Random photo taken in my backyard. What do you think?
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June Dates
6.10.10 -
Understanding Exposure Class @ Northland Library 7-9pm I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.15.10 -
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm into to new PUG followed by Q&A (topic/speaker TBD)
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.17.10 -
Understanding Exposure class @ Northland Library 7-9pm (Part II) ~ I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & Your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.24.10 -
Photo Walk
Topic: Dusk on the North Shore
Time: 7:30 pm
Where: Gate “A” Heinz Stadium Pittsburgh PA
What to bring: camera, tripod, passion to learn and a friend.
Understanding Exposure Class @ Northland Library 7-9pm I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.15.10 -
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm into to new PUG followed by Q&A (topic/speaker TBD)
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.17.10 -
Understanding Exposure class @ Northland Library 7-9pm (Part II) ~ I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & Your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.24.10 -
Photo Walk
Topic: Dusk on the North Shore
Time: 7:30 pm
Where: Gate “A” Heinz Stadium Pittsburgh PA
What to bring: camera, tripod, passion to learn and a friend.
Photos of the Week ~ Random
All photography & artwork on this site is licensed under a creative commons licensing: Please feel free to use and distribute the photography & artwork in accordance with the licensing.
Photos of the Week ~ Random
All photography & artwork on this site is licensed under a creative commons licensing: Please feel free to use and distribute the photography & artwork in accordance with the licensing.
Creative Digital Photography - Is Your Photography "Up to Snuff
Once we've moved past the basics of understanding how our cameras work...once the "photo bug" has bitten - we photography junkies all want more creative digital photography. (Assuming you use a digital camera - otherwise you'll want more creative film photographs!)We've all been there. We look at the pictures we see in books and magazines, then we look at ours and something is missing. The basics are there, a good exposure, correct shutter speed, clear focus and so on, but it just doesn't compare.
Don't Have The "Creative" Gift?
True there are geniuses out there! Maybe a handful scattered throughout the world. Our photos will never compare. (No one else's will either!) But, we aren't comparing our work to that miniscule group...we are comparing our work to the every day production of average, everyday Joes who truly are NOT more creative than we are.
For most of us, the first thing we think is that we just don't have the "creative" gift! As normal people do, we tend to undervalue our own work, and overvalue the work of others.
Creativity can be LEARNED.
The only difference between us and "them" is that they've learned how to put their creative vision into the camera - and we haven't.
Keep in mind, creativity CAN be learned! And it's relatively simple and FAST!
The trick is modeling. By that, I mean...If you shoot the same subjects, in the same conditions, with the same settings they are using, you will get the same results.
It must happen! The camera is a machine. It doesn't care who pushes the buttons. It's not going to work better for one photographer over another. It doesn't care who is looking through the viewfinder.
If we model them correctly, we can be doing the same quality work they do in no time.
Here's how...
When you find a photograph you like, cut it out of the magazine and paste it into your photo notebook. You do keep a photo notebook, right? All the best photographers do!
Then, closely examine the photo. Try to guess what the lighting conditions were. What time of day it was shot, how many and directionality of the lights (reflectors qualify as a light source). Guess at the focal length of the lens. Did they use a tripod, what was the f-stop, shutter speed and so on.
Then, record ALL this information in your notebook.
Now it's time to test.
Get out there and try to duplicate the photo. Test your theories on how they got the shot. The ones that move you closer to success, make a note of them in your notebook. Do the same with the ideas that don't work too!
As you move closer and closer to the desired finished result, you'll be having a lot of fun and learning a TON of new photo techniques.
Eventually, you WILL get the result you were after. It doesn't take long. Paste YOUR shot in your notebook, with all the technical details. Now, you will forever be able to re-create that shot! You've learned how to be creative!
Every time gets easier.
Now, do the same thing with another photo you like. Every time you do this exercise, you will add a new technique to your photo arsenal. Plus, it gets easier to do because you are building on what you've learned before.
So, there is the formula for creative digital photography. Try it, you'll like it. Before you know it, you'll be creating digital photography at will.
Various Equipment Pieces Used in Professional Photography
Any one who is involved in photography can tell you that working with professional photography equipment, shopping around for, and buying it really does turn out to be half of the fun involved in practicing photography. On top of this truth, possessing the correct photographic equipment for the task is critical for performing it right. This article discusses the various elements of professional photography equipment, including camera equipment and lighting equipment.Apple Boxes
Apple boxes are found in every film studio and lot in the world. These can be utilized in myriads of various ways. When you are working with filming a person, they may be employed to effectively raise up a shorter individual. With several of them, you are able to boost the height of a table or a desk. Since they come in different heights, you may employ several arrangements of boxes in order to precisely reach the desired height.
C-Stands and C-Stand Accessories
This stands for Century C Stands. Their capability of being put together literally right next to each other is maybe their greatest benefit that they offer over competing forms of light stands. The height of every leg is different, permitting a photographer to align the stands next to each other by putting the leg of one stand beneath the leg of the next one.
The C-stands' arms are ideal for keeping differing C-stand accessories, such as light controls in the air including scrims, flags, reflectors, clamps, mirrors, etc. You are even able to arrange lights on these light stands. Such C-stands are available in varying sizes with differing features offered.
Light Meters
These have mostly become obsolete with the advance to digital filmmaking. But in the so-called golden days of filming, when films were shot using real film that was expensive to buy and to develop, light meters were essential. They saved the photographer both money and time. The majority of photographers would employ them to take light meter readings in order to know what the lighting exposure would look like when the film was developed. This avoided under or over-exposed filming of movies. But in today's technologically advanced age, all that you have to do when using the digital technology cameras is to press the button and you have instantaneous, free, test shots (you do not even require a Polaroid camera for test shooting anymore.). If your exposure turns out to be off, then you just take another picture. It your light is too little or too much, you simply adjust it. Very few professional photographers utilize light meters any longer.
Strobe Light Sources
The majority of photographers at some point utilize electronic strobe lighting equipment, also known as photographic electronic flash. Numerous competing brands and kinds of flash and strobe lighting equipment are available.
These include bare bulbs, which are strobe heads that do not contain a reflector; small reflectors, which offer wide or narrow sprays of lighting; large reflectors, useful for bouncing light off of ceilings or into walls; grid spots, which are used to keep light from spreading out; light boxes, which are used to precisely focus where a light source will shine; Freznells, which are very large and heavy lights that double as adjustable types of spot lights; optical spots, which are more or less a slide projector and a flash tube lying behind it; and ring lights, which are flash heads formed much like a donut that permit you to shoot film through the hole to achieve a nearly perfect light fill.
A Review of Green Screen Software
Green screening is a process of replacing the background image of the subject by any other desirable image. It is a technique with which you can transform the world of imagination into a world of reality. You can surround your subject against the hilly area or surrounded by the Wonders of the World. A photographer can even make a subject appear a giant or a dwarf. It enables you to place your subject to different places and different zones within a fraction of seconds with green screen effects.There are a variety of pictures which can be changed or transformed in a desirable manner. A photographer can make use of a variety of tools to edit the pictures or videos. These editing tools enable a user to perform green screening, effectively and efficiently. You need to take care of a few points while transporting a subject to another place or to another background. A person can take a green color velvet cloth that does not reflect light. The surface of the green color cloth should not be highly polished otherwise it might reflect the light on the subject's face or clothes. Ensure that the cloth is not creased or folded in any way possible. The creased cloth creates a hindrance in the process of masking. You should also ensure that your subject should not wear the clothes that match with the background color of the subject. Keep an appropriate amount of light in the studio for clear visibility. Photograph the subject and then you can easily replace the background image by any other desirable image of the subject by using the editing tools or green screen software. The latest technology based computer programs provide you with drag and drop features. Simply drag and drop the video clip which you want to add to the time line of any tool. These computer programs equip you with transitions and to add visual effects as well as musical effects to the video or pictures. You just need to pick and choose the best one for yourself.
