Horseshoes and hand grenades

Caption goes here


Over the weekend I shot some photos of horseshoes. I could see myself playing horseshoes later in life. For now I'll stick to bags since I'm still too close to college age.

I think you should be at least 30 before you start playing horseshoes. I'll start practicing now so I'm a master when my time comes.

Speaking of bags, I'm going to make set for for Stephanie and I. (Read Stephen and I.)

A night of power tools, beer and minor injuries may be just what I need.

Here we go again

Caption goes here


http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1414/1186302443_9900b0ffdb.jpg?v=0

I have to watch what I say from now on because people insist on taking this blog and trying to get me in trouble. I don't put anything on here that can't be learned just by asking me. If someone in town asked me what I thought about something I would tell them the god honest truth.

As for photos on other blogs of me, I can't control what other people post nor would I want to. Plus, making a joking gesture toward a friend shouldn't be something that anyone finds interesting. If I decide to do that I know full and well that someone else could see it. I wasn't at work, I wasn't doing it to someone in the community and it wasn't done maliciously.

I was pretty angry at first when I found out about the situation, but I've since let that go. If someone or some people think it's their job to tear me down and try to get me fired or pit people against me then so be it. I can think of hundreds of things that might be more important than worrying about what they will do next. I can only be myself and hope people like me for who I am.

Possible career change?

No, I'm not changing careers yet.


The ad guys at work thought this would be funny to ad my name to this flyer. I guess if this whole editor thing doesn't pan out I could always change careers. Hell, I'd already have flyers made up. Then I'd just need to get a new cellphone number.

This week is going pretty good so far. I feel a little more confident and I think the staff is appreciating my planning and organization. Or they're doing the same thing I would have done. (Nodding yes to everything I say and then talking smack behind my back.) Either way, there's been no controversy.

I have become incredibly jacked up on coffee all day long though. I completely understand why some editors get ulcers at an early age.

Chimps

2 chimps are better than 1!



Last week at the Coles County Fair, Kevin Kilhoffer and I used the spray and prey method during the Donkey Races. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it's essentially putting your camera on drive mode and shooting anything that moves.

After shooting you wait for your camera to load the images and then quickly see what people you need to get ids from before they run away. Ken Rufener, another photographer got this shot quickly after the first race. He said he couldn't help himself even though he had the same urge.

This was my last big Coles County Fair photo page since now I work primarily for the Tuscola and Regional papers. And for those of you who don't know I got promoted to editor this past week. I put out my first Regional paper today and put out my first Review paper on Wednesday.

Erin Update

Erin as a naughty Brit.




For those VH1 watchers and EIU students not keeping up with Rock of Love, Erin is still on the show. Her enourmous breasts are still taking up most of the screen each Sunday. I've heard rumors she doesn't win and I'm pretty sure Brandi, another girl on there doesn't win either as other sites have been talking about her being a porn star and Brett missing out on a 3-some.

It'd be nice if Erin won, but I see it unlikely as she will most likely be sabotaged by other girls on the show and Brett is already questioning her loyalty because she was once engaged. I think he'll keep her on until she at least lets him see the two watermelons she's concealing and then he'll make up some excuse like they just don't have a connection.

The one thing I think this show has going for it is that B.M. knows how to keep conflict in the show to boost ratings. It's working on me. I'm so trapped in the show because of Erin right now I'll probably have to watch it all the way through.

Sunbathing

This kitten caught my softer side last night as it sunbathed in the evening light at the fair.



I happen to see this cat hiding behind a wheel of a buggy used for harness racing at the Coles County Fair Wednesday. Normally I don't shoot pictures of ordinary animals, but this cat had a little soft spot in me because my mom just had to put the family cat down.

I guess Pepper couldn't even lift her head anymore so it was better for her. I'm not much of a cat person, but i never like to see animals in general suffer. It was a bit wierd just seeing this kitten hanging out at the fair.

I guess it was an animal theme all the way around as you can see from my previous post. Stephen had a few bird shots up as well, but his was a little morbid with a dead bird hanging on a wire.

Takin' a break in Charleston

There are a barrage of jokes I could come up with for this photo about you, your mom, or your girlfriend...I'll leave it to your imagination.



I love wide-angled shots. I think I like my 17-40 lens more than I like myself sometime. This is one of the few shots I really liked from the other night at the Coles County Fair.

