What do you do when it snows AGAIN? Find cool stuff poking out of it

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My wife was gracious enough to let me just take off in the truck after Saturday morning’s circus adventure with the little guys. It was nap time for the rest of them, and 4×4 time for me and my cameras. 185 miles and several hours later, I found myself with a bunch of pretty cool images, an ice-encrusted truck, and a mission to investigate purchasing a set of snowshoes.

This is the first photo I wanted to post in this series, from beside a highway between Mercer and Wilton. As an information and communications junkie, I’m drawn to these old telephone poles that have long been out of service. Even better is one like this, with loose wires still attached…and modern wind turbines to boot! They may be an expensive and unreliable source of energy, but sometimes they can be photogenic.

As the title of this post indicates, I found a lot of interesting stuff poking out of the snow during my travels. You can expect those to slowly trickle in here on the ol’ Blog.

Luke Graner at the Belle Project

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My pal Luke Graner got a great opportunity last weekend: performing at the Belle Mehus civic auditorium as part of the Belle Project, an effort to bring local musicians to the auditorium. Naturally I took the opportunity to stop in with a couple of cameras.

If you aren’t familiar with Luke’s music, you don’t know what you’re missing. Using a Boomerang digital looping device, he redefines the term “one man band”. He’ll lay down multiple tracks of percussion, vocals, guitar, or even didgeridoo until he’s constructed an elaborate song. Sometimes he’ll peel back the layers at the end, and sometimes the song ends cold with all the Lukes in unison. I learned a lot about music simply watching this process.

One new treat was eldest son Jaxon chipping in for a couple of tracks. He seems quite comfortable on stage, even a stage such as this. As a dad myself I can only imagine how proud Luke must be that his boy can come up and partake in his passion on stage!

I don’t make many endorsements on this site. One that I will make is Luke’s music, which you simply must experience for yourself. In the meantime, you can visit him at lukegraner.com and find links to his MySpace page. Keep an eye out for his next performance, because you won’t want to miss it!

Glorious shade of winter

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Who says that winter has to be devoid of color? Not I. I don’t even recall where I spotted this barn at sunset, but I sure am glad I did. In fact, the only reason I say that this was a sunset photo is that I vaguely remember pointing my camera eastward when I took it. Boy, I should have had fewer concussions in my active youth!

Your message here

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I spotted this empty sign on a drive south of Bismarck yesterday afternoon. I risked getting the truck stuck in the mud as I eased off the roadway into the ditch, determined to get the shot. I eased slowly onto the grass, bolted out and slogged over to the fence, and did my photographic duty. I dashed back to the truck and started rolling again before the tires could sink into the mud, and eased back out onto the road as if nothing had happened. Then I got to home satisfied that my “long way home” travel route had paid off.

Sunset…moon?

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Yes, that’s right – the Golden Hour light provided near sunset can be extremely helpful in taking a nice shot of the visible moon. The waning sun’s effect on the sky has two effects, casting a pleasing tone on the moon as well as providing a well-lit backdrop. It’s harder to get a nice shot of the moon in a totally dark sky than it is in a nicely colored one.

Of course, both the tone of the moon and the tone of the sky are due to the sun’s effect on our atmosphere, not on the moon itself. Regardless of the “how”, the “what” is a pleasing tone of sky and moon that are more evenly matched than after dark.

If you like photography and have a good telephoto lens, try this sometime. I think you’ll be pleased with the result.

My encounter with the Whirling Chicken O’ Doom

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I’ve wanted to take a crack at photographing this chicken at the Village Mart in south Mandan for a while but wasn’t sure about how to treat the photo. I opted for a late night monochrome shot with plenty of grain. I don’t know if it makes it look spooky but my eye likes it. No actual chickens were harmed in the production of this photo…that I know of. The chicken ain’t talking.

A new dimension to my photography passion

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Lately I’ve had a little four year old helper on my photography trips! In this photo, little PJ is using my first digital camera, a point-n-shoot I got nearly ten years ago. He’s also wielded my Canon 20D and 7D DSLRs,although they are much more difficult for his little hands to hold.

He’s GOOD, too. So far I haven’t really given him any training other than to show him how to zoom and take the picture. I’m curious to see how he views his world through the viewfinder and am eager to see this perspective totally untainted by outside influence. In time I’ll teach him what I’ve learned about technique, but I do recognize that this kid has natural talent.

I’ve seen photos and video taken by adults with plenty of experience that are off-level, poorly framed, and the like…but PJ frames all his shots nearly perfectly level and has a good sense of perspective. I plan to nurture these talents in him and am beaming with pride to have a little photography buddy to go roaming in the truck with me!