Field of Screams
Many people suffer daily from the symptoms of anxiety and depression. Panic attacks are simply part of daily life for some people. I have heard it said that the human mind is the devil’s playground, while others refer to the mind as a battlefield.
Feelings of unrest, agitation and fear are always there. Humming in the background, sometimes completely unnoticed and other times screaming like a full orchestra that you cannot quiet. Anxiety robs you of sleep; you cannot rest or quiet your mind.
When I knew what I wanted to shoot and where, I felt an urgency to shoot this image right away. I scheduled my model (my daughter Makayla) and I went to several Goodwill Stores to find the right gown. I purposely chose a day with threatening skies. When we got to the location, I told Makayla that I needed her to run around like she was being attacked by birds or a swarm of bees. I wish I had gotten a shot of the look she gave me. Fortunately, once she got over her initial hesitation, she had no problem doing exactly what I needed her to do. I want to say it took less than ten shots to get one that I thought was perfect.
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I have lived in Indianapolis or Central Indiana my whole life. I have been to Monument Circle thousands of times. Whenever I am downtown with a camera, I tend to pay closer attention to details, especially the architectural details. In case you don't know, and frankly, if you live in Central Indiana you probably don't know, our Soldiers and Sailors Monument is quite amazing. It is the first ever monument dedicated to the common soldier, in particular the soldiers that fought the civil war and a few other skirmishes of the day.
Cut from Indiana limestone, there are amazing chiseled sculptures that I have shot several times. There has remained one feature that I could never photograph, the bronze sculpture that is the crown jewel of the monument, Lady Victory. She is at the very top of the 280ft. structure and there is no satisfactory perch to see her properly. I have looked online and there are no photographs that show any real detail. The story goes that she is a sentinel with a sword facing the south to remind them who won the war. I though that sounded pretty cool, so it made me a little crazy that I couldn't see her!
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Without my knowing it, there was a massive restoration project underway on the statue this summer, I only found out about it when they said they were ready to put it back up there! Fortunately, it was a holiday weekend and the statue would be on display at street level over the holiday. So yes, I went downtown with my camera!
She was all tied into the steel cage that would lift her to her perch, so I had to deal with that, but there was quite a crowd gathered for a Sunday afternoon, affirmation that I am not a total kook for needing to see this sculpture up close.
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It seems crazy to make something of such detail and beauty and stick it way up where no one can see it especially in 1893 when she was made! It is said that no one has ever seen her close like this since she was originally assembled at the top of the monument.
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Well Kim loved the book and was an enthusiastic 'Palinite.' With Christmas coming up, I saw that Mrs. Palin had released a new book, "America By Heart". Well this is one of those 'no-brainer' gifts that I know Kim will enjoy, so I grabbed a copy. Two days later, I hear that there will be a local book signing for this one as well. I thought if I could get the book signed by Sarah Palin, my no-brainer gift would be elevated to something really special. I couldn't tell Kim what I was doing and I didn't know for sure I even would, remembering the lines from the last time. Well publicity for the book signing made it impossible for me to hide what I was going to do, but I still was very doubtful I would go through with it.
This time, the event was hosted by Meijer in Carmel, IN. When I arrived, at 3:00p, I could see no line outside of the store. Once inside, I could see an area sectioned of by very tall black curtains and a table full of books and the instructions. I had to buy a new copy of the book here and now in order to get it signed. The book signing started at 6:00p and once I bought the new book, I had to get in line and I couldn't leave the store.
Well I am used to standing in line for a long time at Meijer, but this was different and it was decision time. When I was a teenager I gave no thought to waiting three or more hours for the doors to open at a concert so we could make a mad dash for the best seats, but I wouldn't do that for a concert any more. I thought, what the hell, I've come this far. I picked up a copy of the book and headed to the checkout line.
Turns out there was a line forming inside the store. They were snaking them up and down the aisles on one side of the store. I had my iPod and a new book I could read, so I settled in at the end. People were making the best of the accommodations, sitting on the bottom shelves and chatting away. Periodically, Meijer would send someone around offering cookies and bottles of water. I would have preferred a nice lawn chair. I tried to keep to myself, but occasionally the ladies around me give me sideways looks or tried to involve me in their discussion. I decided I had better participate, since they were making an effort. Representatives from the publishing company came around to verify we had a valid copy of the book with a receipt from that day and they told us Sarah would be working from a pile of books at her side and we would be surrendering the books we were holding back to them in the signing area. Well most if the conversation turned to grumbling from then on, until the line finally started to move. I estimated that if she signed 500 books in two hours, she would have 14 seconds for each one of us. The publishing people mentioned that she likes to challenge herself to see how many she could do, so we may be pushed through faster than that! As we approached the curtained signing area, I noticed quite a few security people and local law enforcement. We are told to remove our coats and there are to be no pictures taken once inside.
