Category: Blog Posts

Apollo & Annie

Along the banks of the Scioto River in Grandview, there is a pair of Bald Eagles; Apollo and Annie and their 2 eaglets.

I headed over to World of Photography at their new store at 1104 Goodale Blvd and prepared to make a purchase.
I walked out with a used Sigma 150-600mm lens. Now to our second stop a few blocks away; the nest.

Parking was easy, you want to park in the small lot across from Camp Bow Wow. Then strap on the hiking shoes, you walk back to the road and walk the back side of the guardrail. BE CAREFUL!!! even though the volunteer group has cut back the brush, there are stumps sticking up, many are spraypainted bright orange but many are not. Keep walking until you find some benches and then look across the river and up in the trees.

4/15

20 Years Ago

Never forget, share your memories of 9/11. I have shared mine below

So i was working at a computer company in Piqua Ohio… go figure on the phone support team. I was on the phone with a customer and he said “hey did you hear a plane hit the World Trade Center”. As we were working through his problem… I had pulled up CNN online. Next thing i know my customer said “OH MY GOD!!! Another plane just hit the other one!!”

At that point, the world changed.

Back then I used to have a live webcam feed of my back yard at home, my computer also had a TV tuner in it. For some reason that day instead of the webcam being the source, the TV tuner was and it was on a news station. This was the only way we were able to get the unfolding news, as most of the news websites were inundated with traffic and were not able to be accessed.

Shortly after we were all told to get off the phone (tell your customer you’ll call them back and get off the phone now.). Nobody was calling in they were glued to the TV.

The next day was the weirdest day ever. Where I worked was close enough to be a high air traffic area. It was under an hour from the Springfield ANG and WPAFB and Dayton international….. nothing was up there that day. I can’t say much work happened the rest of the week.

The next November, a friend from New York invited me up and I said we HAD to go to the WTC site. I have about 300 photos from the trip.  I’ll share below.

Continue reading “20 Years Ago”

Taking that next leap

Most of my close family and friends know that at the end of March my job of over 12 years will end.  What the future holds is a wide open book.

So what are you going to do?

I don’t really know.  I tell people that my plan is that I don’t have a plan. What do I want to do….?

Well I want to travel.  I am looking at a trip out west to include stops in the Rocky Mountain National Park, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Mount Rushmore and more…  These locations should yield some breath-taking photos.  I plan to get some sunrises and sunsets as well as hope to not be eaten by a bear or other wildlife.

I don’t know why, but I really want to open a studio.  I want a place that I can shoot portraits, showcase my portfolio, and be able to offer the space to other photographers who are starting out like myself.  This in itself will be the scariest leap of them all.  I have some gear and studio props, but I’d need way more.

It would be nice to not have to worry about the weather outside when planning shoots.  Just look outside now, cold, could snow or rain at any moment.  Now try to book sessions and make plans only to have to cancel at the last minute because the weather changed.  It would also be nice to not have to drive an hour to the rental studio in Columbus to shoot an hour session and then come back home another hour.  It is also easier to get clients to drive the 15-20 minutes to someplace local.

Stay off the train tracks!

I see it all the time, photographers posting pictures of their clients on and around train tracks.

STOP IT!!

1) It is illegal – Photographing on active tracks is always illegal and photographing dormant tracks is almost always illegal.  The tracks and the area surrounding them are private property, so when you shoot on the tracks you are breaking the law (criminal trespassing). Even if you don’t see trains on the tracks, and there’s vegetation growing up in the railbed, it is still private property and those tracks can be active at any time.

If the tracks are dormant and non-functional they will be clearly marked, and even then your presence on them is still trespassing. Continue reading “Stay off the train tracks!”

Shooting a concert

So as you may or may not know.  I volunteer to cover media for a local Christian radio station.   I just finished shooting their largest concert, a 3 day event.    If you’ve attended a concert that they sponsored, you’ve see me.  I’ll be the guy loaded down like a pack mule with over 20# of camera gear, probably blocking your view (sorry, I need my shots).

This year it was HOT!!!!  I sweated so much that my ballcap was soaked in every inch and I never got in the lake or got wet.  I got sunburned good, not as bad as I have in years past… but with all the sweat I cannot put anything on my face as it would just run into my eyes anyway. Continue reading “Shooting a concert”

What kind of camera do I need (or other gear)

I often hear people make comments about how expensive my camera gear is.  They are actually right and wrong, if I were to add up the cost of all the photography gear I have bought over the years it would be a fortune.  But if you buy smart, you won’t have to break the bank and can get some good gear.

Click below to continue reading Continue reading “What kind of camera do I need (or other gear)”

The sun comes up how early? and you want to see it….?

Those who know me know one thing…. I am NOT a morning person.  I mean I can be if work makes me be there at 8:00, and I’m getting better too, I now have to be at work at 8:45 and I used to only take 11-8 shifts.

That being said I got it in my head that I was going to get a sunrise photo.  Now just to find the perfect location.  I am not one for scouting out my locations; I’d rather just slam on the brakes and park the van and take what I can find. This does not usually work with things that you cannot see at the time of setup….. like a sunrise.

Continue reading “The sun comes up how early? and you want to see it….?”

Don’t look into the sun, you’ll go blind!!!!

It was talked about for weeks on every newscast.  Worse than when they warned Ralphie that he’d shoot his eye out with the Red Rider BB gun… “You’ll burn your eyeballs out if you look into the sun without the special glasses….”    Yes, we are talking about the freaking eclipse of 2017.

Droves and droves of people flocked to a 70-mile-wide strip of land that covered places in the USA that you would never think of ever visiting.  Motels filled up and gouged travelers who dared to get into the path of totality, all leading up to a 2 minute 40-second-long moment where the moon passed in front of the sun and blocked its light.

I’m a sucker too!  On August 21. 2017 mom and I drove down to Cincinnati, while not in the path of totality, it would be 90% coverage.  Not knowing what we would encounter as we headed out to Ault Park.  What we found at 10:30 am was a group of volunteers and sky watchers from the Cincinnati Observatory setting up a canopy and 2 telescopes.  We left to find food and came back at 12:00 with there only being a few more people.

Continue reading “Don’t look into the sun, you’ll go blind!!!!”