Myself webmaster of 123videomagic.com providing video editing software, green screen software, chromakey software helps in customizing video / images for replacing background, giving special effects as per your needs.
How to Prepare For a Portrait Session
There are many portrait studios on the market for you to choose from. Sears, Target and JCPenney Portrait Studios are just some of them. Once you decide which one will you choose, you will have to prepare for your portrait session.Here is a list of interesting and useful advices of how to prepare for a portrait session.
In case you exercise regularly, you might consider changing the routine to show off your muscles you are certainly very proud of. On the other hand, you can increase the frequency of the exercise 10 days before the portrait session.
In case you shave, do so three days before the session, so to give the skin an opportunity to revive itself.
Instead of using a potentially harmful solarium and prematurely aging the skin because of the ultra violet damage, think about using some quality self-tanning creams as well as some bronzing products.
In case you do get a nasty pimple the very day of your session, don't touch it (really, DO NOT touch it no matter what), because you'll only going to make it harder to cover and much redder. Portrait studios such as JCPenney Portrait Studio have make-up specialists. So, let them fix your tiny red problem.
Make sure you don't try out new skin treatments the day before the session.
In case you dye the hair, ensure that you have had roots recently treated. This is because bright portrait studio lighting can really exaggerate dark roots. And you do not want that.
Ensure your finger and toe nails look spotless. Also, you might want consider doing a manicure and pedicure. Also, use only clear nail polish that will go just perfectly with any color outfit.
In case you'll be doing your own make-up, keep in mind that the heat from the lights as well as bright portrait lighting tends to make the skin look shinier.
Do not use deodorant, because most of them leave stains on your clothes.
Your tattoos can really add to the photograph. Therefore, make sure your photographer knows about them.
Portrait session can be really exciting. Just make sure you choose the best portrait studio.
Lumix Digital Cameras Are Designed For Experts As Well As the Regular Guy
For a long time Panasonic have been acknowledged for the standard of cameras that they manufacture, from 35mm to digital cameras. One line who has one and all talking from families who capture movies of their children to pros who get paid thousands of dollars in favor of the photographs that they take are the Lumix line of digital cameras by Panasonic.You have got many choices with the Lumix range at many different price points these are cameras which have been planned to accomplish detailed tasks. Lumix cameras start off with a very economical price point so that even non pros that would like to seize stellar photographs can pay for a top quality camera that can produce fine-looking pictures image after image.
Regardless of which camera you choose to buy, there are a couple of things which you could anticipate each model to possess. The first thing is what Panasonic calls Intelligent Auto. This Intelligent Auto naturally focuses on what you wish the photo to focus on, assisting you in getting the picture you want on each occasion. Another feature that each Lumix digital camera offers is face detection. There is nothing worse than taking a picture with many subjects simply to have a number of them blurred out since the camera couldn't focus on a few of the people's faces. Lumix cameras do not have issues with that topic. Another impressive feature is intelligent scene selection, this ensures that everything that you really want within a picture is in the photo.
A different advantage to Lumix range of cameras is you have your pick of what sort of digital camera that you want to have. Professionals the world over work with the Lumix camera over any other type of digital camera for their specialist quality work.
Yes, it's also possible to spend 1000s of dollars on a very high end SLR Lumix digital camera. However, it's also possible to spend a few 100 dollars on a Lumix camera and acquire beautiful, expert looking consequences. You are able to choose every day cameras with things like Intelligent Resolution to be able to get the most out of the digital zoom.
A significant achievement of Lumix cameras is their compact concepts. Even the SLR cameras, which individuals time and again guess will be large and bulky, are compact and light-weight, making them perfect for travel, every day use, birthday parties and so on. Lumix by Panasonic includes a lot to offer for digital camera users the world over.
This is only a rant, let me do no harm.
This post would be so much better if I had a camera with me….sorry about that.
Ok I love this place; it has been two weeks since I have been in this coffee house. Last time I was here I wrote about the Brazilian girl and the Chinese lady. I did walk back into this place with expectations, but not really, it is just a coffee house.
As I stand in line – I think to myself how lonely life must me, how unnoticeable this person must feel. To be “seen’ is a hard thing to understand. From a distance, we are all seen or are all too self- absorbed to bother with what goes seen or unseen in our life.
To be outwardly self-expressive, using one's own body as a place of self-fascination. Not the body as a piece of art, but the body a canvas for art.
I stand in line waiting to order. The young lady in front of me has a full back tattoo that depicts a scene form Lord of the Rings…Seriously, truly a full cinematic-clip-in-all-of-its-glory tattoo on her back. She had a bikini top on showing off the full of her back. Two things go through my mind; one - damn this is good work (please Lord God never let my daughter do this). Two - when did she begin to feel invisible?
I have been running into extraordinary tattoos lately. There was the man with the Steelers logo (HERE) on his is head, the wedding guest with an Irish toast on her back (HERE) and last night after telling this story to a man at the pub he showed me his tattoo of a Dr Suess story that has taken up the better part of his left arm.
Don’t get me wrong - the pursuit of the unconventional is OK with me; all of life is a canvas as far as I am concerned.
The idea or subject matter of being noticed has stayed with me after seeing the back tattoo of the Lord of the Rings. What is it that would bring a person to place art/tattoo on their body in a place that everybody but themselves can see?
How unnoticeable must she feel? I could be completely wrong – self-expression is not for other people to judge, it is for the individual to express.
This is only a rant, let me do no harm.
Ok I love this place; it has been two weeks since I have been in this coffee house. Last time I was here I wrote about the Brazilian girl and the Chinese lady. I did walk back into this place with expectations, but not really, it is just a coffee house.
As I stand in line – I think to myself how lonely life must me, how unnoticeable this person must feel. To be “seen’ is a hard thing to understand. From a distance, we are all seen or are all too self- absorbed to bother with what goes seen or unseen in our life.
To be outwardly self-expressive, using one's own body as a place of self-fascination. Not the body as a piece of art, but the body a canvas for art.
I stand in line waiting to order. The young lady in front of me has a full back tattoo that depicts a scene form Lord of the Rings…Seriously, truly a full cinematic-clip-in-all-of-its-glory tattoo on her back. She had a bikini top on showing off the full of her back. Two things go through my mind; one - damn this is good work (please Lord God never let my daughter do this). Two - when did she begin to feel invisible?
I have been running into extraordinary tattoos lately. There was the man with the Steelers logo (HERE) on his is head, the wedding guest with an Irish toast on her back (HERE) and last night after telling this story to a man at the pub he showed me his tattoo of a Dr Suess story that has taken up the better part of his left arm.
Don’t get me wrong - the pursuit of the unconventional is OK with me; all of life is a canvas as far as I am concerned.
The idea or subject matter of being noticed has stayed with me after seeing the back tattoo of the Lord of the Rings. What is it that would bring a person to place art/tattoo on their body in a place that everybody but themselves can see?
How unnoticeable must she feel? I could be completely wrong – self-expression is not for other people to judge, it is for the individual to express.
This is only a rant, let me do no harm.
This is only a rant, let me do no harm.
This post would be so much better if I had a camera with me….sorry about that.
Ok I love this place; it has been two weeks since I have been in this coffee house. Last time I was here I wrote about the Brazilian girl and the Chinese lady. I did walk back into this place with expectations, but not really, it is just a coffee house.
As I stand in line – I think to myself how lonely life must me, how unnoticeable this person must feel. To be “seen’ is a hard thing to understand. From a distance, we are all seen or are all too self- absorbed to bother with what goes seen or unseen in our life.
To be outwardly self-expressive, using one's own body as a place of self-fascination. Not the body as a piece of art, but the body a canvas for art.
I stand in line waiting to order. The young lady in front of me has a full back tattoo that depicts a scene form Lord of the Rings…Seriously, truly a full cinematic-clip-in-all-of-its-glory tattoo on her back. She had a bikini top on showing off the full of her back. Two things go through my mind; one - damn this is good work (please Lord God never let my daughter do this). Two - when did she begin to feel invisible?
