Getting back in the swing

I've been getting my butt out of the house more recently trying to get some new stuff to post. Some stuff I've done is just coming up with concepts. This set is from the last two evenings trying to get the sunset. The first night didn't go quite as well as I had hoped...naturally there are no clouds when you want them. Tonight I had some clouds to work with. Enjoy.

It's been awhile

I haven't posted since shortly after my move, so I'll be suprised if any of the 2 or 3 people that actually view this are still sitting around waiting for me to post something.

Since taking this new job I have seen a few rather large bugs. In the past four months I've seen a luna moth (think the sleep aid commercial with the green moth) a Polyphemus Moth, and a 3 inch long, brown praying mantis. I find it kind of funny that a chemical company - that makes agricultural products and bug repellent used to have facilty on the property where my new company now sits and we are getting these bugs that appear to be on steroids. In the case of the aforementioned moths, they haven't lived long. They are pretty sloth like creatures during the day (like me in the early morning) and tend to get run over by cars. I've been seeing these in the company's parking garage and the traffic is high. The praying mantis was in a stairwell and I was on my way home and had nothing to capture the creepy little critter in (I'm sure the thought of that would seriously disturb my sister lol).

At any rate, this morning I noticed a large moth near my usual parking spot. When I came out for my first cigarette of the day I stopped by the cafeteria and pilfered a large styrofoam cup and lid just in case. Sure enough when I reached my car the guy was still there. So I caught him and brought him home so I could get a few shots of him before setting him free.

So here he is, a Pink-spotted hawkmoth, in all is Mothra like glory....

All moved with some new shots

I finally got moved to St. Louis and manged to get out to the zoo over the weekend. Here are some shots with very little narrative. Like my trip to the KC zoo, many of the animals seemed to think it was nap time.

Go west....errr east young man

Well it's official in fact it's more than official. After 21 years in Kansas City I am making the move back to St. Louis. The scene of the crime....err my birth. I am both excited and scared about this move. I am pretty close to my family here in KC so moving away from them is a little scary. The exciting part is the new job I have taken and what I percieve to be a greater number of photo ops. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks after I get settled into my new apartment I will have some pictures to share. For now here is one I "borrowed" off the internet:

This guy still around?

As a matter of fact I am. The weather was perfect this weekend so I celebrated by taking a trip to the Kansas City Zoo. By no means a grand zoo, it has a limited number of exhibits. Several of the cages at the front of the zoo are small in my opinion. Many of the animals pretty much just lounged and/or slept. There were more than a few exhibits still closed for the winter, or under construction. I haven't been to the KC Zoo since I moved to KC some 20 years ago so I wasn't sure what to expect really, but I hated to waste the day. Thankfully later this spring I'll be heading to the St. Louis zoo which should yeild a greater number of photo ops. I did click off over 300 pictures today, but that was due to my attempts at manual focus. Since most animals are being held in enclosures for our protection and theirs, manual focus is almost a requirement. They didn't all turn out, either my left eye doesn't focus well, or I need to adjust the view finder in my camera. I'll have to play with it to find out. Below is a small sampling of what I got. I didn't bother with animal names - I never was very good at zoology. It was pretty overcast, and even with the use of the flash some of the pictures have a dull tint. That was the only complaint I had about the weather frankly, I mean who can complain about 80 in late March in Missouri?

We begin with a few lounging 'roos and one alert 'roo. I guess he was the lookout. There were probably 20-30 of the skippies lounging around. At one point they did all hop up and sprint around as if spooked. These animals are completely uncaged which was kinda nice. No wires to shoot through.



More lounging 'roos.



Geese are pretty common around here, but I just happened to be looking in the right direction to get this nice spread eagle...errr geese shot. I rather liked it.


For some reason, I always forget how large elephants are until I see them at the zoo. Seeing them in the wild, even with someone there to provide scale just doesn't do the behemoth's justice. Since I could find a way to capture a shot of them that displayed that massiveness, I chose to shoot the eyes and provide a window into their spirit.






The meercats (sue me on spelling :P), ever the inquisitive creatures of Africa, kept turning this way and that watching the people watching them. It must be nice for them to have the zoo come to them.



The KC zoo does NOT win points for orignality, meet Simba. Simba does boast a pretty large pride, I counted a good 6-10 females lounging around him. That must be some little black book he has.



There were a couple of bird cages to walk through, and while I did find more interesting birds than this duck, I do like his coloring, and the focus came out :).



Finally we come to something unique, a gorilla performing his daily meditation. This zen master spent a few moment's chanting before finally curling up on his side, using his arm as a pillow and taking a little nap. I'm tellin ya I think it might be time to check these animals' food for some kind of sleeping agent.*




*Any implication that the animals at the KC zoo are drugged is intended for sarcasm only and not intended to be taken as fact or accusation.

Impatience as a virtue

I've always been told patience is a virtue, and I've always responded with, "Not one of mine." So I anxiously wait the greener trees, and grasses, the budding flowers and the wildlife returning to the few places around town I like to go snap shots of. As I wait for better subject matter to photograph I am continuing my slow but steady push towards selling my pictures. I'm really stuck on two questions from my previous post (a couple months ago); pricing and which items to include in the portfolio.

I've shown what I have to a few people, and they seem to like them, but I tend to either have sentimental favorites or am overly critical of my work - I guess I tend to be a perfectionist at times.

In any event, this blog should come back to life in the coming weeks. In addition to shooting in Kansas City, I plan on taking a trip to St. Louis which should include visits to the St. Louis Zoo, Shaw's Gardens, and down town St. Charles.

So please keep checking back. I may not post as often as Cagey , but I haven't forgotten about this little blog either.

Thinking before shooting

I have not been posting much of late. That is primarily because I have not found much I considered post worthy and have found very few subjects I was interested in photographing. At this point I have Spring fever and am ready for the weather to change get warmer, the plants and animals to come alive again so I can get back in the field.

I have spent the last few months making photography purchases though to enhance what I have already captured. Tri-pods, back drops, lens attachments, lights, etc. I have a few more purchases to make then I'll probably close the wallet until I decide to buy a dSLR camera.

I am also spending this time giving serious thought to selling some of my photos. I've done alot of reading on the subject of late and have fleshed out most of the challenges I will face. Still working out some of those, some, can't be overcome, they just need to be faced. Some examples of these challenges I will be looking to overcome or merely face are as follows:

1. Which pictures do I put in my portfolio to sell? I figure I'll get some help on this.
2. Are the compliments I'm getting just people being nice? Only one way to find out although a few of the people I know wouldn't blow sunshine up my ass.
3. How much is a photo worth? (Printed, matted, and/or framed?)
4. What subject matter should I focus on, or should I continue to keep it ecclectic as I have to date?
5. Where/how to sell them?

Those are the primary questions I am facing at this time. There are more obvious, business related ones as well, but if I can't get through the above it is kind of moot. I have sold one print at cost to a co-worker for her office, and one or two more said they would like to purchase a print, so we shall see. Most likely I will do those at a discount just so I have additional samples around the office for some exposure.

Well I'm off to daydream about nicer weather.

Another update

Well, with the chilly temperatures and the lack of much of anything interesting around KC this time of year I haven't been out too much. Over Christmas I got a macro lens (for taking extreme close ups ala Wayne's World for you SNL junkies) and a tele converter lens for taking longer shots. I've played around a little with both when I've had the chance, but just haven't found much of anything of interest lately.

Just so there is something to look at other than my lame excuse for not having posted recently here is a shot I took after the ice abaited and the sun finally came out. Snow this weekend so maybe I will find something photo worthy during and after the snow.