Tuesday, October 20, 2009

It's been a gray week...



This past week has been nothing but gray, dreary weather and I've disappointed myself by not being terribly motivated to take many pictures. However, today and yesterday were magnificently wonderful weather-wise and I went for a little hike at the Cedar Bluffs Nature Preserve. Here's a few photos. I'm pretty happy with the first one, especially.

More photos soon to come, for sure.








Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Strobes and long exposures...

Went out again tonight. Enjoying the camera thoroughly. I accidentally dropped the camera about 8 feet to the ground... luckily all was well. Got to be more careful.


Monday, October 12, 2009

New camera!

I got my 50d in the mail this afternoon. It's pretty exciting, but I feel a little rusty after just a few months of not having a dslr. There will be much practice in the coming days, though. Did a quick shoot with my friend Taylor just a minute ago. Here's a couple photos from it.

Taylor and bike

Taylor and bike

Saturday, October 10, 2009

An exercise in vanity



I thought it would be interesting to go through all the photos I've taken that I have on my computer and pick out all the hand held self portraits. So, I did that, and I made a short movie out of it. There's a bit over 200 photos included in it starting from 2003 until very recently.

In other news, I have just about finished with the equipment rebuild and should be getting the last and most important piece on monday; a Canon 50d with the 28-135mm lens. Looking very forward to it.

Enjoy!


Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Maximum Summer '09!

Cruising through the desert...

I spent some time putting together a group of photos from this summer that I think represent my time and experiences pretty well. I took thousands of photos over the past handful of warm months, which were a bit longer for me than some of my friends in Indiana.

In late April I decided to get out of town and went for an 8 week motorcycle trip through the southeast into the deep south and to the southwest. I saw friends and made new friends in Athens, Georgia, through Alabama and western Florida, stayed with some buddies in New Orleans, went to Austin, Texas, on to Tucson and Flagstaff, Arizona, Santa Fe, and back to Bloomington. I got back to town and hung out for a few weeks before heading to Oregon for a family reunion and to hang out in Portland and see my friend Joe and see the city. After a couple weeks in Bloomington I headed out again to Chicago for a folk punk festival, afterwhich I rode my bike to Madison, Wisconsin to hang out with a friend and make some new ones and then rode my bicycle back to Bloomington with one of the new friends that I made.

That's the synopsis of my summer in just a few words. I'll let the photos fill in some details.

Cuddle Punx
Cuddle Punx in Athens, GA

David on the train bridge
David exploring the giant train bridge that towers over Athens


Fire Tower in Alabama
This old abandoned fire tower was in Talledega National Forest. It was fenced in with barbed wire and there were boards missing on the walk up. It was a good time.

There's a little gap here in my trip. I lost my digital camera to a freak tent flood incident while camping in Talledega National Forest in Alabama. Regrettably, I was without a camera for a good week and a half, until I had a loaner camera mailed to me in New Orleans, right before I left town, to use for the rest of the trip.

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A quick self portrait on the streets of NOLA with the new digital camera

Ditch
...and off I go. A series of difficulties in finding a proper camping spot in Big Thicket National Preserve in eastern Texas leads me to find a cozy spot to sleep in a field next to a Walmart near Beaumont, Texas.

East Texas Water Tower

Dirt lot
The mosquitos were so bad I had to find a pile of dirt to set up my tent behind so I wouldn't be seen. Sleeping would have been an impossibility otherwise.

Austin traffic
Austin, Texas was a great place to visit. I knew no one there when I arrived but within just a couple hours I had found some new friends who let me stay with them for a few days. Austin is a very cool town.

Self Portrait at 80 MPH
Western Texas is very beautiful. And very long and very straight. Plenty of opportunity for some quick self portraits while cruising 80mph on a 1982 Honda motorcycle with a leaky radiator.

West Texas Sunset
The southwest is pretty awesome.

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Rest area self portrait

Desert Meadow at 10,000 feet
I arrived in Tucson and was set on leaving the city to see some of the beautiful country surrounding it. I've been to Tucson a handful of times but this was the first time I actually made it out. I went on an overnight hike on Mount Lemon, which is one of the most amazing pieces of nature I've ever seen. This is a grassy meadow about 7000 feet above the desert floor.

Mount Lemon
I was joined for the rest of the trip back to Bloomington by Carrie who came down to Tucson from Western Colorado.

Carrie
We watched the sunset from the top of Mount Lemon.

Mount Lemon Sunset

Free Pizza
Free Pizza.

