Detail of the light hanging on my “favorite house” located on the Kanawha Blvd. in Charleston WV. Mythical creatures seem to show up in unexpected places- a real work of art!
Anyone know of other “Dragons” around this city?

One of my favorite homes ( now a business residence for the School Building Authority) I pass as I go home every evening.

Take the familiar and make it fresh.

I’ve seen similar shots of Charleston, WV; some at night- some during the day- but none in the evening setting sun.
It has a different feel all together in this light- and yet, I’m sure I’ll go back and shoot it again to capture another mood of the city. Even the most beautiful subject is plain without “something special” in the lighting department! ( I still didn’t get the exact shot I wanted- I previsualized something that I have yet to capture…)
Light creates what a subject has to say- and as a photographer, if you listen, you can sense the meaning and translate it visually into something intelligable for others to share. 
This is your purpose as a storyteller.

I’ve sort of gotten bogged down looking thru my negatives and slides lately- I’m catagorizing them into “scan piles” or which ones I think are the best use of valuable scanner time!

What I didn’t expect was finding soooo many that took me back to where it all really began- Before I was a photographer, I worked retail and was about to change professions and work in the rafting / whitewater industry- I’m an explorer at heart…ANYWAY- I found slides back from when I was still submitting to PADDLER MAGAZINE and I covered a lot of east coast whitewater events ( especially Gauley Season in WV)

Two things became apparent:
1) They must have REALLY needed some photos from the East Coast ( they are located in Colorado) to have hired me!
2) I really had a lot of potential OR  ’cause I didn’t see a lot of consistancy! ( must have drove the photo editor quite mad…..)

There are some shining moments of course; and those are in the  “to be scanned” pile. But there were a lot more that, looking back, should have been put in “file 13″ or the “never to be seen again” folder.
It really makes you humble to see your earlier mistakes; and even happier to see your successes- even looking back, I can start to see where my strengths were growing into a “style”,what lenses I was comfortable with, closeness to the people, subject, cropping, etc…
Take a look at what you shot even if it’s from only a year ago- don’t wait as long as I did- you’ll gain some valuable insight into where you are a a photogrpher today!

I’ve found that after the first couple of steps on any journey, the road seems easier to travel. Keeping that in mind……

I’ve started going thru old slides and editing the ones to scan- we are talking thousands here! I have counted close to 5,000 being thrown away so far!
One of the things to realize, especially for those that have never shot film before ( can that really be true!?!-YEP ) is that as a slide shooter B.D. ( Before Digital) I would have to shoot multiple frames of the same subject in case I needed to send an original off for publication, or if one got a scratch or something.
And of course, there were those slides that I previously kept that were the best I could do at the time. With time comes experience, and with experience comes a more critical eye- hence , the massive editing of my slides!

The cool thing is, in a way, it’s become a retrospective look at where I’ve been- and this isn’t always possible with digital. We tend to delete what doesn’t work and keep the “keepers”- With slides and negatives, you have to go back and thru them occasionally to see what you’ve got- and then it’s there right in front of you- your mistakes you’ve learned from, the images that almost worked, the things you see you want to go back and re-shoot, etc.
That’s where I’m at now- I’ve found images/slides that have inspired me to go and reshoot them, to do them better now that I can. 
I moved on from film years ago- I don’t miss scanning frames and touching up dust- something I’ll be facing again REALLLLY SOOOOON! But as far as the experience, I wouldn’t trade it for anything- In order to see where you’re going; sometimes you’ve got to see where you’ve been….

Here’s the link to the original “15 years”  post- You’ll be able to find this series by looking at the tags on the right if you want

I ran across this post from Matt Brown today-Free Is Killing Me- If you really want to know the cost of “free photography” here it is…

People are not entitled to use your vision and experience without compensation unless you yourself think YOUR work has no value! If that is the case; Keep in mind you are hurting those who do…

I’ve been very good about my workflow and making sure that all new images have been catagorized and put in my computer system for easy retrieval, but what about all the previous work I’ve done? well, read on….

I’ve got 15 years of landscapes alone to go thru, scan slides, edit the best ones and work on some of the digital images I had before.

One of the great advantages to this is the software I now have and better skill at using it . I’ve mostly always shot my stuff in RAW format because I was afraid of screwing up sure there would be better ways of working with image files, than what was available at the time.
Oddly enough, the biggest problem I face isn’t quality of photographs and fixing things up; it’s organizing all of them into a database I can live with.

One of my friends mentioned a book he was reading about business. The gist of it was this: organize your business like someone new has to run it.
The truth is, aside from appointments or jobs to be done recently- I’ve been pretty good about keeping things organized! But as far as older work, well….let’s just say I never looked the elephant in the room in the eyes!
I do a fair amount of exhibits and displays - It’s time to revisit the archives and “tag” them like I do the new stuff- we call this being lucky to find one in focus “stock assets”.
I’m just like everybody else out there- It’s overwhelming at first, but no one else is gonna do it for me. And if I can’t find it, how could anyone else?

*Scenario:
Assistant: Joe from ______ called, he wants to know if you have any photos he can use in a brochure. He want’s images from the Potomac Valley in Winter, do you have any?
ME: I sure do, they’re in the drawer labeled ” back up CD’s”
A: The one with all the cd’s in sleeves that have the dats only written on them?
ME: Yeah, those are the ones- I’m sure there are a few good ones I took around 2002, look for the ones burnt on the Maxell CD’s
A: Look for an new assistant, cause I quit!
Sooooo that being said- I’m sure I’ll find some “ghosts in the machine” and run into stuff I’ve done wrong I can use as an example that may help some one else organize there files.
Wish me luck, cause here I go……

My good friend Michael Switzer held his studio’s open house last night. Here I am pictured on the Left with Michael - He had a couple of light boxes that were as big as my car! ( yep, I’m jealous…)

 I wish them all the best - here’s a link to his website: DESIGN WORKS STUDIO

Well, It’s Monday and I’m trying to look really busy focus on the tasks at hand.
I’ve got photos to retouch, print, and deliver- the things one has to do in order to get paid, but I soooo want to be outside doing Spring things and enjoying the sunshine!

With that in mind, I remind myself that it is the disipline of doing the mundane that makes the extraodinary possible. 

Happy Monday everybody!