I have been running into extraordinary tattoos lately. There was the man with the Steelers logo (HERE) on his is head, the wedding guest with an Irish toast on her back (HERE) and last night after telling this story to a man at the pub he showed me his tattoo of a Dr Suess story that has taken up the better part of his left arm.
Don’t get me wrong - the pursuit of the unconventional is OK with me; all of life is a canvas as far as I am concerned.
The idea or subject matter of being noticed has stayed with me after seeing the back tattoo of the Lord of the Rings. What is it that would bring a person to place art/tattoo on their body in a place that everybody but themselves can see?
How unnoticeable must she feel? I could be completely wrong – self-expression is not for other people to judge, it is for the individual to express.
This is only a rant, let me do no harm.
Ok I love this place; it has been two weeks since I have been in this coffee house. Last time I was here I wrote about the Brazilian girl and the Chinese lady. I did walk back into this place with expectations, but not really, it is just a coffee house.
As I stand in line – I think to myself how lonely life must me, how unnoticeable this person must feel. To be “seen’ is a hard thing to understand. From a distance, we are all seen or are all too self- absorbed to bother with what goes seen or unseen in our life.
To be outwardly self-expressive, using one's own body as a place of self-fascination. Not the body as a piece of art, but the body a canvas for art.
I stand in line waiting to order. The young lady in front of me has a full back tattoo that depicts a scene form Lord of the Rings…Seriously, truly a full cinematic-clip-in-all-of-its-glory tattoo on her back. She had a bikini top on showing off the full of her back. Two things go through my mind; one - damn this is good work (please Lord God never let my daughter do this). Two - when did she begin to feel invisible?
I have been running into extraordinary tattoos lately. There was the man with the Steelers logo (HERE) on his is head, the wedding guest with an Irish toast on her back (HERE) and last night after telling this story to a man at the pub he showed me his tattoo of a Dr Suess story that has taken up the better part of his left arm.
Don’t get me wrong - the pursuit of the unconventional is OK with me; all of life is a canvas as far as I am concerned.
The idea or subject matter of being noticed has stayed with me after seeing the back tattoo of the Lord of the Rings. What is it that would bring a person to place art/tattoo on their body in a place that everybody but themselves can see?
How unnoticeable must she feel? I could be completely wrong – self-expression is not for other people to judge, it is for the individual to express.
This is only a rant, let me do no harm.
Update ~ Last Week
It is late on Sunday night as I write this, moments before midnight. I am tired. A creative tired from the past seven days of work. In the past forty-eight hours Elizabeth & I had two days of non-stop shooting. As I type these words it still feels like I have a camera pressed up against my left eye and the feel of the indent in my right hand from holding on to the camera for an extended period. The work was good; the light over the past 2 days was good. At times too bright and hazy, but all light is good.
Monday thru Friday of last week I wrote...a lot. I stepped away from my desk and wrote. I find it hard to sit at my desk and write. For me my desk is for editing photos, updating this blog and responding to e-mails. Off to write, to create (either with a pen or camera) I need to leave the desk. I sat in the library and wrote, I sat in coffee house and wrote, even ventured to my back porch and wrote. I wrote.
Filling up a journal is a good feeling. An addictive feeling and if you have ever filled up a journal there is a good chance that you will continue to fill up journals. Seeing a small stack of moleskin journals accumulating on a bookshelf is good (also scary, hoping that nobody but you ever reads them).
I walked last week. I walked as much as I could. The weather was nice so I did my best to stay out of my car as much as possible. On Thursday I had a networking meeting on the South Side of Pittsburgh at nine. Not wanting to use my car nor sit in traffic I decided to get up early and walk to the “T” (PGH subway/train hybrid). Forty minutes to get to the station, 15 minutes on the “T” and then another twenty minute walk to the appointment. The second half of the walk was a great experience. I walked down a street that I have driven on many, many times over the past twenty years.
Thursday I saw the street for the very first time.
I am going to finish my beer and go to bed. Will organize my writing projects in the days to come.
P.S. Wednesday I will be taking photos for Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy – they hold a “walks in the woods” every Wednesday evening (6:30) between the months of June through September. Bring your camera & I will do my best to help answer any of your questions (mini Photo-Walk).
Info about “Walks in the Woods” can be found here :
http://www.pittsburghparks.org/walks-in-the-woods
Monday thru Friday of last week I wrote...a lot. I stepped away from my desk and wrote. I find it hard to sit at my desk and write. For me my desk is for editing photos, updating this blog and responding to e-mails. Off to write, to create (either with a pen or camera) I need to leave the desk. I sat in the library and wrote, I sat in coffee house and wrote, even ventured to my back porch and wrote. I wrote.
Filling up a journal is a good feeling. An addictive feeling and if you have ever filled up a journal there is a good chance that you will continue to fill up journals. Seeing a small stack of moleskin journals accumulating on a bookshelf is good (also scary, hoping that nobody but you ever reads them).
I walked last week. I walked as much as I could. The weather was nice so I did my best to stay out of my car as much as possible. On Thursday I had a networking meeting on the South Side of Pittsburgh at nine. Not wanting to use my car nor sit in traffic I decided to get up early and walk to the “T” (PGH subway/train hybrid). Forty minutes to get to the station, 15 minutes on the “T” and then another twenty minute walk to the appointment. The second half of the walk was a great experience. I walked down a street that I have driven on many, many times over the past twenty years.
Thursday I saw the street for the very first time.
I am going to finish my beer and go to bed. Will organize my writing projects in the days to come.
P.S. Wednesday I will be taking photos for Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy – they hold a “walks in the woods” every Wednesday evening (6:30) between the months of June through September. Bring your camera & I will do my best to help answer any of your questions (mini Photo-Walk).
Info about “Walks in the Woods” can be found here :
http://www.pittsburghparks.org/walks-in-the-woods
Update ~ Last Week
It is late on Sunday night as I write this, moments before midnight. I am tired. A creative tired from the past seven days of work. In the past forty-eight hours Elizabeth & I had two days of non-stop shooting. As I type these words it still feels like I have a camera pressed up against my left eye and the feel of the indent in my right hand from holding on to the camera for an extended period. The work was good; the light over the past 2 days was good. At times too bright and hazy, but all light is good.
Monday thru Friday of last week I wrote...a lot. I stepped away from my desk and wrote. I find it hard to sit at my desk and write. For me my desk is for editing photos, updating this blog and responding to e-mails. Off to write, to create (either with a pen or camera) I need to leave the desk. I sat in the library and wrote, I sat in coffee house and wrote, even ventured to my back porch and wrote. I wrote.
Filling up a journal is a good feeling. An addictive feeling and if you have ever filled up a journal there is a good chance that you will continue to fill up journals. Seeing a small stack of moleskin journals accumulating on a bookshelf is good (also scary, hoping that nobody but you ever reads them).
I walked last week. I walked as much as I could. The weather was nice so I did my best to stay out of my car as much as possible. On Thursday I had a networking meeting on the South Side of Pittsburgh at nine. Not wanting to use my car nor sit in traffic I decided to get up early and walk to the “T” (PGH subway/train hybrid). Forty minutes to get to the station, 15 minutes on the “T” and then another twenty minute walk to the appointment. The second half of the walk was a great experience. I walked down a street that I have driven on many, many times over the past twenty years.
Thursday I saw the street for the very first time.
I am going to finish my beer and go to bed. Will organize my writing projects in the days to come.
P.S. Wednesday I will be taking photos for Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy – they hold a “walks in the woods” every Wednesday evening (6:30) between the months of June through September. Bring your camera & I will do my best to help answer any of your questions (mini Photo-Walk).