I seem to be in a slump right now. Little motivation and even less creativity. Part of my problem is I'm not looking at enough photos by other good photographers and part of it is I've been worrying about something. I'll explain that one later though. The details aren't concrete and I don't want to jinx anything.

Sorry for not updating in awhile for the 1 person that cares, but let's face it. You live 4 doors down from me now and anything going on in my life you probably already know about. If by chance you're reading this and you don't live 4 doors down from me then you should look at this more often and post comments.

Stephanie is having her bridal showers this weekend. One at my parent's house and one at her parent's house. I'm just excited because this means free shit for us. The wedding is t-minus 58 days.

Time to head back into the hot sun and get some more feature fair photos.

Scrambled

A scramble of lights blur together Friday night during Bagelfest in Matoon.


I absolutely loved this shot from the other night. I'm going to play with it more at the Coles County Fair. I'd like to try it at dusk to get a better looking night sky, but this worked very nicely. And I'm going to try and light paint with a flash light rather than my strobes. I have another one from the Octopus that I'll post in the next day or two.

I'm just hoping for good weather tomorrow and a clear night sky for more star trail shots with Stephen.

More Strobing

Light falloff was this weeks lesson. Well technically last week's, but like clothes, life and everything else I'm a week behind.



The coolest part of today was setting up my studio upstairs in the Review building. It's technically the morgue for all the dead publications, but since ours isn't filled and nowhere close to being so I took it upon myself to relocate a small studio up there. The drawback, a very low ceiling. About 6.5 feet. The good news, my camera equipment all fits up there much nicer than in my house. Plus I get to play around all I want whenever I want with no one bothering me. I did lesson 1.2 up there tonight. Just one more thing to draw me into the paper at night. I'm sure this will be completely fine until Stephanie moves in with me.

On the flip-side, if she ever kicks me out for the night there is a cot up there. Could come in handy for those midday siestas as well. If she did kick me out for the night it would be like a kid getting punished by being sent to his bedroom where all his toys are.

Anyway, I have to say I'm starting to understand the inverse square law a little bit. To most photographers that's near blasphemy. If you're not a photographer than my apologies for this senseless rambling about stuff you don't care about. Scroll down to see some big boobs while I talk to the rest.

Basically the inverse square law says that light falloff is much greater when the light source is much closer and much less when it is further away. Hence the really light background on the right and the darker background on the left. I could have used this at an assignment today as I would have really liked to cut the background down significantly more to eliminate a distracting sign. A very oversimplified explanation, but good for most people to at least get them started.

I'm really getting the hang of this off camera lighting stuff. Now I just need to buy a set of pocket wizards. If you know anyone wanting to sell some off let me know. I'd love to pick up a set of used ones, but not many people get rid of them because of how handy and reliable they are. If I can find a new remote trigger for the Quantum Slave II's Stephen gave me I'd use them too. They actually work very nicely, but either the cords Stephen had were bad or the connection inside the trigger is faulty. I'm going to try my hand at trying to fix it tomorrow, but I don't have a solder gun nor am I very good at it. Well enough for tonight. I'm tired from so many different things it would take too long to post them.

EIU, Can we get any more popular?

I'm betting it's not just Erin's personality that moved her to round 2 of the reality show.

Stephen sent me the link to this photo. In Urlacher's defense, somebody yelled 'fumble' right before this photo and he grabbed the first inflated thing he saw.


Chris DeRosa told me at work today that he was watching the new reality television show Rock of Love with Brett Michaels last night and realized one of the girls was an Eastern grad. The girl Erin is a former Delta Zeta. Sure enough I look it up on the website and he was right. It doesn't list her as an Eastern grad, but doe say she's from Bloomington, Ill., and a former Miss Hooters Illinois 2002.

I also recognized her as I used to see her in the gym with her former boyfriend Greg Collier all the time. *Secret confession* I used to try and choose the elliptical machine behind the stair stepper when she was in there.

It's crazy how EIU keeps breeding more and more quasi-celebrities. Check Erin and all the other lovely ladies out on VH1.

I'll add more info if I can find her facebook or myspace, but I don't know how to spell her last name right now. It's something like Chaddock or Shaddock. If you find out let me know.

*Update*
Her myspace is set to private and she only accepts friends she knows. I'm truly disappointed. She's going to have to start a new myspace page for fans.

