Summer Nights

Something about a summer night.  Especially the lighting.  Plus, spending it with the one you love makes it all the better.

Not exactly as planned

Went over to the old Zoar Bridge tonight to take some pictures.  The lighting was beautiful and I didn't want to pass it up.  I decided to give HDR another go, but when I got home, I wasn't too happy with the outcome on some of them.  That was until I made them black and white.  Pretty happy with the outcome.

Stepping back in time a different way

If you have ever visited this site before, you may notice that I take a lot of pictures of military reenactments.  I have a page of links dedicated to just that.  There is something very fascinating to me about people living, if only for a weekend, a lifestyle from the past.  I just love taking pictures of that.  This past weekend offered me a chance to do it again, but this time it was different.  There wasn't any guns, wool uniforms or which side is which.  It was about artists and swing music.  Some friends of mine belong to a group of artists know as Dr. Sketchy Cleveland Anti-Art School.  They were invited to take part of another event being held this weekend in Cleveland called the All Balboa Weekend, which like at a reenactment, people get dressed up in the fashions of the period.  But this type of reenactment is different. Replace the uniforms and camp life with snazzy outfits and some really cool swing music.  So how did we get to do this, you might ask?  You see, my wife used to draw.  Pretty much in the same way I used to take black and white images and develop them in my basement.  Our friend, (and astounding artist, Craig), invited Denise to come up and draw with the group and for me to bring my camera along to capture the event.  He even gave me a fancy fedora hat with a "Press" tag in it to wear.  Denise was a little concerned about feeling out of place with the Sketchy folks having not done it in a while.  But almost right away you could see that spark ignite in her eye and she drew the entire time and loved it.  I was so happy to see that come alive in her again.

So the idea was for the artists to draw models that were also attendees of the Balboa event.  Dressed in their finest wear, the models would stand or sit for 15 minutes at a time while the group drew them.  It really was fascinating to watch as each one of the artists drew what they saw.  And made it great for me because I had multiple things to take pictures of.  Truly, a great night.

Link to the full set of images here.

The world of HDR

Thought I would give HDR another try today.  Takes some patients and a lot of tries.  I'm happy with these two.  The others ones didn't turn out as great as I wanted.  But, like everything else, it's a constant learning process.  And a fun one.

Summer Storm

Love this shot I grabbed with my iPhone on the way home from work today.