It’s a shot I took of some monks at Haeinsa Temple in South Korea. The temple stay program there is featured as one of Rough Guides’ 1000 must-do experiences. It’s an interesting book with tons of ideas for adventurous travel. Some of them I’ve already experienced but so many more of them I have not. So much to do, so little time. Anyway, I thought it was interesting that this particular usage would pop up just as I was having thoughts of making the most of my own time on earth.

I’ve been busy planning upcoming trips and trying to get my stock files fed at various agencies. Good work to do when it’s cold and snowy out. More on the upcoming travel plans later but, for any cat people out there, I’ll leave you with an update on our broken-legged cat. You may remember that Caper fell from an upstairs bannister and broke his leg around Thanksgiving. After two surgeries and weeks of seclusion in a room emptied of anything he might jump on, Caper has finally been cleared to resume all cat duties. He’s still hesitant to make the big jumps but he’s getting around really well. Here he’s enjoying watching the snow fall:

I had brought the camera to the living room window to shoot the snow-covered redbud tree in the front yard. As I was framing the shot, an SUV came sliding down the street, out of control. I instinctively tracked the car’s path with my Nikon and fired off a burst of shots just as it slammed into the neighbor’s mailbox across the street. The driver then left without so much as a “sorry ’bout that”. I jotted down the license number as they drove away and reported the incident to our local police, following up with an email that included the series of photos along with one enlargement of the car’s plates. Needless to say, the neighbors were quite pleased.

Getting back into my walking schedule, I headed out into fog once again this morning. Other than a good thunderstorm, I think fog is my favorite weather. Scenes are simplified, colors muted, and it’s so quiet. A lot safer to be out shooting in than a thunderstorm, too.

Here’s one more from this morning that I tried a little texture experiment on:

I’ve intended to shoot the White Cloud Flea Market in the tiny riverside town of White Cloud, Kansas for decades but it’s held only two weekends a year and in seasons where I’m usually on the road. I finally made it this year and have to say that it’s an experience. Sort of a Woodstock for junk dealers. I loved it.

All of the above shots came from the tent of my favorite dealer who was actually at the overflow flea market in the small town of Sparks. Yes, there’s so much stuff that one tiny town and its surrounding farmland can’t seem to hold it all. In fact, I think there were more dealers in Sparks and more of a community atmosphere. This particular tent proved my earlier theory that anything is cool when gathered in large quantities (the exception to this rule is food, which can become downright disgusting when seen in quantities larger than a plate). Bin after bin of toys, toy parts, house numbers, gears, etc. were a visual treasure trove for me. We bought some things, too, including an excruciatingly brightly colored ’70s-era Japanese pachinko game that will soon have a very special place in the new house.

The rack of vintage sunglasses below is from the White Cloud market but the tattooed gentleman was a vendor at the Sparks market. A great guy who spotted me photographing a John Belushi figurine and wanted me to see his Blues Brothers tattoo. All-in-all a great day.

No, I didn’t have a trip-and-fall, I’m just doing what it takes to get the angle during my shoot yesterday with Duncan Aviation in Lincoln, Nebraska. I’m under contract to not publish anything from the shoot until the magazine comes out but Sally had no such restrictions on what she could grab with her iPhone. So there you go.

It was a great shoot. The sky wasn’t the ideal but at least it wasn’t raining buckets like the evening before. We made it work. And the folks at Duncan couldn’t have been nicer. Really, really great people to work with. If I had my own personal jet, I’m sure I’d have them do my maintenance.

It could happen.

On the drive home, it was easy to tell when we crossed back into Kansas:

These were all shot on my Nikon D700 at ISO 800. Then I ran into Doug, who goaded me into using ISO 6400 for the first time…

Somehow I don’t think it will be the last time I tread in that high-ISO territory. The results were remarkably good. Thanks, Doug — looking forward to seeing some of your shots!

Okay. So, by now, you’ve probably noticed a change in my posting schedule. Like… I’m hardly posting.

I’ve been off the road for four weeks now. Four weeks. That’s almost unheard of for me. It’s not due to the economy — it’s actually been somewhat purposeful. It was time to recharge. Time to stay home for a bit. Time to pretend to be a normal person.

So what have I been doing? I’m slipping into routines. The above is my Saturday morning; 7:00 a.m. at the farmer’s market, then find some breakfast downtown where there’s sidewalk seating. This is my new life. Not too bad.

I’ve also taken on some affectations that I’m not sure are healthy. Top of the list is that I’ve started mowing the lawn in diagonals. I’ve seen people do this for years but I never thought I’d be one of them. Huh. I’m not shooting many photos other than with my iPhone (like the above) and I haven’t worn a backpack for over a month. Who am I?!?

Have no fear — I haven’t given up the life of the nomad altogether. In fact I’ve just signed on to teach a Photoshop and Lightroom workshop in Guadalajara in October and I have several other domestic assignments between now and then. More will also be added, I’m sure. It will be good to hit the road again. The road is one of my favorite places. Home is good, too. Balancing the two is the best.

I finished up the first week of shoots with JNA Advertising and Gizmo on Friday with Lori and Ryan in their wheat field in central Kansas. The next four days will bring ten more subjects in as many towns with lots of road hours in between. Everyone has been great to work with so far and I thank all of these folks for being such great sports.

I’ve been slacking on my posting duties lately due to… well… my slacking. It’s been busy, too. Not going to complain about that.

So, tomorrow morning I’m off for a week of shooting in Michigan. Should be a blast. I’ll post if I can reform my slacking ways.

Oh, and an update on my Alamy goal for May 1st? Yeah. I didn’t meet it. What are ya gonna do. Still… I made progress and that’s something. Sales have been up, my click through rate has been around twice the Alamy average. Again… I’m not going to complain.

Nose to the grindstone. You do what you can do. And the client work always comes first.

Off to the lake!

Busy days lately but I took a day off to go shoot with my K4/Photodudes buddies on Friday. The sky was mostly dreary but opened up once or twice like it did here at a one room schoolhouse in the Flint Hills near the ghost town of Volland. Hardly a lost day, though, as it was really more about hanging with other photographers than getting marketable shots. Looking forward to the next trip, guys — let’s make it soon.

One more week until I’m on the road again headed for Albuquerque. Still lots of Egypt shots to share so I’ll try and get a few online before I go.

If anyone suffered retinal damage from the two previous, intensely-colorful posts, I’ll offer a couple of soothing, nearly-colorless images today. We’ve been getting some snow lately and yesterday morning there was also a light fog so I thought it might be a good time to get out and do some testing of the new equipment. The shot above was made with the full-frame Nikon D700 and the Nikkor 17-35 at 35mm. I’ll try not to keep saying this but it is soooo nice to have that lens back as it was intended. The cropped factor of the previous Nikon bodies reduced the 17mm end to the equivalent of a 25 — not nearly as fun and a real loss when it came to interior work.

This shot is from the D300 with the 24-120 kit lens that came with the 700. This will be my first lens with vibration reduction so it will be interesting to see how it fares. The image above was made at the long end of the zoom at 120mm, roughly equivalent to 180mm since it was on the cropped-sensor body. I’m looking forward to having a full-frame and cropped-sensor body as it really expands the range of the lenses I carry. I imagine I’ll keep a wide on the D700 most of the time and take advantage of the crop factor on the D300 to get that extra telephoto reach.