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Debra On A Truck

Debra On The Truck - Gravel Pits, Indiana

A week or so ago Debra, my shooting partner and friend called and said let’s go shoot.  It was a warm day (and I don’t move fast on warm days) and I said slowly OK.  I knew I needed to go out and do some shooting.  It’s great therapy especially when you need to clear the mind.  It was also one of those evenings where it looked like a storm could blow in any minute.  So, we headed off and we had no place in particular in mind to go.  Then I remembered a place my son and I stumbled upon a few years ago and using my iPad with satellite view I located the gravel pit and we headed there.  The gates were open so we went in and we spent nearly two hours there shooting Debra went her way and I went mine.  At one point when I was coming back from the dredging area Debra was  standing on this old dump truck.  So, I said pose and as Debra always does she struck a few unusual poses.  I love this one as it just works on so many levels.  I shot it with my iPhone, even though I had my big boy camera with me.  I wanted to use the ProHDR app to capture the details in the sky and not lose detail in Debra.  Damn, it worked great.  I then took the image into my iPad and played even more adding border, grain, more dramatic light effects etc.. Man, this si so much fun. So, here it is.  I think it is one cool, bad ass shot!

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Columns & Doors

Columns and doors - Sunshine Junque, Michigan

For years I have been enjoying time in a little lake town in Michigan, Saugutuck.  It’s an artsy town sitting on the lake and is just full of charm.  Slightly south of Saugutuck is a place called Sunrise Junque.  I have been visiting this unique and one of a kind antique – junk store for years and will start to work on a book soon about this place.  It is the definition of ecliptic.  There are so many unusual and sometimes creepy things all displayed in odd ways at this place.  The place is run by a very nice couple who have been doing this for years.  Kind of left over hippies but really cool.  I have bought a bunch of neat things here, but more than anything else I love shooting here.  You’ll see lots of images from this great place in the future as I have a ton of shots and will be going through everything prepping for the book.  Today it is columns and doors.  Of course as usual I messed around the shot to make it even more fun.

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Chicago Sky On Fire

Chicago at sunset

I am in Chicago until Tuesday hosting a photography workshop on Architecture Photography.  We have been having a blast shooting some beautiful sights and buildings.  You can follow our adventures at THE PODAS BLOG.  This was shot done two nights ago.  We had a magic twenty minutes where everything just lit up and the sun did wild things.  This was made with the iphone and then finished off in the iPad.  Didn’t do much except add a frame.  It was just one of those magical moments.  I have so many good images from this trip.  We did some dawn and sunset shots of the Chicago skyline as well as a number of very cool images.  I’ll post more as I can over the coming weeks.

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Now In Hong Kong

Hong Kong Harbor at Sunrise

Wow…what a trip this has been.  A few weeks ago I was in Ireland.  This last 10 days I have visited 4 cities in China.  Now I am in Hong Kong to do my last presentation tonight.  I hear we have 150 people registered.  Should be fun.  The photographers in China are very passionate and take their photography seriously.  We have been promoting a photography workshop (PODAS) for the China market to be held in Death Valley this November.  Should be a great time.  Tomorrow I fly home, hopefully with an upgrade to business class.  I arrived in Hong Kong after a very civilized train ride for two hours from China.  I awoke this morning to the sunrise picture above.  Sorry, it was shot on the iPhone and may not be the best.  The weather is still 100 plus degrees.  Can’t wait to get back to a more moderate 87 degrees.  I get back with just a few recovery days before starting the PODAS Chicago workshop next week. This will be a workshop focused on Architectural photography.  Should be fun.  I’ll post again when I get home this weekend.

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Stand Pipes

Standpipes, Broad Ripple, Indianapolis, IN

A photographer I very much admire is Jay Maisel.  He is a typical tough New Yorker who has been shooting images forever and does so everyday.  You never and I mean never see Jay without a camera on his shoulder.  He finds a shot on the streets, in stores and anywhere he goes.  He never has the excuse I can come back and shoot it later or I’ll get next or I wish I had a camera.  His work is amazing and his philosophy towards photography inspiring.  So, why the rambling?  Because this is a classic case of seeing something and grabbing it.  These are just plain standpipes in Broad ripple are of Indy.  I saw the color, contrast and sun and had to shoot it and I let my shadow become part of the shot too.  I like the design of the shot.  Messed around with it a bit on the iPad and here is my image.  Enjoy.

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Ireland Sunset

Sunset at the Lake Hotel, Killarney, Ireland

Does it get much better?  Nope, tonight was fantastic.  This was shot on my iPhone and I also shot many images from tonight’s dusk extravaganza on my Phase One  IQ180.   Really busy here in Ireland and it will be a great week full of surprises.  Enjoying the country a lot.  Tomorrow we kick of PODAS workshops.  You can follow at www.podas.info my other blog.  I have a lot of editing to do on my return trip home.

 

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Made It To Ireland

Lake Hotel, Ireland

Made it to Ireland.  Today I picked up Steve on of the PODAS instructors and Drew our Phase One support person and we headed to the LAke Hotel where we will be based until Wednesday.  IT’s been an adventurous day as I had to rent a van (one of five) we will be using.  Crazy thing is the steering wheel is on the wrong side and they make you drive on the wrong side of the road.  Pretty crazy and add to that it is a stick shift and you have to shift with your left hand. They call this civilized.  I have another few words for it.  Should make for an interesting week.  This is a simple iPhone shot done of the lake in front of this wonderful hotel.  we bring the big guns (Cameras) out tomorrow. This is a very photo rich area and I am sure we will be capturing some wonderful photography.  I’ll try to post daily but it may get busy.  Days are long and light is good.  More to come.

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Arrived

Skamania Rainbow

I made it to the Hood Valley area between Washington and Oregon and the Skamania Lodge where my sons wedding will take place on Sunday.  It’s raining and dynamic.  Kind of what you expect for this area.  Many of the family have arrived with more arriving tomorrow.  Within the first five minutes of being here the clouds broke open and produced a rainbow.  Luckily i had my iPhone so I grabbed a shot.  I knew the only way if would work was should in HDR so I set up the shot and let the iPhone do it’s thing.  Now I use an app called AutoHDR and it takes a few seconds to analyze the scene.  And just before it started to shoot the sequence of images these two kids jumped in the shot.  I was like what!! but you know what they made the shot and added the foreground.  So, sometimes things just go your way.

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Gas Station In Middle Of No Where

Texaco Gas Station In Palouse

While traversing the Palouse last week I came across many an odd things. It’s a beautiful area but there are just things there that stop you. I am driving down this country road in the middle of no where and then all of a sudden there is this Texaco gas station straight out of the fifties just sitting there. I thought I went through a time portal. This place had the signs, a water fountain, old cars, gas pumps and even a police car. So I spent some time shooting pictures of it. I’ll kake sure I take my PODAS workshop group to it.