Lessons Learned

Photo class wraped up Saturday. Bittersweet. Good to be moving on but I will miss the classmates and guidance of our instructor. Our final assignment was to place together a string of pictures that formed the basis of a story. While I was happy with my final images, I think they were among the weakest. Several images and story lines were really well done. But at the end off the day the process was more important than the results. With time I am confident that I could expand and develop more compelling frames. But in the end my story is there.

It goes like this...

" O why didn't they let me live another century...

...I am lonely!

Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ

Been a small while since I posted.  But things on the photography front have been actually doing well.  Lots more done and with direction, so this blog post although still a newbie, is on a course.  Photography class has me finishing up a project of pictures with a theme.  I am pretty sure mine will be the sights of Asbury here in the winter.  The assignment should yield between 8 - 10 shots which I will add once complete.  My goal is before Christmas.  Also, I have recruited some help with the whole blog format and appearance, so by Spring we should have a whole new look and feel.  Which should better relate to my pictures.

In the mean time here are two pictures of my son.  The background mural is very interesting.  Back in September the artist Shepard Fairey went around the Boardwalk and created a number of very unique murals.  Wait you need to know who Shepard is?  Everyone has seen his work!  His most famous piece was the Barack Obama Hope poster.  Me, I am more of a fan of Andre the Giant has a Posse period,  but too each his own.  While this one is slightly weather and vandal worn, it was a good balance for my son's winter wardrobe. I am a bigger fan of number two.  I can live with out seeing the Vans on his feet.  I think a little more of the mural enhances the image.  It did wonders for a President!

Ballet at the Beach (Bay Head, NJ)

Pretty busy weekend with the camera.  Maybe a little too bit of a proud Dad, but good captures.  My teacher and classmates @ ICP have said I crop my photo's way too much.  So here all three images, full frames.

# Occupy Wall Street (NYC)

Saturday was spent in NYC for my photo class @ ICP.  After making a quick stop, I crossed Manhattan through Times Square and ran smack into the protest which moved out of the downtown business district.  I stopped grabbed a flash and shot what I could.  Here are a few newspaper shots...

Now, I am not going to dive into the politics of all of this.  But I do see some irony.  This movement is so dependent on social media and the Internet.  Well, I understand and agree that some executives are crooks, many of the tech gurus who have brought this technology to us, are clearly in the 1%!

I have been in many large and vocal crowds.  Football games, concerts, etc.  But this was different.  You could tell that there was an energy that could easily tip things ugly.  However, while I was in the crowd, I saw very little hooliganism!

My biggest impression was more cameras then protest signs!

I am stuck on Band Aids, cause Band Aids are stuck on me! (Hamilton, NJ)

"It's a small world after all..."

My bologna has a first name it's O-S-C-A-R..."

Those little jingles get stuck in your brain and well you just can't escape them.  So as I walked around the Grounds for Sculpture over the weekend, my internal iPod was stuck on one playlist as I began to just click off a few images.  If you have not visited, and you enjoy sculptures in many different styles, one really should go and spend a few hours.

One very disturbing note, while many of the sculptures are life size or bigger, I was upset to see a number of parents allowing children to use them like some kind of jungle gym.  Not preaching, but it is a museum people and not a playground!

This was my second visit and each time I really left with different views and impressions.  While there may only be about 250 pieces, its easy to see new things, literally, and old things in new light.

Truly amazing that Seward Johnson had such vision as an artist but also a vision to share in quite a different setting.  Saturday, was amazing weather.  Hot like 85 degrees, clear blue skies that just called you outside.  My only regret (not really...well maybe a little) I could have sat on the beach and enjoyed that too.  Boy can I be greedy!

Next trip I want to focus on some more of the abstract.  My vision and compositions were influenced by my latest read "The Greater Journey" by David McCullough

Beach Landscapes

First order of business.  Need to be able to capture the Jersey Shore.  The beach saves me from the day job, no question.  I owe so much to it.

So here are four, don't be afraid to be critical.  I can not get better with out an honest critic.  First two were from the Lighthouse at Barnegat Light,  second two were from the end of Hurricane Irene in Surf City.

The rule for landscapes is in thirds, not sure that is in stone but I did try and use that as a gauge.

Coquina Surf Jam

Not on my list of must do shoots.  But it's at the beach, it was not a tanning type of day and well, yes lot's of athletic women.  So here are a few shots from the day.  All the ladies did a great job ripping up the Atlantic.

Odds and Ends

Just a few quick shots of my friend Chris in action.  Plus a field of flags, a night sky by the docks and the picture of a big moon that was a big failure.  The last three hold meaning and those themes will be expanded as I move forward with this blog.  Recently I sat down and drafted a list of places I will shoot.  Starting this weekend, I will be scouting out the locations and planning the image captures.  So by the fall this space will be more than random items.  I will have developed it into a logically and hopefully interesting view of how I see the world around me.

Well thats the plan, but it will all be about the execution!  No pun intended, with so much swirling around me, I need to stay focused on the things I am and the things I want to value.  If I do that, I will have centered my emotions and stopped worrying about the seconds passing by on the clock.  I will be successfully capturing life.  And that will be good!

Neglected!

Yes, that's all I can say now about this blog.  I really need to figure out what I want to do with this page and my photos in general.  Am I just capturing some good snap shots?  Can I take something that's really worth showing artistically?  So many more questions than answers.

I owe one or two people an update via e-mail.  That will follow soon. Life has been so busy.

In the mean time 3 quick actions shots from my weekend mountain biking crew.

Some where in the middle...

A great benefit of the Jersey Shore location is the ease to either the Philadelphia or New York City markets.  Now let me just say, being born and raised in the Bronx there is no debate about which city is greater.  But Philly has some good things to share as well.  As I get older, my opinions have dulled and I am allowing my self that broader view.  In my youth anything about Philly would have been followed by an expletive!  Look Ma, I am all grown up...LOL.

Anyway, two different takes on the rose.  Will Ryman is a sculpture who has used the backdrop of the big apple to share his creations with us.  Twenty five different bouquets, down 12 blocks of Park Avenue in NYC.  If you think about it, a very expensive gallery address.  But it was pretty fitting for what he created and for what New york is all about.  Everything in the City is larger than life, never as glamorous as it appears on the surface either.

Next we see what spring brings when the ground finally gives way to the eternal hopes.  Thousands of flowers and so many different arrangements, it was hard to choose a favorite.  Because of how the Philadelphia Flower Show needs to be laid out and to protect the arrangements themselves, being creative with the images is difficult. Space, angles and most of all crowds really limit you in the capture of a very pleasant experience.  Plus, it gave me a twist on an old line I hear..."Went to a boxing match and a hockey game broke out".  Well, lets just says this,"Went to a wine tasting and a flower show broke out"!






The texture in this piece was amazing, the show was themed around "Spring Time in Paris".  But I really preferred the simple arrangements like the flowers below.