What a great day for a triathlon! The FCPRD hosted the second annual youth triathlon this morning and I think it was a big success. I figured, at the beginning of the year, that if I wasn’t going to race this year that I would at least remain as connected to the sport as possible. And shooting all sorts of races from Ironman distance to local youth tri’s is how I’m doing it. Many more images to follow (and video at some point).
UPDATE: Photo gallery
The pool was actually inviting once the kids realized that the water temp was warmer than the air.
AKA Valley Mill Road in Winchester. My wife actually drives this road every day and suggested we stop on the way back from a shoot today. Glad we did. Gonna make a point of going back to see if I can get a fully fanned out peacock image. BTW, Have you ever heard a peacock’s call? I thought it was a cat in some major distress. It caught me completely off guard. But now I know. My wife says it sounds like they’re screaming “help!”
One of the many peacocks roaming free just past the one-lane bridge on Valley Mill Road near Winchester. | See a larger version here.
“The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.”
– Willie Nelson
I’m kinda getting into this whole bird-watching thing. I get why people do it.
This is really not a great photo. But it’s still fun to get new visitors. Still no squirrels, btw.
“I went to the museum where they had all the heads and arms from the statues that are in all the other museums.”
– Steven Wright
I shot some images for a local hotel’s website and they wanted me to shoot some “local flair” images. With all the images I shot, I completely forgot to shoot this one. The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. | Order a print of this image.
So here’s a lesson in patience. I’ve started a project within this year-long project. Who knows where it’s gonna go, but I’m giving it a try.
Bird-watching. More like bird-waiting.
I just set it up today. Hopefully this goes somewhere.
It turns out that the beast of a sycamore tree in our back yard is going to play host to my new project. And here’s the cool part – I can shoot it from inside the house. Yeah, yeah I’m new to it. Give me a break.
Everybody’s going to have their slumps. Whatever you’re into, you’re gonna have a slump. I had recently slipped into my own slump and wasn’t actually shooting anything new there for a while. Wasn’t pushing my creativeness at all. Until I found this rainy-day project. The hard part wasn’t the slump (it, too, shall pass). It wasn’t the lighting or the set up. It wasn’t any of those things.
The hardest part?
Choosing my favorites.
What a fun rainy-day project. | Order a print of this image from my newest gallery.
“Shame on you if you chose to stay inside if your day resembled anything like this.”
– Shaun Galang
Yet another bike-ride photo.
These days I don’t turn down many opportunities to shoot. It was a nice day and the clouds were just right and, like always, I had my cameras with me.
Daniel Morgan Middle School in Winchester, VA.
I have to ask – are all you other photographers as crazy about organizing your equipment as I am? It seems like every few months I reorganize and switch to a different style of case. I’ve got shoulder bags, backpacks, waist packs, photo belts, lens pouches and hard cases and my equipment lives in all of them at some time or another. I’m getting better about what I take to a shoot though. Nowadays, I typically take almost everything I own, but then transfer only what I need to a smaller bag for the actual shoot. Crazy, I know. Thanks goodness I have a touch of OCD otherwise this stuff would get lost in a heartbeat.
Come on, who else is like this? I just have to have my stuff organized.
I just never seems to go back in as easily as it came out!
I had to call 911 today. And not the kind of call where you’re driving by an accident well after it’s happened and you call just to make sure they know about it. I was the actual first responder. Now, I understand that this kind of thing happens all the time. I’m not naive. This is the first time, however, that it’s really ever happened to me. I’ve seen accidents and been involved in an accident (dislocated my elbow in a wrestling match in high school), but I’ve never actually been the one on the phone with the 911 operator taking instructions until the real first responders arrive.
I didn’t even really realize what was happening at first, but before I knew it I had my phone out and was head-long into a conversation with the operator. Holy crap! And all those things I learned in all the first aid/CPR classes I’ve taken came rushing right back (and in the proper order, too). I was pretty happy about that.
When it was all said and done, though, I had some thoughts on the situation:
And there had to be at least somebody on scene who looked up and thought “now who’s that insensitive jerk who’s taking the picture?” That’s my therapy I suppose.
Cab is a shortening of cabriolet, reflecting the design of the carriage. It replaced the hackney carriage as a vehicle for hire; with the introduction of clockwork mechanical taximeters to measure fares, the name became taxicab.
You’re gonna use this piece of information in a conversation some day. Winning!
The Hansom Cab – designed and patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom, an architect from York. Now you know.
No words. I have no words. Technically speaking, however, this is a 1,000 word essay, right?
My 1,000-word essay.
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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
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.
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.
Cedarmeade Studios 