Info about “Walks in the Woods” can be found here :
http://www.pittsburghparks.org/walks-in-the-woods
Monday thru Friday of last week I wrote...a lot. I stepped away from my desk and wrote. I find it hard to sit at my desk and write. For me my desk is for editing photos, updating this blog and responding to e-mails. Off to write, to create (either with a pen or camera) I need to leave the desk. I sat in the library and wrote, I sat in coffee house and wrote, even ventured to my back porch and wrote. I wrote.
Filling up a journal is a good feeling. An addictive feeling and if you have ever filled up a journal there is a good chance that you will continue to fill up journals. Seeing a small stack of moleskin journals accumulating on a bookshelf is good (also scary, hoping that nobody but you ever reads them).
I walked last week. I walked as much as I could. The weather was nice so I did my best to stay out of my car as much as possible. On Thursday I had a networking meeting on the South Side of Pittsburgh at nine. Not wanting to use my car nor sit in traffic I decided to get up early and walk to the “T” (PGH subway/train hybrid). Forty minutes to get to the station, 15 minutes on the “T” and then another twenty minute walk to the appointment. The second half of the walk was a great experience. I walked down a street that I have driven on many, many times over the past twenty years.
Thursday I saw the street for the very first time.
I am going to finish my beer and go to bed. Will organize my writing projects in the days to come.
P.S. Wednesday I will be taking photos for Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy – they hold a “walks in the woods” every Wednesday evening (6:30) between the months of June through September. Bring your camera & I will do my best to help answer any of your questions (mini Photo-Walk).
Info about “Walks in the Woods” can be found here :
http://www.pittsburghparks.org/walks-in-the-woods
Feedback ~ Critique Me
Random photo taken on an evening walk. What do you think?
All photography & artwork on this site is licensed under a creative commons licensing: Please feel free to use and distribute the photography & artwork in accordance with the licensing
All photography & artwork on this site is licensed under a creative commons licensing: Please feel free to use and distribute the photography & artwork in accordance with the licensing
Feedback ~ Critique Me
Random photo taken on an evening walk. What do you think?
All photography & artwork on this site is licensed under a creative commons licensing: Please feel free to use and distribute the photography & artwork in accordance with the licensing
All photography & artwork on this site is licensed under a creative commons licensing: Please feel free to use and distribute the photography & artwork in accordance with the licensing
Flowers, Fog & Morning
Woke up to a foggy morning. Grabbed the camera & went into my backyard. Notice the spider at work.
I have no idea what these flowers are called but they do grow wild in my backyard every spring.
I have no idea what these flowers are called but they do grow wild in my backyard every spring.
Flowers, Fog & Morning
Woke up to a foggy morning. Grabbed the camera & went into my backyard. Notice the spider at work.
I have no idea what these flowers are called but they do grow wild in my backyard every spring.
I have no idea what these flowers are called but they do grow wild in my backyard every spring.
Moment
Current Reading: Eaarth: Making a Life on Toughs New Planet by Bill Mckibben
Current Music: Seeds by Martin Sexton
Mood: Older
Smells: Eggplant plant & zucchini
Sounds: TV, background noise
Temperature: 57 degrees
Thoughts: Faith & Creativity ~ this is one constant, recurring, ever-present thought that I should write about.
Current Music: Seeds by Martin Sexton
Mood: Older
Smells: Eggplant plant & zucchini
Sounds: TV, background noise
Temperature: 57 degrees
Thoughts: Faith & Creativity ~ this is one constant, recurring, ever-present thought that I should write about.
Moment
Current Reading: Eaarth: Making a Life on Toughs New Planet by Bill Mckibben
Current Music: Seeds by Martin Sexton
Mood: Older
Smells: Eggplant plant & zucchini
Sounds: TV, background noise
Temperature: 57 degrees
Thoughts: Faith & Creativity ~ this is one constant, recurring, ever-present thought that I should write about.
Current Music: Seeds by Martin Sexton
Mood: Older
Smells: Eggplant plant & zucchini
Sounds: TV, background noise
Temperature: 57 degrees
Thoughts: Faith & Creativity ~ this is one constant, recurring, ever-present thought that I should write about.
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow ~ Tonight
Looking forward to seeing everyone...
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm intro to new PUG followed by Q&A
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow ~ Tonight
Looking forward to seeing everyone...
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm intro to new PUG followed by Q&A
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
Dates & Stuff
5.18.10 –
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm intro to new PUG followed by Q&A
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.9.10 - Boudoir workshop w/ Elizabeth
6.10.10 -
Understanding Exposure Class @ Northland Library 7-9pm I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.15.10 -
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm into to new PUG followed by Q&A (topic/speaker TBD)
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.17.10 -
Understanding Exposure class @ Northland Library 7-9pm (Part II) ~ I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & Your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.24.10 -
Photo Walk
Topic: Dusk on the North Shore
Time: 7:30 pm
Where: Gate “A” Heinz Stadium Pittsburgh PA
What to bring: camera, tripod, passion to learn and a friend.
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm intro to new PUG followed by Q&A
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.9.10 - Boudoir workshop w/ Elizabeth
6.10.10 -
Understanding Exposure Class @ Northland Library 7-9pm I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.15.10 -
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm into to new PUG followed by Q&A (topic/speaker TBD)
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.17.10 -
Understanding Exposure class @ Northland Library 7-9pm (Part II) ~ I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & Your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.24.10 -
Photo Walk
Topic: Dusk on the North Shore
Time: 7:30 pm
Where: Gate “A” Heinz Stadium Pittsburgh PA
What to bring: camera, tripod, passion to learn and a friend.
Dates & Stuff
5.18.10 –
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm intro to new PUG followed by Q&A
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.9.10 - Boudoir workshop w/ Elizabeth
6.10.10 -
Understanding Exposure Class @ Northland Library 7-9pm I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.15.10 -
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm into to new PUG followed by Q&A (topic/speaker TBD)
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.17.10 -
Understanding Exposure class @ Northland Library 7-9pm (Part II) ~ I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & Your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.24.10 -
Photo Walk
Topic: Dusk on the North Shore
Time: 7:30 pm
Where: Gate “A” Heinz Stadium Pittsburgh PA
What to bring: camera, tripod, passion to learn and a friend.
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm intro to new PUG followed by Q&A
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.9.10 - Boudoir workshop w/ Elizabeth
6.10.10 -
Understanding Exposure Class @ Northland Library 7-9pm I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.15.10 -
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm into to new PUG followed by Q&A (topic/speaker TBD)
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.17.10 -
Understanding Exposure class @ Northland Library 7-9pm (Part II) ~ I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & Your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.24.10 -
Photo Walk
Topic: Dusk on the North Shore
Time: 7:30 pm
Where: Gate “A” Heinz Stadium Pittsburgh PA
What to bring: camera, tripod, passion to learn and a friend.
Walk, Faith, Creativity
I was out for a long walk this morning after dropping my daughter off at school.
The air smelled sweet from the rain that has been falling for the better part of the last forty-eight hours. The air was cold with a heavy humidity to it, never thought that humidity could exist in cold air, but it did. The sky, gray-white, overcast, thick clouds blanketing the horizon.
I have taken this same walk twice before. I call it my urban sprawl walk. It is a walk that takes me through a couple of different neighborhoods, small biz districts where I can stop at the post office, bank and the drug store. I like that. The walk ends on a long busy stretch of road, (noise) that leads back to my neighborhood.
I have a “thing” (thing is a poor choice of word as it is more like an obsession) about the creative benefits of taking a walk to clear the mind. It’s meditation and exercise at the same time. One activity with multiple outcomes. Not a bad way to increase productivity and turn over thoughts in your mind.
For years I have taken walks as I did today. This morning's walk was an odd thing for me. Usually my walks are in the woods where I can feel all Henry-David-Thoreau-like and get a sense of a connection to the divine. (Thoreau nor the Divine show up on busy roadways, it's just not safe.)
