Category Archives: ramblings

Life is a blur

Warming up the thoroughbreds

I think I’ve shown other shots from this series on my previous blog but I don’t think I’ve shown this one in particular. It’s from last Spring in Lexington, Kentucky. The jockeys were giving the thoroughbreds their morning warm ups at Keeneland. I was looking for a blurry, almost abstract image and experimented with several shutter speeds to get different amounts of blur. This one was 1/5 of a second at f/14. With speeds that slow I was only getting two or three shots on each pass so it was a bit hit-or-miss.

I’m posting this photo today because – 1. I didn’t want a week to go by without posting (bad me!), and 2. this is kind of how my life feels this week. It’s all a blur. As I’ve mentioned, I’ll be leaving for the Canadian Rockies at the end of the week and I have a lot to get done before I can head to the airport. Usually I use weekends as my compression valve to get things done that I know I won’t have time for during the week but this was a busy weekend as well.

Saturday we attended PodCampMidWest in Kansas City. We met lots of great folks (hey everyone!) and learned a lot about the podcasting industry. This will make more sense to you as the year wears on but consider it a clue to some of the exciting new projects that I hinted are in the works for 2008. More on that later.

Sunday was my chance to hit the office and make some progress but a freakish rain/thunder/snow storm hit and as I was driving downtown around 8:00 in the morning the ice and slush was terrible. I was driving on a straight section of road, not accelerating, not braking, and the car decided to suddenly go into a spin (Mom, if you’re reading this, I’m okay). Time went into slow motion as a brick retaining wall was coming closer and closer but, luckily, no traffic. Finally, my tires got enough grip that I could stop but I was now facing the wrong direction. Seemed like a sign that I should head back home… so I did. Nothing got done at the office that morning but I was able to make it in around noon and crank out a few projects.

Today’s been a blur, too, and looking ahead at the calendar it looks like I’ll need to be at full-power for the rest of the week. Maybe I can sleep on the plane.

So, I’ll try to post again soon and definitely — technology willing — several times from the road. Wish me luck!

Kansas Democratic Caucus

Kansas Caucus

I attended the Democratic Caucus last night and tucked my little Panasonic LX1 into my pocket to grab a few shots of the scene. I wasn’t sure what to expect but it certainly wasn’t the swarms of energetic folks that I encountered. We had over 900 people crammed into one room not counting media and observers. People were chanting and shouting for their candidates — it was great to see so many people excited about politics and the future direction of our country. Let’s hope the enthusiasm continues. It’s going to be an amazing year.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the guy on the chair was listening to the announcements being made on stage and then shouting them into our crowd that was standing to the side. It was impossible to hear the speaker herself. You can also pick out our Governor in the pink jacket behind him and down to the right.

Change

Toronto bus

Think of that bus as the new year screaming past. The first week of 2008 is nearly behind us and there are only 51 more to go. Time truly does fly.

It looks like the theme of my 2008 will be change. I know, everyone is talking about change these days — especially politicians — but I have other changes in mind. Plenty of them. Among the first is this blog and my new website. I’m changing the way I’ll be marketing myself as a photographer this year and the new online presence is just part of that effort. More on those plans in the coming months. I also find myself doing more teaching this year. I’ve taught Photoshop at University level before but I’m now beginning to do more workshop-style classes.

But this is just the beginning of the changes in store for me in 2008.

There will be other changes as well. One big change is that we plan on moving this year. We’ve been in our current house for over 20 years and we’ve wedged ourselves in quite well. It will be no easy task to extricate ourselves and relocate but it’s an exciting time and I’m looking forward to it.

There are other changes in store but I can’t talk about them all at this point. Lots of things that are still in the research and thinking stage but you can be sure I’ll share details with you all when I can.

Suffice it to say, it’s going to be a busy year.