I finally got a chance to try out the Leko spotlight that we have had in the studio for nearly a year. Actually we have two, but since I still have not built stands for them, they have just been kicking around. This time I REALLY wanted to use it to get that accurate spotlight look, so I bolted the darned thing to our ladder and made do.
Fun! The black background begs for some kind of hair light to make her stand out a bit more, but as I said, I was going for the spotlit starlet look, and that is what I got. Our studio is a bit small for spotlights, but these Leko's have adjustable barn doors built in so I can iris down the light as needed, plus they are adjustable for width of the beam itself. I will definitely make use of them again. I might not even clean the lenses so I keep the light a bit gritty.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Let There Be Leko Light!
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Wrong In All The Right Ways
Every once in a while, things go wrong in all the right ways. Yesterday I had a client in the studio to do some pin-up / burlesque promotional shots. It was going to be fun. She is smart, sassy, and photogenic. The studio is a coöperative with three shooters sharing space, rent, and equipment, It let all three of us enter into studio shooting without brutal overhead start up costs. We all had some equipment, and once pooled together it becomes a fine array of tools. While the arrangement works 99% of the time, there are always those moments where things do not go right.
When I arrived at the studio to set up my environment, there was a light missing. No real worries, there were still enough for what I wanted to do, but it was one of the known lights. I subbed in one of the new shooter's lights and set it up how I thought I wanted it. When the client - Madison's own Wendy Whiplash - arrived I had her strike a pose while I verified the lights. It was not right. But it worked out any way, just not at all what was intended. Sometimes a good, fun shot can come out of small mishaps.
This was the first photo of the day, and I thought it was going to be a tosser. Once I tweaked the levels a bit, and played with saturation, I decided I liked it quite a lot. It might not be what the client is looking for, but it is one I am happy to share as a happy accident.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
One Barrel
Life continues to be crazy busy. Much of it is good, but it still doesn't leave much spare time. The Madison office of my employer is closing, so I am now job hunting again. They gave us several months warning, so there is no emergency, but it still adds a complexity I did not need right now. One small perk of the whole situation is that the boss decided that everyone should get the heck out of the office early on Friday, so I did.
It turns out that a brand new "nano brewery" (smaller than a micro brewery) was opening as a brewpub, in my neighborhood, and at 4 PM. How convenient! I showed up about five minutes to four and found myself the eighth person in a line that grew almost instantly to about seventy-five. When the doors opened we all filed in nicely and grabbed a spot. Within a few minutes of he doors opening, the place was jammed. This was a truly Wisconsin moment.
The place is called One Barrel, because as a nano brewery they are brewing only one barrel at a time. I think they need to brew their butts off to keep up! They are supplementing their beers with other local brewery's offerings. I only stayed for one - their summer kölsch style - and then I turned my stool over to another thirsty patron and went to meet friends elsewhere, and then on to a rehearsal.
I am really glad that circumstances played out in a way that let me experience the giddy grand opening of One Barrel. It seems like they have a good thing going and I wish them great success.
Prosit!
Monday, June 11, 2012
Life is crazy busy right now. I find myself yet again - against my better judgement and intentions - of rehearsing for four aerial dance pieces at once for an August show. That means a LOT of time for physical activity that I greatly enjoy, but less time for indulging my camera for fun. And blogging. So this will be a bit of a potpourri, a catching up post of recent diversions.
I have been catching a bit more music lately. Having a job means discretionary funds, which means I go out and spend money on goods and services, and therefore local business and performers benefit - no wealthy "job creator" needed to jump start the process (something our political Right does not seem to understand). So my wallet is open, and when I have free time, I am more inclined to do some fun things that were sort of on hiatus for a couple of years. And with fun free-time, comes just-for-fun photos!
It is pretty much summer here now, and that means the start of outdoor music festivals. Madison has a great lineup of four "neighborhood" festivals that have gotten really large and bring in big crowds and cool music (sometimes to the dismay of the neighborhood being inundated). The first of those was this past weekend: The Marquette Water front Festival. I did not catch a lot of it - busy, remember? - but I did make time for a few hours on Sunday. I caught Paul Cebar (above photo) and Rubblebucket (below photo).
