Truth, Justice and the Albany way....

Some of you know that in my day job, I'm a videographer for a local news station. Well, these days it's not often that I have the time to do something a little more creative... or even fun... Well this story was the exception to the rule... enjoy!



Thanks again to the Albany Super-heroes for going along with every one of my crazy ideas! And keep on keepin' those streets safe!

Favorite shots for June

This first shot was taken at the Americade Rally in Lake George. It had been raining most of the day, sometimes really pouring. But as night fell the skies cleared up and I was able to get this shot through the spokes as another bike outfitted with neon lights zoomed past. I like how the blur of the cycle ihn the background kind or lines up with the spokes on the bike in the foreground!




Nothing like a great June wedding! I got a chance to see how the Canon 7D performed in low(ish) light at a high ISO. I was very happy with what the camera was giving me in the church, even when the ISO was set to 3200! Of course, it was tough to take a bad shot with such a beautiful couple as subjects! Now if only the official wedding photographer could have stayed out of my way through the proceedings! Anyway, CONGRATS to Pam and Tony and thanks for making Diane and I part of your special day!




Finally, last Monday on my way home from work, the skies cleared up after a light rain and I had a feeling there might be some nice sunset light. So I turned the car around and headed to my favorite (but scary) spot. It's the highest ramp that leads from I-787 to the Empire State Plaza. Not much room to pull the car over, and I had to keep an eye out for traffic, but it was worth the shot. Maybe one of these days I can get the State Police to officially block off the road for me so I don't have to worry about getting hit!

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Really?

So, Diane and I are walking around Boston and we decide to get some pix of us outside of the famous Cheers bar! After taking separate shots of each other, I saw another couple doing the same thing. I offered to take a picture of both of them if they would do the same for us.

I was of course, too polite to check his work. I mean, how much could he screw it up, right? This is what I got. Really, Dude? You're kidding me, right? Ahhh, a memory to treasure forever! I wonder if he does weddings?

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Inner beauty... at the NYS Capitol.

The Capitol of New York State is such a striking building from the outside, that I often forget what a beautiful place it is inside as well. So, while the front of the building is covered in scaffolding during some needed renovations, I decided to take some shots inside one of New York's architectural treasures. I'm still loving how the Canon 7D is handling low light situations. All of these were hand held... No tripod!

Hot Spring Night

Yes, it's been a long time since my last entry into the blogosphere. I hope that from here on out, I will get to this much more frequently...

In any event, there is nothing like a new camera to get the juices flowing again. This past Wednesday, I became the proud owner of the Canon 7D. I am still learning my way around it and so far I have been mostly testing in low-light conditions, since it is a pretty big leap from my 5 year old Rebel XT.

Anyway, Diane and I went out to the Snow Man Ice Cream Shop in Lansingburg tonight and I made sure to bring the new camera with me to take advantage of "Magic Hour." When we got there, the light was just about right and there were some nice ominous dark clouds hanging overhead, I should have taken some shots right then, but we decided to get in line and get the ice cream first. Not wanting to get ice cream on the camera, I left it in the car! The line was long and I kept watching as the light was quickly fading. By the time we had gotten back to the care, it was completely dark, but I thought I would take a few shots anyway.

I took a couple of shots at a high ISO (3200) and then dialed it back down for a few long exposures, to get some trailing traffic lights. Just then an ambulance zoomed by with all it's lights blazing and I caught it just as it passed in front of the ice cream shop!

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Welcome to New Mexico

Some of the names in this blog have been changed to protect the innocent, ambivalent and or righteous.

So, the wife (Diane) and I went to Albuquerque and stayed with some old friends. With the hubby at work and the little one in school, my buddy... let's call her Mary, was freed up to show us around! One of our excursions involved heading to a scenic area in the Jemez Mountains.

Mary was driving since she knew the area… and has always been a little leery of my driving. You see, she was my reporter and I her photog back in the days when we ran the Investigative Unit for the TV station we both worked at. She usually drove so I was the one that would be hanging on white knuckled as she would say… “Watch this… here’s a little sumpthin’ my ex taught me…” or.. “I saw this in a cartoon once!”

So there we were in mine and the wife’s rental… Shortly after we turned from the main road to another not so main road, we came upon ten or so cars stopped in traffic. This came as a surprise since although we had seen a few signs that said “Congested Area” and “Drink Carefully!” this was the first time we had actually seen any traffic during this particular trip.

