No words. I have no words. Technically speaking, however, this is a 1,000 word essay, right?
My 1,000-word essay.
364
That would be how many days until our last high school graduation, but who’s counting? Oh, that’s right, our daughter is.
There’s only one time that you can get a photo of the front of Handley High School without the football goal posts in the shot – graduation. So I got plenty just to have them.
Sharp
“A graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that ‘individuality’ is the key to success.”
– Robert Orben
I’m certainly in a position where the saying “use it or lose it” plays a huge factor. This blog, if anything, is helping me stay sharp and practice my craft. Every once in a while I get the urge to do something a little “wonky” with my images – just for fun. Enjoy.
In honor of all the graduates from Handley this weekend. | Order a print of this image.
Kent Room
“Baseball is like church. Many attend few understand.”
– Leo Durocher
There’s quite a bit of history in the churches of Old Town Winchester. Here’s a neat article on the Old Town Winchester site. | Order a print of this image.
Right Place/Right Time
“Sometimes I arrive just when God’s ready to have someone click the shutter.”
– Ansel Adams
Storms always provide some great image opportunities. Of course, they present a good deal of danger as well.
Senioritis
And so it begins. The last couple of weeks before my daughter is high school senior. The one thing she’s really looking forward to is the senior cafeteria. I’ve walked by this space countless number of times and never really knew what it was. According to my wife (and anybody who attended Handley High School pre-21st Century), this space used to be classrooms. Hopefully I’ll be allowed to roam through the hallways this summer and shoot more of this building – I’ve always wanted to.
A multi-purpose space at John Handley High School. | Order a print of this image.
Memorial
A man’s country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers and woods, it is a principle and patriotism is loyalty to that principle.
– George William Curtis
One of the many flags that adorn the Shenandoah Memorial Park near Winchester on Memorial Day.
My Best Camera
I pretty much take my cameras everywhere these days, but there are specific situations where my big cameras won’t work. Namely, my bike rides. I have, however, adopted the popular saying among photographers “My best camera is the one I have with me.” This is actually an iPhoneography book and app, FYI. I just really want to go back now and shoot this properly.
A one-shot HDR from an iPhone.
Travel
I took this picture yesterday and was just playing around. Anybody who knows me knows that I usually have my cameras with me and I’m taking random shots of just about anything. I may never use the image. I may use it as a background. I may use only part of the image. Regardless of how I use it, it’s in the digital filing cabinet forever. This image was never intended to be anything other than, well a test shot while I was just playing around with settings. I started looking at it , though, and it just jumped out at me as some sort of car ad. The big clear front windshield, the nice motion blur going down the road. It’s a car ad, right? At least that’s what it was screaming at me. It’s funny how some final images started out as throw-aways.
It really demonstrates my “tip of the day” – DO NOT DELETE IMAGES IN CAMERA! Stop fumbling around on vacation, or on the shoot, or at an event with the images you just shot trying to determine what’s good and what’s not. There are really only two things I use my digital viewfinder for: 1) checking for correct exposure and 2) helping me compose a shot (my 60D with it’s articulating viewfinder helps tremendously with this one). Well, make that three. I also use it to access my camera’s menu system.
With memory cards as cheap as they are these days you’ll have plenty of room on the card. Review your images when you get home. While you’re at the event/game/party/wedding or whatever it is you’re shooting – Just shoot.
Sometimes a concept will just smack you right in the face.
OG Winchester
“Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”
– Robert Frost
Apparently my family is very fond of The Olive Garden these days. It’s not uncommon for us to be there late at night even after they’re closing down. It’s nice feeling when you can, occasionally, just let loose and be stupid. And we get stupid. But it’s now been twice this week. I’m sure the wait staff cringe when they see us coming now.
Last ones out.
Go Play
Remember when you were a kid? What were some of the toys that kept you busy for hours? Do you remember? I do. Boy how the world has changed.
So many people are connected on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and so and so on and so on. Yeah, you get it.
I had lunch with a friend recently who posed the question “How do you turn this around?” He was, of course, referring to the culture of today where youth have lost touch with the simple fun of imagination and “traditional” play. My answer, in short – I’m not sure you can. Times have certainly changed from when I was a kid. I left the house in the morning, stayed out all day and came back in time for dinner. No mobile devices, cell phones, video games – sounds a little like Gilligan’s Island, not a single luxury.