Star Trails

Stars streak the rural Tuscola night sky Sunday night.


Stephen and I headed out southeast of town last night to shoot star trails. We needed an area with little or no light pollution. This was nearly impossible as Charleston gives off a decent amount of light, Champaign gives off a ton and all the plants west of Tuscola give off a ton of light. The photos still turned out pretty cool. This photo took 1024 seconds or roughly 17 minutes. The long exposure is how you get the star trails. The downside is that you get a lot of grain from doing a long exposure. I still like the effect. We're going to try it next time we go fishing out at Lake Charleston. There's really not much until you hit Effingham, south of Charleston and nothing east until you hit Indianapolis, so maybe the light pollution will be significantly less out at the lake. I've got a few more photos I'll post on my flickr page when I get them edited.

I have to admit though. There's something a little creepy about sitting in the middle of country road late on a Sunday night. Especially with another dude. The way stars reflect into his eyes....did I say that out loud?

Silhouettes

The North Star shines brightly as the sun sets west of Arthur Friday night.


I had to go shoot the fair for the last night Friday. I haven't been very excited about the fair event though it could breed a whole bunch of good photos. In fact, I had some really good ideas for photos, but no motivation to shoot them.
Steph, Dana and Patti came down this week so the last thing I've wanted to be doing the past couple of nights is working.
Plus I put in a ton of hours last week. Hopefully this weekend will give me some rest so I'm motivated for the next week.
I think I'll start a silhouette collection on here. I shoot shots of these far too much, but I guess as long as I make it part of a collection I can see how different I can make them.

Strobist+Time+Insomnia=This Post

This was the closest I could find to a life-like subject.


I haven't been following Strobist's newest lessons as much as I would like to, so I decided to go ahead and start following a bit closer. These are my shots from section 1.1 about angles. The lesson revolves around moving the camera rather than the light source and how it affects the dimensionality of the object. In this case a keepsake ornament. (Because I don't have a live subject.)

It's an easy, basic, but very knowledgable lesson. I'll try to work on lesson 1.2 dealing with distance in the coming days. Steph will be here tomorrow with her sister Dana and friend Patty. Should be a good time this weekend.

I'm getting severely pissed at my ebay slaves. They won't sync any higher than 1/125 and most the time no higher than 1/30. I need the 20D back severely. It should be here late next week I'm hoping barring no setbacks.

Then it's time to get serious about shooting. I'm going to emphasize portrait personalities. It may seem a bit different than what I do on a normal basis, but it's something I love doing. I did another one with John Wienke, the Tuscola quarter back who verbally committed to Michigan the other day. I'll post it after Friday when it runs in the paper.

Paper's getting a bit of a shakeup in the next couple of weeks. My editor resigned Monday. We'll be looking for a new one soon and I can only hope we can get a fresh face with some serious newspaper design experience. I think that's the only thing lacking from our paper right now is the design aspect. It may take time to transform it, but it will get there. If you know anyone interested let me know. I'll try to get the word to the right people. And they have to promise to run absolutely no more than 3 photos on the front page and one of those must be at least 4 columns wide and above the fold. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying...

Oh and if you didn't notice I redesigned. I'll probably be tweeking stuff for the next few days trying to give a different look. I'm not entirely happy with this, but it something new and more appealing than my last template.

He's Going the Distance

Nike+iPod continues to change my life.
Do you have what it takes? When you hit the point of wanting to quit or pushing on will you choose to grit your teeth and accept the blisters you knew you were going to have or will you quit, giving excuses as to why things didn't workout for you? Today I taught myself just how mental running is.

In celebration of the 10th of July I decided to run a record breaking 10 miles today. Farthest I've ever run. Actually it's purely coincidence I ran it on the 10th. In fact I didn't realize until about 10 minutes ago. My previous record is 7 miles, so ya, I blew that one out of the water. I'm not looking forward to the aches tonight when I try to go to bed or the blisters I'll have in the morning, but I feel very accomplished. I wanted to know if I could do the 15k EIU will be holding at the end of the month and I can. I'm a bit of a slow runner when it comes to very long distances, but at least I can do them.

I've always held the belief that running was purely physical until today. I understand why long distance runners typically go through deep psychological hypnotisms each week to prepare for incredibly long distances.