Priscilla… oops! My bad! I mean Mary decided she did not want to wait for the traffic to clear so she started to ride along on the narrow shoulder as I kept reminding her “Rental! Rental!” When we got around the other cars we could finally see what the hold up was. A pick-up truck had turned over on its side and its load of split wood was spread out all over the road. There were a couple of people out in the middle of the mess appearing to be trying to clear the way. I got out to help as well, figuring the faster we cleared the way, the faster we would be on our way.

After finding out no one had been hurt, I noticed one of the wood clearers was not doing a particularly good job. This was apparently the driver and he was shit-faced. Lets call him Cletis. His condition was quite understandable since it was shortly after the noon hour and hey, that’s hard work hauling wood! Anyway, Cletis would pick up a piece of wood and throw it anywhere. Half the time, back in to the pile he was trying to clear. He was also doing a lot of swearing and belly-aching and stumbling, when the other guy, a big bruiser that we’ll call Duke, made a comment that maybe this wouldn’t have happened if Cletis wasn’t so plastered.

Cletis looked up. You could barely see his eyes because they were half shut and very red. He squints in our general direction and says something rather disparaging concerning sexual preferences. I turned to Duke and said that I thought one of us had been insulted. Duke said he was pretty sure it was him. Now looking at Duke, he was about the last guy you would want to call an Effing Fa---t! Duke looked like he could crush Cletis like a tin can.

Cletis was now swearing and raving and making semi threatening gestures as he was holding his piece of wood like a club. I suggested to Duke that maybe we shouldn’t get him riled up while he had a potential weapon (though he probably would have fallen over if he had attempted to use it). At Duke’s mention of the police, Cletis dropped the wood and started looking for cover. He walked up to what looked like abandoned or run down houses as he looked for refuge. Duke asked me to keep an eye out for the cops as he kept an eye on Cletis and followed him around as we stumbled on a rickety porch attached to an old house that did not face the road.

I went back to the car and Pris, I mean Mary said, “C’mon! Let’s get going!” I explained that it was my duty to wait for the cops and assist Duke in apprehending this ne'er-do-well. Pris said that they were already here and waved her hand vaguely in some nondescript direction. I looked around but didn’t see any cops. I made sure that Duke and Cletis were still in my sites and I looked up and down the road for the police. Most folks were still in there cars. There did appear to be a couple of paramedic types, but they were just leaning against their vehicle enjoying the show.

I went back to the car and was again assured by Pris that they were here. This time she kind of pointed in front of her. Again, I saw nothing. I rolled my eyes, got in the car and hoped my new best friend, Duke, could handle the situation. A few minutes later we saw two cop cars whiz by us. “See, there they are!” Pris exclaimed.

For the rest of the day, I told Pris that I was disappointed in her and that Justice was my middle name. Of course that is not my real middle name since it had been changed to protect the righteous!

Anyhow, we did manage to see some beautiful sights and were back home just in time to pick up Pris’s (ok, I gave up on Mary) daughter from school. I’m sure Duke would understand.

Pix from the trip should be up soon at...

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Balloon Fiesta Bash!

Well, after the disappointing experience at the Adirondack Balloon Fest last month, the second time turned out to be the charm! This time we did it right... Headed down to Albuquerque for their annual Balloon Fiesta and had a great time. The weather was perfect (though a little chilly at 5am!) and we were treated to some amazing sights. Hundreds of hot air balloons took to the skies in what is known as the biggest balloon event in the world! It was very eerie being there at 5:30 in the morning, in complete darkness, with thousands of other folks. On Saturday (the busier of the two days we went) it was like the population of a small city as folks set up their lawn chairs and ate breakfast burritos from one of the many vendors that were up and running. One of the big highlights was the "Special Shapes Rodeo" where balloons came in all shapes and sizes. One of the most popular was a big giant Darth Vader head! News reports had stated that Darth made it to the Fiesta just in time after being held up in some shipping debacle in China!

Our only concern was that traffic was so heavy getting out of there on Saturday morning, that we were worried we would miss our flight back home! As we were sitting there stopped dead in the parking lot, I looked longingly at the balloons still in the sky, unencumbered by traffic jams! Of course they have to go where the wind takes them.

We also toured around some other places in and around Albuquerque and I'll have plenty of new shots on the website shortly. In the meantime, if you are on Facebook, you can check out some of the pix of the Balloon Fiesta right here! I'll be back soon with another story or two of the trip. For now... vacation is over and its back to work tomorrow. Ugh!


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