Oh Baby!

My friend Crystal had her baby in early July and I had the chance to go by and see her new son this past week. Her husband Joe and her seem to really have taken their new responsibilities in stride. Their son is a very content baby and very beautiful. He slept a good portion of the time that I was there and when he was awake he was looking around taking everything in.

Of course I brought my camera and took some pictures of him. What I discovered is that babies are sort of like super models, you can't seem to get a bad picture of them. I took over 100 pictures of him and it was difficult to throw any out. They are of course some that have him blinking or sleeping, but overall a very cool experience.

Now I need to go back and continue editing these pics as the parents await. I just had to post a few here first.

Phone it in...

There are obviously very strong deterrents to cameras on mobile phones. Limited mega pixels, small sensor size that introduces digital noise, no shutter speed or aperture control and no built in flash. However since most people carry their phones the majority of the time, having a camera at a moments notice is better than not having one at all. In addition, the camera on mobile phones has a fixed focal length and is really a throw back to earlier cameras, such as the the Kodak Brownie and even Polaroids.

For practice I sometimes try to take photos with mobile phones just to see if I can capture a sense of place; and convey structure or pattern. I haven't been too successful so far but it will remain an ongoing project for me, as I think that using the simplest tools to create interesting images is part of the fun and can make one a better photographer.

Glamour Exposed

I tend to segment my life; so it is no surprise that I have kept some of my photography away from the more conservative posts that I have been showing in this blog. I've decided to go ahead and include some of this "other" photography.

I sometimes shoot glamour photography. There I said it. I've had a stigma about admitting this to people partly because my day job is working for a bank; and partly because I am in my early 40s and most of the glamour models I shot are in their early 20s. I didn't want to be labeled "that guy" you know the creepy guy with the camera, the one that goes around taking pictures of young girls. Anyway, after going through some of my images from some recent shoots I decided to post some on the blog and also post a link to my portfolio in the side bar. In this age where posting too much personal information can lead to all sorts of trouble, I hope that I don't live to regret this.

But to be honest, I like my shots. Far from being dirty or pornographic, I really try to photograph these women to bring out the intimate nature of their individual beauty. In addition, and I know that this might sound silly, but glamour photography has also taught me so much about the nature of light and its impact on illuminating the subject of the photograph. I know that these women are very beautiful, but the lighting surrounding these shots is much more difficult and technical then it appears. Believe me, it is very difficult work.

Ukulele unplugged live at gate C7

While waiting for a delayed flight on Friday afternoon, the Southwest Airlines gate agent began playing his ukulele and singing a few songs to keep us entertained. As I was sitting there watching him, I thought that the experience highlighted something about our culture in general. It seems that we have become so passive about our lives, (and I don't exclude myself in this) as we watch television, surf the internet and listen to our iPods, that we really don't know how to interact with each other any longer. This gate agent had to work pretty hard to get people to sing along with him, eventually he got people singing but it took some effort. I thought it was a unique experience and now he is famous through YouTube.

Please Stand By - Technical Difficulties

I've been having some technical issues the last few weeks so I wasn't able to post during that time. All seems resolved now, and I hope to be back to posting on a more frequent and consistent basis going forward.

In the mean time, does anyone want to purchase a slightly used MacBook? I decided between my photography and blogging I needed to upgrade my laptop to a MacBook Pro. So far so good, more power, more speed and more blogging.