Foot fascination

Posted by Paul on April 12, 2013
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , . 19 comments
Body language

Body language

This week, I stumbled into a mini photo project. Pardon the bad pun, given the title, but I had to use it. :) Normally, I work from home, but this week, due to special circumstances, I had to go into town to work. We had the parts of our team, who live in other states (California, Texas, Rhode Island, Florida, and New York) visiting with us. It was nice to meet them in person. We had meetings, every day, that lasted from 8 AM until 5 PM and there were activities afterwards. The first day, Tuesday, I gave it my all. I attended the meeting, all day, did the team building exercise from 5 – 6 (Scavenger hunt around downtown), and went to dinner from 6 – 8:30 PM. I rode the train back and reached home at around 9:30 PM, or so, totally exhausted and in full “social overload”. I’d been out of the house for nearly 15 hours and with people for about 14 of those. Exhausted. My power levels were pretty much zero.

The next morning, I got up to do it again; however, when I got onto the train, I was not interested in having any conversation, nor making eye contact. I’d not recovered, just yet. I sat in my seat, kept my head down but my eyes open. All that I could see were the bottoms of the seats, the floor, and people’s feet. I started noticing shoes, positions, interactions, etc. I took out my iPhone, fired up the Hipstamatic app, and began taking photos, surreptitiously. It was quite interesting. I was granted with different pairs of feet as people moved in and out of the train.

My favorite interaction is shown at the top. Both of these were teenagers, about 16 or so. At first, the girl was by herself, leaning against the pole, legs straight, legs together, feet together. A few moments later, someone she knew, a boy, entered the train, approached her, and stood in front. Notice how much more relaxed and inviting her pose is. I love body language.

Some of the other photos were taken in downtown Charlotte, during one of the very few breaks that we had during our meetings. I took every opportunity to go outside, sit in the sunshine for a little bit, and take photos of people’s feet as they walked by.

It was a fun little project and it all came about from social overload. :) I’m sure my fellow introverts understand the premise.

City Life

Posted by Paul on April 10, 2013
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , . 4 comments

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I was in downtown Charlotte today, attending some meetings. During one of my breaks, I noticed the sunshine and the dust being kicked up by the construction worker as he worked to sand the new concrete slab that they had just poured the other day. I watched as people crossed the street. Some dodged it by crossing a block away, others simply walked through. This lady was having none of it and covered her nose and mouth.

Score one for the iPhone!

Roof dogs

Posted by Paul on April 7, 2013
Posted in: Personal, Photography. Tagged: , , . 8 comments

Roof Dog #39
One of the interesting things about travel is that, if you want to, you get to learn quite a bit about local customs and how people solve problems. A couple of days after I arrived in San Miguel, Neils asked if I had had any problem near my hotel, with roof dogs. I paused, thought for a moment, wondering if perhaps his Canadian accent had thrown me off (eh?), and admitted that I had no idea what a “roof dog” was. :)

He told me that many people have rooftop patios and they keep a watchdog on the roof to discourage burglars. Ah, now I get it: Roof Dogs! Of course! Further, in some neighborhoods it can be quite noisy because when one dog starts barking, it sets of a chorus of “me too” barking. Fortunately, I had not heard this roof dog choir and was quite satisfied that I had not.

One morning, while out walking the streets, just after sunrise, I happened to look up, directly in front of me, and see the shadow of a dog on a wall. I took a few photos, thinking at first that it was a statue, then it moved. I looked up towards the wall on my left and noticed a dog peering over the edge, looking down at me. He wasn’t barking. By the time I raised my camera to get his photo, he was on to something more interesting, perhaps breakfast.

That was my only encounter with any roof dog, but it was pretty cool and I didn’t have to lose any sleep to do it!

For now, the weeds stay.

Posted by Paul on March 31, 2013
Posted in: Personal, Photography. Tagged: , . 11 comments

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Sometimes, there’s a philosophical split between being a homeowner and a photographer, in particular, where lawn care is concerned. :) It’s spring and all manner of plants are starting their growth cycle. Trees are blossoming, grass is turning green, and of course, the weeds are a growin’. My back yard is filling with henbit, a springtime weed that dies back as the weather gets warmer.

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Today, I was in the backyard enjoying the warm temperatures, noticing the bees buzz back and forth, and thinking about what I need to do take care of those weeds. As I watched the bees do their thing, my thoughts turned from weed to control photography. Funny how that happens! I went inside, grabbed the D700 and the macro lens and came back outside, all thoughts of weed control put on hold. I spent a pleasant 1/2 hour or so chasing bees, though not very aggressively, and photographing them as well as photographing more of a long view.

I had thoughts of my childhood, chasing bees with mason jar, in the hopes of capturing a few, observing them for a while, then letting them go. Thoughts of weed control can wait for a few more weeks. I’ll continue to let the bees do their thing!

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Photo wild: A ‘natural’ shot.