Now I can see how this is working. An assistant slides a book in front of her, she locks eyes with the person approaching, reaches out her left hand to shake theirs and introduces herself as she is signing the book with her right hand. She thanks them and is on to the next person. Well here we go, I will get my turn in front of the famous signing/greeting machine and then it will be over. The lady in front of me starts to cry as she predicted she would when it was her turn. my heart suddenly starts pounding harder as I realize it is my turn. What should I do, should I try to say something clever? My mind races as I quickly consider and dismiss several approaches to this situation. Then, I lock eyes with her. My mind goes completely blank as I feel her hand reach out for mine and she says "Hi, I'm Sarah Palin." I stammer out "Hi, I'm Bill". She holds on to the moment, still looking at me and asks me what kind of work I do. I said "I'm a photographer" Unbelievably, I see her scrambling for another question to engage me! "What kind of photography do you do?" "Portraits mostly" I answer. "Yeah? Hows business?" I kind of chuckle at her persistence and I say "Not too bad, but it could be a lot better." "Ok, well it was nice meeting you!" she said. "Nice meeting you as well" I tell her. I turned and walked out, smiling from ear to ear and in complete shock. That was surreal. I felt like she wished we could go somewhere and get a cup of coffee.
I know I did.]]>
Have you noticed the erosion? Factories are closing everywhere. In the larger cities, it might not have quite the obvious impact that it will in a smaller town, but don't kid yourself, we are circling the drain as a nation.
Take a small town of say, 57,000 people. Say that town has a large factory that employs 1,200 people all earning a decent middle-class income of $45 to $65K. Life is sweet in our little town. There is a whole infrastructure built around the existence of that plant. One that was necessary for it to survive. Stores, restaurants, hotels, services of all kinds. Banks, churches, schools and hospitals for the employees, entertainment centers of all varieties. The community serves the plant and the plant supports the community.
One day the factory says they are closing down the operation. With this decision, our little town will loose over $60 million every year from factory employees alone. All of these support businesses have to keep rolling because they are still here and with all of that activity the little town seems to have absorbed the loss of the factory, but all of the support businesses feel the loss and it starts a landslide. Soon our little town is more of a ghetto than a community. Crime rates soar as more and more people live in despair and on welfare. More of their children never complete high school and the crime rate soars again.
If we could peek around at the other side of the world, and, you know, through the big wall, we would see a nation on the rise. A huge industrial monster standing up to flex it's muscles and growl at us from across the ocean. This monster is running on steroids, because it is not restricted by pollution regulations or even quality standards. It has negligible concern for employees wages, benefits or working conditions. It is not burdened with invention, design or research and development. It's only mandate is to be cheaper, and we all cheer it on.
It seems our industrial giant has grown tired of carrying the crown and wants to retire in a recliner in front of a large screen tv. We want to cheer on China because we feel entitled to the good life, but we are too lazy to earn it. Consequently we need our good life to be easier to obtain, or more plainly - cheaper.]]>
It is not hard to pull the character out of Stevie.
Ok, no biggie, shoot it and put the camera away. The evening's festivities ensued.
The next day, there is mention of a photo contest with a fall/Halloween theme and it looks like everybody is sending in pictures of their kid in their Halloween costume. I'm thinkin' I got one in the bag of Stevie, why not participate? So I sent it in.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the contest has nothing to do with the merits of your photo, but everything to do with how many of your friends you can get to go online and "Like" it. Now it is a campaign. We rallied as many of our friends to go online on our behalf as we could. (If you responded to one of these pleas, you have my heart-felt thanks). Unfortunately, the winner had a gazillion friends mobilized for a landslide victory. We were, however, able to maintain our status in the community with a very distinguished finish at third place.
