Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Not Quite Surf City

I took a little trek today down toward Warren Co. NC and back up to the dam on Hwy. 4. In the 1950s, the Dan and Staunton/ Roanoke Rivers were dammed up and it created Buggs Island Lake (on maps as Kerr Lake, but don't call it that around here — somebody like me will bite your head off!) The John H. Kerr Dam & Resevoir creates hydroelectric power for the area. There are lots of parks, boat ramps, scenic areas, picnic tables, etc. all along the shore near the dam and one of those is where I got this picture. Talk about having a beach all to yourself!

One of the things I find almost always photogenic is water, wherever it may be (ocean, lakes, ponds, puddles) so expect to see a lot of that here! Heck, I even have a picture of a toilet bowl in some old photo album somewhere!

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Fun with Colors!


C M Y K

Maybe you've heard the term. It's the foundation of color printing. It actually stands for (C) cyan (M) magenta (Y) yellow and (B) black. You can make up any color in the spectrum just by changing the amounts of each of these colors. For instance, your basic navy blue is made up of some combination like: 100% cyan, 95% magenta, 15% yellow, 20% black. Granted, these ink buckets in our plant aren't true magenta and cyan, but they are close enough.

I won't attempt to teach the fundamentals of four color process printing and why and how it's different from what you do on your computer, or why pictures with your digital camera come out differently. Let's just suffice it to say, it's a term that has been in my vocabulary for 25 years.

So in my world, CMYK is cool!

Monday, January 28, 2008

From the Archives

Okay, so I may not be able to find anything photo-worthy every single day. On those occasions, I'll pull something out of my archives. Lord knows, there are enough of those.

This shot is of Centre Avenue in Pittsburgh, PA. Specifically it is from my 15th floor apartment window. I lived in PA for 2 years while attending graduate school at Duquesne University.

I love playing with light. I took this picture with my 35mm Nikon, as opposed to my point-and-shoot digital. I used a tripod and had a slow exposure in order to brighten up the shot and get the streaking car tail lights! I'd spend my life going around the world getting awesome night shots if I could find a bodyguard who'd help me lug my gear!

Enjoy!

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Light My Fire


I had a pretty busy day of shopping yesterday and didn't slow down long enough to get any pictures. So on the way home, I thought I was probably going to have to unload the car, and then head downtown to get a picture for the blog that was interesting. At least that's what I thought until I drove up on our house and saw the empty, wooded lot next door ON FIRE! So the picture of the day came to the lot next door. Notice our house in the foreground!

Turns out the guy that owns the lot is burning his brush piles. Who knows? Maybe he's actually going to build something there!

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Falling Doors on the Past


You can drive past a place a million times and never see anything picture-worthy. And then one day, the sun is setting just so, the leaves on the trees are just so, and you stop. Even in landscape photography, you have to stop and get the picture right then, because even tomorrow at the exact same time, you can't count on the sun setting just the same way, or on there being the same kinds of clouds in the sky to give the sunset that particular tinge. It will never look exactly the same way again.

This picture is one of the outbuildings left in an old homestead that I pass every day to and from work. For years I had said I wanted to get a picture of the whole spread, and then when VDOT expanded the road into 4 lanes, they tore down the farmhouse, leaving just the outbuildings. It's not really picturesque anymore, but today the sun was hitting this shed just right to highlight the ground in front of it, and the sun was in just the right position in the sky to afford a view of the meadow and woods behind it.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Wham! Bam! Thank you Man!

We were all just sitting minding our own business, working away, when BAM! The whole building shook! We don't get earthquakes here, and I doubt anyone is testing any kind of ordinance or scud missiles near here. So we all ran outside to a cracked and crumbling corner of the building. I didn't know brick could fold in on itself. A delivery driver in an 18-wheeler didn't like our loading dock and deciding to make us a new one! See? I don't even have to leave my desk. The drama just comes right to my door!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Hot off the Presses


You can't tell by the black and white, but this is the big red monster we have at work. This puppy prints up over 20 newspapers a week! I wish I had some really cool statistics to give you on it (like how fast it prints, how much paper we use, etc.) but I have no clue. I'm not sure anyone at work keeps up with all those numbers anymore. Well, I'm sure someone must, but they probably work out of the corporate office in Chatham. Peons like me aren't privvy to those flowcharts!

But I'd sure love to have one of these babies (albeit a little smaller) in my basement. One of my favorite sayings has always been, "I love it when a publication comes together" and you can't beat a web press. Sure, a color laser is cool, but 'cmon. Even the fastest one can't spit out what this one does!

Monday, January 21, 2008

It's Cold

The thermometer in my car read 10-degrees this morning, so I got this shot of some icy fields. I was hoping Saturday's snow would stick around long enough to get some decent pictures but snow doesn't last too long around here. We rarely get any to start with. A far cry from my days in Indianapolis and Pittsburgh.

The Idea

The idea came from Sarah (check out the At 1st Sight link at right!) She posts a picture a day and tells a bit about her day and the picture. I thought it was an awesome idea, so I stole it, with her blessing! I'm hoping it will help me slow down a little each day. Time will only tell...

I had a hard time with the name of the blog. "Immagini" is italian for "pictures." I thought that was appropriate!