Technology is going to keep advancing and today’s society is going to do its best to keep up. This is just how it is right now. So for all those people who have shunned technology, it might just be time to embrace it and see if you can use it to harness that youthful imagination that’s chomping at the bit. Oh, it’s in there. For those who are interested, I lead a team in a youth initiative when I worked in Loudoun County. I encourage you to look it up and learn about it – First Lego League.
Of course, you could always just install a bouncy castle in your house and just have at it – That’s how we roll at First Presbyterian Church.
What do you do when the children’s choir picnic gets rained out? You don’t cancel! You move it indoors.
Discover
“You don’t stop playing because you get old. You get old because you stop playing”
– Posted on a sign at the entrance to Winchester City’s Jim Barnett Park
There’s been quite a lot of change in the downtown area of Winchester (aka Old Town). One of the biggest changes, in my humble opinion, is the recent move of the Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum. Not only did it move off the Loudoun Mall (really only 1 block away), but it moved into a huge new building. The former space offered a fun learning space for kids, but the new space is enormous and it ads a roof-top component! It’s really cool that this downtown staple was able to find a space to expand its offering. Can’t wait to check it out.
The new Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum in Old Town Winchester.
“Delight”-ful
The entire time that I worked at TV3 Winchester, one of the more common misconceptions from visitors to Winchester was that the building where I worked was the welcome center. It was, after all, situated in such a way that if you’re coming off the interstate at the “main” Winchester exit you’d see the TV3 Winchester building straight in front of you, well, welcoming you to the city. The actual welcome center is just a few more blocks down the road and around the corner (within walking distance of what was TV3 Winchester). It’s right across the parking lot from the oldest house in Winchester Abram’s Delight.
I’m kinda getting to be a tourist in my own town as I make my rounds to create new images. | Order a print of this image of Abram’s Delight.
Steeple
I had a friend suggest a new project to me today which always makes the gears turn even faster. He suggested that it might be pretty cool to do a “Steeples of Winchester” motif. So, of course, now I’m noticing all the steeples. You know, kinda like the deal when you buy a new car and you all-of-a-sudden start noticing all those same cars out on the road. Yeah, that’s gonna be me with steeples now for a while. Just you watch.
They changed the locks at my church and now I enter through a different door on Sunday. Sometimes a slight change of routine will make you notice things that have been there all along.
Mall
It’s was an awesome day for a Kidz Fest on the Old Town Walking Mall in Winchester. After shooting an event at my church, I headed out and walked right into this. After all the rain and flooding over the past week, it was good to see blue sky again. As I walked up the alley to leave the mall, the smell coming from the new Cajun restaurant in the Taylor Hotel made me want to go in. I will be back to dine. Yum!
The Old Town Mall in Winchester, VA featuring the newly-renovated Taylor Hotel.
Alpendorf
Found another image from our trip to Austria. On our last day, we took a hike up into Alpendorf and we were glad we did. Just look at that view! There are no words to describe it.
What a site for an awesome pool party. That ski lift goes to the Alpendorf Ski area in Austria.
The Sound of Music
I’m setting up, and adding to, my Flickr account. I’ve had it for several years and have done nothing with it. Shame on me. Anyway, it’s there now and is being populated and organized as we speak. I randomly started with images from Austria (maybe because I was talking with a friend about the trip the other day). As I’m skimming through – and skipping most (I really wish I knew how to take better pictures back then) – I stop at this one and immediately begin processing it. There was just something about it that stood out from all the rest. When I finished and uploaded it to my galleries I realized that I had processed it before. The difference illustrates how, on different days, you can see and image completely differently.
This is the building used for the Von Trapp residence exteriors in the movie. | Order a print of this image.
Long Branch
So this place is really tucked away in Clarke County, VA. I ride by this place just before riding by the Millwood Mill on Tuesday nights. I’ve been here once before when I was shooting weddings and haven’t been back since. Now I want to go inside because apparently there’s an amazing staircase just inside the front entrance (it’s now a goal of mine to shoot it).
Order a print of this image.
1861
I’ll have to admit, I’ve never really been into history. But I sure do find it fascinating there are still so many reenactments of various battles all throughout this area. I’m actually determined to attend some of the larger ones later this year – mainly for the awesome photographic opportunities (but perhaps I’ll learn something new along the way). The oldest one in the nation is actually this weekend at New Market Battlefield in Virginia.
Anyway, since I was in Leesburg today I figured I’d take a little side trip to Ball’s Bluff to get the Civil War “juices’ flowing.
The Battle of Ball’s Bluff – 10/21/1861. | Order a print of this image.
Cedarmeade Studios 