A photo of my camera bag’s damaged shoulder strap…
< 1 minute read
October 13, 2006, 9:00 PM
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and so here’s a photo of the broken strap on my camera bag, originally referenced here:
Continue reading…Categories: Cameras
I visited Foamhenge, and it was…
< 1 minute read
July 1, 2006, 6:25 PM
I visited Foamhenge in Natural Bridge today. It was interesting. Realize that Natural Bridge itself is something interesting. It’s a little collection of roadside attractions on US 11 in basically the middle of nowhere. There’s the natural bridge itself (for which Rockbridge County gets its name), plus there’s Natural Bridge Zoo, a wax museum, and probably other stuff I’m not remembering.
But this is Foamhenge:
Categories: Photography, Places
You know, I could finish this right now…
< 1 minute read
June 28, 2006, 7:13 AM
If you’ve looked at my site updates, I just released a new photo set in Life and Times called Night March. I wasn’t planning on finishing it this morning, but I got to working on it, and I realized that I was very close to completing it, so I just decided to go ahead and finish the set, and get that out there. So now you can view that protest against the World Bank and IMF that I went to on April 22, where a black bloc snaked through the streets of DC. It was fun.
My only issue with the set is that the dark and the rain, combined with the constant motion of the camera, led to pictures that I don’t consider my best work. Of course, Life and Times is there to showcase events, where capturing the action, rather than creating beautiful photos, is the point. Still, I’ve done better. A16 and the Million Worker March are two Life and Times sets that I consider to be really nice photography-wise. On this one, with the camera having water issues during the event and the need to heavily retouch some of these photos to show the action, it leaves me wishing that the photos had come out better. Still, though, I do like the set, and the photos certainly demonstrate the hostile environment in which they were taken.
For the next set to go up, it’s either going to be one about downtown Waynesboro or Breezewood for Photography, or the “No Armageddon” rally in DC for Life and Times.
Categories: Photography, Schumin Web meta
That was fun…
2 minute read
May 4, 2006, 10:07 AM
I had fun while I went out on Tuesday. As I kind of implied in the last entry, I went to Breezewood, Pennsylvania, which as it turns out is feasible to run as a day trip.
Going up, I took I-81 to I-70 just south of Hagerstown, Maryland. Then I took I-70 straight into Breezewood. First thing I did was to drive up to the east end of the strip and reset my trip meter to get an idea of the length of it. Turns out that it’s a half-mile from the first motels to the last. Then, finishing that, I couldn’t find a place to turn around for several miles. No one told me that US 30 becomes a divided highway west of Breezewood. Getting back into the subject area, I first went to McDonald’s, which had been remodeled since I was last there in 2003, and had their Asian Salad for lunch. Then after lunch, Starbucks let me use their lot while I did the photo set. Then from there, I walked back up towards the Ramada, crossed, walked back down to the other end, crossed again, and then returned to Starbucks.
And I took over 400 photos in the process. We’ll see how this turns out as a photo set.
Since I was working along a very busy highway, much of it with an Interstate designation (I-70 follows US 30 through Breezewood), where there were no sidewalks, and for that matter no facilities at all for pedestrians, I used my FliteStar vest to make sure people could see me. It worked out. In fact, I think I accidentally fooled a Turnpike employee into thinking I worked for the PTC. A turnpike worker in his car waved hello to me. I waved back.
Categories: Photography, Places
What a beautiful day!
< 1 minute read
May 2, 2006, 6:19 AM
Wednesday, May 2 is looking to be a beautiful day in the neighborhood, just like the last time I went photographing. This time, though, I’m doing a little traveling, as I’m going to cover something I’ve been discussing for a while, but have, for various reasons, been unable to do yet.
Compare this to the last time I went and did some photography, where I traveled to the far-off land of Waynesboro, which is actually the town where I work and also the next town over from where I live.
