FotoWeek 2010

During FotoWeek 2010 in Washington, D.C., different types of photos are projected on the outside of various buildings. The images below are photos from the new book THE PRESIDENT'S PHOTGRAPHER: Fifty Years Inside the Oval Office that were displayed on the outside wall of the Newseum.

While taking the photos, I was struck by how appropriate the words on the outside of the museum were to the photos being displayed, especially the second one of a frustrated Hurricane Katrina survivor.

"Oh Snap" - Week In The Life At Goddard

The last week in October 2010, Goddard Space Flight Center conducted a program for employees called "Oh Snap." The idea was to have employees take their own cameras and document the people, the buildings and the activities that  make up the center,  I didn't much of a chance to play with my camera due to a busy week but did manage to get a couple of shots.  Enjoy!

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Several employees took advantage of pretty fall colors that were on display around the lake that is on the center grounds and submitted shots in bold color. . I decided to take a different approach and shoot the lake with my little infrared camera. The Hubble Space Telescope looks at the universe in the infrared spectrum so I figured why not do the same to the center that is called "Home of the Hubble."

Goddard Lake - Infrared

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Building 32 at Goddard contains many of our Earth scientists so it seems very appropriate to show how the building interacts with Mother Nature!

Building 32 / East Campus - Infrared

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I've always thought the lobby inside Building 32 had a bit of a space ship loot k to it. Late on the last day of the "Oh Snap" program, I tried to get a few shots of employees leaving the "mother ship."

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Even though I didn't get a chance to shoot more during the official week-in-the-life program, my hope is to get some interesting shots in the coming months. Stay tuned for more!

Moonstruck in Annapolis

“There are moments in life, when the heart is so full of emotion That if by chance it be shaken, or into its depths like a pebble Drops some careless word, it overflows, and its secret, Spilt on the ground like water, can never be gathered together”

Henry Wadsworth Longellow

"Moonstruck in Annapolis"
Downtown Annapolis - Aug. 22, 2010

Making "Lighting Lemonade"

So the plan was to hang in a photo studio with fellow photographers and practice using multiple synched flash units to photograph a ballet dancer. Everything was going to plan.....the instructor was testing the set-up............

when the big Sunday storm rolled in and BANG, the power goes out!



But did we give up?  Nope!  We moved a few things around and took advantage of available window light and the light we could bounce off some reflectors!

And so yours truly was able to get some nice images.  Below are a couple of photos.

So while Mother Nature gave us a "lemon" by taking away the power needed for our strobe flash units, she also gave us the chance to make some "lighting lemonade."

Simply The Best

O.K. Technically this is the second photo posted to my new blog. But in fact the first one was just a placeholder to get things established so this is REALLY the first official posting.  I make this distinction because this photo carries the title of "best photo I have ever taken." The #1 rating isn't because it is perfectly composed, exposed, etc. It gets top honors because it captures exactly how I feel about the time my family and I spent on the Outer Banks of North Carolina when I was growing up. I've taken lots of great pictures of the OBX area but this is the best one in achieving Henri Cartier description of "To take a photograph is to align the head, the eye and the heart. It is a way of life."

Photo Credit:  Soundside of Outer Banks at sunset - September 2002.

Here begins something new.

When the CBS show "SUNDAY MORNING" began in 1979, the original host of the show, Charles Kuralt, begin the first show with the words "Here begins something new." While I am still determined to re-establish a website of my photography at some point, I am thinking this blog may be a good vehicle for sharing some of my images with family, friends and fellow photography lovers. Oh, in addition to the photographs, you may on occasion also be provided with some of my brilliant, engaging, witty (but modest) thoughts too.

Photo: Photographer participating in an Ansel Adams Photography Workshop, Summer 2006.