Drive By Shooting

I decided to take my camera and go for a ride through Hartford.  Snow was in the forecast later in the day, so the weather was blah and overcast.  Not ideal conditions for photography as colors are bland, so I pumped them up a little in Photoshop Elements.  All of these photos were taken from inside the car with the my 55-200mm lens.  I pulled over for a few, others were taken at red lights or stop signs.  If something caught my eye, I snapped a shot.

This guy was very friendly with the pigeons.

Maybe a little too friendly.

One man, One Cart

Beacon Light Supply

Cah-rook-ed

Fat Cat and Birds

Crispy

ALL People / Bail Bonds

Ticket

The cop, the guy in yellow and I all saw this woman run a red light.  Cop was the only one that minded.

Swans & snow

My "Studio"

Generally, the photos I take are candids, so I wanted to mix it up a bit to challenge myself. I had a photo shoot set up with an model I found on craigslist.   Winter weather took shooting outside off the table, so I needed to set up an inside.   I had the lighting.  What I needed was something to use as a clean, professional looking background.  I took a ride to the local photo shop in Hartford for a roll of paper.  I parked directly in front of the shop and headed inside.  I knew what I wanted so I was in there no longer than 5 minutes.  I was at the register when the clerk said, "Is that your car out front?  You're going to get a ticket"  I wasn't concerned because I had paid at the meter.  The clerk then told me it was commercial parking only, so I headed outside. I asked the lovely meter maid what was going on and she informed me that I needed commercial plates because it was a loading zone and that she had already issued the ticket.   "There's nothing I can do," she said with a big smile on her face.  I went back in to finish paying and the clerk told me it happens all the time because the signs are confusing and that I should fight it.  I intend to do so.

I only read the bottom sign.

  

Now that I had the extremely expensive roll of paper, thanks to Hartford's finest, I needed something to hang it from.  I headed to the hardware store not sure of what I was going to use.  I walked around for a while searching for something and had a crazy thought of making something out of PVC pipe that would involve cutting and assembling.    Fortunately, I ended up in the storage area and settled on a closet rod and 2 brackets.  It was a perfect and easy solution.  

My "studio" was a relatively empty room in the basement.  It was filled with old toys from the late 70's and early 80's.  Rocking horses, an old high chair and an electric keyboard were a few of the items.  I moved everything around as best as I could to make a clear path.  Only issue was that running the long way one wall was concrete and the other wall had the door in the center of it.  I couldn't drill into the concrete to hang the brackets, so it would have to be the wall with the door.  Not a problem, it just meant I would have to remove the roll every time someone came in or left the room.

 Looking in from the doorway

 The brackets hung next to the door

Ready to go, just don't leave the room.

I got everything set up and the shoot was fun.  Tamara, the model, was great!  The studio worked just fine.  However, the results of the shoot were not as good as I had expected because of my lighting set up, but it was a decent start.

 Shot with Orbis Ring Flash

 Small softbox and hair light

Softbox only

Definitely a learning experience.  I need to work on my lighting and more importantly, I need pay more attention to parking signs.

  

Apple Picking

Fall is my favorite time of year and the best time to be a New Englander.  To me, fall is crisp cool weather, vibrant foliage, turkey with all the fixings and football.   As a child fall meant jumping into large piles of leaves, trick or treating, carving pumpkins, soccer and apple picking.  I have discovered that one of the best things about being a parent is doing all the things that I enjoyed as a kid again.  This past weekend, the temperatures were unseasonably warm, so we decided to take full advantage by spending as much time outside as possible.  Our first activity was apple picking. I couldn't remember the last time I went, but this trip was sure to be memorable as it was Darius' first.

On the 30 minute drive to Brooksby Farm, Darius fell asleep.  I had tried earlier to put him down for a nap, but he wasn't having it.  As usual with day trips, this one started by loading a sleeping Darius into his stroller.  With the warm weather, the farm was packed.  The line to pay for bags was quite long, so it gave us more time to let Darius sleep.

After about 15 minutes or so, we got our 1/2 bushel bag and headed off to pick.  Riding over the rough grass didn't wake Darius, so it was time to wake him up.  He rubbed his eyes, looked around and said, "Apples!"  Sometimes he wakes up in odd places and doesn't know where he is, not this time.  He was excited to pick apples and knew exactly where he was.  He was groggy for a few minutes, but then he became an apple picking and eating machine. 

