FEBRUARY 13 THROUGH 18

FEBRUARY HEAT WAVE

Seventy degrees??!!?!?! Heck yeah. That had to have been some kind of record for this time of year. I sweated, forgot to leave my coat at home, remembered to bring my shades and mistakenly ordered a piña colada when there was still snow on the ground. Amazing.  The geese started to invade, the sky came out and made the endorphines flow. Enjoy.

FEBRUARY 12

UPPER LIMITS

It’s been a long winter that has left me with very little work. I did get the chance to cover a rock climbing competition, though, and loved it. My original intention was to learn to climb and shoot simultaneously for some awesome images like  the following that have inspired me:

Image from: http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/outdoor-activities/adventure-photography/take-rock-climbing-pictures.htm

That didn’t actually pan out like I wanted it. I’m not an expert climber and all of the ropes were put away because contestants weren’t using them. If anyone reading this post would trust me to free climb upside down and directly above them without the use of ropes, stop, rethink it and change your mind. Instead I had a 15(ish) foot ladder, a balcony, a set of stairs, and the opportunity to lay down for some cool low angles. The light was challenging and the entire scenario was new to me. This shoot had a brand new ‘shape.’ It took me back to 1996-97 when I was a skater. I was about to land a couple of sponsors and would spend hours and hours at the skatepark. Walking into Upper Limits felt like rolling onto the skatepark with my friends. Everyone there was friendly to each other, shared their passion for the sport and just wanted to have a good time. I loved it so much, in fact, that I think I’ll start climbing. Here are some of the shots. Enjoy.

UPPER LIMITS

326 S. 21st St.
St. Louis, MO 63103
(314) 241-7625

Check these guys out!

FEBRUARY 5 THROUGH 11

AFTER THE STORM

Two weeks. That’s how long it’s been since I posted last. Amazing. The good thing is that I’m still shooting everyday, but the bad thing is that I’m not getting it posted. I’ve got three posts to put up today….don’t know if I’ll make it. Feb 5-11 were the first days after the storm where the snow was waiting around, laying there, mocking my need for new tires.  I spent less time outside than I wanted to, and I might have been suffering some cabin fever. I shot around, though. Here is what I got. Enjoy.

p.s. these are in no particular order

FEBRUARY 1 THROUGH 4

STORM OF THE CENTURY

What a joke. I know, I know some people actually got the entire foot of snow that they were calling for. There were accidents and there was some ice on the ground. I get a bit snobby (if that’s the right word) about these winter storms and what the media does. As a former resident of Wyoming, I think the coldest I experienced [while walking to school] was somewhere around -20. Not kidding. We did get our snow days, though. I remember watching silver-dollar sized snowflakes blanketing the city of Cheyenne at a tremendous rate. I would dig tunnels. When I lived in the Pacific Northwest, I remember this powdery deep snow hitting us every once in a while, or some slushy wet stuff really messing things up. Funny, when I lived in Alaska the weather was really nice.

I was in my last semester of high school when I moved to St. Louis. I never really got many snow days until I came here. I had never seen schools close due to a forecast of bad weather. It made me giggle when the forecast ended up being wrong and school was cancelled on a chilly dry winter day. I understand that each region has it’s particular climate, and people living there are used to it and have adapted. No problem, St. Louis. I know that the blazing humid heat in the summer time can make you forget, but there will always be a winter. Each of my 13 winters here has been frigid.  All you need is some extra layers, a good pair of shoes and some gloves and you can pretty much conquer anything out there. Just be safe on the roads.

(ending my weather rant here)

Here are my shots from the last couple of days. Enjoy

JANUARY 28-31

GRAND EDITION

It’s official. I’ve begun to mix up my photo’s dates now. I’m not sure which photo is from which day anymore. Between the four cameras that I’ve been enjoying for this project and not giving each photo it’s own individual blog post, I’ve got them mixed up. I don’t think it’s a big bummer though. The result is that I’ve got some extras thrown in here and there. This set spans from the Central West end at Chi (http://chibarstl.com/) to downtown at The Sidebar (http://www.myspace.com/thesidebarstl) to my brother’s place in Wildwood and back home again. I’ve captioned almost all of them because this set is too big to write a paragraph about each one. The one that isn’t captioned is probably one of my favorite shots of all time.

Hope you enjoy. Thanks for looking.

JANUARY 25 THROUGH 27

TEXTURES AND PATTERNS

There is something to be said about this project. No matter how busy I am or how tired or how much I want to take a break, I’ve commited myself to shooting a photo a day. It’s transforming me. When I first picked up a camera, I would give myself self assignments. From these early self assignments, I trained my beginner’s eye to watch and focus on the subject I was looking for. This project is very similar. Only now, instead of watching for a particular type of subject, the idea is to bring anything in my life to the blog via photographs…..one for every day.

