Yellowjackets / A Rise In The Road / When The Lady Dances
 Looks like the last winter storm will pass below us, or at least has stayed down there for now.
Above is an ad I'm placing in the local chamber's Visitor's Guide. They'll probably use a few more of my images in the booklet. Happy to contribute, and look forward to any inquiries the 'exposure' might generate. :)  The image above is the front of a Christmas card I shot back in 2015. Decorum dictates that one not talk about shoots like this contemporaneously or share the inside sentiment, but enough time has passed to tell you this story...
I'd been shooting off and on for various offices at the Department of State for about five years I guess when I got the most amazing email. I was asked to call the person designing the Secretary's 2015 Christmas card...likely his last one in office. I had worked with this designer on other projects, but my wife and I had recently moved from Alexandria to Newport so the request really was a bolt out of the blue...would I be able to fly down to Washington the following month and bang this out in a day? Yes, of course. I began making travel plans. Since my color lab and sailing days I've often been amazed at how it is that attending to a little chore...mending a leak or a sail, or making some little upgrade can be the difference between success and either disaster or at least inconvenience and a rushed fix some day in the hazy future. So it was here. I'd already recently upgraded camera bodies to a Canon 5DS...not that 50MP was going to be required for a postcard sized image but always great to have the latest, and the new HDR features might come in very handy as I spent the rest of the day shooting rooms for another department who'd been told of my visit. In addition to the camera I'd finally found a sharp wide-angle zoom from Canon, the 16-35mm f4L. The corners on all previous lenses in this range had been mushy, but this guy was tack sharp all the way across...perfect for this type of indoor architectural work! Add in a new Tenba roller bag picked up on discount by joining some association and fresh umbrellas, light stands, and carry bag for lighting stuff and I was already kitted out. I flew down the day before and stayed at a great old hotel close to the Truman building. That evening I calmed my nerves with a walk around the neighborhood, found a brightly lit outdoor restaurant and hearty dinner, and retired early. The next morning, Nov 13th, was bright and beautiful. The walk to and then around the building to the security shack in front dragging all my stuff had me huffing and puffing. Whew. Up to an office or two, down to more security on the Secretary's floor, surrender phones and electronics, and get to work. As is often the case, the art director already had a few ideas in mind but was open to suggestions. We decided on one main shot and agreed that I'd take a quick pass at the other two setups before leaving. This one took a few hours and involved scrims over huge windows on the right, and carefully snooted lights on the tree and flag. While the 16-35mm was of great use later in the day, I ended up using the 24-105 f4L lens at 28mm for this. Why I used this lens instead of the spanking new one is probably because I started out longer, pulled back, and left the longer lens on. Exposure was 3 seconds at f8 in order to pick up a lot of ambient light. Post involved cloning in most of the floor from a shorter exposure to minimize the tree light reflections there. I'd already checked out of the hotel and had my bags, so after a long day of shooting other rooms I grabbed a taxi over to Reagan National to meet a friend at Legal Seafoods. We had worked together in Pentagon City and it was great to catch up. As we were sitting there having a couple of beers CNN started showing clips of the coordinated terrorist attacks and bombing in Paris. Awful. We were stunned. I headed for my gate, he for the Metro home, both reflecting on how the world had seemingly changed. The change does not seem to have let up since then.  A snapshot before snowing. This next storm looks to be more snow than last week's. Ugh. But, beautiful. [Thank heavens for the generator. We've lost power for hours and days more than a few times this year. Peace of mind for sure.]
 Visit today to the local barber, George in T-Harbor. Good man.
Hope you are are doing well and weathering the storm.  I love driving around a new area, finding the special visual places. I've actually done this whether by foot, mountain bike, Jeep or boat since I can remember.
In the first month of moving here to the St George peninsula I took a right off the main road and another off of that, and stumbled on this amazing structure. It's next to a similarly interesting stone house. I have no idea what purpose either served or when they were last used. The property would make an incredible wedding/event venue if it weren't for the whole 'in the middle of fuck-all nowhere' aspect. Come to think of it I strongly suspect that's exactly what happened here. Ah well. Since finding them I lost the track, taking my wife down one dirt road after another hoping to show her my amazing find. Yesterday, wouldn't you know it, she was at the grands with le bébé and I was left to my own devices. Went exploring and there they were. Ha! Gotta love serendipity. [and great light]  This is from November, 2017. That would put it after the 'big boat' was damaged in the marina explosion, and before I bought an ocean view condo in, well, Ocean View, VA. :)
At the helm is friend George, who blasted into the marina one afternoon in a big motor cruiser, and went on to a 53-some foot Amel sailboat in PR. Understand they are back in the States now...somewhere in Florida. He and his wife took us in for a couple of nights right after the explosion, as we were not allowed back onboard for many days while the investigatory teams did their forensics. Loved the Fingal. Great sailing characteristics. An old one-lunger Bukh diesel engine that didn't like to start in cold weather. Down-below was spartan, and in the end it wasn't worth the complete refit she would have needed. But, she had a fantastic spirit and we always felt safe even during 11:30PM sails out to the bridge tunnel and back after work. She's in new hands now, down in Florida last I knew. Sorry to say she looked worse for the wear, but hoping the new owner will bring her back.  Apologies to Bill Bryson for the intentional reference, but that's how it's felt out here on the peninsula lately...as if you're deep in the dark primordial woods. The freezing temps have been replaced by a cold rain and everything is soaked. Gorgeous to see, but look out for the unseen patches of ice beneath the surface!
 This image was made in Sept, 2006 with a Canon PowerShot S70. Coming up on twelve years ago. 28~100mm lens, 7MP, not bad at all. At that time I was smack in the middle of the transition to digital. By then I'd sold the two-body, five-prime lens Canon F-1 motor drive 'photojournalism' outfit; the two-body, three-prime Hasselblad studio kit; and even the 4x5 Toyo and Leica M3. However, pro [full-frame] digital gear was still way too dear. Think $10k, $20k. $30k for a body and lens dear. Yes, yes. I had that much in total in the other gear and yes, you can spend that today on a spartan Leica SL or Phase1 setup. But, I wasn't supporting myself with photography since I'd also unloaded the film business, so pocket cameras were all could consider. One barely affordable option was a crop-sensor camera, but I just couldn't get my head around it - how do I buy lenses...for what they do on the short-term crop body or their eventual use? And, when will that be? I'd love to hear from anyone who threaded that needle successfully. But for me, it meant pocket digital cameras with tiny sensors. The advantage though, besides price, was their portability. I probably had a camera with me far more often than I would have had I stuck to the big guns. [this was pre-iPhone days don't forget] :)
Birthday week for Mom and Collin. And, hanging the new original John Platt painting 'The Thrill of it All'. Wow, Quite a week.
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"Sometimes I feel like the world is a place I bought a ticket to. It’s a big show for me as if it wouldn’t happen if I wasn’t there with a camera."
--Gary Winogrand Some photo sites we enjoy:
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January 2026
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