Posted by Paul on March 25, 2013
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , , . 11 comments
Emma

Emma

A case of right place, right time, looking in the right direction. This is Emma, a barn owl. Emma wasn’t quite satisfied with the perch that they had placed her on, so she opted for a bit of higher ground. She took flight and landed on the roof. Of course, she was tethered, but that didn’t matter. She got to spend a few seconds on the roof, certainly less than a minute, before they coaxed her down again. I just happened to be looking in that direction and was able to get off two shots before she left her throne. :) Thankfully, the Nikon P510 decided that there was enough contrast to focus. Of the two shots that I took, only this one was usable.

Photo Wild: Worth every dollar

Posted by Paul on March 23, 2013
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , , .

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I will admit that when I got the invite for Photo Wild, I blanched a little at the $90 price tag. It was just a little, certainly not enough to deter me from going. Leading up to the event, the weather was not looking very promising. After a few e-mail exchanges about the weather between Amber, the Raptor Center’s bird curator, and the photographers, we decided to brave the elements. The forecast was for somewhere between 60 – 70% chance of rain and temperatures in the lower 40s; however, rain accumulations of only 1/100 of an inch. We figured we’d be safe.

Tom, Earl, and I arrived at the Carolina Raptor Center at about 7:30 AM, signed in, and waited for the photography to begin. It was cold, right around 40, overcast with a bit of drizzle. Fortunately for us, it remained that way for the entire 5 hours that we were there. It never really rained, just misted and drizzled. The three of us left our camera gear uncovered, some had their gear covered in plastic bags, others in plastic ‘gear’ made specifically for the purpose, custom fit and all. Earl was shooing his D600, I the D700, and Tom has Canon 5D Mark III. The crowd was about equally divided between Nikon and Canon shooters, with one guy shooting an Olympus OM-D, EM-5.

Luke

Luke

Throughout the morning, on half hour intervals, they rotated the birds. The handlers/trainers were very helpful, giving us the bird’s name as well as how they came to be there. There were all sorts of stories from injuries to seizing of birds who were illegally raised by hand. In other words, a bird fell out of the nest during a storm or just by being curious and going a bit too far, someone finds it, takes it home, ‘imprints’ it, and begins raising it. First, it is illegal, but also they don’t know who to provide the proper diet and care. Other birds were hit by cars, particularly owls. One of the falcons sheared of his left wing while hunting for food. He was on dive, after some prey, and hit a power line, severing his wing. I learned that Peregrine Falcons have been recorded diving at 250+ MPH!

Luke, the bald eagle, pictured here, was electrocuted and the exit of the electricity burned off half of his right wing.

We learned, also, that the money collected from the Photo Wild sessions, of which there are a few more, is used to provide food for all of the birds. Lots of little rat and mouse morsels to go around. After spending nearly 5 hours, having access to such great looking birds, hearing their stories, and knowing that the money was being put to good use, it was worth even more than the price of admission.

Finally, much thanks to Earl for loaning me his 28-300 mm lens for the day. Many of the shots that I got could not have been had without the loan!!!

6 degrees of separation

Posted by Paul on March 17, 2013
Posted in: Personal, Photography. Tagged: , , .

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Six degrees of separation is the theory that everyone and everything is six or fewer steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person in the world, so that a chain of “a friend of a friend” statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps. It was originally set out by Frigyes Karinthy and popularized by a play written by John Guare.

Those of you who have been visiting for a while know of my travels to meet other bloggers. Of course, it is always rewarding to meet new, interesting people. That’s how I got to San Miguel de Allende, as fellow blogger, Niels, invited me down to show me the town. While I was there, I received the following e-mail from Chuck, another fellow blogger that I’ve met and even stayed at his house:

Hey Paul, You’re in the ONE town in Mexico I hear about a LOT!
A fellow staff photographer – in the 1960s in San Diego – Jerry Rife retired and has a home there in San Miguel.
https://mail.google.com/mail/ca/u/0/#inbox/13d39ab594bfb785 Here is the link to today’s newsletter that features Jerry and some other of his ice cream photos. See if you can look him up and say “Hi” for me.
Last saw him about 50 years ago. Yikes! Please try to make contact. Thanks and safe travel.
Chuck

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I thought, sure, I’ll give it a shot. Niels seems to know everyone, so I sent him the e-mail and he replied that not only did he know Jerry, but that he had taken his photo as part of his hat series. You can view the series here. Niels was able to forward the e-mail to Jerry, and Jerry responded to Chuck, connection reestablished! That was very cool. A total 6 degrees of separation moment, or in our case, about 2. :)

One morning, the three of us, had breakfast at Juan’s cafe, pictured here. Jerry told us stories about his an Chuck’s days as military photographers as well as a pool shooting contest that, if memory serves me correctly, left Chuck and Jerry as the final two contestants. I think that Chuck won.

It was a great time and I was glad to be able to meet Jerry as well as hook up two old friends who’d not seen each other in 50 years. Well, they’ve still not seen each other, but at least they are now in contact!

This blogger visiting stuff is fantastic! :D