As we walked through the orchard, I couldn't believe how many apples were on the ground.  It was such a waste.  Everyone was in search of the perfect apple and anything less got tossed. In some spots there were more on the ground than in the trees.  Some were good, others were rotten and the ones in between were food for ants, bees and other insects.

Once our bag was full of apples, we headed to the farm store.  There were chickens, sheep, emus and a pumpkin patch, Darius' favorite!    Enza went in for cider and donuts while Darius got busy testing his strength by lifting pumpkins.  If he could lift it, he held it for a few seconds and put it down.  If he couldn't lift it, he moved on to the next one.  By the time Enza came out with the donuts, he must have lifted about 10 or 12 good sized pumpkins.  Quite a workout for a toddler.  Time for some refreshments.  Darius drank most of my cider as he had worked up quite a thirst.  He did save me a few sips.  Thanks buddy.  Anticipating a tantrum when it was time to leave, standard practice for a 2 year old, we resorted to an old parenting trick.  We bribed him with a donut and left without incident.

Gone Fishing!

"Fishing!"  Darius exclaimed when my father-in-law asked if I wanted to take Darius on his first fishing trip.  We grabbed the poles, tackle box, diaper bag and loaded Darius into the car.  We set off for the shoreline of CT.  My father-in-law had gone fishing the morning before and was catching a lot of fish, so we headed back to the same spot. 

Our destination was about 40 minutes away.  Darius fell asleep about 30 minutes in.  We grabbed the gear and loaded Darius into his stroller, still asleep.  I had noticed a bridge that was raised when we were driving to our location and as it turns out, the fishing spot was below that very bridge.  There were many people fishing, but they had caught very few fish.  Darius was sleeping, so I took out my camera.

 

The bridge was interesting so I shot a few pictures of it.  Then a loud horn sounded several times and the bridge began to lower.  A few minutes after that a train came rushing through and .  What a racket between the horns and the train.  No one could sleep through that, not even Darius.  He was a little disoriented for a minute or two being woken up that way, but soon he was ready to fish.

I casted and he reeled.  He got the hang of it after a few times and was excited to reel the line in.  We continued doing this for about an hour.  Didn't catch a thing.  My father-in-law had one bite, but the fish got away.  Darius wanted a "Fishie! Fishie!"  Tough to explain to a toddler why there are no fish on a fishing trip.  His attention was waning and when he's bored, he gets into trouble. We needed to catch a fish STAT.

 

We moved to a new location a little further down the pier and set up.  My father-in-law continued fishing and Darius and I went for a walk, aka I was chasing Darius around the pier.  Everyone had empty buckets and no bites.  I heard, "I got one!" back towards where we just were.  It was my father-in-law.  He  began to reel it in and Darius ran over to check it out. I grabbed my camera.  Everyone on the pier was excited since at someone actually caught something.  Thank Goodness, Darius got to see a fish.  Success!  It was a little fish, but it was better than nothing.  "Catch a big one Nonno!"  My son was not impressed. 

  

My Favorite Subject

I take a lot of pictures.  All my friends and family know that if I'm around, I'm going to be toting my camera and its going to be pointed at them at one point or another.   I really enjoy photographing kids, especially mine.  Kids are fun to shoot because they're so expressive.  They are also quite challenging because they move around so often and quickly.  Out of the thousands of photos I've shot, I'd say that 90% of them are of Darius.  I'm a shameless Poppa-razzi.  Every single photo I take of him is great.  Not because I'm a great photographer, but because the kid doesn't take a bad picture. I'm a proud father, what would you expect me to say? 

I hadn't posted this week, so I decided to take a few pictures tonight.   My model was watching his favorite show, Curious George, so I knew he wouldn't be running around like usual.  I quickly set up my softbox and snapped off a few shots.  As usual, he was completely locked onto the TV and wouldn't give so much as a glance in my camera's direction.  Then all of the sudden he became very interested, in other words George was over. He snapped out of his trance, started climbing on my light stand, turning knobs and  grabbing at my camera.  Guess this photo session is over.

Under the spell of Curious George

I wish my camera was a....

TGIF!  On the way to pick up Darius from daycare I was wondering about what to do for the weekend.  Enza was in Maine with friends till Sunday so it was just the boys for a few days.  Since didn't have to get home for for anything I stopped at Revere Beach.  We drive by almost every night because the way Darius says "go beeeeach!" amuses me.  Plus its only a minute from his daycare.  We took off our shoes and strolled around on the sand while Darius collected rocks.  Dinner time was approaching,  so I asked if my little man wanted chicken or pizza.  He screamed "CHICKEN!"  Decision made so off we went to the  "World Famous" Kelly's Roast Beef.  In the North Shore area of Massachusetts, where I live, every roast beef place claims they are world famous.  Kelly's is the only one that might actually live up to the claim.