As it sounds, the Waterfront Festival is on the shores of one of Madison's four lakes - Monona - and is free to the community, funded by some grants and a lot of beer sales. It is two days of pretty good fun. This year the weather was hot, with a cool breeze off the lake, making it a fantastic start to the summer.
I hope I have time to enjoy the rest of it!
Saturday, May 26, 2012
The scene of the grime...a sheet-draped chair casually placed in a sunny back yard, but just in the shade of a neighbor's tree, with a side table placed just so.
The co-conspirators, altering their appearance with a natural substance...
. . . 
and after the deed is done, his appearance altered, Nataraj again is a ginger.
Bring on the summer!
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
After All These Years
My wife and I have been married just shy of twenty-five years. Amazingly, there is no sense of boredom or regret. Rather the opposite is true. We are friends and companions who look forward to spending time together. Yesterday when I arrived home from work, this little sentiment was waiting for me, as well as a garage door popped open so I didn't have to fumble for my key to pull the motorcycle in.
This is one example of what love looks like. After all these years, she still felt the desire to chalk a heart to greet me. And after all these years, I laughed with delight and fell in love, again, a little bit more.
*bliss*
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Often those last fleeting moments before the sun disappears can be amazing. This is in my back yard, and the backyard neighbor's house and tree clip the sun before I get to the real "golden hour" but this definitely caught my eye.
It has been an intensely busy few weeks, and I have not been capturing much with the camera. I was on the phone when I snapped this. Multitasking!
Monday, April 30, 2012
I love my morning coffee. Apparently, my morning coffee also loves me.
I brew it a cup at a time, generally with freshly ground beans. I have an espresso maker, very manual, and I put in enough ground coffee for a single pull of espresso. Then I run the machine until I have an 8 ounce cup, so not espresso, but more like an Americano. The advantage is that rather than an espresso diluted with water to make an 8 oz serving, I run all the water through the grounds so it's all coffee. With a nice rich, thick head of crema. Mmm!
And nothing accompanies a good cup of coffee like a cookie, especially a chocolate chip cookie.
This particular batch happens to be an experimentation with a classic recipe. To the normal Toll House recipe - the best I have tried - I added 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. I also reduced the sugar by 20%, but that's just my personal preference. So these are a pretty darned good cookie that bites back just a little bit. I do believe it is my new favorite variation.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
If you get up early enough in the morning, you can get some really dramatically lit photos. The angle of the sun, the relative color of the light is more warm/yellow than in the noon hours, and the dew is still on the flowers and grass. Or, like me, you can sleep in and manipulate your camera to achieve results that are similarly dramatic.
See it in B&W here.
These were taken at about 8:30 this morning, and to be fair to myself, the house across the street blocks the sun on this part of the yard until around then anyway, so why bother being up at the crack of dawn?
I have a bumper crop of dandelions on my front terrace. Every time the city does me a favor and reseeds after they finish work, I get noxious weeks where my grass used to be. Thanks Mayor, but maybe we'd be happier if the crews just left mud behind. Then I could seed my own grass and not your mix of dandelions, creeping charlie, and crab grass. Where do you get that mix anyway?
And Nala has again proven herself trustworthy being outside in the yard unleashed and unattended. She remains inside the fence, and so pretty much gets to spend as much time out there as she wants (when we are at home...as Reagan said, "Trust, but verify.") That makes her a happy kitty, and me a happy kitty 'owner'. She even likes it on chilly mornings when it is 37 degrees (F) and the grass is wet with dew.
Life is good.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
For now I intend to enjoy it
Wow, almost two full weeks since I posted. It has been crazy busy those two weeks, but still! Last weekend I directed and performed three pieces in an aerial dance show. It went well, and the audiences seemed to enjoy it. I am glad it is done. I had almost every evening this past week free. Mostly I sat and stared.
Today I had to do a bunch of the things that had been neglected like errands, cleaning the accumulated neglect of several weeks out of the living room, and mowing the lawn. Fortunately that last one means being outside, and so there is no reason not to have my camera around for a few pics of the yard. Things have sure changed in two weeks!