It’s funny, though. Yesterday at work, a customer came up to me and asked me if I was a photographer. Turns out that they’d seen me doing the photo shoot downtown last Thursday. That kind of caught me off guard, since I usually don’t photograph near home, and thus customers don’t see me doing my photo sets. I do most of my work in DC, and in other cities that are a ways off from home. So fun stuff, indeed.
Meanwhile, today looks like it’s going to be fun, as it’s also laying groundwork for a future photo set at a similar location.
Categories: Photography
I photographed downtown Huntsville, er, Waynesboro, today.
2 minute read
April 27, 2006, 3:53 PM
For those of you who are movie buffs, the upcoming movie Evan Almighty (sequel to Bruce Almighty) had some scenes filmed in Waynesboro, specifically downtown. You won’t find me in the film, but you will see the city. For this, downtown Waynesboro is dressed up as “Huntsville”.
It’s interesting what they did to Waynesboro, too. First of all, banners hanging from the lampposts say “Huntsville Festival of Fine Arts”. Then the Waynesboro Heritage Museum, which is very much under renovation, was done up as a coffee shop, with tables and chairs outside on the sidewalk. The Charles T. Yancey Municipal Building, which was a Bank of America before it became a city building, was disguised as a church. The building’s real sign was concealed by trees, and a fake church sign was placed in front. It said, “Obeying God: That means you, Evan.” The sign was covered by a tarp when I did my shoot. And finally, there were all kinds of fake plants attached to the real ones, and placed in various other places. The trees had fake blossoms tied on with wire. There were also piles of mulch on the sidewalk, with fake flowers stuck in there. All in all, downtown Waynesboro looked pretty good. It makes me want to see the movie, if nothing else but to see how Waynesboro ends up looking in the movie, done up as Huntsville.
And I now have a photo set of it all, which you may very well see in Photography.
Categories: Movies, Photography, Waynesboro
I make do with what I have, what can I say?
2 minute read
April 9, 2006, 5:59 PM
Some people may be surprised by this, but I have been using the same CDs with Big Mavica over and over for the past two years.
Seriously. I use rewritables. Though it’s a little more interesting than you think. I actually have two sets. The set that gets the most use is my “regular” set, that I keep in little jewel cases in the camera bag. These are for regular photo sets. I can carry my regular camera bag with me, and I’m usually moving at my own pace. This is the one I use most often.
Then there’s the other set, which is the “protest” set. These are the ones that I take along when I’m at an event, such as a big demonstraton, when things might get hairy. What’s the difference? Packaging. These CDs live on little tiny spindles rather than in jewel cases. Thus they take up far less space, allowing me to shed the camera bag.
Categories: Cameras
Ever get that feeling like you forgot something?
< 1 minute read
March 15, 2006, 4:29 AM
Somehow, I’m getting that feeling when went to top off the camera batteries for today’s DC trip when the batteries took a lot longer to charge than usual. I get this feeling that I never charged them from the last trip to DC I took on the 28th. This is not a “fatal” error, though. I’ve charged the camera’s batteries en route before using a power inverter, most notably on June 23, 2004, where I ran the batteries dry the day before in Charlottesville, and then fell asleep that evening without charging anything. Then I got up in the morning, realized, oh, crap! and went to work charging them, and ended up taking my charger with me to Washington. That’s also the reason I have the power inverter in the first place. I bought it to charge with on that trip. Thankfully, Washington was far enough away so that by the time I got there, I’d had a chance to charge everything to full power.
And I was going railfanning that day with Oren and Jersey Mike, so I needed a full charge, too.
Of course, that’s similar to this trip, where I’m going railfanning with Matthew Tilley.
I would be very flattered if Wal-Mart refused to print my photos…
< 1 minute read
December 13, 2005, 8:21 PM
Let me explain that for a moment. Wal-Mart’s copyright policy on their Web site states:
“Walmart.com will not assist in the copying of a photograph that is signed, stamped, or otherwise identified by any photographer or studio as copyrighted material, or any photograph that appears to have been taken by a professional photographer or studio, even if it is not marked with any sort of copyright, unless we are presented with a signed Copyright Release.”