Walking on sidewalks, inhaling bus fumes while trying to block out the noise of…well everything. I miss the woods, but the urban sprawl is new, different and unexplored on foot. For years I drove to the woods for moments of quiet, never learning the landscape that I was driving on. Change brings creativity. That is why I was out walking in the first place. To think about creating something new; project, thought, idea. I get this feeling inside of me that I need to have a creative release to give quiet back to my mind.
Walking in silence when the world is erupting is an act of surrender. Quietness brings out answers to the seeking questions that I have been asking myself.
There is only one giant problem; I have no way of recording these thoughts in my head because I am out walking in all this noise.
Odd isn’t it – people have creative important epiphanies when they are nowhere close to being able to write them down (some magical curse from the Muse of creativity). Whatever fragmented thoughts make it all the way home must have been the finest ones. The Muse must send out the leftover mini-epiphanies to somebody else pondering in the streets, actually, most likely the woods. (Do you think people get these experiences when golfing??)
The reason for this specific walk: over the past couple of months I have been taking a class on spiritual journaling. Truthfully, I have not been journaling on my spiritual pursuits. I have been journaling, just not while asking God to speak to me through pen and paper.
Nonetheless, this class stays present in my mind, just sitting there begging me to write it out (not down, but out as in a release).
Faith & Creativity ~ this is one constant, recurring, ever-present thought that I should write about.
I need to figure out how to write down my story of faith and creativity and the effect it has guided my life.
By the time most of you have read this post I will have had my first conversation/meeting to bring this subject to life.
Is creating something enough to build your spiritual faith on?
Yes…
It is not the starting or ending point - it is the realization of the experience.
The air smelled sweet from the rain that has been falling for the better part of the last forty-eight hours. The air was cold with a heavy humidity to it, never thought that humidity could exist in cold air, but it did. The sky, gray-white, overcast, thick clouds blanketing the horizon.
I have taken this same walk twice before. I call it my urban sprawl walk. It is a walk that takes me through a couple of different neighborhoods, small biz districts where I can stop at the post office, bank and the drug store. I like that. The walk ends on a long busy stretch of road, (noise) that leads back to my neighborhood.
I have a “thing” (thing is a poor choice of word as it is more like an obsession) about the creative benefits of taking a walk to clear the mind. It’s meditation and exercise at the same time. One activity with multiple outcomes. Not a bad way to increase productivity and turn over thoughts in your mind.
For years I have taken walks as I did today. This morning's walk was an odd thing for me. Usually my walks are in the woods where I can feel all Henry-David-Thoreau-like and get a sense of a connection to the divine. (Thoreau nor the Divine show up on busy roadways, it's just not safe.)
Walking on sidewalks, inhaling bus fumes while trying to block out the noise of…well everything. I miss the woods, but the urban sprawl is new, different and unexplored on foot. For years I drove to the woods for moments of quiet, never learning the landscape that I was driving on. Change brings creativity. That is why I was out walking in the first place. To think about creating something new; project, thought, idea. I get this feeling inside of me that I need to have a creative release to give quiet back to my mind.
Walking in silence when the world is erupting is an act of surrender. Quietness brings out answers to the seeking questions that I have been asking myself.
There is only one giant problem; I have no way of recording these thoughts in my head because I am out walking in all this noise.
Odd isn’t it – people have creative important epiphanies when they are nowhere close to being able to write them down (some magical curse from the Muse of creativity). Whatever fragmented thoughts make it all the way home must have been the finest ones. The Muse must send out the leftover mini-epiphanies to somebody else pondering in the streets, actually, most likely the woods. (Do you think people get these experiences when golfing??)
The reason for this specific walk: over the past couple of months I have been taking a class on spiritual journaling. Truthfully, I have not been journaling on my spiritual pursuits. I have been journaling, just not while asking God to speak to me through pen and paper.
Nonetheless, this class stays present in my mind, just sitting there begging me to write it out (not down, but out as in a release).
Faith & Creativity ~ this is one constant, recurring, ever-present thought that I should write about.
I need to figure out how to write down my story of faith and creativity and the effect it has guided my life.
By the time most of you have read this post I will have had my first conversation/meeting to bring this subject to life.
Is creating something enough to build your spiritual faith on?
Yes…
It is not the starting or ending point - it is the realization of the experience.
Walk, Faith, Creativity
I was out for a long walk this morning after dropping my daughter off at school.
The air smelled sweet from the rain that has been falling for the better part of the last forty-eight hours. The air was cold with a heavy humidity to it, never thought that humidity could exist in cold air, but it did. The sky, gray-white, overcast, thick clouds blanketing the horizon.
I have taken this same walk twice before. I call it my urban sprawl walk. It is a walk that takes me through a couple of different neighborhoods, small biz districts where I can stop at the post office, bank and the drug store. I like that. The walk ends on a long busy stretch of road, (noise) that leads back to my neighborhood.
I have a “thing” (thing is a poor choice of word as it is more like an obsession) about the creative benefits of taking a walk to clear the mind. It’s meditation and exercise at the same time. One activity with multiple outcomes. Not a bad way to increase productivity and turn over thoughts in your mind.
For years I have taken walks as I did today. This morning's walk was an odd thing for me. Usually my walks are in the woods where I can feel all Henry-David-Thoreau-like and get a sense of a connection to the divine. (Thoreau nor the Divine show up on busy roadways, it's just not safe.)
Walking on sidewalks, inhaling bus fumes while trying to block out the noise of…well everything. I miss the woods, but the urban sprawl is new, different and unexplored on foot. For years I drove to the woods for moments of quiet, never learning the landscape that I was driving on. Change brings creativity. That is why I was out walking in the first place. To think about creating something new; project, thought, idea. I get this feeling inside of me that I need to have a creative release to give quiet back to my mind.
Walking in silence when the world is erupting is an act of surrender. Quietness brings out answers to the seeking questions that I have been asking myself.
There is only one giant problem; I have no way of recording these thoughts in my head because I am out walking in all this noise.
Odd isn’t it – people have creative important epiphanies when they are nowhere close to being able to write them down (some magical curse from the Muse of creativity). Whatever fragmented thoughts make it all the way home must have been the finest ones. The Muse must send out the leftover mini-epiphanies to somebody else pondering in the streets, actually, most likely the woods. (Do you think people get these experiences when golfing??)
The reason for this specific walk: over the past couple of months I have been taking a class on spiritual journaling. Truthfully, I have not been journaling on my spiritual pursuits. I have been journaling, just not while asking God to speak to me through pen and paper.
Nonetheless, this class stays present in my mind, just sitting there begging me to write it out (not down, but out as in a release).
Faith & Creativity ~ this is one constant, recurring, ever-present thought that I should write about.
I need to figure out how to write down my story of faith and creativity and the effect it has guided my life.
By the time most of you have read this post I will have had my first conversation/meeting to bring this subject to life.
Is creating something enough to build your spiritual faith on?
Yes…
It is not the starting or ending point - it is the realization of the experience.
The air smelled sweet from the rain that has been falling for the better part of the last forty-eight hours. The air was cold with a heavy humidity to it, never thought that humidity could exist in cold air, but it did. The sky, gray-white, overcast, thick clouds blanketing the horizon.
I have taken this same walk twice before. I call it my urban sprawl walk. It is a walk that takes me through a couple of different neighborhoods, small biz districts where I can stop at the post office, bank and the drug store. I like that. The walk ends on a long busy stretch of road, (noise) that leads back to my neighborhood.
I have a “thing” (thing is a poor choice of word as it is more like an obsession) about the creative benefits of taking a walk to clear the mind. It’s meditation and exercise at the same time. One activity with multiple outcomes. Not a bad way to increase productivity and turn over thoughts in your mind.
For years I have taken walks as I did today. This morning's walk was an odd thing for me. Usually my walks are in the woods where I can feel all Henry-David-Thoreau-like and get a sense of a connection to the divine. (Thoreau nor the Divine show up on busy roadways, it's just not safe.)