If you have ever been to our little town, you will have noticed a landmark in the form of a giant pink elephant hoisting a martini in front of the liquor store. It is in the spirit of our fabled landmark that I reveal to you my distinguished prize.
Obviously, I am going to have to address my rates in light of this accomplishment. I recommend you book your project before they go into effect! :)]]>
Recently, I updated to the new OS4.0. I suspected that upgrade might have bugs that was causing my phone to behave erratically. While I was syncing, I noticed there was already an OS Update and iTunes was suggesting I should take it. God help me, I clicked on the button that said "Update". That, my friends, is when I fell down into the rabbit hole.
After iTunes finished updating my phone, it didn't recognize it anymore. I was given the message "iTunes has detected a phone in recovery mode. Use "Restore" to return it to normal". Understand that "Restore" wipes your phone back to factory new and removes all data. It then attempts to restore the data from a backup. I clicked on the button that says "Restore".
After the restore process was complete I get a message: "iTunes has detected a phone in recovery mode. Use "Restore" to return it to normal". After looping through this procedure two more times, I am about ready to throw up from the vertigo.
Nothing else matters when you have to rush one of your little ones off to the emergency room and I tried as best I could to obey traffic laws, but I felt woozy and my mind was reeling on all of the information I depended on this little guy to deliver on the spot whenever I needed it. The imperceptible loss started to creep into my thoughts and I fought to keep them at bay. There was something they could do. There had to be!
My first line of defense was the AT&T Store. I bought it there, so maybe they will know what to do. Things were a little slow in the store so I had the attention of three associates when I burst in through the front doors screaming for a doctor. What I actually did was approach the closest one and start to tell my story in the shortest way I could. They all get this oh-you-poor-man look on their faces and punt my case over to the guy that handles phone hardware issues. After they established I was under warranty, he was quick to turn me over to the folks at Apple. He directed me to the Apple Store in my area. They were kind enough to set an appointment for me, I think they could tell by looking at me I was in no shape to get the appointment myself. The warned me there could be like 30 people ahead of me when I get there. On a Tuesday afternoon? I scoffed, but then again, I had never been there.
It was right at 1:00p and my appointment was for 2:10p. In my haste, I had left home without my wallet and I thought I had better run home and get it. Driving home I remember I had done a load of laundry that morning, including the shorts I had worn to the Fair the night before. Did I take my wallet out of my pocket last night? I start to drive faster, fearing the worst. I run into the house, straight to the dryer door, pull it open and most of the contents of my wallet jump out and land all around my feet. Credit cards are curled, my drivers license is curled and everything that was paper in indecipherable. I rant (quickly because I don't have much time) and grab the essential items and cram them in my still damp wallet and run back to the car.
Once at the Apple Store, I am shocked to see what must be 150 people in the store. Half are scared parents like me and the rest are customers shopping. I am impressed at the number of employees though, maybe twenty. I am directed to a kid with a pink iPad to check-in. After check-in, I wait and I watched. The Apple people are all trained to be smiling, polite and very calm. For me, this was a trauma center, so I appreciated their calm. I watched as they helped people while I waited my turn.
There is a strange phenomena surrounding Apple products. They are all designed in a way that says "We only want very smart customers". Their devices only have one to three controls on them. As a consumer, when you have a problem with one of these devices, you are going to try every combination of controls you can think of to try to fix the problem yourself. You hand it to one of these smug little Apple people and they disappear with it for 30 seconds and present it back to you fully restored. They won't tell you what they did or what the problem was and you know it won't do you any good to ask.
Finally, my turn came and the girl shot to the back room with my phone and quickly returned with it saying we do indeed have an issue with that home button, so she will have to give me a new phone. I have to sign a disclaimer about all of the data I am going to loose, because I must set this device up as a new one and it cannot be restored from the backup of the old one.
I'm not sure I know the moral to this story, all I know is I have a phone again and it will take me a week to get it running like the old one did. Please don't send cards or money...I think I will be ok.]]>
Got a rare opportunity to go out with Kim Monday night as we had no kids. When we were discussing what we should do, she announced "I wanna go see KISS at the fair!" I had to look at her to make sure she was serious. She wasn't sure if she was or not. I am always excited about doing something unusual, so I started the feasibility study. There were tickets available, but when you factored in Fair admission and extras, the costs got prohibitive quick. In my mind, I was already starting to taste Fair food. Kim had already dismissed the idea, since the Fair itself offered no appeal to her. "You haven't thought this through", I told her. "There are all kinds of craft exhibits!"
