New Year and All That

Yeah, no pics right now, prepping for a trip to see some snow. Maybe re-visit the Green Bank Radiotelescope. Been too long since I was there.
I do not know what the new year holds, only that it will be a good one. I can feel that. I hope it is good for all of you, wherever you are.
On a side note, that is sort of related to photography, a reader sent me a link (thank you, whomever you are) that one of my pics, a snake, was being posted elsewhere without my permission. I was initially flattered someone thought enough of my images to nick one, then had second thoughts, then third.
Ultimately however, it boils down to this: I don't make money with my work (not often anyway.) I take pics and post because I want to share a little bit of my world, with you. I want to add a little bit of beauty to the 'net and leave it in a better way than I found it. If someone thinks my work is good enough to re-post, I'm flattered. It'd be nice to give me credits, but it's not a perfect world.
If any of my readership ever want a full sized image of anything I've shot, do feel free to drop me a line and I'll be happy, more than happy, to send it to you.

Finally, some New Year's greetings:
Miss you Lia, hope all is well in your world. One day, in another life perhaps.
Heather: Never give up, never stop fighting for who you are. I got your back.
Lloyd: All my best to your and yours. Wish I could be closer.
L.A.P.: Here's to a better life for the both of us.
Kieron: Take on the world, go far. I know you can.

All my best to all of you.

Back for Attack

I do so love photographing concerts, especially concerts where there is proper lighting. Witness the following four pictures. The lead singer from 3 Pill Morning, the bass player from Twelve Foot Ninja, the guitarist from In This Moment, and the drummer from Starset. The venue was darn near perfect. We had a dedicated press pass, photo pit, unlimited time to photograph each band, and on top of all that, interviews with some of the bands and a free water cart.

What more could I have asked for?

Well, a better camera of course. While I love my D2x to death, the low-light/high ISO  capabilities are starting to be long in the tooth. Oh Nikon D3x, you will soon be mine (just as soon as I sell off all my old gear that is, which, since I am loathe to part with it, will probably be never)

I have been too long removed from music, this shall be rectified in the coming year.

Forsaken Fashion Doll

"Forsaken fashion dolls
will follow you forever
white eyes of sheer despite will dog you 'till you die
Forsaken fashion dolls
You're meant to be together
just cry your silent scream tonite" - Lordi

Some people it's obvious they dressed up for the zombie walk, others, like this girl, I'm pretty certain it's not a costume, but the way she looks normally, well possibly sans the blood makeup.

Wish I had gotten better shots of her, but she was on the wrong side of the crowd to catch anything but a fleeting glimpse.

Fancy Getup

In the harness races, there were two speeds, trotting and pacing. In an attempt to keep the horses from running amok, they wear, what looks like to me, handcuff harnesses. Not sure why they don't want runaway horses careening their riders into the audience, but for that I have to wait for the normal races in the Spring.

Wind

The wind was moving at a good clip last night, keep the smoke at a minimum (or just blowing it away quickly) and sometimes, as you an see here, taking spherical fireworks and making them more oval shaped, thus sort of reminding me of strawberries, with the little green bits on top.

Hummingbirds

A little bit of everything in this shot, I really like the four 'works that are just starting to explode, reminding me of hummingbirds flitting about over the grassy field below.

Statically in Motion

This image isn't PhotoShopped, it's taken with a slow shutter speed (1/50th of a second). What you have here is one butterly sitting quietly on a leaf (no doubt the male) while another bounces frantically around (most likely the female) complaining they will be late for the sale at Macy's.

Somewhere Different

A different location in downtown. I think it says "Lemonade", and before you ask, no, I've no idea what the artist was trying to say, or represent. Alien Greys would be my guess, but don't quote me on that.

Eye See You

Ok, another bad pun. What can I say? I'm on a roll. Same area as the last one. I'm not sure what this is, but I'd like to have it on my wall in my living room.

Leading lines

Stepping to the left by just a few feet yielded this image, less city, more bridgework.

I think I like this shot better.

Bridgework

A great advantage (for me) to owning a used camera is I don't feel too bad about dinging it. In this case the f3hp came pre-dinged, so I'm less worried about adding more to it, and thus more apt to bringing places I wouldn't otherwise carry a camera.

Here is a river/bridge scene from near downtown. The 50mm f/1.8 lens really is a cracking lens, in autofocus or manual mode (as used here) and is sharp everywhere.

Nikon f3hp, kodak film, sunny winter day.

Flame On!

Back when I kept reef tanks in the late 80s, early 90s, the Flame Angel was the be-all-end-all of Angelfish keeping. If you could keep one alive you knew your stuff.

No, I didn't know my stuff. But I did manage to get a good pic of one :)

No, wait, I've got it!

It's Pacman! Granted, Pacman's seen better days (all that ghost chasing is starting to show) but all I need to do is add in small yellow dots on the right of the picture, and it'll be perfectly clear.

Right? Right?

Ah what do you guys know anyway? ;-)

Yeah ok, it's the Deathstar

Remains

It's hard for me to imagine where the river might once have been, especially one large enough to allow riverboats and ferrys through as you can see the river here is barely five feet wide.

Not sure what the white building in the background is, but it is well chained off.

Stalking the Sky

Most zombies go after brains, though that particular legend came only after the comedy zombie film "Return of the Living Dead." In Romero's films, zombies went after anything that was breathing and ate all parts.

The zombie pictured here, for example, seemed to be after the sky. More maybe the sun.

Or perhaps she was just happy to see the sun again after many years of being underground.

Okay, so not a total loss

Okay, I like the colours on this, a lot better than the throwaway shot I had expected in Black and White.

Don't care for the grain though, colour shots should be smooth and (for me anyway) B/W shots should have the grain for th emotion it can convey.

Ah well, not too bad for a mistake

Chupacabra

Ok, ostensibly it's a bunny, tired after laying a big egg, but maybe it's a sheep tired after laying a....no that's not right, heck I don't know what it is, but I'd be tired too laying eggs that size.

Same parade/event.

Isolation

This statue wasn't at the best position to photograph, it's way too high but with the sun behind me and reflecting off the statue, the background fades away and (I think) really brings out the contrast between man-made and Nature.

Ok, that came off as too pretentious, I just like the colour contrast between statue and tree :)

Continuation

A re-visit of one of the Angels with the lford film. The grain effect is less obvious here than in some of the other images I took. I wonder where on the East Coast is the oldest cemetery? I would suspect that the older the place, the more ornate the monuments. That would be a good place to go for photography. Maybe even visit New Orleans as everyone is buried above ground.

Preference

One of the things students are taught in photography class, is to find your preference. That is, things you like or are good at shooting. From the beginning, I've worked with buildings, plants, people, ruins, wrecks, and so on, and although I've yet to find a subject matter I like over all the rest, I'm starting to really dig Black and White photography.

So with that in mind, I present an image shot with my Nikon, from the local ancient cemetery.