Walking on sidewalks, inhaling bus fumes while trying to block out the noise of…well everything. I miss the woods, but the urban sprawl is new, different and unexplored on foot. For years I drove to the woods for moments of quiet, never learning the landscape that I was driving on. Change brings creativity. That is why I was out walking in the first place. To think about creating something new; project, thought, idea. I get this feeling inside of me that I need to have a creative release to give quiet back to my mind.
Walking in silence when the world is erupting is an act of surrender. Quietness brings out answers to the seeking questions that I have been asking myself.
There is only one giant problem; I have no way of recording these thoughts in my head because I am out walking in all this noise.
Odd isn’t it – people have creative important epiphanies when they are nowhere close to being able to write them down (some magical curse from the Muse of creativity). Whatever fragmented thoughts make it all the way home must have been the finest ones. The Muse must send out the leftover mini-epiphanies to somebody else pondering in the streets, actually, most likely the woods. (Do you think people get these experiences when golfing??)
The reason for this specific walk: over the past couple of months I have been taking a class on spiritual journaling. Truthfully, I have not been journaling on my spiritual pursuits. I have been journaling, just not while asking God to speak to me through pen and paper.
Nonetheless, this class stays present in my mind, just sitting there begging me to write it out (not down, but out as in a release).
Faith & Creativity ~ this is one constant, recurring, ever-present thought that I should write about.
I need to figure out how to write down my story of faith and creativity and the effect it has guided my life.
By the time most of you have read this post I will have had my first conversation/meeting to bring this subject to life.
Is creating something enough to build your spiritual faith on?
Yes…
It is not the starting or ending point - it is the realization of the experience.
Brazilian girl & Chinese Lady
I see a Brazilian chick wearing a short black skirt just long (or short) enough to cover her girlie parts, canvas-hiking boots that are well past worn out, a beat up gray sweater that she could have borrowed from her Grandmother or purchased for five hundred dollars at Anthropologie. Wild, nappy hair, as if she used to have dreadlocks and has tried to comb them out, clumps of hair that are dyed platinum white and some that are died blond to give depth and texture to her brunette quaff.
She carries a persona that she is trying to pull off, defiantly an urban city girl with a love for punk edge – I bet she can hold her own. The only thing that is odd about her is her hands. Her hands look much older than the rest of her. The Brazilian chick is thin, young, olive skinned, 20ish, with style, but her hands look as if to belong to a woman in her seventies; a woman who has worked a lifetime with those hands.
Small, round red glasses perched on the edge of her nose while she sits with good posture having a video-chat on her laptop with a lady that is obviously Chinese speaking Mandarin.
A Brazilian chick speaking Portuguese to a Chinese lady speaking Mandarin and it is quite clear that they both understand each other just by all the laughter they are sharing.
As for me, OK, yes I do feel a little guilty eves-dropping on them but neither of them knows it. I am sitting in a coffeehouse on the upper east side of Pittsburgh, one table behind her and a row of tables separating us. It’s hard not to notice a crazy (but cool) looking Brazilian chick speaking Portuguese and laughing out loud while having a v-chat with a Chinese lady speaking Mandarin…Ok, I am not eves-dropping, just witnessing the spectacle.
Brazilian chick and the Chinese lady both start dancing to the Humpty dance song that has started playing over the coffeehouse stereo system.
The Chinese lady just kissed her monitor and pressed her breast to the screen while dancing to the music. Both start laughing painfully louder than before ~ they’re probably making fun of the creepy guy at the corner table eves-dropping while writing in his journal.
She carries a persona that she is trying to pull off, defiantly an urban city girl with a love for punk edge – I bet she can hold her own. The only thing that is odd about her is her hands. Her hands look much older than the rest of her. The Brazilian chick is thin, young, olive skinned, 20ish, with style, but her hands look as if to belong to a woman in her seventies; a woman who has worked a lifetime with those hands.
Small, round red glasses perched on the edge of her nose while she sits with good posture having a video-chat on her laptop with a lady that is obviously Chinese speaking Mandarin.
A Brazilian chick speaking Portuguese to a Chinese lady speaking Mandarin and it is quite clear that they both understand each other just by all the laughter they are sharing.
As for me, OK, yes I do feel a little guilty eves-dropping on them but neither of them knows it. I am sitting in a coffeehouse on the upper east side of Pittsburgh, one table behind her and a row of tables separating us. It’s hard not to notice a crazy (but cool) looking Brazilian chick speaking Portuguese and laughing out loud while having a v-chat with a Chinese lady speaking Mandarin…Ok, I am not eves-dropping, just witnessing the spectacle.
Brazilian chick and the Chinese lady both start dancing to the Humpty dance song that has started playing over the coffeehouse stereo system.
The Chinese lady just kissed her monitor and pressed her breast to the screen while dancing to the music. Both start laughing painfully louder than before ~ they’re probably making fun of the creepy guy at the corner table eves-dropping while writing in his journal.
Brazilian girl & Chinese Lady
I see a Brazilian chick wearing a short black skirt just long (or short) enough to cover her girlie parts, canvas-hiking boots that are well past worn out, a beat up gray sweater that she could have borrowed from her Grandmother or purchased for five hundred dollars at Anthropologie. Wild, nappy hair, as if she used to have dreadlocks and has tried to comb them out, clumps of hair that are dyed platinum white and some that are died blond to give depth and texture to her brunette quaff.
She carries a persona that she is trying to pull off, defiantly an urban city girl with a love for punk edge – I bet she can hold her own. The only thing that is odd about her is her hands. Her hands look much older than the rest of her. The Brazilian chick is thin, young, olive skinned, 20ish, with style, but her hands look as if to belong to a woman in her seventies; a woman who has worked a lifetime with those hands.
Small, round red glasses perched on the edge of her nose while she sits with good posture having a video-chat on her laptop with a lady that is obviously Chinese speaking Mandarin.
A Brazilian chick speaking Portuguese to a Chinese lady speaking Mandarin and it is quite clear that they both understand each other just by all the laughter they are sharing.
As for me, OK, yes I do feel a little guilty eves-dropping on them but neither of them knows it. I am sitting in a coffeehouse on the upper east side of Pittsburgh, one table behind her and a row of tables separating us. It’s hard not to notice a crazy (but cool) looking Brazilian chick speaking Portuguese and laughing out loud while having a v-chat with a Chinese lady speaking Mandarin…Ok, I am not eves-dropping, just witnessing the spectacle.
Brazilian chick and the Chinese lady both start dancing to the Humpty dance song that has started playing over the coffeehouse stereo system.
The Chinese lady just kissed her monitor and pressed her breast to the screen while dancing to the music. Both start laughing painfully louder than before ~ they’re probably making fun of the creepy guy at the corner table eves-dropping while writing in his journal.
She carries a persona that she is trying to pull off, defiantly an urban city girl with a love for punk edge – I bet she can hold her own. The only thing that is odd about her is her hands. Her hands look much older than the rest of her. The Brazilian chick is thin, young, olive skinned, 20ish, with style, but her hands look as if to belong to a woman in her seventies; a woman who has worked a lifetime with those hands.
Small, round red glasses perched on the edge of her nose while she sits with good posture having a video-chat on her laptop with a lady that is obviously Chinese speaking Mandarin.
A Brazilian chick speaking Portuguese to a Chinese lady speaking Mandarin and it is quite clear that they both understand each other just by all the laughter they are sharing.
As for me, OK, yes I do feel a little guilty eves-dropping on them but neither of them knows it. I am sitting in a coffeehouse on the upper east side of Pittsburgh, one table behind her and a row of tables separating us. It’s hard not to notice a crazy (but cool) looking Brazilian chick speaking Portuguese and laughing out loud while having a v-chat with a Chinese lady speaking Mandarin…Ok, I am not eves-dropping, just witnessing the spectacle.
Brazilian chick and the Chinese lady both start dancing to the Humpty dance song that has started playing over the coffeehouse stereo system.