The bleeding hearts are all in full bloom, and likely near their peak. At the moment, not much else is blooming. Our tulips are all "late bloomers" and the daffodils and hyacinth are done. Iris should be soon. So, it is bleeding hearts and trillium.
Our white trillium are rescued. That is the only legitimate way to have them here in Wisconsin as they are protected. We rescued ours about 10 years ago when a small woods was bulldozed for more farm land. We brought home three. Happily they seem to be thriving, and propagating. We now have seven in bloom.
Nala got to be outside with me a bunch too. She loves to stalk the birds, but she does not seem to be adept at catching them. That is fine with me. She also recently discovered earthworms at twilight. They seem to mystify her!
Life is good, and this moment of exhalation is especially savory. All too soon we will be back in rehearsal mode for the summer show, and free time will disappear again. So for now, I intend to enjoy it.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
After being so proud of our cat Nala's willingness to train herself to remain within our fenced in back yard, she blew it a couple of weeks ago and went on walkabout. It was the first really balmy evening and she REALLY wanted to go out. She bypassed the fence and was a house or two away when we called for her. She came back, but we whisked her inside and let her know that she was "grounded". Out came the leash and collar - which she hates. After a couple of experiences with the leash, seh quit asking to go out. Yet it was clear she wanted to. After nearly two weeks of no-outside, we started the training regimen again: Escorting her outside, short trips, and routine check-ups. Over a few days we made her forays longer and our spot checks less frequent (maybe every 15-20 minutes). Oh, and I repaired three spots in the fence that made it simple for her to walk out.
She is earning our trust again and being rewarded with time outside again.
To say she is loving it is an understatement. It works great for us too, as we can let her out and be (reasonably) confident that she gets it, and will not stray. We do not have to de-tangle her leash ever few minutes either. When we work outside on the gardens, she gets to be a companion.
Speaking of the garden, such a difference a few days make this time of year! The first ferns were just starting to unroll on Sunday, and now there are dozens (scores) unfurling. Everything is up!
Unfortunately that means the grass already needs mowing too. Ah well, the good with the bad. If it does not rain on Saturday, I will mow and enjoy the time outdoors.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Everyone was at the Arboretum
Everyone and her brother was at the UW Arboretum yesterday. It was no surprise, really. The gorgeous (freakishly warm) weather we have had for the last two weeks or so has made all the flowering trees erupt into bloom. The magnolias in particular are covered in blooms. Unfortunately the warm weather will also insure that the period they are in bloom is brief. So, smart Madisonians were out en masse yesterday to enoy them.
Magnolias always look a bit mess to me once they open up; they are such sprawling, slightly disheveled looking blooms. There is beauty there to be sure.
I guess I prefer them, or appreciate them more, when they are still budded, perhaps just starting to open up. Perhaps it is the potential of the flower I am seeing.
Not much else was really going on flower-wise this week. I saw one lilac in bloom, so next week should be great for them. There were daffodils and jonquils in bloom, and while I have those in my own yard, sometimes there is still an opportunity to photograph on in a different way.
Oh, and a pair of Sandhill cranes, the first I have seen this year, flew overhead while I was there.
Go outside! Poke at the dirt. Look and see what is coming up and what is already in bloom. Do not let the blush of spring pass you by!
Saturday, March 24, 2012
No harsh shadows and rich, saturated color...
Today is one of those drippy, not-quite-rainy days that sort of define spring in Wisconsin. The light is diffuse and everything is wet with drops clinging and generally enhancing things. No harsh shadows and rich, saturated color ... perfect!
These cinnamon ferns generally unroll in a tight little circle. This one caught my eye because of the elongated curl. I suppose if it could speak it would holler at me for making it look fat!
Daffodils always look great when they are wet, but they also point their bloom at the ground so it is tough to get an interesting photo that captures the dewy wetness and the face of the flower. I tried.
I have a small patch of mayapples too, and they always delight me with their unfurling shape.
Happy spring!