You hit a point where you say to yourself, "Well, I think this is far enough," but you have to push beyond. Then comes the stage where you start to ache. It could be lack of oxygen, blisters on your feet, in my case my hip. I favor one side over the other so at about mile 5 my hip was trying to tell me to just give up. But I didn't. I knew I would have felt unaccomplished if I did.

My next step is a half marathon. I think I'll try to improve by a mile each week until I make it to 13.1 miles. That way I could do the San Francisco Half-Marathon sponsored by Nike in October. All you have to do is pay a nominal fee to participate and complete your run on I think October 21. One of my life goals is to finish a marathon. I'm clearly not going to break any records, but how many can ever say they completed a marathon? Not many.

Rock Stardom

What a way to celebrate your freedom.



I got to hang out with Tony the other day for the first time in a long time. Apparently he's had an idea for a photo he's wanted to do for a long time so when I showed up the other day he wanted to go ahead and try it. I shot this with the umbrella off to the left trying to underexpose the background slightly. I should have tried to underexpose even more, but I was pretty happy with the slight blur effect I got here too. I would have liked to been a bit closer, but Tony was nervous he might hit me with a piece of debris or the strings would ricochet off and hit me or him. Either way I had a lot of fun.

One thing I realized I need to do is hack my camera's sync speed. By doing this it allows me to overpower the ambient light for extremely bright days. This wasn't necessarily one of the days that I would need it, but I had an instance this week it would have been really helpful. Or I could just buy a portable ac power supply for my white lightning. I should probably buy a lightbulb for it first though. Well back to more Sesquicentennial photos. I can't wait until I don't have to say that word ever again.

Rally Cap Hope

The rally cap. A sure sign of hope.




I'm getting ready to hit the festival circuit tonight so I'm going to be busy for the next few days. Updates probably won't come until after the 8th. I had to post the above photo. There's something about this kid and his hat that reminds me of my younger days of little league and t-ball.

When I showed up for this game on Saturday I pulled into my parking spot west of the ball field. When I shot off my car I couldn't help over hear a conversation between two older gentlemen and this boy. At first I didn't think anything of it, but I noticed the boy was wearing a uniform for the team I was supposed to be covering. The conversation looked as if it was pretty serious and my natural curiosity got the best of me so I pretended to be fiddling with my iPod.

During the conversation I realized they were explaining to the kid why they couldn't allow him to start the day's game as the pitcher. At first I thought it might be a situation where he was a fill-in pitcher who led them to the tournament, but now the real starter was back and he felt wronged. After a minute or so I realized this wasn't the case at all. In fact, he was the normal starter for the team. The kid was the ace arm of the little league team and they were telling him he couldn't start. I thought how strange this was since this was a do-or-die situation, not just an exhibition game. The boy had apparently acted inappropriately towards his coaches and had an overall bad attitude. If I understood the conversation correctly, the coaches had asked him to do something and he had a temper tantrum.

This astounded me. I realized the two coaches were actually doing something I don't think 90% of coaches would have done. They were giving the boy a lesson on the importance of sportsmanship.

Over the years I've noticed an ever increasing drive to push kids to win at all costs necessary. This probably isn't new to anyone, but I see it as a major problem among our coaches. This isn't a problem with out children, it's primarily the fault of our coaches. Sure kids want to win, but there's more important things in life than winning.

Either way, these two guys were sacrificing a win and further advancement in the playoffs to teach their team a lesson. I think the whole team learned from the experience, not just the boy.

Call it cheesy, call it reading too much into a situation, or call it whatever you want, but I was profoundly affected by the situation. It made me realize there are good coaches out there who are teaching today's youth the way they should all be taught. I think the other reason it affected me so much was because they actually took the time to explain to him like an adult, why he wasn't starting. They didn't just punish him and say so long. They made him understand why this was important and how he could do better in the future. So many people just punish a kid and never take the time to tell him/her why it was wrong and what can be done better.

By the end of the game the kid was cheering for his team, telling each of his teammates what they did right and never once focused on the negative aspects even though they lost the game. He congratulated the entire team on a job well done and a great season. When other kids hung their heads he was there trying to cheer them up. I just couldn't believe how much the conversation had affected him. It just goes to show how important explanations are. I have no doubt in my mind he would have been one of the kids moping had they not talked to him before hand.