The Chinese lady just kissed her monitor and pressed her breast to the screen while dancing to the music. Both start laughing painfully louder than before ~ they’re probably making fun of the creepy guy at the corner table eves-dropping while writing in his journal.
Moment
Current Reading: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Current Music: Nothing Like the Sun By Sting
Mood:Good
Smell:Cat
Sound:Treadmill
Temperature: 61 degrees
Thought: I need to rest the part of my mind where words come from.
Current Music: Nothing Like the Sun By Sting
Mood:Good
Smell:Cat
Sound:Treadmill
Temperature: 61 degrees
Thought: I need to rest the part of my mind where words come from.
Moment
Current Reading: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Current Music: Nothing Like the Sun By Sting
Mood:Good
Smell:Cat
Sound:Treadmill
Temperature: 61 degrees
Thought: I need to rest the part of my mind where words come from.
Current Music: Nothing Like the Sun By Sting
Mood:Good
Smell:Cat
Sound:Treadmill
Temperature: 61 degrees
Thought: I need to rest the part of my mind where words come from.
New Dates Announced
5.18.10 –
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm intro to new PUG followed by Q&A
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.9.10 - Boudoir workshop w/ Elizabeth
6.10.10 -
Understanding Exposure Class @ Northland Library 7-9pm I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.15.10 -
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm into to new PUG followed by Q&A (topic/speaker TBD)
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.17.10 -
Understanding Exposure class @ Northland Library 7-9pm (Part II) ~ I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & Your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.24.10 -
Photo Walk
Topic: Dusk on the North Shore
Time: 7:30 pm
Where: Gate “A” Heinz Stadium Pittsburgh PA
What to bring: camera, tripod, passion to learn and a friend.
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm intro to new PUG followed by Q&A
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.9.10 - Boudoir workshop w/ Elizabeth
6.10.10 -
Understanding Exposure Class @ Northland Library 7-9pm I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.15.10 -
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm into to new PUG followed by Q&A (topic/speaker TBD)
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.17.10 -
Understanding Exposure class @ Northland Library 7-9pm (Part II) ~ I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & Your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.24.10 -
Photo Walk
Topic: Dusk on the North Shore
Time: 7:30 pm
Where: Gate “A” Heinz Stadium Pittsburgh PA
What to bring: camera, tripod, passion to learn and a friend.
New Dates Announced
5.18.10 –
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm intro to new PUG followed by Q&A
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.9.10 - Boudoir workshop w/ Elizabeth
6.10.10 -
Understanding Exposure Class @ Northland Library 7-9pm I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.15.10 -
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm into to new PUG followed by Q&A (topic/speaker TBD)
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.17.10 -
Understanding Exposure class @ Northland Library 7-9pm (Part II) ~ I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & Your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.24.10 -
Photo Walk
Topic: Dusk on the North Shore
Time: 7:30 pm
Where: Gate “A” Heinz Stadium Pittsburgh PA
What to bring: camera, tripod, passion to learn and a friend.
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm intro to new PUG followed by Q&A
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.9.10 - Boudoir workshop w/ Elizabeth
6.10.10 -
Understanding Exposure Class @ Northland Library 7-9pm I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.15.10 -
Pictage/PUG ~ Create Connect & Grow
7 to 9 ~
7:00 to 7:30 cocktails & networking
7:30 to 9pm into to new PUG followed by Q&A (topic/speaker TBD)
Location
Studio ~ 502 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15212
**Open to ALL photographers, including students
RSVP at craigphotography@mac.com
6.17.10 -
Understanding Exposure class @ Northland Library 7-9pm (Part II) ~ I will be teaching an introductory class on understanding exposure & Your DSLR camera.
To register call: 412-366-8100
6.24.10 -
Photo Walk
Topic: Dusk on the North Shore
Time: 7:30 pm
Where: Gate “A” Heinz Stadium Pittsburgh PA
What to bring: camera, tripod, passion to learn and a friend.
True Metaphor
Metaphors: comparisons that show how two things that are not alike in most ways are similar in one important way.
True: the state of being in accord with fact or reality
I have been trying to write this article on the theme of a "true metaphor", as in one word or idea that holds truth, problems & interpretations all in a single phrase. Confusing idea, don’t you agree? It all started last week when I met this man who walked out of the pages of the Old Testament and shook my hand. He had a big smile, strong hand shake and a laugh that was contagious.
I was filling in for a last minute job at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary to document the installation of a professor. I had no idea what an installation of a professor was. Apparently it is when a teacher/preacher gets an important job.
What I received from this encounter was the best damn sermon I ever heard. This Old Testament scholar gave a talk and transcendental speech that I have been waiting 30 years to hear. He bridged truth and metaphor into a single thread of thought. I was blinded by words, ideas and hope for what we all could be, become, or better yet evolve into.
I am not going to paraphrase or try to explain this experience because I could not do it justice. What I want to share is the "true metaphor" that I have been struggling with.
True-metaphor: Arts only purpose is to serve
The only purpose art has is to entertain the rest of nature. After God created the world he gave to his last creation (us, humanity) the gift of creativity. Nature as a whole is concerned about living, better yet - staying alive. The only act of creation in nature is the act of reproducing. Humans and humanity - we get to create, ponder and then create anew for the totality of our existence on this planet.
Arts only purpose is to serve…
If you have attend any of our workshops, Q&A's or Photo-Walks you know I preach this phrase as the photographer’s gospel. What does it mean? To me it is about training what might end up being your future competition. In truth it is about training what will hopefully turn out to be my future collaborators, teachers and community.
If you’re creating something then in no way can you be doing harm. Art can only be part of the conscious solution, not the unconscious problem…
True Metaphor
Metaphors: comparisons that show how two things that are not alike in most ways are similar in one important way.
True: the state of being in accord with fact or reality
I have been trying to write this article on the theme of a "true metaphor", as in one word or idea that holds truth, problems & interpretations all in a single phrase. Confusing idea, don’t you agree? It all started last week when I met this man who walked out of the pages of the Old Testament and shook my hand. He had a big smile, strong hand shake and a laugh that was contagious.
I was filling in for a last minute job at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary to document the installation of a professor. I had no idea what an installation of a professor was. Apparently it is when a teacher/preacher gets an important job.
What I received from this encounter was the best damn sermon I ever heard. This Old Testament scholar gave a talk and transcendental speech that I have been waiting 30 years to hear. He bridged truth and metaphor into a single thread of thought. I was blinded by words, ideas and hope for what we all could be, become, or better yet evolve into.
I am not going to paraphrase or try to explain this experience because I could not do it justice. What I want to share is the "true metaphor" that I have been struggling with.
True-metaphor: Arts only purpose is to serve
The only purpose art has is to entertain the rest of nature. After God created the world he gave to his last creation (us, humanity) the gift of creativity. Nature as a whole is concerned about living, better yet - staying alive. The only act of creation in nature is the act of reproducing. Humans and humanity - we get to create, ponder and then create anew for the totality of our existence on this planet.
Arts only purpose is to serve…
If you have attend any of our workshops, Q&A's or Photo-Walks you know I preach this phrase as the photographer’s gospel. What does it mean? To me it is about training what might end up being your future competition. In truth it is about training what will hopefully turn out to be my future collaborators, teachers and community.
If you’re creating something then in no way can you be doing harm. Art can only be part of the conscious solution, not the unconscious problem…
Something New
After five years of only shooting in RAW, last night I shot in JPEG. After twenty years of never shooting sports, I photographed a baseball game. I liked it, both of them.
Create something new, daily – updated my blog header to reflect/remind me to do just that. I debated about changing the header to Create * Connect * Grow, but I thought it would be too confusing, although, the phrase came in a strong second.
There is nothing like drawing a line between the comfort & challenge of creating something new.
Something New
After five years of only shooting in RAW, last night I shot in JPEG. After twenty years of never shooting sports, I photographed a baseball game. I liked it, both of them.