I convinced her to go and inside, my mouth started watering for the Fair food again.
After we got there, we were thinking about food right away (at least I was). we saw the deep-fried Twinkies and I had to try them. We split one and it was delicious! I mean, why not - Twinkie good, fried batter good, what's not to like? I couldn't see any reason to try deep-fried butter or deep-fried Pepsi, so for that I have no report.
After 'dinner' we hit nearly every exhibit hall and barn available and my feet were killing me. Even though we weren't going to see the concert, we didn't want to leave before it started. We thought maybe we could get a glimpse of the action from the side as we were heading out to our car. Well, a few other people had the same idea, but someone had figured out how to open a gate, that got us a lot closer! If you click on the picture below, you will notice Mr. Simmons um...singing on the jumbo screen on the lower right.
So we got to do the fair and see KISS after all. By the way, I have never been a fan and the show is pretty much what I expected, but it is a sideshow and what would the Fair be without one.]]>
I spent half of last week in Nashville, Tennessee. I had never spent any time there, only driving through on my way to somewhere else. I would make a point to stop somewhere to hit a drive-through to hear that sweet southern drawl from the girl taking my order (though these days, she sounds suspiciously Hispanic, just like at home). Anyway, this time, I got out of the car and walked around for a couple of days.
I allowed myself to be the googly-eyed tourist, as such, there are a few things you must do. Wednesday night, we went out honky-tonkin'. We got downtown too early for the real action (it was full daylight), so we made a semi-casual browse of 2nd Ave. and the cheesy celebrity -named gift shops. We decided to duck inside the Hard Rock.
As soon as the bartender brought us our drinks, he started to work us over. Kind of felt like being frisked at a traffic stop (not that I have any idea what that's like!). "You guys from out of town?" "Where you from?", "Would you like to be able to take those glasses home?", "Are you going to visit our gift shop?"
We realized this isn't quite what we had in mind, so we left.
We headed up Broadway and found the seedy little dives that I was looking for.
Sure enough, you could hear music pouring out into the street as you walked by. We ducked inside Robert's Western World and listened to several songs performed by a really good band, but I have forgotten the name.
Thursday, I had a few hours on my hands, so I went back downtown to take some photographs. Of course, I had to tour the Ryman Auditorium, original home of the Grand Ol' Opry.
(BTW, not one left-handed instrument in the whole place! Go ahead and cross them off your must-see list, as I have)
It took me a while to put my finger on it, but I am very impressed with Nashville. They have preserved all of the historically significant areas and they are clean and inviting. All around are gleaming high rises that belong together. There are no big eye sores on the city skyline]]>
I guess you could say I am kind of obsessed with pushing myself to be better, particularly where my photography is concerned. When I am driving, I am listening to podcasts about technique either with the camera and lighting, post production or business and marketing. When I am home I make time to read books along the same lines. Since I made the switch to 100% digital photography, it has been an all consuming immersion into 'catching up' with the technology and current business practices.
Along with the new tools, my creativity has bloomed into areas that I had always wanted to do, but didn't have the resources to explore. Photography is expensive and when you are shooting film, experimentation is a days long process and every click of the shutter cost money. Progress came slow and required you to keep meticulous notes. Today's cameras take all the notes for you (if you care to read them) and the screen on the back immediately tells you if you are getting the results you want.
I find that I am lazy with photography theory now. I fall into the trap of priority programs in the camera and just manipulate the settings I need to for the effect I want. Another way of loosing your camera smarts is shooting the same thing over and over again. You know, that certain portrait set-up you always use to yield F:8 at 1/60th. You can take the lights out of the bag, eyeball their distance to subject and never consider changing the settings on your camera, because you are getting paid and you know this always works.
I recently came across an old issue of Black and White Magazine which seems to really be a catalog of print collections that galleries are hoping to sell. Well the images are stunning and interesting, mainly because they are black and white. Then I started thinking all of these amazing images were made without the benefit of a camera that was more of a 'computer with a lens' than anything else. The people that took these images had to know what they were doing.
So I am missing black and white film. There, I said it.