This Christmas, I’m getting gift cards for the family once again. It’s far easier than getting gifts, because I’m not a great shopper, and my family is hard to buy for anyway. So this year, I’m getting the custom gift cards that Wal-Mart sells. I can put my own photo on there instead of the cheesy ones that come preprinted.
I consider myself to be a photographer by hobby, and do take some real gems from time to time. So I picked some photos that I’m particularly proud of and uploaded them to Walmart.com and saved them. I’ll actually order them right before I leave for work the next time I work, which will be Friday.
And if our photo lab refuses to print them because they look professional, I will be quite flattered, to say the least. Then I’d likely have to fill out the bloody release saying that I took the photos myself. But still flattered nonetheless.
Meanwhile, I’m going out tomorrow…
Categories: Photography, Walmart
It’s GOT to be around here SOMEWHERE…
< 1 minute read
November 5, 2005, 8:21 PM
I am taking a break from hunting for a moment to speak to you now. For the last hour, I’ve been hunting for the CD that contains the original for this image of a Wheelock MT horn/strobe. I want to use it for the photo feature. Why I can’t find it, I don’t know. I obviously knew where the CD was on June 14, when I uploaded it to Wikipedia. As I mentioned, I don’t know why I cannot find it. I’ve practically turned this place upside down looking for it, too. It’s got to be around here somewhere.
And by the way, if you’re reading this, and that photo of the MT is in the photo feature, that means I found it.
Categories: Photography, Schumin Web meta
Tuesday may have been a wash, but things still went quite well!
3 minute read
August 25, 2005, 10:39 AM
Tuesday was mostly a wash, unfortunately, with rain causing me to scrap most of my outdoor activities. Sad. But I did get to peruse the strip, and got “part 2” of the holier-than-thou attitude of the management of the Holiday Department Store at the corner of 19th and Atlantic (diagonal from my hotel). I photographed a sign on the door of the “boy’s stockroom”, which is just as bad as the one I got last year on the back door about boxes. The writing is readable, and I shall transcribe it when I get back home (I’m at the library again).
Anyway, though, the strip was good, and I made a discovery. To discover the strip, you really only need to walk maybe six blocks in either direction from your hotel (if that), because the strip repeats itself. You have a few classes of stores on the strip. Stores that sell souvenirs and beach crap, stores that offer henna tattoos, oxygen bars, little convenience stores, and restaurants for seafood or pizza. Then they start to repeat. Seriously. Even the same stores. I went a ways south on the strip, and found another “Holiday Department Store”. I found three “Sunsations” stores. It all repeats.
Since it was still raining quite hard by the time dinner came around, I pulled out the umbrella and took a walk down the strip in search of the food that struck my fancy. I walked a LONG way south and didn’t find anything exciting. Not wanting to walk all that way back, I took a VB Wave trolleybus up to about 24th Street and then walked south again. I found a seafood restaurant, and had dinner there. Quite enjoyable, though I hate restaurants with mirror walls. I don’t like looking at a mirror image of myself eating while I’m eating.
Categories: Anti-war, Photography, Travel, Virginia Beach
A day without color…
5 minute read
August 4, 2005, 8:44 PM
My, my, my… I realized I’m starting to turn into a Wikipediholic when I sit down at the computer and immediately pull up Wikipedia. From there, I immediately pull up my watch list, and see what’s changed. And then I start reading and editing. Then of course, I was on my discussion forum, and wanted to format a link to a Web page like [[wikipedia article|this]]. Those who are familiar know that [[that]] is how you form a link to another Wikipedia article, with the former using custom link text, and the latter without.
You might want to blame Wikipedia for the fact that my Malcolm X Park photo set is not yet out. I’ve been playing around on Wikipedia, my “intellectual playground”, as I like to call it. It’s fun, but it’s also quite addictive.