We ordered dinner and headed off to find a spot to eat.  All the tables were full, as usual, so we sat at a bench.  I took Darius' meal out of the bag and grabbed him a chicken finger.  If he saw the french fries, he wouldn't touch the chicken.  We've learned to hide the fries till he he eats the rest of his meal, so I left them wrapped in foil.  I offered him the chicken and he slid off the bench and started running.  Guess he wanted pizza afterall.  He got about 10 steps away before I corralled him in and started back towards our food.  As we walked, I watched as 3 seagulls tore apart my son's dinner.  Clearly this was not their first rodeo.  They removed the foil from the plate and extracted the fries and chicken fingers with the precision of Seal Team 6.  The whole operation took about 5 seconds.  With full beaks, they flew off the the other side of the wall.

The scene of the crime
The predator birds lined up waiting for their next victim

My dinner was still in the bag, so they didn't touch it.  I still had one chicken finger in my hand so I gave it to Darius.  He took one bite and noticed the birds had dropped something on the ground.  "FRENCH FRIES!" As he was saying it, he tossed the rest of the chicken on the ground.    You gotta be shit'n me!  I looked for something to throw, but there wasn't anything around.  The seagulls were back on the wall again.  They were sitting there taunting me.  Waiting for us to walk away again so they could snatch the scraps left behind.  With every ounce of self control in me, we headed back to the car without a scene.  I sat in the car steaming and ate my roast beef sandwich. Darius ate my fries.  When we were done, I went back to shoot a few pictures. Thinking more of collecting evidence than composition and wishing the whole time that my camera was a gun.

Wish I was shooting bullets instead of pictures!

My Second Digital Camera

I remember being able to hear my own heart beat.  THUMP THUMP!  My palms were sweaty.  It was hard to swallow.  I nervously paced back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.  Our apartment was filled with roses, and candles and Stevie Wonder was playing in the background.  I needed a lifeline, so I phoned a friend.  Steve said something to the effect that he went through the very same thing as I was going through and not to worry because he was pretty sure the answer would be yes.  I was pretty sure the answer would be yes too, but that didn't make it any easier.  Finally, Enza came home, I got on my knee, cracked open the ring box and somehow managed to ask the question.  Turns out both Steve and I were right, she said yes.

We headed out and had an outstanding dinner.  We talked about our future together.  I started to think about how we're going to need to capture moments like this.  Starting with the sheer joy we were both experiencing knowing that we were going to be spending the rest of our lives together.  My mind began to race with other events that would need to be recorded like our apartment which was currently full of roses, the ring, our wedding, our honeymoon, our first house, our children...  What better to capture the memories with than a camera.  My first digital camera, my cell phone, wasn't going to cut it anymore.  We headed straight to Circuit City after dinner and made our first purchase as a newly engaged couple.  A digital camera!

 Sony Cybershot DSC-T33. 

5.1 Mega Pixels

Usually, I like to research  a purchase like this.  Not this time.  This was impulse buying at its finest.  Turns out it was a pretty decent camera and I was able to take pretty solid pictures with it and learn quite a bit.  Eventually, I did a little reading on composition and technique.  The more I read and looked at other people's photos I realized my camera was not allowing me to capture what I saw.  I would revieiw photos and they were OK, but something was missing. I always wanted to have the shallow depth of field that you see in professional photos and couldn't understand why I was unable to achieve it.  I spent pretty good money on this camera, why doesn't it do what I want it to do? 

The camera served us well right up through the list of events that raced through my mind during our engagement dinner.  I captured many memories with this camera.  Photos of our honeymoon in Hawaii, our cozy first house (a little too cozy now), our puppy and our first family photo in the delivery room after the birth of our son were all captured with this camera.
 

Kauai Sunset

Brutus

Darius

 Shortly after that I started to notice its limitations and one in particular that was extremely frustrating.  The dreaded shutter lag.  A newborn moves as quickly as they grow. With the shutter lag, the camera was always a second or so late.  I ended up with a lot side of his head pictures from him turning his head or a smear from trying to follow his movements.  I did get some good shots, but there were only so many blurry ear pics I could take.  I was convinced it was time for some new gear, now I just had to get my wife on board.

The Blur