Two Weeks Off
This summer semester at school has been a rough one. The summer session is only 10 weeks long instead of the normal 16-week semester, so cramming two 16-week classes into two 5-week sessions made life challenging, but I survived. I felt like a steam locomotive this summer. I was a little slow out of the gate, but once I got rolling, there was no stopping. I'm still hoping that I get a 4.0 GPA for the semester, but it's going to be close and I won't know until next week sometime. I might be able to find out tomorrow, but its not likely that I will. I have my 10-minute conference with my clinical instructor tomorrow and then I'm off for two weeks before diving into the fall semester.
I'm hoping to find some time for personal photography during this two-week break. It's going to be difficult, but I'm gonna find a way to make it happen. The newspaper is ramping up for football season, which means that I'll be going to a lot of the county schools over the next two weeks making pre-season football photos for the annual high school football special that comes out on opening day of the season.
I would like to spend a day at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, NC making photos again. I love photographing the old train stuff down there, and I haven't been recently. I think it would be a great outing with the Canon PowerShot G9 and a small tripod. I may also be making a day trip to the North Carolina Zoo at Asheboro. The G9 would not be the best camera for that trip, but if I go, I plan to take it. I'm going to set a personal objective of adding at least 10 photos to the 1000 Faces collection during my break as well.
Mainly I'm looking forward to two weeks where I can get more than 4 or 5 hours of sleep every night :)
Raising Sand
I was in the music section at Barnes and Noble the other night and listened to some clips from the Robert Plant / Alison Krauss "Raising Sand" CD. What I heard was different than what I expected, and I walked away and didn't make the purchase. On my way home and during the next day, I kept thinking about what I heard and decided to buy the CD and give it a try.
The simple thought of these two collaborating on anything musically really seemed odd to me because of their distinct backgrounds and styles of music. I found this CD in the "Country" section of Walmart, so that made me think even harder about what I would be absorbing through the earbuds of my iPod when I got back home.
After listening to the CD several times, I still have not drawn a solid conclusion on a definition of this style of music. Maybe I should have expected this, but the sound and style of this music is a very nice mix of what you might expect from Plant and Krauss individually. Some of the tracks lean more to one side than the other, but since I like both musicians individually, I'm enjoying the combination of the two.
I have included the second track from this CD for you to hear for yourself. It's called "Killing the Blues."
[audio:http://www.setzler.net/wp-content/uploads/track-02.mp3]
The Edsel
There was an Edsel car show in town this weekend, so I decided to stop by and have a look at some of these old cars. I got to thinking about why these cars weren't successful, and struggled for a long time with the idea. These cars were produced in 1958, 1959, and 1960 models. When comparing these with other cars of the era from Ford, Chevrolet, and others, they are quite different. These cars had features and design concepts that were quite bold for the era. In fact, the idea that they were too bold for their time probably contributed to their ultimate failure. It's almost like a concept car. They are neat to look at, but different enough from the norm that sales just weren't there. I don't know what these cars are worth to collectors, but I bet the other manufacturer models of the time are probably worth more in general. One of the truisms of antique desirability is that if an item wasn't in high demand when it was produced, its collector value probably isn't that high either...
Hittin’ the Road
The Hickory Crawdads have have had a rough time lately. They have lost nine consecutive games. We had a noon game today to close the series with the Delmarva Shorebirds and were held to two hits in a 2-0 loss that closed the second consecutive 4-game sweep of the Crawdads. The good news is that the team gets a day off tomorrow before they hit the road for a 4-game series in Charleston and another 4-game series in Savannah. The 'Dads will return to Hickory on August 2nd for a 4-game series against the Rome Braves.
I shot this quick video of the Carolina Moonlighters singing the National Anthem before the start of yesterday's game...
I had the day out of school today, but I have to return to clinical tomorrow and Friday, then I only have one week left in the summer semester. I'm ready for a couple weeks off :)
Warren Yates
I got the opportunity to meet Mr. Warren Yates this afternoon at one of Hickory's Bluegrass in the Park events at Henry Fork Park. I actually met him at the last event and didn't really realize who he was until after the fact. The local newspaper did a story on Warren recently, but I wasn't able to get the photo assignment because of some prior commitments. Warren Yates not only plays a banjo... he makes them as well. Warren recently posted this video clip on YouTube showing some of the process involved in making a banjo:
I also shot this quick video of Warren Yates and KUDZU playing "Will You Miss Me" at today's Bluegrass in the Park event...
