspapers. I have an idea of something I'd like to write about:

There is an old drive-in movie theatre near my house that still shows movies in the summer. It's up for sale, and I'm afraid it won't be there next year if I wait to do something with it. I'd like to get ahold of the owners and interview them, get some history of the place, and shoot photos of the place in use at night, the line that forms outside on a Saturday night, and the place empty on a Sunday morning or something. I think it would make for an interesting story of a place that might not be around much longer.

I need more ideas, so if something unique is in your neck of the woods, or you think something would be cool to photograph and write about, let me know!

Me, in my element.

-It doesn't get a whole lot better than this.

Back from the A.T.

Ok, I apologize for the lack of posts here. I've been in the woods again trying to reclaim my sanity. This time it has worked for a while. I made it to today before wishing I could go back...a whole 2 days without an unpleasant thought!

Oh well.

Have a look at the pictures from the trip. I guess it was worth dragging the 10 pound SLR the whole trip around my neck!

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