Create something new, daily – updated my blog header to reflect/remind me to do just that. I debated about changing the header to Create * Connect * Grow, but I thought it would be too confusing, although, the phrase came in a strong second.
There is nothing like drawing a line between the comfort & challenge of creating something new.
Moment
Current Reading: Taking the Leap by Pema Chodron
Current Music: Saturday Night & Sunday Mornings by Counting Crows
Mood: Happy
Smells: Cinnamon
Sounds: Little feet running
Temperature: 46 degrees
Thoughts: Lighten-up on your path to wherever?
Current Music: Saturday Night & Sunday Mornings by Counting Crows
Mood: Happy
Smells: Cinnamon
Sounds: Little feet running
Temperature: 46 degrees
Thoughts: Lighten-up on your path to wherever?
Moment
Current Reading: Taking the Leap by Pema Chodron
Current Music: Saturday Night & Sunday Mornings by Counting Crows
Mood: Happy
Smells: Cinnamon
Sounds: Little feet running
Temperature: 46 degrees
Thoughts: Lighten-up on your path to wherever?
Current Music: Saturday Night & Sunday Mornings by Counting Crows
Mood: Happy
Smells: Cinnamon
Sounds: Little feet running
Temperature: 46 degrees
Thoughts: Lighten-up on your path to wherever?
Win a FREE Photo Shoot
WIN A FREE PHOTO SHOOT!
Craig Photography & the Doubletree Hotel & Suites Pittsburgh City Center are offering past, present and future wedding couples the chance to win a FREE photo shoot at the newly remodeled Grand Ballroom at the Doubletree.
Winners will receive:
~A Free photo shoot compliments of Craig Photography, including all images on disc with printing rights
~A complimentary Romance Package by Doubletree including breakfast for two
~Complimentary makeup application by Ryan Makeup
~Complimentary hair design by Salon Christine
~Complimentary bouquet and boutonniere by Harold’s Flowers
~A chance to be showcased in Doubletree Hotel promotions and marketing materials
Rules:
~You must be willing to dress in your own full wedding attire. Bride must wear a wedding gown, groom must wear a black suit or tuxedo.
~You must sign a waiver allowing all vendors participating in the contest to use your images without restriction for promotional and marketing purposes.
~You must sign a waiver agreeing to be filmed and allow the filmed footage to be used in promotional and marketing materials.
To Enter:
~Send an email to craigphotography@mac.com detailing the story of you and your fiancé and why you believe you are the couple that should win. A photo of the couple must be attached to the email.
The winner will be chosen by random drawing and announced on May 21, 2010 on the Craig Photography Wedding blog and the Doubletree Facebook page.
Shoot date TBD in June, 2010
Win a FREE Photo Shoot
WIN A FREE PHOTO SHOOT!
Craig Photography & the Doubletree Hotel & Suites Pittsburgh City Center are offering past, present and future wedding couples the chance to win a FREE photo shoot at the newly remodeled Grand Ballroom at the Doubletree.
Winners will receive:
~A Free photo shoot compliments of Craig Photography, including all images on disc with printing rights
~A complimentary Romance Package by Doubletree including breakfast for two
~Complimentary makeup application by Ryan Makeup
~Complimentary hair design by Salon Christine
~Complimentary bouquet and boutonniere by Harold’s Flowers
~A chance to be showcased in Doubletree Hotel promotions and marketing materials
Rules:
~You must be willing to dress in your own full wedding attire. Bride must wear a wedding gown, groom must wear a black suit or tuxedo.
~You must sign a waiver allowing all vendors participating in the contest to use your images without restriction for promotional and marketing purposes.
~You must sign a waiver agreeing to be filmed and allow the filmed footage to be used in promotional and marketing materials.
To Enter:
~Send an email to craigphotography@mac.com detailing the story of you and your fiancé and why you believe you are the couple that should win. A photo of the couple must be attached to the email.
The winner will be chosen by random drawing and announced on May 21, 2010 on the Craig Photography Wedding blog and the Doubletree Facebook page.
Shoot date TBD in June, 2010
Intimate | Elizabeth Craig
This short film asks questions of being intimate with oneself and work.
To see more of Elizabeth's work go to her website (Elizabeth Craig Intimates)
To see more of Elizabeth's work go to her website (Elizabeth Craig Intimates)
Intimate | Elizabeth Craig
This short film asks questions of being intimate with oneself and work.
To see more of Elizabeth's work go to her website (Elizabeth Craig Intimates)
To see more of Elizabeth's work go to her website (Elizabeth Craig Intimates)
Workshop: Reschedule
The workshop on 4.25.10 will be reschedule. New dates to be announced soon ~ Sorry for the inconvenience….
Workshop: Reschedule
The workshop on 4.25.10 will be reschedule. New dates to be announced soon ~ Sorry for the inconvenience….
Random Stuff & Notes From a Photo-Walk
It’s 9pm on Saturday night and I am getting ready to leave for the Photo-Walk. My wife yells out to me “don’t forget to wear your gloves”. I forgot, better yet I just didn’t want to be bothered to look for them. For the better part of this past month it has been in the mid 70’s during the day and the low 60’s at night. This night it was 40 degrees plus or minus wind chill factor. I should have listened to my wife, as always.
Two things I will never understand--First thing: why husbands don’t listen to their wives? Wives are always right and not in the yes-dear-please-don’t-badger me sort of way but in the why-the-hell-didn’t-I-listen to my wife the first time way? Yes, it's annoying but hey, a wife will keep you alive.
Second thing: why is it impossible to leave the house on time for any special occasion? Explain this to me? The family goal is to leave the house by 10am to go to Church for our niece's first holy communion. The family is up and awake at 7am…watch a little PBS Sprout, read the New York Times online and proceed to drink way too much coffee. Toss in a hot shower, yoga workout and I still have the 45 minutes with nothing to do. Then it happens. Time gets away, more like evaporates, maybe it just leaves and goes somewhere else? It’s time; not like I can control it. What is time anyway? It's not a particle, wave...maybe a vibration at best, it's a judgment call. A collective guess that we all agree on.
Sorry for the rant back to the Photo-Walk. Approximately 9:30 pm with very cold hands I walk up to a small group of people who braved the cold and were able to get off the sofa during hockey playoffs (that’s a big deal in Pittsburgh).
We take photographs and talk….
Conversation, that is my favorite thing about holding the Photo Walks. Every walk I meet somebody new, have a conversation about creativity and confidence. Conversation, creativity, confidence (the 3C’s of a working artist's career). Sounds like a nice trio of ideas; I should write a blog post about that.
Two things I will never understand--First thing: why husbands don’t listen to their wives? Wives are always right and not in the yes-dear-please-don’t-badger me sort of way but in the why-the-hell-didn’t-I-listen to my wife the first time way? Yes, it's annoying but hey, a wife will keep you alive.
Second thing: why is it impossible to leave the house on time for any special occasion? Explain this to me? The family goal is to leave the house by 10am to go to Church for our niece's first holy communion. The family is up and awake at 7am…watch a little PBS Sprout, read the New York Times online and proceed to drink way too much coffee. Toss in a hot shower, yoga workout and I still have the 45 minutes with nothing to do. Then it happens. Time gets away, more like evaporates, maybe it just leaves and goes somewhere else? It’s time; not like I can control it. What is time anyway? It's not a particle, wave...maybe a vibration at best, it's a judgment call. A collective guess that we all agree on.
Sorry for the rant back to the Photo-Walk. Approximately 9:30 pm with very cold hands I walk up to a small group of people who braved the cold and were able to get off the sofa during hockey playoffs (that’s a big deal in Pittsburgh).
We take photographs and talk….
Conversation, that is my favorite thing about holding the Photo Walks. Every walk I meet somebody new, have a conversation about creativity and confidence. Conversation, creativity, confidence (the 3C’s of a working artist's career). Sounds like a nice trio of ideas; I should write a blog post about that.
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