I performed a little experiment to rekindle the old fires of yesteryear. I can't grab a roll of black and white film and go shoot (actually, I could. You won't believe how much useless darkroom equipment I have in boxes, just in case), that would be stupid given all of the niceties I have grown accustomed to with digital, namely instant results. I put my camera in Manual Mode, which shuts off all of the computers that want to push you around. I set the camera's Picture Control to a setting that emulates contrasty black and white film, put the camera on a tripod outside and composed in the view finder. I used my light meter, a Depth of Field Calculator and used the screen to verify results and evaluate adjustments. I focused manually based on my DOF calculator's reported hyper-focal distance. No need to check focus in the bright sun light, which is impossible to do anyway. Just like in math class, I think you should have to know how to do it the long way before you are allowed to take any short-cuts.
The image above is my pick from the few I shot today. The beautiful thing about shooting in black and white is that it reduces your composition to shape, contrast and texture. It is another way to keep your creativity excited about the next corner you are going to turn. As for me, I have re-acquainted myself with some of the theory and science that I love about this medium and along the way found some of the subtle beauty that has been missing from my work for a long time.]]>
]]>I was very surprised to learn that after six months, only 35% of them were working anywhere. If you are like me, you are soothed by the media reports that unemployment figures are improving by a micropercent. We go about our day, assured in our optimism that everything is working itself out.
I have no delusions that a free business portrait is part of the solution to the unemployment problem, but I do know that it can be an encouragement to the person that is going through the ordeal. When you are daily trying to whip up the courage to jump out there and sell yourself, what you tend to feel inside is all of your faults and weaknesses screaming at you that you are wasting your time and it is no use. Everyone else is a more desirable candidate, etc. Everything you can do to improve your presentation, gives you that much more confidence and desire to put it out there. I can't give everyone a new suit to wear to an interview, but I can take a great picture of them that will speak for them when their next employer is deciding who their next superstar will be.
To that end, I am going to do it again, but this time it's going to be bigger. I am going to repeat my offer of free professional business portraits to anyone that is unemployed and looking for work. No strings attached. There will be four separate events, all in a different area on four days in May.
May 3 - Greenwood Public Library 1:00pm - 4:00pm
May 10 - New Palestine (Hancock County Library, Sugar Creek Branch) 1:00pm - 4:00pm
May 17 - Fishers Public Library 1:00pm - 4:00pm
May 24 - Brownsburg Public Library 1:00pm - 4:00pm
If you or anyone you know is interested, contact me by email (preferred) or by phone to schedule a time for a portrait.
[email protected]
317-414-3237
Thanks!]]>
Now I knew this was a popular cause, but I was not prepared for the number of people that were all involved, in some way. I kept saying over and over,"Would you look at all the people!"
Shortly after we started, I took a photo of the crowd ahead of us, then turned around to snap the crowd behind!
This was a really big, exciting party of sorts. While we were all glad for sunshine, I think everyone would have appreciated it being about 10 degrees warmer. Oh well, it adds to the camaraderie between total strangers. All around were cheering teams with crazy names and home made t-shirts. Some of the younger 'participants' were less enthused.
Every so often, you get close to someone that has been tragically affected by breast cancer and you feel a wave of the serious life and death struggle that is the reason for this gathering.
I can safely say we will be back next year.]]>
Hello! I have been extremely negligent with my blog of late. These are my excuses:
1). December doesn't count. I am reduced to something similar to the walking dead and I am not responsible for any of my actions or lack of action during that time.
2). Spent all of January gearing up marketing for my new (old) portrait business Pictures of You. While I have been frantically getting the word out about Bill Anderson Photography to everyone I meet and explaining it is a commercial photography business, it never fails that someone will ask about personal portraits. I don't want to send mixed messages to anyone, so I decided the best thing to do is market two separate photography businesses. Bill Anderson Photography for all of my commercial clients and Pictures of You for my retail clients.
3). I got an iPhone for Christmas. This thing peels your attention away from everything else! Suddenly all of your conversations revolve around the new apps you have and what new apps your friends have. Some of my friends have cut me off as they don't have an iPhone and cannot bear any more demonstrations of how cool this phone is. One good thing, everybody knows I am still around due to my almost daily iPhone picture posts to Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. Since I had the phone, I had to get Chase Jarvis' Best Camera app so I could become a complete iPhone monkey for all of my friends.
