Snowfall

With much deliberation I decided to get out and photograph downtown Omaha just after a snowfall. I just missed the heavy snow, but that's OK - it would have only made me wipe down my lens over and over again.

I was interested to see what I could do hand-holding the camera that late at night (around 11:00). It was bright downtown, the light bouncing between the snow and the sky - and the image stabilization helped me out too.

In this situation, though, there is a trade-off. I had to shoot at ISO1600 at some pretty extreme settings (always at maximum aperture and, at times, 1/5 of a second on the shutter), so the shots are all slightly grainy - some to the point where it's distracting.

It was fun, though. I just took the camera out and didn't really care about the specifics of how damaged the final print might be (after all, I did have my tripod with me - I just chose not to use it), and I just walked around the snowy landscape taking photos.

Drifting

It was so cold I could barely feel the shutter release button on my camera, I couldn't really focus because of all the snow dusting into my eyes, and I almost lost my hat. But it was fun, and it was worth it.

How did you...

People often ask me how I managed to create a certain photograph. "Did you use photoshop?" they ask, and when I tell them yes, they nod their head, a bit of the mystery of the photograph lost to them.

I don't think I'm going to really answer that anymore. What does it matter, anyway?

This photo, for instance - is beautiful. I love the colors, the composition, the depth-of-field. It's exactly how I pictured it when I triggered the shutter release- a photo that almost speaks of an imaginary place somewhere far away.

Little does anyone know it was taken on the side of a dirty, dusty road next to a busy highway - that the colors that morning really weren't spectacular - that the sun wasn't in the ideal position and the light was beginning to become very harsh. But I knew that, by using a large aperture, I'd shroud the tree in a blur - and add some mystery to the photo. I also knew that I could punch up the colors in photoshop later to make the final photograph more in line with what I had in mind when I first captured it.

Does it matter how I did it? Should it matter?

I hope not.

Before and After Part Two

This is another photo I found that needed something. Still does, really, but it was one of the first shots I ever took with the Canon 20D - quite a while after I had gained some experience with the 10D. The first photo wasn't exposed well, and didn't have any kind of punch. The second photo adds some grain to the color (grain can sometimes help slightly blurry photos look more focused), and creates some tension by adding a hard border. The color also gains some richness in the second, becoming more like the original scene - with the sun going down and lighting the landscape with warmer colors.

How to make a sucky image kind of cool

Archives

It seems like forever since my last post. Maybe it's because I haven't been feeling very creative lately, and I've been extremely focused on school and all the things we've been doing lately (open house, and yearbook deadlines).

My day is such a chaotic, wonderful mix of craziness and unexpected events, by the time I get home I'm pretty exhausted. I just want to play video games, read, or paint miniatures (yes, I'm a geek).

Since I don't have much new material, I took some time this morning to go back through the archives. This photo, taken in mid-2003 at 6:45 in the morning was a sort of awakening for me.

It was a morning of an amazing, thick fog that still couldn't hold back the radiant sunrise above it. The light was trying its best to fight through, sending amazing streaks of yellow through the trees all over the country landscape. I took several hundred photos that morning with an old 4 megapixel Nikon point-and-shoot. None of them really worked out, except this one. I was trying too hard to take pictures of the light coming through the fog, instead of using the fog and lighting to my advantage. This was the one - the photo that first, to me, made me say "wow." It wasn't perfect. This is the uncropped, in-camera version. The color is off, my perspective was hurried (I didn't really know at the time that this spot would be so cool), and even my focus was a bit off.

But... when I got home to check out my shots on the monitor, it was this photo that grabbed me and told me "this is what I need to be doing." It was one of the most exciting moments in my photographic life.

I've been out to this spot several times since - usually whenever I get a new camera - and I've gotten much better shots at this location since.

No matter what, though, I don't think I'll have quite the same "wow" moment again, and this little 4 megapixel digital capture will always be among my favorites.

New Year

A new year, same as the old year. Just the number at the end is different. Is that a bad thing? Not for me.
Can't say the same for everyone, though. As I sit here at Panera, drinking my coffee, the room is filled with business-types, busilly typing on their laptops, impeccably dressed, absorbed in their work. Sometimes that's me too - creating lesson plans or something for school.
Mostly, though, I can't help but feel that, for most of these people, what they do, what they are most absorbed in, doesn't really matter.
I sound like a nihilist here, maybe, but it's true.
Spreadsheets, financial analysis, work orders - all meaningless garbage.
We're all so busy in our lives,how often do we take time to step back and just think for a moment about how we spend our time?
I hope that, as this world spirals more and more out of control, 2007 is a year in which more people take a moment to ask "what am I doing here?"
I know I sound cheesy... hopelessly optimistic, but it's not too late to change things. It's never too late to make a difference, one day, one moment at a time.