For the last couple of days I’ve been noticing some patterns, textures and contours. What I’ve done is thrown some light onto them in a way to try and accentuate the texture or the pattern. Just know this, the grooves of a record is a difficult subject. lol

I chose four photos from the last three days to put up. Thanks for looking!

As I was collecting images for this set, I noticed that modern houses have much less texture in them. What happened to the shag carpet, textured walls and tile backsplashes?

A Mayan calendar, a chessboard. The pieces are red and white. White is the side of the Spanish conquistadores, and Red are the native Mayan indians. It’s handmade. It’s awesome.

This pattern is more of a daily repetitive action. A pattern in time. Add a couple of dollars daily for VACATION!!! (and for a cup of coffee every once in a while)

You get to decide what this one is for yourself.

JANUARY 24

KEEP WARM

I heard that the high today is supposed to be 27 degrees. If I learned correctly in first grade, 32-27=5. So what I understood is that we would have a high of 5 below freezing. Well, then why is everything dripping and melting? Blue skies have brightened all of the old trampled snow we have, and it seems like we have risen above freezing. Awesome. But it’s still pretty cold out there, so I’m going stay inside for a long time with my coffee and a set of wedding photography that I shot recently. I’ve got editing to do, a girlfriend who might come home sick and three dogs to let out and feed. I should be able to stay pretty busy today. So, since I’ll be around to maintain it, I warmed up the fireplace for today’s photo of the day. You should do the same. Even if it’s a space heater in your cubicle, heated seats in your car, your favorite warm coat or a hot cup of joe; stay warm. Here’s today’s photo, thanks for looking.

JANUARY 23, 2011

STALAGTITES OF ICE

Just when I thought that Spring was going to start creeping on us we get slammed with some powder. Fortunately, where I was, there wasn’t much wind and not too much ice. Even though I would like to see the sun coming 0ut more, this snow has given me some super rad photography. I really want the warmth of Spring, not to mention the portrait business that it brings, but I also love the snow. It gives me a reason to throw some cocoa and sugar into some milk on the stove, whip up some hot breakfast and get cozy before I go out into what is almost a surreal white world. As a photographer, I need and love light. With the snow on the ground the light is bouncing all over. At night, even, the moonlight can give us a bright night with all of the moonlight bouncing off of the snow. I really love snow and all of the adventure it brings. The icicles in front of our house are now about four feet long and growing.  Living in Wyoming, I learned that these things can get pretty dangerous when Spring starts to knock them down but they’re not over any walkways so right now, they’re just plain awesome. Check these guys out!

JANUARY 16 THROUGH 22

THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE

My 365 project has been a great learning experience so far, and I’m only three weeks in. I’ve had a camera on me every day and shot many photos, my mind has been watching light more than ever before and I have a new excitement about photography, but I’m missing one thing. I need to keep my personal photos more organized! I haven’t made it to the blog in a couple of days, even thought I have shot some really cool stuff. The photo above is the main feature of this post and is an example of my brain getting into the action of the project. I stepped outside to watch the snowfall during the storm the other day, and thought if I used the right lens and lights, I might be able to see some crystals…viola!

Now, I’ve been doing a lot of shooting on film lately, and I’m going to have to get some developed. I’ve got two cameras with film in them, nine finished rolls to drop off, and ten(ish) to pick up from the camera shop. So since all of the shooting hasn’t been digital, I haven’t got all of my pictures. 8( I’ll make it up to you guys but I hope you enjoy what I’ve got. Thanks for looking!

Piranha at my brother’s place.  He was telling me that he’s getting an algae problem in his freshwater tank. Pet Co. told him to get an algae

eating fish. Hmmmm…that would be some expensive piranha food I think

I love my dogs and they love each other. They seem to love to play [loudly] most often when Laura and I are settling down to watch some tv. I love

it when they’re tuckered out and ready to sleep!

Snowscape after the storm.

Snowscape after the storm.

JANUARY 15

WEDDING FOR BARRY DAVIS

Saturday I shot a ton of photos. I was on a wedding.  Because of an unfortunate tragedy I was shooting alone that day. Ann and Aaron (the bride and groom) were awesome and laid back when they learned that I would be shooting solo, when the ceremony musicians were a half hour late, and when we had to completely skip taking photographs at the park because of the schedule crunch we were put in. Wow. This was the total opposite of bridezilla and I was glad to be there. Thanks Ann and Aaron!!

Click on any photograph to view it at a larger size. Thanks for looking.