So I'm sitting here typing out all of my excuses and guilt about not keeping the lines of communication flowing and I realize I am not the only one at fault here. Where have YOU been? Are you following my blog? Have you subscribed via the RSS feed? Are you following me on any of the social networking platforms I mentioned before? Have you ever commented on anything I have posted? Few things are as difficult as a one-sided conversation. It would be nice to hear from someone now and then.
There. I have cleared the decks and I am ready to forge ahead. Stay tuned-in and check in with me every now and then. We can all get through this together.
-Bill]]>
I was working in the yard yesterday, trying to wrestle a section of privacy fence into place. I lost control of it and one of the many old rusty nails in it punctured my right hand. Eesh! My eyes crossed looking at the hole right before it started bleeding. That was a big nail! Look at the hole it made! Better get inside and clean it up, maybe dump some hydrogen peroxide on it and see how I feel about it then.
So I am washing it and I give it a good splash of the ol' peroxide. I am thinking I would like it to bleed a little more, you know to get the dirty blood out. (Why do we think like that?) I decide to squeeze the pad below my thumb, where the wound is, to make it bleed some. When I squeezed it, some kind of white grissely stuff poked out! Kind of like I had popped some colossal zit on my hand. I get a paper towel to wipe it away and I dragged it out further! It was attached and part of my hand - only now it was outside instead of inside where it belonged.
That's it! I'm going to the ER. I probably need a shot for the rusty nail anyway.
After I checked myself in, the doctor comes in to take a look. "That's your fat!" he says, pointing at my hand and identifying the strange protrusion. "Thanks", I said. "Good to know I am carrying around so much that some of the guys tried to make a run for it."
He washed it and gently poked everything back where it belongs. Now it's time to close the wound. He reaches over to his little assortment of supplies and picks up a common band-aid. "No stitches?" Then he gives me this look that says "There, there, Mr. Anderson. Doctor make it all better" as he pressed the band-aid in place.
I think leaving with a band-aid is the highest form of insult from the ER. I did get the tetanus shot though. Lessons learned.
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Our little Stevie came home with a costume and couldn't wait to assume his new character. I think it suits him well.
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]]>I got all of the photos posted to the website and word out to all the participants yesterday. I've got to say what a wonderful group of people they were. It was a pleasure meeting all of them and I hope to hear from them soon that they are back in action. You can check out their photos here.
Meanwhile, I have some ideas for micro-stock photography that I want to work on and start networking hard with area ad agencies.
Stay tuned,
Bill]]>
In case you missed it, here is the video from my appearance yesterday on Fox 59 Morning News to promote my Headshots for the Unemployed event on Monday October 26th from 1:00p to 4:00p at the Fishers Library.]]>
This time I will be at the Fishers Library on October 26th from 1:00p to 4:00p. As before, the event is open to anyone who is currently unemployed and looking for a job. You can drop me an email to reserve a time or even just show up.
I will take a professional business portrait of you at no charge and you will be able to go to my website the next day and download the high res file of your portrait for free. No strings attached. The picture can be used on any social networking site like Facebook or LinkedIn and you can make prints to include in your resume package.
You might ask what motivates me do a full scale professional shoot for anyone that cares to take advantage of it and then give away the resulting product. I believe the unemployment problem is not just the problem of the unemployed. It affects all of us. We all like to plunder the rewards of a fat economy. When times are lean, we then need to nurture the ground we feed on to ensure our future sustainability. (Should've warned you to put yer boots on before we wandered into that muddy field!)
In case you happen to be awake around 7:45a on Monday the 19th, I have been asked to appear on the Indianapolis Fox affiliate, WXIN 59 to discuss the upcoming Headshots for the Unemployed event. This is a first for me, so I am sure I will screw it up somehow! I would love to hear any advice anyone may have.]]>
If you are an "employer" that complains about a lack of quality applicants to choose from, those days are over. The recent economy has forced many capable and highly qualified people out of their jobs and now they are looking for you.
If you are one of the people I met that day, keep in touch and let me know when you have secured your next position.]]>
]]>On September 21st, from 1:00pm to 4:00pm I will be at the Noblesville Library, in the North Meeting Room, providing free professional business portraits to anyone that is unemployed and looking for work.
Looking for a job is a difficult business, especially with the pressures of providing for your family. I know you need encouragements, like a new suit and a great resume. Hopefully, these portraits can be another layer of confidence, or just a general assistance in helping someone land that next job.