Perspective

Sprinkle

Meet Sprinkle. She's the newest member of the household, found at the high school where I work. I guess I was tentative to put her on my blog because we weren't sure how she would get along with the other cats, and I wanted to make sure she was going to be living here. She's getting along fine, and she's now part of the household.

Things aren't perfect, though. She bolted out of the house yesterday for a minute (luckily she allowed herself to be scooped up quickly), she still doesn't know all the rules of the house (like don't mess with Casey's art stuff), and she hasn't completely warmed up to being held and loved by my wife.

While Sprinkle is definitely the "third" kitty here, Casey and I will give her all the love she could want, and probably more than she asks. She gently rests her head on my chest in the mornings, purring and squirming around (she doesn't quite know how she likes to be held yet), and has this gentle "squeek" she lets out to communicate with me.

I'm a sucker for animals, and I know I can't save them all, no matter how much I might like to. Sprinkle does remind me that it's worth it sometimes to take a chance. Her life, no matter how small and insignificant some might tell me it is, is meaningful and worthhile to me.

Roads to Nothing

Valley View

The first photo is just one of those spots I find as I wind through country roads. There wasn't much around it, and I just happened to stumble upon it. I doubt if I could find it again if I tried. The second photo is a view from Waubansie State Park in Iowa. It was a beautiful view, and I'll have to get out there sometime for the sunset.

Inspiration

From Howard Zinn, printed in "The Nation" magazine:

Revolutionary change does not come as one cataclysmic moment (beware of such moments!) but as an endless succession of surprises, moving zigzag toward a more decent society. We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world. Even when we don't "win," there is fun and fulfillment in the fact that we have been involved, with other good people, in something worthwhile. We need hope.
An optimist isn't necessarily a blithe, slightly sappy whistler in the dark of our time. To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places--and there are so many--where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

Some History

Hidden

A hidden spot along a well-traveled path, this old monument was probably my favorite of them all. It wasn't kept up very well, and even appeared to have burn marks on parts of the structure.

Simple beauty

A quick shot. Careless composition... but beautiful.

In Ruins

There was a short moment in Washington D.C., when I turned around briefly to find that there was no person before me, through to the Washington Monument seemingly empty. It was a slightly strange moment - only because it's such a busy area. Tourists all over the world descend upon the place, filling the parks and paths with thousands of people. In this brief moment, I lowered the aperture to 2.4 and focused on the ground in front of me, knowing this would throw the photo mostly out-of-focus. It was the only photo I took at the moment, before we took a taxi back to our hotel.























I'm reminded, in this photo, of Rome and Egypt, of it's vast monuments of a defeated civilization. I think of how these civilizations crumbled to the ground. Did they fall because of war? Corruption? Or was it purely apathy?

I'm so comfortable in front of my television and 70 channels, my Xbox and TV dinners. I look around and can't imagine a planet - a world without a country named America - the most powerful force the world has ever known. And I imagine for a second the hundreds - the thousands - the tens of thousands of people in this country who are starving, who are pushed to the margins. I see ads being sold on television for wonder drugs that will stop depression and everything else you can think of.

Maybe we can't sleep - feel pure happiness - or function simply because we all know there is something wrong? That no matter what, the things we buy or the promotions we fight to get won't make us happy? What happens when we, as a culture, figure out that something is deeply wrong here, and that we have to fix it?

DC

Installation

My wife finally was able to install an amazing art piece commissioned by a middle school. The principal found Casey at one of our art shows, called her, and asked Casey to come up with something for the school's main office.
It's an amazingly vibrant piece of art. One that will make students smile, inspire them, and make the school a better place to be. Casey created something that will be there for years, and thousands of students will have the opportunity to view it.
I can only imagine Casey as she might have been when she was younger, viewing this same piece of art. She would have smiled, reading the lines and absorbing the colors, thinking to herself "I can do that." She can... and once again I'm stunned to be lucky enough to call myself her husband.

Superkitties

We always knew there was something special about our kitties, and last night they revealed their true identities to us! Here they are, watching out for crime in the neighborhood. Casey and I feel safer already!

The Mets

The Mets lost last night, and anytime a team from New York or New Jersey loses, I think of my wife's family - and specifically Ira, whom I call "Pops." He's a sports nut - so much so that when we visited a few months ago, he was watching a replay of the Jets game he had already seen. A pre-season Jets game.

But, unlike some people I know, there's a lot more to him than sports. He's politically adept, can talk to anyone, at any time, about anything, and he's one of the nicest and most sincere people I've ever met. He tears up watching romantic movies and sometimes says the most outrageous things possible. He's his own guy, and although not everyone around him agrees with him, they all can't help but love him.

We cooked him spaghetti the other night, and here he is, telling us a story at the dinner table.

Simply put, he's a special guy, and 'aint nobody better.