Kustoms of America
I had a photo assignment tonight at a local hotel of the 'after' party from a car show that happened in town earlier today. I love old cars and have spent quite a bit of time photographing them in the past. At this event, there was a neon parade, flame throwing, and spark dragging, which was my main objective for the photo assignment along with some people photos. I went to the event a little early to shoot some stuff for my own collection as well...
The hood ornaments on classic cars have always fascinated me. Maybe it's the chrome or maybe it's the shape and texture, but either way I love them all.
Coupling a beautiful hood ornament along with the texture of a nice chrome grill and emblem is always a nice combination for a photo as well... Oh well... enough with the photos tonight. I have a physics test on Monday and I'm way behind on the studying since I spent all day today playing :)
The Dizzy Bat Race
I was at the Hickory Crawdads baseball game tonight, and I decided to try out the video feature of my little Canon PowerShot G9 camera on the Dizzy Bat Race between innings of tonight's game. This has to be one of the funniest dizzy bat races I have seen in a long time! Most of them are pretty entertaining, but this one was just over the top...
Goofing Off
The Latino members of the Hickory Crawdads baseball team are definitely my favorites when it comes to snapping photos for my 2008 season photo album. Ronald Uviedo (left) always seems to find his way into my viewfinder. Serguey Linares (right) has recently returned to Hickory for some rehab work, and it was nice to see a smile on his face today. When Serguey first arrived in Hickory last season, He didn't seem nearly as relaxed as he did when I encountered him today. His English has gotten a LOT better also!
Today was my first day back in the ball park in 10 days or so. The 'Dads had a day off before an 8-game road trip followed by another day off. The Crawdads lost game one of a 4-game series with the Lakewood Blueclaws tonight, but there are three more games to go in the series, and then four games against the Delmarva Shorebirds...
Andrew McCutchen Update from yesterday's post:
Andrew McCutchen was a hopeful for the 2008 Olympic Team, but for whatever the reason, it didn't happen. I was really sad to not see his name on the list when I checked this afternoon. Andrew certainly has plenty of good things on the way, but I really think this would have been great...
Beijing or Bust
In today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dejan Kovacevic writes that former Hickory Crawdad center fielder Andrew McCutchen may be headed to the roster of Team USA. The question at hand is whether or not the Pittsburgh Pirates organization will actually allow Andrew to go. McCutchen was Pittsburgh's first round draft pick in 2005, and he's currently playing AAA ball in Indianapolis.
Huntington said that McCutchen, who is under consideration for the
United States roster for the Olympics, likely will be allowed to
participate if asked. A decision is expected from USA Baseball soon.
I think a trip to China for the olympics would be an excellent experience for McCutchen. I'm also excited to see a former Crawdad in the spotlight again.
I think Andrew is fully qualified for this spot. One other good thing about Cutch going to China is that he'll get the chance to teach a billion people how to do the chicken dance!
Go Andrew!
Suckage
I read a post on Paul Lester's blog this morning that got me thinking about my goals again. Paul wrote out a very nice response to the typical question about "How can I keep from sucking at photography?"
First of all, it's OK to suck at photography as long as you have a good time at it. In fact, most people don't realize they suck at photography until someone else tells them they suck. I know I never sucked at photography until I had my first encounter with someone who wanted to be critical of my work. From that point foward, I sucked most of the time and still do for that matter. It's a real downer for some people. The epiphany of suckage ruins many good photographers. At that point, a photographer tends to change what he's doing to suck less in the eyes of those who shone light on the suck factor of his work.
First, you need to find what you like. Then, you need to find your voice, or what you have to say about it.
This little jewel from Paul's post sums up a lot of good wisdom for photographers. This should come first. If you find yourself changing what you like in order to reduce the suck factor of your work, then you may need to re-evaluate why you are interested in photography.
Keep in mind... this comes from a photographer who is not interested in commercial work :)