Tuesday, December 27, 2011

The Finale



It’s time to close out another year of sharing my photography here on the blog.   As I have mentioned several times this year, my work with the Nature Visions Expo had an unintended side effect.  It reduced the time I had available to get out and shoot but  I’m not complaining  The Expo is a prestigious event and I’m honored to do my part.  The fact remains that I need to find a way to better manage my time so I still have time to pursue my passion, photography. 

The shot above was taken at the JW Cooper School in Shenandoah, PA.  I spent the day here last August with friends Corey Hilz, Jeff Johnson, and Andy Jezioro.  The owner of the building is in the process of trying to stabilize the property and make some improvements.  It is very much a work in process and he was very kind in allowing us to shoot here all day.   Visiting this area it is quite clear that the local economy is struggling.    It turns out that at one time Mahanoy City was a boom town but that was about 100 years ago.  While the coal industry is still active, I suspect that the activity is a fraction of what it once was.   

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Concrete City


If you follow my blog or know me personally, you know that I have spent much of the past year working on the Nature Visions Photography Expo.  Our Expo was held last month and I have a couple months of downtime before the planning for the 2012 Expo begins.   We are also heading into the winter months.  While there are still lots of photo opportunities during the winter, I also plan to use the time to work on images from the past year as well as do some training.  

The shot above was taken in early summer at a place called Concrete City.  Wikipedia has a nice article that talks about the place.  My friend Greg Daily and I had spent the weekend in Ricketts Glen and we were having a late  dinner, somehow we struck up a conversation with our waitress and starting getting some local info of places to shoot.  Concrete City was one of the places she told us about and we decided to check it out on the way home.   

I don’t think I would make a special trip to shoot there again, but if I was ever in that part of PA, it would be worth a 2nd look. 

Thursday, December 1, 2011

High Tide




Last week I met up with friends Tony Sweet, Corey Hilz, Andrea Phox, Charles Riter and James Indelicarto for a couple days of shooting.  We had planned this get together several months ago, but we should have invited the weatherman.   The clouds rolled in prior to our arrival and did not depart until after we headed for home.   In the end a lot of what we planned to do got rained out. 

In the shot above we arrived at the pier about an hour before sunrise and did a little light painting while we waited for daylight.   The shot above is a 30 second exposure and I used a 2 million candle power light to paint the remains of the pier.  Originally I thought all my shots would be converted to black and white, but I really like the blue cast the pre-dawn light rendered on the scene.