Carrie and the motorcycle
The floods that we rode through in Oklahoma were not the best situations to take photos. Carrie recovers as we near Bloomington.

Tiga Hugh
I got back to Bloomington and did a shoot for my friends Hugh and Tiga. They are facing felony charges as a form of political repression for activism against the I-69 extension, which will and has displaced hundreds of people while destroying thousands of acres of woods and farm land and increasing urban sprawl in areas where people are plenty happy not to have it. It is being proposed in the name of commerce; making it easier to truck things from exploited workers south of the USA. You can find out more about Hugh and Tiga's charges at their website.

Backyard
Things were fun in Bloomington. Hanging out with friends, shows, fires, bike rides, the usual.

Family Reunion
But I had plans to go to Oregon for a family reunion.

Grandpa
The extended family all gathered from Maryland, California, Washington, and Hawaii to be at my grandfather's property in Oregon before he sold it.

...Dad...
My dad posed with the elk

Bees
It looked like the bees in my grandfather's bee boxes were getting ready to move, as well

At the gun store...
at the gun store

Snail
I met a snail while on a hike on my grandfather's land

Joe and Elly and Finds
While in the region, I managed to escape from the family to go up about 4 hours to Portland to check out the city and see my friend Joe. Joe, Elly and I found a lot of dried fruit.


Emi
Emi, from Bloomington, happened to be hanging out in Southern Oregon, as well, and came up to Portland for a couple days to hang out and check out the city with me.

Tobin
Joe and Elly's roommate Tobin hung out with Emi and I and showed us the northwest part of the city. Portland has lots of cool bridges.

Jeremy
I headed home again for a few weeks and did a headshot for an actor here in town named Jeremy. This is especially of note because this is one of the last photos I was able to take with my digital SLR before it was stolen off of my motorcycle just a few days later. I lost almost $2k worth of equipment. Lesson learned.

I headed off on my next trip - got a ride to Chicago with my friend Eric Ayotte, who was playing and screening his film festival at a festival called Southwest Folk Fest in a Chicago suburb. The fest was a good time, though I lamented no longer owning a camera. After the fest I rode my bicycle for 2 days through the rain to Madison, WI to visit a friend and see the city. Finally, I got fed up with not having a camera and went out and purchased a Canon G10.

I posted a couple photos from that trip in the last post, but here's a couple more.


Peter and the Violin
Hanging out with the old tyme crew in Wisconsin you hear a lot of fiddle playing. Peter serenaded us with his fiddle skills.

Erica
Erica in the backseat

Chancho and bikes
I met Chancho in Madison and we got along really well. He decided to ride back with me, which was pretty awesome, since I left on the trip not really wanting to ride back by myself, and hoping that I would find someone to keep me company. It was a pretty good trip, despite the...

Northern Indiana Grey Sky
...grey, wet, rainy weather. It rained 4 out of the 6 days it took to ride back to Bloomington from Madison. Northern Indiana is nothing but soy and corn fields. Riding through monocrops for 2 1/2 days straight in the rain with a flat grey sky led me to believe that I now know what purgatory is like.

A rest
Relaxing on the side of the road is one of my favorite parts of bike touring.

A runner
A red ghost runs past us as we rest in the middle of rural northern Indiana.

Camping in a stranger's backyard
We couldn't find a place to hide out for the night in Fowler, Indiana, as all the trees had been replaced by corn and soy. We took to knocking on doors to ask for a spot in a backyard, and quickly found a comfortable spot for the night.

Shedtime
Occasionally you can find the perfect spot to sleep, though. We hid out in this prefab shed in a prefab shed lot. It was especially welcome, as I was traveling with only a thin silk sack to sleep in and it was quite chilly that night.

Bright spot
Of course, the clouds began to part as we neared Bloomington.

Pontoon Boat Party
Chancho and I had pushed ourselves to get back to Bloomington in time for my friend Crystal's pontoon boat party. I was very glad we did. The sunshine and friends were great to be around after all the greyness over the past week.

Charles puffing out clouds
Cathal was there puffing out clouds.

Benny
Benny captained the ship

Pontoon Boat
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Pontoon Boat Party Swimming

Now as the warmer months are over and I'm worn out from a busy summer I'm preparing to hunker down and weather the cold gray months to follow. Hopefully I'll make a plan to leave town for a bit during the worst of it, but I have some plans here in town that I'm trying to work towards, many of them centering around this blog and photography. I finally ordered a new dSLR today and am excited about a bunch of photo ideas I have and putting my new equipment to use.

I'll be posting a lot of new photos on here soon, for sure.