Please pass this information on to anyone you know that might be able to benefit from this event. I am trying to reach as many people as I can. If you have any questions or would like to participate contact me at [email protected]]]>
Now, if you are familiar with these parables, you know they are usually complex little stories that illustrated a different complex little idea. My challenge was to boil it all down to the essence of the precise point that was being made and then devise a single image that would convey that same idea. This assignment was a blast for me because I got a chance to use all of the tools in my bag. With the pressure of a looming deadline, but no direction whatsoever, I had to dig into the creative reserves and make quick decisions to keep the project moving forward. There was no time to rethink things and no committee to discuss them with. Once I decided what the image should be I went and set it up the way I saw it and that is how the image was.
Fortunately, they were delighted with them and decided to put large prints of them around on the stage to help illustrate the messages. I have to send out a big thank you to my son Isaiah for being my patient model in four of these images.
I don't believe in over-explaining art so I won't tell you why I did what I did, but I will give you the parable that each photo illustrates.
The Sower
3 Lost Things
The Talents
The Growing Seed
The Pharisee and Tax Collector
The Mustard Seed
The Wicked TenantsI look forward to your comments and I hope you have a great week!
For our anniversary, Kim suggested we tour Oliver Winery. My immediate reaction was "Seriously?" with doubt all over my face. Then I though about it for a minute and I realized it could be kinda cool.
We went down on a Tuesday, so there weren't a lot of people there and I was able to relax enough to really enjoy the place. We were also fortunate enough to get a tour, a feature usually reserved for the bigger weekend crowd. They took us through a portion of their facilities, enough to get the gist of what they do to make wine and a full background on the company. After the tour we went to the wine tasting room.
Now I have to tell you, before our visit to the winery, my only experience with their wine was the transparent red stuff they sell at Meijer and Walmart. That stuff is only a heartbeat away from Kool-Aid. Once in the tasting room, I was first of all surprised by all of the varieties of wine they produce. I have always heard they make such great wine, but I could never find any of it before. Anyway, I ended up being quite impressed and we went home with several bottles of amazing wine. If you can find it, I highly recommend one of their dessert wines called Maximun Port.
After a few sips of the good stuff, we ventured outside to check out their botanical garden area. This is the point where I decided I need to take some pictures. There was an incredible variety of flowers and everything had these neat little signs under it telling you what it is (even the weeds!).
Please click this link here to see the full set of images from that day.
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]]>I approached the property and started taking pictures. I assumed it was abandoned, just like the Fortville Grain Company I had written a post about three weeks ago. Off to my right, I noticed a man coming toward me with a nervous smile on his face.
"The boss don't want nobody taking pictures." I had already written him off as someone passing through on his way to somewhere else. Then I realized he must work here.
"What?"
"The boss don't like people taking pictures, unless they ask him about it first. Even then he wants to be careful about who can take pictures.
One time he gave a photographer permission and come to find out they had a girl out here taking nude pictures! The only other time he allowed it was for a heavy metal band to shoot a video."
Sensing he was telling me to leave without getting the pictures I had walked over here to get, I offered to speak to the boss directly.
"Well, he's out of town right now"
I assured the guy I was only intending to walk once around the outer perimeter of the property and usually, I manage to keep my clothes on while I work.
He seemed to run out of objections and agreed to look the other way.
Standing close to these silos was like being at an Apollo rocket launch, without all of the cool smoke and fire, of course.
Check out the full set of images from that day here. As always, I look forward to your comments.
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]]>In the process of building the Saxony Corporate Business Park and Hamilton Town Center shopping mall some of the roads and access had to be reconfigured. As a result, there is a section of Highway 238, perhaps a mile long, that has been clipped off though it still sits there inaccessible.
Seeing that little strip of unused highway sitting there reminds me of that last scene in the original Planet Of The Apes movie. Its the scene where Charleton Heston makes it out to the beach and discovers what's left of the Statue of Liberty.
My wife and I share a house now. I guess I don't need that little piece of road anymore either. Recently, I walked it... to feel like Charleton Heston.
The full set of pictures are here. Don't forget to leave comments, I read them all.
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These images are from an abandoned structure in the middle of Fortville, Indiana. It used to be the Fortville Grain Company. You can see the full set of images here Click on the section called "Proof/Events"
I appreciate your comments.
Take Care]]>