“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.”
– Aristotle Onassis
So I’ve had this urge to photograph lighthouses for a while now so it’s always awesome when I get to visit a new one. Now, apparently, I need to get this same image at every lighthouse I visit. Be sure to check out my other lighthouse images (and more to come from St. Augustine).
The St. Augustine Lighthouse is St. Augustine’s oldest surviving brick structure. | Order a print of this image.
“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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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).
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Another edition of “In My Town.” This one’s not technically in my town, but it’s close enough. I go on a group ride on Tuesdays that rides right past this Mill. Wonderful scenery in Clarke County, VA.
Some wonderful scenery in Clarke County, VA including the Burwell Morgan Mill.
Another take on the incredible architecture inside the Handley Regional Library in Winchester. My next project is going to be shooting the inside of Handley High School. That place has got some architectural awesomeness and I’ve wanted to shoot it forever. Stay tuned…
The main staircase that leads to the second and third levels at the Handley Library. | Order a print of this image.
Proper sunsets are simply awesome. I shot close to 300 photos before it was all said and done, but this one stood out from the rest. All the “contrasty” things going on were screaming for some post-processing. Hopefully gonna turn the other way in several hours and the catch up with the sun.
Could you see yourself retiring here? Order a print of this image.
“How do they know what they want when they haven’t even seen it?”
– Steve Jobs
Frame your next photograph with this thought in mind – only show them what you want them to see. It always amazes me to see what goes on behind the scenes of any video shoot. Any that I’ve done. Any that I’ve seen. I can’t watch any video anymore without the production gears in my head spinning out of control. It’s just fascinating. The lights, the flags, the reflectors, the people, the gadgets and doodads – all just out of the frame. But all there to make what is in the frame that much better. Just fascinating. And that’s just it – only show them what you want them to see. So grab a camera and start shooting those extraordinary scenes that may just be smack dab in the middle of a bunch of chaos. But once you frame all that junk out, you’re left with insanely great images!
This doorknob just stood out to me as unique, but I had to look past all the distractions to really see it.
I’ve mentioned before that I try to shoot various angles of any scene I’m photographing (unique angles). But I keep thinking that for every individual image that I post here, I’ve got close to 5-10 other decent images that may get pushed aside and forgotten about. This also helps me out on those days where I haven’t shot at all. I shot today, but am having a tough time nailing down the part of the image I want to feature. So while I figure out how to proceed with that one I thought I’d post another one from the day I shot in my church’s sanctuary.
I’ve always found it difficult to shoot in this sanctuary due to the hot spot at the altar. The HDR post-processing technique certainly helps.
There’s just something about New York City that I love. I’m not really sure what it is and it may just be a novelty because I don’t actually live there. But I do enjoy it. While I was there for a conference last Fall it was a mission of mine to make it to Grand Central Terminal. And not because of anything else but to simply visit the Apple Store that’s housed inside. I just think it’s cool that the Apple Store sits on the platform above the largest rail station in the world. Very clever Apple.
The biggest of the 5 Apple stores in Manhattan wraps around the upper concourse of Grand Central Terminal.
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“Worship is one of the odder things the Christian community does…
But, with worship there is the very real potential and possibility that, by God’s Spirit, I will be enlivened, nourished, purified, opened, surrendered and so will you.”
The very elegant communion table in the Boyd Chapel of First Presbyterian Church, Winchester.
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Wall Drug Store in Wall, South Dakota. If you’ve never been, put it on your list (at least if you’re anywhere near). It’s one of those places that you have to visit multiple times because you WILL miss stuff. It’s a treasure trove for kids, families, travelers and people who just like the unique. There’s stuff tucked everywhere – it’s amazing they fit that much stuff in one place. As we drove across South Dakota (and even when we were in Minnesota), we drove past all sorts of marketing billboards. It’s very similar to all the hype about and marketing for South of The Border as your travel into South Carolina from the north. But Wall Drug has that unique western flair to it. We loved it.
There’s something unique around every corner at Wall Drug Store. I poked my head into one of the doors and saw this. | Order a print of this image.
Shot this one a while back, but I’m only just now getting around to processing it. I’m heading to Charlottesville next week for a bike race so maybe this begins my next collection – Higher Ed.
The main entrance to Cole Hall on Bridgewater College’s campus in Bridgewater, VA.
Aside from all the obvious benefits of cycling all these years, I’ve also become conditioned to being awake for the wee hours of the morning. It also comes in handy as a photographer.
Like I said, spend the rest of the weekend shooting the good stuff. | Order a print of this image.
The current Cape Henry Lighthouse from inside the stairwell of the original.
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I’ve had plenty of people tell me that my photos remind them of postcards. To be honest (and absolutely no offense intended), that’s more of an insult than a compliment – and here’s why (at least from a photographer’s perspective). One of the main goals of any professional photographer is to be different, to separate their work from all others. A postcard is a tourist souvenir that simply showcases where you are. You can share it with others or keep it for your scrapbook. Point is, it’s usually a simple image of the surrounding area – nothing incredibly creative (keep in mind I’m strictly talking about the image postcards, not the creatively designed ones). So even though I wouldn’t mind if my images landed on postcards some day, a significant part of me lashes out inside when I hear “your photo belongs on a postcard.”
Now here’s the disclaimer…
In my early days I actually used to go straight to the postcard racks to see if I could recreate the images I found there and I usually could. Fast forward to today and you’ll still find me looking at the racks, but now I look to make sure I’m NOT shooting the same stuff. Sure, everybody wants to take the pretty images of any locale. So once you’re done shooting like everybody else, take the tourist hat off and BURN IT. Then spend the next 15 minutes or day or weekend shooting unique images.
The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.
– G.K. Chesterton
The symbolic passing of the torch. The original Cape Henry Lighthouse (1792) stands in the foreground and the current (and fully automated) lighthouse (1881) stands behind it.
The two Cape Henry Lighthouses standing side by side in VA Beach.
After leaving DC, I ventured into Maryland before heading down to VA Beach. It’s always fun discovering new places. I even drove through Hollywood and California on my way to the lighthouse featured a couple of days ago.
Drove over this bridge to the lighthouse, but had to photograph it before leaving. | Order a print of this image.
Cedarmeade Studios 