Balance

Grey

Another cup of coffee...

Zach

This is Zach at his first art show in someone's back yard. His photography looked amazing - filled with color, lines, shapes, early morning mists, found beauty, and a general sense of creativity and talent. He still doesn't know what he wants to do with photography, whether it be art shows, band photography, portraits, weddings... but he has the talent to do what he wants. It's a good place to be, though, with all the possibilities open before you.

He says he owes a lot of it to me, but this kind of stuff has to come from inside. Sometimes we just have people to show us the way and light a path we hadn't seen before. Photography isn't something everyone can do, no matter what anyone says. Everyone can snap a picture, but can everyone take a photograph?

Zach can take photographs, and he gets better every time I see his stuff.

A leaf

My wife made me coffee this morning, so I created a new post! This one is a "forgotten" photo from our New Jersey trip. I just recently looked through the folder on my computer and this photo suddenly stood out for me.

Posting

My wife likes when I post new blogs. She said to me "why don't you just post photos - you don't have to write anything!" SO... here is a photo. I love you, Casey!

The Artist

My wife is an artist. It's a statement of fact - not opinion. Sometimes she doubts herself - sometimes she gets down on herself, and sometimes she doesn't know what to make of what it is she does.

I think all artists get that sometimes, simply because being an "artist" is so hard to define.

To me, an artist is someone who passionately faces the world every day, living in the good and the bad that daily life has to offer, and then makes art that describes how that person feels about life.

Casey's art is beautiful - it's positive - it's optimistic. It gathers all the bad we sometimes get and pushes it to the side, focusing on the "good stuff" and making sure we remember what's important. The colors she uses are bright and beautiful - awakening us to the amazing colors present in a sunset - in a tree at fall - in the glow that surrounds a couple in love. Her colors are not artificial -they are vibrant and alive.

The words she uses are inspirational. She reminds us of the power and the capability within each of us. She herself is a living example of what can be done - of talent and emotion coming alive.

Her message is one of hope, of love, of beauty - simply because she is herself all of these things and so much more.

I am sometimes drawn to deep thought - brooding thoughts on what the future might hold. But Casey's art brings me back home, makes me pause, and reminds me that even in the dark, there is beauty all around us... if only we look deep enough.

Finally

I finally managed to get out and take some photos of a 9/11 memorial in town. Even though it's after midnight and I have school tomorrow, the photos are worth it. I have to get out and do the night shot thing more.

Try the Impossible

There is power in words and in the idealism that comes from them.

A phrase "try the impossible" or "do the impossible" comes off to some of my students as nothing but empty words from another teacher's mouth. Since birth they are inundated with these types of phrases. They are told they can be President. They are told they can be rich, powerful, and can have things most of us can only dream about. If only you try. If only you work hard enough. The American Dream. As they become teenagers they begin to see the truth in the world- that these words are mostly empty promises. They begin to see through a sub-standard education system that receives pennies compared to a military budget.

But I believe in the dream. Not in the "American Dream" - but in a dream of changing the world, one person at a time. See - I don't believe that everyone can be rich. The classic "American Dream" is simply not real. But that's OK. I don't believe that everyone can have the stuff you see on MTV Cribs or the Lives of the Rich and Famous.

I believe in something different.

It seems to me that we can change the world around us by bettering ourselves - by believing in ourselves and what we believe even if those notions are unpopular - and by expressing those beliefs to others and trying to do what's right.

I believe in my students. They don't have much money. They don't, in all honesty, have much power in conventional terms. Yet they do have the ability to make a difference.

If you look at American history, the most powerful movements haven't been created by politicians or the military. Even with billions of dollars - money to throw out windows - they have not been the driving force. Common people - like you and I - are the ones who have changed the world.

I think of the civil rights movements, and the freedoms we have today. The government didn't just freely give us these rights. People marched - tens of thousands - hundreds of thousands - to change the world around them. Each one of those people that marched - even if only once - made a difference by being one cog in those important movements.

I think of, outside of stricly American history, of the man who stood up to a row of tanks in China. No one knows his name, he's now known as "The Unkown Rebel." Yet he continues to inspire people to face seemingly impossible odds.

He stood up to tons of rolling steel and a government without mercy. He tried the impossible. He lived. He changed the world.

I hope that some of my student's do indeed try the impossible. One of my former students, currently becoming an architect, can change things. She can tell her story to others, and because of her success, she can inspire change that will challenge the course of history.

Some of my current students, some rebels, some outcasts, some troublemakers - they can make a difference. I wouldn't teach if I didn't believe it, and after five years of the profession, I believe it more every day.

I will fight for this generation. Even as the media portray them to be stupid, to be ignorant, to be careless and crass. I'll fight for them because I see something most people don't - the power in these young people to make a difference. To do something wonderful.

To try the impossible.