So there you are. I’m certainly dedicated, but it’s starting to use time I usually spend on this site. I will get Malcolm X Park and Shades of Gray (both of which have been sorted down some in preparation for the respective sets) up before too long. As long as I can pry Wikipedia from my grasp, it seems.I went to DC on Wednesday with the intention of shooting entirely in black-and-white. And except for seven photos (out of 262 total), I kept my end of the bargain. I also shot two black-and-white movies, both of which were of the Metro, and most likely won’t get used. The photos, on the other hand, will be used for a Photography set, with the working title of “Shades of Gray”. Why did I shoot in black-and-white this time? I wanted to try something new. In the fifty trips to the Washington DC area that I’d made between July 7, 2001 and July 20, 2005, you know how many black-and-white photos I shot? Zero. Everything was shot in color. So for my August 3, 2005 trip, I went and did black-and-white, which made things more exciting for me. I can fire off a color photo with little effort, because I’m used to it. With black-and-white, it’s made me think again. I’ve got to set up my shots differently. I’ve got to pay more attention to contrast rather than color. In color, a red object on a green background might be quite interesting looking. In black-and-white, it all kind of runs together, because it’s all gray. All in all, it’s a different way of thinking, and it was fun. I might just have to do this again one day.
Categories: DC trips, Photography
This Wednesday, I’m going black-and-white…
< 1 minute read
August 1, 2005, 10:24 PM
I’m going to Washington DC on Wednesday, August 3, and I’m turning the camera over to black-and-white mode in the morning, and leaving it there all day. So instead of railfanning, which is what last summer was all about, I’m going to spend my day on the town for a bit, shooting black-and-white photos. In the evening, when I usually play with some long-exposure stuff, I’m also shooting in grays. No color! Why no color? It’s something worth a try. Something to keep things interesting for me, if nothing else. And who knows… it might end up as a photo set if it turns out well enough.
Of course, turning the fun into a photo set requires some planning on my part, and so we’ll see what kind of things I can come up with. I know that the Infoshop is on my list of places to go, so you may see some black-and-white pictures of DC’s Shaw neighborhood come up, among other things. It ought to be fun.
Categories: Photography
I should do a black-and-white day…
2 minute read
May 22, 2005, 7:17 PM
Seriously, I should do a black and white day. One day when I go to Washington, I should switch Big Mavica over to black-and-white and see what I can come up with. I think it will make me think differently about how I compose my photos, and kind of break the monotony.
I’ve contemplated doing a photo set or something in black and white before, but I’ve always been a bit timid about actually shooting the originals in black-and-white for fear of missing something good in color, or wishing I’d had something in color that was shot in grayscale. Since you can shoot in color and then convert to black-and-white, but you can’t convert black-and-white to color so easily. But of course, that kind of wimping out really got me far. See any black-and-white photo sets on the site? Answer is that at the time of this writing, there are none there. I shot in color, and thus the photos weren’t designed for black and white. Because when you shoot in color, you think in color. And thus they look funky in grayscale.
Compare for a moment, using the Photo Feature that I ran on April 20 of this year:
Categories: Photography
There was some unexpected excitement when I went to Washington DC this time…
9 minute read
May 12, 2005, 10:10 PM
Yeah, this was not your average Washington DC trip on Wednesday, though not like I noticed anything different aside from the buzz of the people throughout the city.
Normal start, though. Get up, go on up to DC, and find a parking space at Vienna. This time, I actually found a pretty good one, though. As luck would have it, a woman was leaving the parking garage as I was hunting, and so I got a parking space on the top level of the garage, no more than fifty feet from the elevator. Very nice parking. I saw her walking towards the cars, and I said, “Where are you heading?” She pointed to the car, and I positioned myself to get into place. She pulls her car out, and mine goes in.
Then from there, I did my usual Rosslyn thing, and then went back into the Metro right around noon or so.
Meanwhile, in DC, the fun began, as air controllers noticed a small Cessna plane flying into restricted air space over the White House and such. This led to evacuations of the Capitol, the White House, the Supreme Court, and a few other government buildings.
Categories: DC trips, Photography, Washington DC, WMATA