A Moment of EnLitenment

One = enough

Andrew — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 03:18:30 +0000

Life is full of options -too many sometimes. It’s hard to find balance. We have so much more than we used to, and still, not quite as much as we’d like. Sometimes it even gets hard to do things we like -there’s not enough time, we don’t have what we ~~need~~ want, and it’s a cold and ugly Midwest winter. That was my excuse for photography anyway. I noticed though, somehow others still find the time, ignore the cold, and crank out great images regardless of where they are and what they have. So today I gave myself a little challenge… well it was more like a mandate. I gave myself one hour, on one bike, with one camera, and one lens. No zoom, no tripod, no flash, no bag, no backup, and in the overcast, Midwest, midwinter light. The only requirement was that I took pictures of something -and got a little exercise.

I found myself downtown… at rush hour.

But I found pictures. They actually were always there if I’d taken the time to look.

My only confession… it took me an hour and a half.

Get over it -what you have is enough… even in the big city.

Remnants of the holidays

Andrew — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:17:44 +0000

The holidays are great -but soon reality comes again and I find myself picking through the images of the season past.

It suffices to say I got a new lens for Christmas (50 mm f:1.8) and was having a great time using it. All but one of the pictures here was taken with it.

I had a bunch of fun shooting our train round the Christmas tree.

For a while I tried to get a nice long blur of the train’s light and then freeze it with bit of flash. I’m not sure I ever really succeeded but I got this far.

I love the limited depth of field I can get with the 50 mm and the nicely round lights in the background. The hard part was getting my face behind the camera that close to the floor.

Legos… what did we ever do before they were invented?

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas season and are now quite recovered. Now, I’m looking forward to the rest of winter and spring that will shortly follow.

Snow!

Andrew — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:07:58 +0000

A bunch of it.

Not really the norm for Virginia -but no less enjoyed.

Best wishes for a white Christmas wherever you are.

Merry Christmas!

When Winter Comes

Andrew — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:59:25 +0000

The leaves are gone -the creek is cold.

The wind blows and then, the snow.

In these times we now remember, to find warmth follow the glow.

Happy winter!

Bats and Burns

Andrew — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:09:02 +0000

My buddy Alex and I both work with bats. Alex is studying the effect of controlled burns (a.k.a. prescribed fire) on bat activity. When properly implemented, controlled burns are beneficial to both the wildlife and the forest. Actually, fire is necessary for some ecosystems to persist.

Yesterday was the day for the fall controlled burns so I thought I would post a few pictures.

For this burn, the goal was to ignite the fire around the edge in a systematic fashion and let it burn toward the center. Here the guy in the background is spreading the fire around the perimeter using a drip torch.

If you are looking for “media grade” 100 ft flames than you will be disappointed. This is a controlled burn in the east not a national disaster in California.

After the fire goes through there is the long process of “mopping up.”

Water is used where need but generally a little goes a long way.

The fire leaves a nice clean forest ready for the new sprouts in the spring.