I'd like to thank them for doing this, but at the same time I think this should be something everyone who coaches or is a parent should do.

Coming to the end and an end to a new beginning

The greatest part of this picture is this is after I watched Justin, left, walk in the reception triple fisting Jack and Cokes. They were devoured in minutes.




Justin was a groomsman at Chad's wedding. I spoke with him briefly at the head table as I was shooting photos. He reminded me of a cross between Scott Parino and Grumpy Bear/Kevbot. Shortly after which he claims to his whole table that him and I are "boys." (This was the first time him and I ever met.)We are boys though!

I've been holding off on posting any of Chad and Monica's photos until they're all available. I'm 90% done. I have a bout 20 photos left to edit, but I just did about 30 so I'm done for the day. I couldn't resist posting this one for two reasons. I really like the black and white look of it for some reason. I'm not sure if it's tone, the expression or something else. I just know that it works for me.

I do have some bad news. My Canon 20D died last night. Well I shouldn't say die as much as it went berserk. I shot a few photos at a meeting for work last night and all the sudden it goes into rapid fire mode. It wouldn't quit. I took the batteries out and tried everything short of throwing it against the wall, but it wouldn't quit doing it. Come to find out 20D's have this issue when the shutter wears out. I thought the shutter was actually firing, but upon a little more inspection found it wasn't opening at all, the mirror mechanism was just going up and down repeatedly. I knew something was up as my lenses were coming up "00" in the apperture field. And no, those aren't boobs.

Luckily because I was using it for work so all repairs are going to be covered under the paper. Maybe I'll get lucky and it will be within $200 of the purchase of a new camera and I can just buy a 30D. That would make my day. (Probably wouldn't make the accountant's day at work, but that's why I'm in editorial.)

For the time being Eric's going to let me borrow his rebel so major kudos for him. I sent my camera off today and I should have it back within 2 weeks. I just wish it would have waited for after festival season, but that's okay too. No major complaints about it because it does have probably close to 60,000 actuations on it.

Now that I've bored the one non-photographer who reads this and reiterated everything I already told to the one photographer who reads this I'll get back to editing more images or watching tv until Steph gets off work.

You're Face is Going to Stick Like That

Caption goes here



I never miss a chance to make fun of Stephanie. Today is no different. I was editing my photos from Chad and Monica's wedding from the 9th and found this little gem. I'm going to make a whole collection of photos with Stephanie making faces such as these. Why? Mostly because I can and it's funny to me. Stay tuned for more funny photos as I come across them.

My Crazy Life

Hey there gypsy. You can't have me.


This is by far the most random lady I have ever met. After covering a meeting in Charleston Wednesday I left the Panther Paw to head back to Tuscola. While walking out I see this lady starting at me as she's pulling into a parking space. The conversation goes a little like this:

Lady: He..He...Hey!
Me: Uhhhh...ya???
Lady: Is it...Is it..busy in there?
Me: MMM....not really, sort of, I guess it depends on your idea of busy.
Lady: They're really nice to me in there. The kids give me cigarettes and beer.
Me: Oh yeah? Well that's nice of....{cutoff by lady}
Lady: I'm 64.
Me: Cool!!??
Lady: My landlord broke my leg today. This is my daughter.
Me: {awkward silence}
Lady: My birthday's July 17.
Me: That's pretty soon.
Lady: Take a picture of me.
Me: {Beginning to laugh as I take a picture} Sweet!
Lady: You're kind of cute. I'm hitting on you.
Me: Thanks, I don't think my fiance would like that.
Lady: Bye!

Apparently because I have a fiance she was done talking. I called Kevbot to tell him about this lady and of course during our discussion he realizes he and Peaches have run into this lady before too. The whole time I was talking with her I kept thinking how great it would be to run into her with those two. Peaches would have definitely found a new best friend. This is just another incident to prove my life is a series of random episodes spiraling out of control.

5 mojitos later

You're an animal Chris!



I had a real tough day at the office Friday as I was golfing 18 holes with my regional manager, Chris, and the head of advertising Dean. We we're playing in the Charleston Chamber of Commerce tournament. I had a blast out there. I was introduced to the mojito which is fantastic. Though Katie, Derek's wife told me is out of style. I've always been just a little behind the times I guess. No real news to report that most of you aren't aware of. So I'll say so long for now.