A horse is the projection of peoples’ dreams about themselves – strong, powerful, beautiful – and it has the capability of giving us escape from our mundane existence.
– Pam Brown
Ran across this guy on my shoot out in Clarke County this morning. What a great morning to be out shooting.
Either way, it’s a cool car – the Excalibur. I usually go to the Apple Blossom Weekend in the Park, but this weekend kicked my butt. I’ll settle for snapping a few shots in my church’s parking lot of all the cars that the celebrities ride for the parade. This one was just sitting there oozing style. Those menacing clouds off in the distance never really produced anything the entire day (at least not on our parade).
Another successful Grand Feature Parade.
Love me some tuba shots. Yeah, it’s a weird obsession of mine. It could make for a really cool band poster…
…hmmmm.
I’ve never liked the vendors concept at Apple Blossom – especially the street vendors who roam the parade route with the grocery cart full of goodies that just drive all parents bonkers. My kids are grown and have almost OUTgrown the stage where they want stuff from those carts. I’ve never liked the vendors…until now. You see, the “in” items now all have lights. Sure there are still plenty of noise makers, but the lighted toys seem to be more popular than ever. And not just with the kids – I like them, too. It’s kind of like a pre-fireworks show for me.
The light show for me started about 30 minutes before the first firework!
I’ve been in Winchester now for 14 years and have “attended” Apple Blossom each year. I say “attended” because I’ve really only gone to the parades and the carnival/midway when the kids were younger. I’ve really never been one for the crowds and all that goes with them, but after tonight I can see why some people go overboard and nuts for all the events. This doesn’t necessarily mean I’m going to start attending more, but I can appreciate why some people do. I’ve got so many more photos to rummage through before it’s all said and done, but this one summed up my evening.
Miss Apple Blossom & Miss Virginia on stage with the “Right On Band.”
Every photographer has a huge pile of images that have either gone horribly wrong. Or maybe said photographer thought, at the shoot, that the image was worth shooting, but got back to their desk and realized how horribly wrong they were. I took this image back when I first started dabbling in HDR processing and haven’t gone back to that set of images…until now. I’m posting the three images that made up the final just so I can remember how bad I thought the original images were.
And here’s the final image after some typical post-processing – I could do without all the noise, though.
These are the train tracks that cross Millwood Ave, in Winchester. I took this image in 2012 and am just now processing it.
One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.
– Tom Wolfe
Enough said.
On a brisk morning walk in New York City. I think this was the morning that I was on my way to the Apple Store at Grand Central.
I hit a pretty cool milestone this week – 100K miles on my car. I realize in the whole grand scheme of things that it’s not THAT big of a deal, but it’s cool. Yeah, I’ve had cars with over 100,000 miles on them, but I hadn’t put all of them on it. See, this is my first new car. I’ve been the only owner since I bought it in 2005. I didn’t actually think it was going to last as long as it has because in the first year alone I racked up about 35,000 of these miles. Anyway, here’s to another 100 grand!
Just hit 100K on my first new car!
I can honestly say that I did not know this series existed. It was a very cool experience to see all the different things that this race could represent for so many different people. It really honored all kinds of different aspects of women. It was really cool to see that the organizers celebrated every last finisher (even spreading the finishing tape for the actual last finisher).
I also learned that the Iron Girl logo is named Grace and stands for the grace that woman demonstrate when they compete in this type of event. Really neat day.
The finishing chute of the Iron Girl 1/2 marathon in Columbia, MD.
I think back to my youth and remember the birthday parties at the movie theater. I’d have a bunch of friends join me in the special birthday party room that overlooked the actual theater, we’d have cake and ice cream and then we’d have a private screening of a movie. I don’t really remember the movies, I just thought it was cool that it was private. My brother just threw his son a 3rd birthday party and had a local fire truck pull up to his house. As you can imagine, the kids went nuts (so did most of the adults). How cool was that?! I wonder how he’ll remember it 40 years from now.
I have a Photomatix setting that I created called Extremely Awesome loosely based on Trey Ratcliff’s Mega Extreme Do Not Click setting. I usually only use it to get a specific portion of an image to where I need it, but this time it worked “right out of the box.” This image, for the most part, is pretty much straight out of Photomatix. By the way, it’s the wheel of the fire truck that was the featured guest at the party today.
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.
I know most people try to avoid having them in their yards. I leave them so I know for sure that Spring is here. Yeah, that’s my story…
A sure sign that Spring has “sprung”
I was near the Handley Library as the sun was setting and as luck (or design) would have it, I had my camera with me. I just wish there was a more interesting cloud cover this evening. Ah, well. Not bad for an impromptu shoot.
The Handley Library was constructed in 1913 with a major renovation in 2001. It’s apparently also featured in a photography book about libraries that was just published, but I’m unsure of the title.
It’s pretty awesome how quickly and timely (for the Apple Blossom Festival) all the flowers and trees just pop around here.
Nothing like getting together with cousins and playing until you just drop ‘cuz you’re dog-tired.
Waldo and Russell – 1st cousins.
So my wife told me that she wants to put a visit to Holland (when all the tulips bloom) on her bucket list. I could do that.
I think this time it’s gonna stick (referring to Spring, of course).
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it. “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them.
Mark 14:22-24
Attended my church’s Maundy Thursday service tonight where they performed a “Living Last Supper.” Certainly an interesting way to present the story.
The Living Last Supper as presented by First Presbyterian Church in Winchester
“In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours.”
– Mark Twain
Just having some fun with my extreme wide-angle fisheye lens. Actually a lot of my interior architecture images these days are shot with this lens. The end results have some pretty severe angles of view, but I try to not create them with the extreme, stereotypical, fisheye bulge that most people associate with this type of lens. The trick begins when shooting the images and making sure that the horizon looks real. I’m always looking for scenes where there is a natural built-in curve to the image – the fisheye lens can then enhance the scene. My favorite example is the image from the staircase in our local library – Handley Regional Library.
I usually try to avoid this look, but was just having fun here with this one.
Cedarmeade Studios 